Medical Science

Hello everyone Here are some questions I have about spinal anaesthesia 1. I know it is usually done below L3 because that is where spinal cord ends and not done above that because spinal cord can get damaged. But can't a really skilled person give it above L3, because subarachnoid space ends before spinal cord? So if he stops at the right time wouldn't it work giving anaesthesia from a higher level. 2. Why does the spinal anaesthetic agent only act below the point it was administered. Can't it diffuse up and affect the whole spinal cord? 3. Why can you achieve higher level anaestheisa (Meaning from chest to toe) from epidural anaesthesia? 4. What is t…

Hi Guys, I wasn't sure where to put this question - here or in the religion, sorry. Full disclosure, I'm a big fan of Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens, basically I'm very concerned about how religion is affecting the world. So here's the question: Given that religious discussion must be predicated on dogma, and that scientific discussion must be predicated on a lack of dogma, do people who are both religious and scientifically minded experience a sustained, cognitive load burden in day to day life as they switch back and forth from religious situations to "scientific" situations? (In this context, we could call jobs like programmer or sys. admin…

Hello everyone. As I was in the grocery store today, I noticed a thinner couple encouraging their young (probably around 10) to go and get a free chocolate cookie from the deli. A few hours later, while talking to my friend, we got to talking about child obesity. He does not contest that diet plays a large role, but he also believes that genetics are the root problem. This led me to question my stance that an overweight child is only truly overweight because of the parents influence or lack thereof on diet. I am not asking for opinions on child obesity but rather, do any of you have examples of genetics being the reason for an overweight child rather than diet? Pl…

Hello everyone I still don't understand crystalloids 1) Lets say someone lost 100 ml of blood due to accident. If you are giving crystalloid therapy, why do you have to infuse 3 times the amount. What I think is when you give crystalloids IV, they go into extravascular and intravascular compartments also, not just stay in plasma . But my question is let's say I give 100 ml of crystalloid to this person, then wouldn't the patients body try to retain this 100 ml in plasma because now the hydrostatic pressures have changed due to the blood loss, shouldn't the body compensate and try to keep this in plasma. In that case why should you infuse 3 times the amount. In normal …

Does pouring salt on a wound actually kill bacteria? say, a cracked tooth.

Thought this article was really interesting, and might just change your mind on why it is that we 'need' sleep. http://www.tor.com/blogs/2013/07/scientific-american-explores-a-new-hypothesis-on-the-fundamental-purpose-of-sleep

Hello guys, Ok lets say there is a man with fluid in his lungs. You put a chest drain (intercostal tube). How does it drain? 1. Since the container is below the chest, when the guy expirates due to high pressure does fluid just flow to container? Can there be any retrograde flow (since container is below on the floor does gravity prevent this) 2. The article I read says with intercostal tubes, look at the water level of the container. In inspiration it must rise, and it must fall in expiration. If this doesn't happen tube is not working. What water are they talking about and also why does this phenomenon happen. Thanks :smile:

Hello, I do not post much here for obvious reasons, however I want to ask a question about this misconception of our vessels (or perhaps a fact if someone can share some insight on this). All my life, I have been hearing over and over again about how our blood vessels are large enough to circle the world twice. I heard it first in 6th grade, and many times after. Today, after viewing a human dissection video, the surgeon mentioned it also. I find this impossible to believe. Would anyone care to explain to me exactly why this is? Or how did this notion come to be? I asked my anatomy professor, and he didn't understand my question and instead told me not to be…

I saw another case of mrsa infection on the news today. Is this curable? I hear that copper is a good material to disinfect. Doxycycline works but it causes fungal infections and chest pains. Oral antibiotics seem to work, but topical don't do much. Draining them is not good for the environment so we need to find a way to utilize it or cure it. What else is known about the disease?

Why aren't intratumoural injections of chemotherapeutic agents used routinely in the clinic? There are some issues with diffusion of the drug when administered in this way, however a more targeted approach would prevent the side-effects of systemic administration of chemotherapy by IV injection or by oral administration. I can't seem to find any data on the efficacy of intratumoural versus IV injections of chemotherapy in the literature, although intratumoural injections feature in some in vivo models and clinical trials. Intratumoural injection would allow for the delivery of viruses (1), RNAi (2), miRs (3), radioactive microspheres (4) or classical chemotherapeutic agen…

Well, I've been pointing out the heterogeneity problem for ages, at last it is getting some attention: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-24957089

Well I just crossed 18 and I was wondering what are the effects of alcoholic drinks on health. In my country, consuming alcohol is not that common. Some people regard it as bad ethics and mostly are for ill-behaving people while some consume it but only in parties and pubs. While in Europe, America and most countries it is a common beverage. People perhaps consume it frequently. I'm rather confused of whether it is healthy or not. Being a science forum I would like a rather scientific answer. Thank You!

Good Day All welcome to post topics related to ageing. My interest is in Sirtuins and lets tease apart Sirtuins to see how they are affecting ageing and lifespan.

I was watching an episode of the Atheist Experience the other day, and one of the hosts who identifies herself as a lesbian mother (her 'daughter' is biologically her partner's child through artificial insemination). It made me wonder whether or not it would be possible for medical science to allow artificial insemination in which, biologically, the resulting daughter would effectively have two biological mothers; or a mother and a female father if you prefer to think about it that way? What I'm basically asking is if it is possible to take a donar sperm and remove its X or Y chromosome, similar to how we are able to remove the chromosome from an ovum, and then insert…

I was in my physics class and we were discussing the risk factors for Heart Attacks; I decided to try to calculate my own variables while still keeping true to the ideal curve. This is what I came up with. Unfortunately I can not show the table I made on excel, but the new variables are sleep and asthma. The numerical values are 3.42 for sleep and depending on the stage of Asthma the values are Stage 1: 1.11, Stage 2: 1.33, Stage 3: 1.44, Stage 4: 1.47, and Stage 5: 1.92. If you know how to calculate HART values and compare them linearly, than you should really incorporate these values .

I have very low pain tolerance and I'm a man not a woman. So what causes very low pain tolerance in men?

I am basically from physics side and a part of my research work is related to blood. I need to make a solution with blood as a solute in it. What can I use as a solvent ? I do not want to clot blood. Can I use EDTA or Saline ?I will vary the volume of the blood and do my measurements. Which will be better . I need to do absorption study of the sample so I don;t want any interference from the solvent.

my personal journey describes my experience and self diagnosis of Alice in wonderland syndrome - I have had a previous lung resection and had strated to notice sloping floors and furniture can tilt on an angle - hence the self diagnosis. CraigSays.com

Death by natural causes... ----> What is that ? Should be after a certain age or any age is a candidate ? Is it a product of uncertainty or lack of good forensic diagnosis ? What deaths are by unnatural causes ? Only homicides ?

Just a plot point that needs verifying for something that I'm writing. To cut a long story short, warfarin is secretly cut with cocaine and administered to a (drug-using) victim in this way. I would just like to confirm before I include this that it would actually work; i.e. can warfarin be absorbed into the blood in this manner? Thanks in advance for any help

My roommate always snore when she fell asleep, every night I have been awakened by her snoring many times. Cause I sleep very bad. She is just 23 years old. I thought old people may have this symptom, but... I want to help her to ask how to treat snoring? What should be paid attention to in daily life?

If a person has had lung cancer once & is having the symptoms again, how likely is it that the cancer has returned?

Hey ladies and gentlemen, this is a video about a new theme: Multi-Entity Bayesian Networks! Take a look , it's very interesting! Please comment+like on YouTube if you realy like it! : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjejIfHqF80 greetings from Germany

hard or soft? fixed or movable? where? under skin or "pop-out"? swollen lymph nodes? and more...?