In an effort to procrastinate doing everything...okay, really simply to revise my material for next semester when I start working at hospitals (but the first one sounds less dorky D
...anyway...
In an effort to revise my material, I'm inviting each and every one of you to ask any questions you had on the human body (and mind). As long as it's medical, it can be pretty much anything- and I'll attempt to answer it as quickly as possible, hopefully off the top of my head.
My next question. If someone in your family has skin cancer, are you more at risk of getting that disease too?
In general, yes. However, the biggest risk factor is simply exposure to UV, whether it be from a solarium (I don't recommend going to any of these electively), or the sun. Inherited melanoma, for example, is rare (maybe one in twenty cases in Australia, the nation with the highest proportional incidence of skin cancer), and the risk factors to do with family would be more the shade of your skin and how easily you burn.
Is there a certain food... or fruit that gives you most of your vitamins that you need per day? If not, what has the most vitamins?
Different foods have different proportions of different things, so the watchword is really never to eat the same thing all the time, as you'll probably work a deficiency into your diet. E.g. eat everything corn-based and you'll most likely get pellagra from a lack of tryptophan.
However for something that's decent as a convenient snack, I recommend bananas.
While I'm at it, Kingryan asked:
What is the best source of Vitamin C?
soyo678's right, citrus fruits. Oranges and tangerines/mandarins are the easiest of these to eat. If you're feeling daring, you may eat oranges, limes, or even grapefruit. But heavens, I don't know why the English put themselves through that!
ok about brain cells, they say you lose brain cells if you watch tv, it could be educational tv like discovery channel so you would be becoming smarter. So if it is school then are they making you lose your brain cells?
According to Bear Grylls pine needle tea has 5x better veatamin c than an orange (I spelld vitamin wrong just to be like bear grylls wild accent xD)
Possibly, but who is...Bear Gryll? And how well is said Vitamin C absorbed? After all, the iron from spinach is not absorbed well and is generally lost if one boils it, and the caffeine from black tea is also not absorbed nearly as much as the caffeine from coffee, despite tea having a much higher concentration.
ok about brain cells, they say you lose brain cells if you watch tv, it could be educational tv like discovery channel so you would be becoming smarter. So if it is school then are they making you lose your brain cells?
Haha, losing brain cells by watching TV...while it may be called the 'idiot box', I'm not sure watching TV is actually a cause of 'losing brain cells'.
The strongest and simplest phrase we can apply to our understanding of the brain and its various parts is 'use it or lose it'. The problem with much of TV is that it doesn't really encourage an active use of much of your brain- the reason it's called the idiot-box is because it is a form of passive entertainment which can easily turn you into an on-off machine of base reactions...complete with paunch, empty boxes of junk food and soft drink, and a couch with a permanent butt-groove in it. But TV need not be demonised so.
There are other sayings about the brain- one being that while not necessarily strictly so for all areas, the number of neurons in our brains (i.e. the cells that transmit signals to and from each other) is on average decreasing even before we are born. It is important to note that this doesn't actually relate to function: there are a number of other cell types known collectively as glial cells, that support these neurons in their function, and it seems these are even more important to the functioning and ability of the brain at large.
The measure of one's ability and 'intelligence', therefore, isn't tied to the number of neurons one has, so much as how robust the various networks that form the patterns of signals that allegedly manifest as behaviors and thoughts are. Critical evaluation and mindful thought devoted to all activities, even watching TV, that stimulates the brain will keep it well-functioning.
Hey I am super afraid of needles, one time I stopped breathing before a shot (and passed out) and I was ironically rushed to a hospital where when I woke up conveniently passed out. I developed this anxiety, so can I reverse it ?
You probably can. Most phobias can be treated with a variety of options, ranging from the mild cognitive therapies, to the rather more extreme electroconvulsive therapies (ECT), but I don't think it'd be necessary to fry your brain with an electric current!
Depending on the source or the development of your fear of needles, a psychologist/psychiatrist would probably have you go through some form of conditioning, be it through immersion/flooding (unlikely to be applied to needles, though!), counter-conditioning/desensitisation (applying a relaxing stimulus together with the phobic stimulus), or modelling (encouraging you to think of and practice alternative responses to the phobic stimulus).
Either way, this kind of 'cognitive therapy' is about demonstrating that it's okay and not harmful to you.
In general, dietary supplements can be handy if your diet is such that you're not getting enough of a certain vitamin(s), or you need extra anyway (though this isn't usually the case). Some people swear by them, some reckon it's placebo effect...
Certain other supplements, esp. the stuff that people sometimes take for bodybuilding, can be a bit dodgy and, for the most part, marketing.
Personally I take omega-3 fish oil. It has more clinically proven benefits without a side-effect profile, and I know I could always do with more in my diet.
All these "why" questions boggle me because essentially when it comes to having/not having something there is no 'why', but I'll answer the 'where does it come from' and the 'what does it do'?
Because I generally support the theory of evolution, I think that hair is actually a philogenetic remnant from when previous generations had more hair coverage. This especially applies to things like body hair, which, in the case of armpits and *other* locations, is pretty much useless, given the range of our other behavioral and environmental adaptations (e.g. clothes). In fact these days we tend to want to get rid of hair because it's extraneous and, let's face it, uncomfortable.
In the skin, hair has a muscle called erector pili attached to it, which basically contracts if the skin is cold, thus standing the hair up. This is supposed to increase surface area and trap more air which in turn creates an insulating layer, but most people don't even have hair that can do this because this is more properly a property of fur, not body hair as humans have it today. One wonders why we still have this hair, then...
But hair does have function (or is at least related to it) and it does have effects. The main ones are:
* Physical protection * Protection from sunlight UV * Protection from heat * Aesthetic properties (appearance...yes, it is relevant, why do you think baldness and receding hairline is such a big issue?)
Really, it's the last one of these that is the most relevant to us today. Hair can mean a whole range of things, indicating social status, sense of fashion and character, and age. I'd say that a lot of people are judged based on their hair.
I have heard that some people who need heart transplants can have synthetic hearts implanted. Is this true and if so how long can someone survive with one?
