Youssef Refaat - Curios Nerd

The soreness is perceived as a dull, aching pain in the affected muscle, often combined with tenderness and stiffness. The pain is typically felt only when the muscle is stretched, contracted or put under pressure, not when it is at rest. This tenderness, a characteristic symptom of DOMS, is also referred to as "muscular mechanical hyperalgesia". Although there is variance among exercises and individuals, the soreness usually increases in intensity in the first 24 hours after exercise. It peaks from 24 to 72 hours, then subsides and disappears up to seven days after exercise. The soreness is felt most strongly 24 to 72 hours after the exercise. It is thought to be caused by eccentric (lengthening) exercise, which causes small-scale damage (microtrauma) to the muscle fibers. So as we see there is some damage that happens due to vigorous exercise. How would our bodies respond to this? It induces a state of inflammation to help replace the damaged area. This is not consider...

From our knowledge about evolution, we know that it is based on natural selection, which means that better traits that are compatible with the environment continue, while other traits that are useless will go away. In this manner, every organism on this planet has evolved and will continue to evolve. Also, imagine the bacteria that infect you, these bugs can become resistant to the antibiotic you are taking due to some random mutations that occur in their DNA. The resistant bacteria continue to live and continue to infect you So, we can say that organisms are evolving. How can cancer be evolving as well? Well, malignant tumors have acquired some genetic changes that made these tumors survive in the human body causing more and more damage. The more genetic changes (mutations) acquired by the tumor, the more malignant it becomes and also harder to cure What are some examples of these changes? 1 . Rely on anaerobic glycolysis for energy. Explains why there is more lactic acid produc...

We have to be aware of the difference between oncogenes and proto-oncogenes. Proto-oncogenes are the normal, non-mutate genes that are responsible for driving the cell to divide. They act as the gas pedal of the cell. Functions of proto-oncogene protein products include synthesis of growth factors, growth factor receptors, signal transducers, and nuclear transcribers. Here is a table that shows different proto-oncogenes, their function, and the cancer you get if they are mutated They can get different types of mutations that include : 1. Point mutations (most common mutation; 2. Balanced translocations 3. Insertion of a viral genome (insertional mutagenesis). Disrupts normal chromosome structure and increases genetic dysregulation. 4. Other mutations, such as deletion, gene amplification (multiple copies of a gene), and overexpression (increased gene transcription resulting in the production of too much Mutations of proto-oncogenes cause sustained activity of the genes...

IBD is a complex disease which arises as a result of the interaction of environmental and genetic factors leading to immunological responses and inflammation in the intestine. This initiates an immune response against the gut mucosa that results in IBD (ulcerative colitis or crohn disease) In case of crohn disease, the inflammatory reaction in mediated by T helper 1 cells. While in ulcerative colitis it is initiated by T helper 2 cells. As I mentioned above, there is no specific cause to IBD. It is believed to be interactions between the environment, diet, and genetics. So, genetics play a rule in IBD. Also, if you have one of your relatives who had IBD, your chances of getting IBD increases up to 10 times, so I think genetics are important deciding factor. A genetic component to IBD has been recognized for over a century. Research that has contributed to understanding of the genetics include studies of ethnic groups (e.g., Ashkenazi Jews), familial clustering, epidemiological s...

Did you know that humans evolved from creatures that lived in the water once? But what is the evidence? I won’t go into boring details of how that happened but I will give very interesting evidence from your body! Ready?  Let’s start I want you to try to put your fingers in your neck as in the following image Do you feel the pulsation? Hopefully yes. This is your carotid artery. It is one of the arteries that supply the head and neck with oxygen, and here how it looks in real. Now let’s go back and see how this system in the picture above looked like when you were a fetus inside your mother! This system, during embryological life, is called the aortic arch. (THIS PHOTO ILLUSTRATES THE AORTIC ARCH SYSTEM FOR A FETUS) The aortic arches numbered from 1 to 6 (photos on the left) most of them disappear as you see and only a few of them stay to give rise to the carotid artery and other arteries in the neck (the photo on the right). So, we don’t ne...

Do you know that most of us have some kind of a benign tumor in our bodies that we see every day but we never recognize? It is the  moles  you have on your body. But how? We have some kind of cells in our skin called melanocytes (hopefully you have heard about them once) They produce melanin and it is responsible for deciding our skin color (dark color = more melanin / white color = less melanin) Moles (which might be black or dark brown) are a benign proliferation of melanocytes (More melanocytes hence more melanin) and they are often present at birth or might be acquired during life. These moles (or I should say benign tumors :) ) are always small, regular, symmetric with regular borders and color. Do you know that these moles can turn into a  DEADLY MALIGNANT TUMOR CALLED MELANOMA THAT CAN SEND TUMOR CELLS TO THE REST OF THE BODY? Believe it, this is true. These dark areas can turn into real cancer. How can you know if this happens to you?  Easy ...