Category Archives: Health and Medicine (健康・医療)

By Billy Hammond (Copyright AELS) Lately our news has been showing footage of wild dogs in Kyoto as well as abandoned houses which have become wild animal havens. One of the fears voiced in most of the programs is rabies. Rabies is a bullet shaped single-strand negative RNA virus. It belongs to the Rhabdoviridae family. Humans are usually infected by being bitten by a rabid animal, but can also become infected from inhaling bat droppings. After infection, the virus moves within the peripheral neurons to the brain, where it replicates mainly in the gray matter. From the brain it moves along autonomic nerves to infect the lungs, kidneys, adrenal medulla and salivary glands. The incubation time is usually 1 – 8 weeks, but may extend over several months all the way up to 240 days. The clinical illness may begin […]

By Billy Hammond (Copyright AELS) Most people think that athlete’s foot is caused by the same fungus, but there are species from three different genera that are often found. All share the same characteristic of the dermatophytes in that they can use keratin as a nutrition source. According to Microbiology: 1 (Lippincott’s Illustrated Reviews Series) by Richard A. Harvey “the organisms that are most often isolated from infected tissue are Trichophyton rubrum, Trichophyton mentagrophytes, and Epidermophyton floccosum. The infected tissue is initially between the toes but can spread to the nails, which become yellow and brittle. Skin fissures can lead to secondary bacterial infections with consequent lymph node inflammation.”Species from the Microsporum genus have also been found, but they do not attack the nails. In the case of discolored thickened and brittle nails, the culprit is usually Trichophyton rubrum. I’ve […]

By Billy Hammond (Copyright AELS) You’ve probably heard of people taking “ACE inhibitors” for their blood pressure and might have wondered what they are. Here’s a simplified explanation on how they work.   The body has two systems for regulating blood pressure. One is the rapid baroreceptor system and the other is the slow action hormonal Renin– Angiotensin– Aldosterone System (RAAS) that regulates the blood pressure by adjusting blood volume and increases the blood pressure.   In the case of hemorrhage, the mean arterial pressure drops and special cells in the kidney secrete renin. The enzyme renin works as a catalyst to convert the Angiotensinogen in the plasma into Angiotensin I. Next, the Angiotensin Converting Enzyme (ACE) acts as a catalyst to convert the Angiotensin I to Angiotensin II mostly in the lungs.   The Angiotensin II 1) Stimulates the […]

By Billy Hammond (Copyright AELS) Do you talk in your sleep (somniloquy)?   Your chances of having done it in the past are 50%, since a study found that half of the children talk in their sleep before puberty. Most children outgrow it with only 4% of the population still sleep talking in adulthood.   My sleep talking goes beyond what most others experience because I both sleep walk and sleep talk. For example, I’ve been known to answer the phone and talk to a friend and have no recollection the next morning. The person I talked to would tell me that I carried out a normal conversation with them, but I’d have zero recall of it. Thus, all of my close friends avoid calling me at night.   As for my sleep walking, that’s a story for another day. […]

By Billy Hammond (Copyright AELS) I took an MOOC course in Thoracic Oncology from the University of Michigan about a year and a half ago.   One of the topics covered in the class was the use of the Da Vinci Robot System, which makes use of avant-guarde technology. I happened to be reading through my class notes today and recalled that the professor pointed out that the latest is not always the greatest.   Here are some facts from my notes. Cost Robot + Teaching Console: $25,000 Annual Service Contract: $165,000 Support Salary and Benefits: $75,000 Supplies per Case: $5,000   Adverse events reported to the FDA 1/2000 to 12/2012 4,798 adverse events 85 deaths 414 injuries 3,402 device malfunctions   The professor noted the safety critical (injuries or death) reports increased from 13.3/100,000 procedures in 2004 to 50/100,000 […]

By Billy Hammond (Copyright AELS) I’ve had sleepwalking episodes ever since I can remember. Of course, I don’t remember what happened during the episodes, but other people have told me about them or in some cases the evidence upon waking up is irrefutable.   Medically known as “somnabulism” it has been estimated to occur in 1.5 to 15% of the population, with the highest incidences in children between three and seven. It occurs during the Stage III and IV non-REM deep sleep phase.   I’m always a bit surprised when I wake up after having a sleepwalking episode. I once woke up on the beach and have awakened in my car a few times (apparently I didn’t do any driving). Sometimes the incidents are comical, like finding my flashlight in my refrigerator or my socks in the bathtub.   When […]

By Billy Hammond (Copyright AELS) I’ve taken many MOOCs (Massive Open Online Course) ever since they first came out on the Net. Almost all of the courses I’ve taken have been in the medical field and I’m currently working through a Clinical Psychology course offered by the University of Queensland.   The knowledge I learn in them often comes in handy. For example, a few weeks ago in aikido practice, one of my 3rd grade girls came to me crying, saying that so and so had hit her hand. I used ki to identify where the injury was and asked her where it hurt to confirm my finding. To my surprise, it followed the dermatome for the median nerve’s recurrent and palmar digital branches. My ki scan had directed me to the location of the median nerve and my MOOC […]

By Billy Hammond (Copyright AELS) It must have been a night when I was in the third or fourth grade when I went peered into the kitchen where my father was sitting, unusually sober for a change.   He looked at me and said, “What’s wrong? Can’t sleep?”   I nodded.   He said, “When you can’t sleep, don’t! People worry that if they don’t sleep they won’t be able to function normally the next day, but during the war we went for days without sleep. Not sleeping won’t kill you!”   He went on to make some suggestions, “Turn the light on. Read a book. Write something. Stay up. Most of the time you’ll find you get sleepy and then you can go to sleep. If you don’t, don’t worry about it. Just stay up and go through your […]

By Billy Hammond (Copyright AELS) I see a lot of ads for cosmetic products pushing collagen on TV. Most people aren’t aware that collagen is a family of proteins. There are at least 28 types of collagen which are found in particular locations in the body (some locations have more than one type). Type I collagen is the most abundant protein in humans and is found in extracellular matrix (ECM) of loose connective tissue, bone, tendons, skin and the cornea of the eye. Thus, not all of the types are related to skin care. For example, Type XXI is found in the heart, skeletal muscle, stomach, kidney and placenta. This is something to keep in mind when you see an ad promoting just “collagen.” Also, if you’re really worried about collagen, you might want to consider taking vitamin C to […]

By Billy Hammond (Copyright AELS) People often worry about cholesterol, but cholesterol is needed to stabilize cell membranes and as a precursor to the bile salts and steroid hormones. Cholesterol is either obtained in the diet or synthesized by a pathway that occurs in most cells of the body, but especially in the liver and intestinal cells. The adrenal cortex and gonads also synthesize cholesterol and use it for steroid hormone synthesis. Cholesterol synthesis requires acetyl CoA, which can be produced from glucose, fatty acids or amino acids. Cholesterol gets packaged into chylomicrons in the intestine and Very Low-density Lipoprotein (VLDL) in the liver. It gets transported in the blood in the lipoprotein particles together with triacylglycerols. The chylomicrons are converted into chylomicron remnants. The VLDL gets converted into Intermediate-density Lipoprotein (IDL) and then into Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL) which […]