Crystals And Catalysts

What is the flu? Influenza or “flu” for short is a virus. Viruses contain either RNA or DNA but never both in one viral cell. They work by entering human cells via adsorption and exploiting the functions of the nucleus, in the healthy human cell, to replicate the  nucleic acid and place it inside capsules called nucleocapsids   which are then budded off and released out of the cell to go onto infect more healthy cells in the body; a vicious cycle.

Anti-histamines are life savers for almost everyone. Around 1 in 4 people in Britain suffer from allergies and most of the world’s population tackle hay fever every spring & summer and others have all year round rhinitis causing sneezing, watery eyes, itching and rashes. Fact number 1: Anti-histamines block the action of histamine in the body. Histamine is the compound that is released during the allergic reaction at H1 receptor sites, which induces symptoms of hay fever, allergic rhinitis, allergic skin conditions or allergic conjunctivitis (inflammation of the eyes). Fact number 2: Anti-histamines have a useful side effect of being able to prevent nausea and vomiting and sedation. Fact number 3: There are 1st, 2nd and 3rd generation antihistamines:  • 1st generation antihistamines, such as diphenhydramine and chlorphenamine, which can induce symptoms of drowsiness  • 2nd generation antihistamines, such as loratadine and cetirizine, a drowsiness-free ...

Cancer is acknowledged as one of the most dangerous biological diseases and there are many ongoing research studies to try and find suitable drugs to cure the uncontrollable cell replication. Cancer is caused when cells replicate unusually and rapidly to form tumours, this is because the cell does not undergo apoptosis (the normal programmed cell death) and these tumours need to be treated so that the disease does not further spread to the rest of the body and so that the tumours do not cause pressure on other parts of the body. [1] In 2008 breast cancer was responsible for the death of about 153 women in every 100,000 women in the population [1] and about 76 cases of lung cancer per 100,000 men. [1] These statistics have led to an escalation in the development of new treatments in an attempt to impede the uncontrolled cell replication typical of cancer cells.

Bacterial mutation can be caused by a number of factors, such as genetic mutation and genetic transfer. This mutation causes them to become resistant to antibiotics, making life harder for researchers and starting a new strain of resistant bacteria which could potentially be life threatening.

Chronic pain is something that most people have to go through every day, such as back pain caused by sciatica or other reasons, headaches, migraines or other neurological pains. To help get people through the difficult pain, several painkillers have been produced and a widely used such as codeine and morphine (sometimes codeine is given as co-codamol, a mix of codeine and paracetamol). 

First of all I’d like to dedicate this blog post to my late uncle who was a victim of Parkinson’s disease. May he rest in peace… Parkinson’s disease was discovered by James Parkinson in 1867 and had initially called it “Shaking palsey”. Parkinson’s is the 2 nd most common neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer’s, and can be identified by shaking hands (tremor), rigidity and posture instability; cased by the loss of neurons in the Substantia Nigra (in the brain), and the lack of dopamine (dopamine smoothes out skeletal muscle movements) due to the death of dopaminergic neurones in the Substantia Nigra (black substance) in the brain and also the accumulation of lewy bodies. Other symptoms of Parkinson’s are shuffling gait, depression and anger.