Smell……Men vs. Women

What is smell; is it that nasty smell coming from someone in the elevator or is that awesome smell you can not seem to get enough of.  

It is olfaction, a sense of smell, the ability of humans and other animals to perceive odors; odor the resultant from the sense of smell.  Smell is the response to chemicals that contact the membranes inside the nose.  Smell is usually our first response to stimuli, just like the smell of fire alerts us before the flames and the smell of rotten food before we even taste it.

Just like taste, smell is a chemical sense detected by sensory cells call chemoreceptors.  When smell stimulates the chemoreceptors in the nose that are alerted by smell, they pass on electrical impulses to the brain.  The brain then communicates these patterns in electrical activity as specific odors and olfactory sensation becomes perception; which we recognize as smell.  

Men vs. Women

On average women detect odors more easily than men, brain responses to odors are stronger in women than men.  According to research the women's greater ability to detect odors and aromas may be linked to the estrogen hormone.  

Another study showed that females are far better at singling out odors than men after repeated exposure to the origin of the smell by one ten-thousand; whereas men never improve their ability to recognize odors with experience. 

It has been suggested by researchers that female sex hormones have a role in enabling exposure induce increases in odor sensitivity.

At the end of the day the structure of nose in women and men are the same; women do not have more receptors in the nose than men, only a better sense of smell.

Alzheimer's Disease

Alzheimer's Disease 

It is a developing brain disease that slowly does away with memory and thinking skills results in confusion, disorientation, reason, understanding, and eventually leading up to the inability to perform the most basic tasks of daily living.  Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia among older people.

The disease is named after Dr. Alois Alzheimer a german psychiatrist and neuropathologist who was the first to publish a case of  "presenile dementia" which would later be known as Alzheimer's Disease.

What is Dementia??

The loss of cognitive functioning; thinking, remembering, reasoning, and behavior abilities.  

Dementia is cause by many conditions and diseases but the two most common cause for dementia in older people are Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia.

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Memory loss or dementia may also be caused by:

• medication side effects
• chronic alcoholism 
• tumors or infections in the brain
• blood clots in the brain
• vitamin B12 deficiency
• thyroid, kidney, or liver disorders

Note that most of these conditions are temporary and reversible.

What happens to the Brain??

Alzheimer's disease comes into the brain like a thief, there is no specific knowledge of how the disease begins until there is  significant evidence that could have started a decade or more before.  Even though the person is asymptomatic at the early stage of Alzheimer's there is toxic changes taking place in the brain.  Alzheimer's disease causes abnormal deposits of proteins from amyloid plaques and tau tangles on both the inside and outside neurons while damage dendritic spines, decrease synaptic input, and decrease plasticity.  As the plaques accumulates the damages spreads to the cerebral cortex and  hippocampus, which is responsible for forming memories.  As the neurons die in large numbers the affected regions of the brain begin to shrink.

Early signs and symptoms

Memory problems, such as trouble finding the correct words or poor judgment.

Mild Alzheimer's disease 

Memory loss worsens and cognitive abilities are significant:

• getting lost
• trouble handling money and paying bills
• repeating questions
• taking longer to complete normal daily tasks
• poor judgement 
• losing things - misplacing things in odd places
• mood and personality changes

Moderate Alzheimer's disease

At this point the damage done to the brain affects language, reasoning, sensory processing, and conscious thoughts.

• increase memory loss and confusion
• problem recognizing familiar faces
• inability to learn new things
• unable to multitask 
• problems coping with new situations 
•  hallucinations, delusions, and paranoia 
• impulsive behavior

Severe Alzheimer's disease 

Once Alzheimer's is full blown the person is no longer able to communicate and is completely dependent on others and may be bedridden. 

• unable to communicate
• weight loss
• seizures
• skin infections
• difficulty 
• groaning, moaning, or grunting
•  sleeps most of the time
• uncontrolled bladder and bowel

Unfortunately there is no cure for Alzheimer's disease but there are medications that can help with the managing of symptoms allowing the patient to function at a higher level and for longer periods of time.

Split Brain

Split Brain…….What does this mean??

It is when the corpus callosum  that connects the two hemispheres of the brain is divided to some degree and interrupts the spread of the seizure from one hemisphere to the other.  Keep in mind that this procedure does not completely do away with the seizing, they will continue but only in the hemisphere it originated but will be less aggressive since they can no longer spread to the opposite side.
Roger Sperry and Ronald Meyers first discovered the split brain in the 1950s by experimenting with cats and then later in monkeys but it wasn't until 1961 that the first human underwent the the split brain surgery.

Who is a candidate??

Patients with severe and uncontrollable epileptic seizures or when the seizing is affecting both sides of the brain or especially the patients who because of the seizure suffer from sudden falls exposing them to serious injuries.  Another candidate who would highly benefit from split brain surgery is the patient who has had little to no improvement while on anti-seizure medications.


Post Split Brain Surgery Effects

The surgery itself was an instant cure for the epileptic seizures, but shortly after they noticed that the patients who had had the commissurotomy had some peculiar difficulties in their daily activities.  The patients were unable to process information from one hemisphere to the other,  as though each hemisphere started to acted independently.

• Difficulties speaking
• Remembering things
• Finding words
• Decrease in awareness of one side of the body
• Loss of coordination
• Speech impediment, such as stuttering

Conclusion 

What was concluded after much research by Roger Sperry was that the right and left hemispheres specialized in different duties.  The left side is responsible for the analytical, verbal duties, and has  better control of speech while the right side is responsible for the space perception.

Example: Right hemisphere contributes when making a map or giving directions on how to get from             point "A" to point "B".  The right hemisphere can only produce basic word and phrases, but is significant in the emotional context of language.  

What was amazingly noted was that each hemisphere is still able to learn after the split brain surgery because the brain learns to use the smaller connections between the left and right hemisphere but one hemisphere unfortunately has no idea what the other hemisphere has experienced or learned.

Meningitis

What is Meningitis?

Meningitis is the inflammation of the membranes surrounding the  brain and spinal cord.   usually triggered by the  spread of infection; most infections may viral but bacterial and fungal infection can cause meningitis.


Three types of infections that may cause meningitis

Most common are vial infections.

Bacterial infections which can be life threatening; bacterial meningitis happens when the bacteria enters the bloodstream and invades the brain and spinal cord.  It can also happen when the bacteria finds its way to the meninges due to an ear or sinus infection or even a skull fracture.

Fungal meningitis is less common but causes chronic meningitis at times it can mimic acute bacterial meningitis.  One of the common fungal form is cryptococcal meningitis that usually affect people with auto immune diseases such as AIDS or Lupus.  Fungal meningitis may be life threatening if gone untreated and must be treated with anti-fungal medication.

Treatment 

Viral meningitis usually runs its course without the need of antibiotics, normally taking one to two weeks with bed rest, non-prescribed  medication to try symptoms such as fever and body aches, and lots of fluids.

Bacterial meningitis requires immediate medical attention and must be treated with IV medication.

Fungal meningitis must be treated after confirming that it is fungal due to side effects secondary to treatment.

Methadone……The Fighting Drug

What is Methadone???

Methadone is an opioid pain medication; at times referred to as a narcotic. Methadone also decreases withdrawal symptoms in people addicted to heroin or other narcotic drugs.  A major advantage is that it can be taken orally and the stomach acids break down most of it and gradually enters the blood and then the brain; having the effects rise slowly while avoiding the rush or high experience.

Methadone is also used as a pain reliever and as part of drug addiction detoxification and maintenance programs.

About Methadone

Methadone can slow your breathing, even long after the medication has worn off; causing death if breathing becomes too weak. .

A major disadvantage is Methadone can not be discontinued suddenly due to unpleasant withdrawal symptoms.

 

Methadone's Effectiveness

It has been highly criticized because the drug addict continues to use but now the addict is using drugs legally; they argue that even after the addict stops using heroin they stay on the Methadone for several years. 

Heroin is short-acting opiate, while Methadone is a slower acting and for this reason the withdrawal symptoms are gradual preventing an induced euphoria.

• Methadone overdoses have risen as of 2005, about 4000 people have died.

• Methadone can be prescribed for pain relief by a physician and can be prescribed for addiction at a Methadone clinic.

• Methadone is only effective in treating opiate addictions, does not help with the addiction to meth or cocaine.

• There is at least 250,000 people using Methadone Clinics but this does not give us in actual count of who might be addicted to Methadone.

Is Methadone a Good Choice??

Facts

Methadone has been a helpful medication for many people in need of quitting dangerous opiates; however Methadone itself is an opiate known to be safer than heroin or other narcotics.  Methadone has been used to help or aid the addict because the biggest controversy is that in the end it does not completely clean and sobers the addict.  Unfortunately, Methadone addiction has become a problem of its own.

Blood-Brain Barrier

As I read about the cells of the nervous system, anatomy of neurons and glia, the blood-brain barrier, nerve impulses, resting potential, myelin sheath, local neurons, and so on; everything seemed to so confusing at times but as i continued to read the most interesting thing to me was the Blood-Brain Barrier.

The Blood-Brain Barrier depends much on the endothelial cells, even though that on the outside of the brain cells are not closely knit but slightly separated yet in the inside they are so tightly knitted together that nothing get through.  The main purpose of the Blood-Brain Barrier is to keep both useful and harmful chemicals out, the useful chemicals being all fuels and amino acids which are the building blocks for protein.  For brain function it requires a very special mechanism to get these chemicals across the blood-brain barrier.

The brain consists of a few mechanisms that include uncharged molecules like oxygen and carbon dioxide that freely cross; water is able to cross through these protein channels in the endothelial cell wall just as molecules that dissolve in the fat of the membrane cross over passively.

The other chemicals that are transported to the brain do so by active transport it uses up energy to pump  the chemicals such as glucose, amino acids, purines, choline, iron, some hormones, and certain vitamins.

One major advantage of having blood-brain barrier is that it keeps viruses out but on the down fall it keeps out nutrients as well.  The blood-brain barrier is essential to everyone's health if there is ever a some kind of shrinking in the endothelial cell lining  harmful chemicals may enter the brain but just as the blood-brain barrier protects it may also prevent certain medication to cross over that might be life saving.

Introduction to Physiological Psychology

As cruel as it might sound we can not denied that the quality of our lives are much better with that of animal testing; I just think it should be done with the least discomfort to the animals.  Medicine has come such a long way due to the animal testing, without the animals we would not be able to advance as a human race without the animal testing we would sure be extinct sooner than we think.
 We have seen a higher rate of cancer survivors, thanks to animal testing researchers, we now have a better understanding of tumor biology; therefore there has been many new treatments that target the cancer cells and destroy them.
Another that is painful cancer to hear about would be childhood leukemia which once again thanks to animal testing has increased the survivor percentage.
I can sit here all day talking about death rates over thirty years ago and the current survivor rate today but I won't because we all know that we will be in need of some treatment or medication that was tested on animals and at that time we will not care as long as we get treated.
A note to sit on………should we all become vegans too?????