Small is not only beautiful but also essential to life! We take food to supply nutrition to our body. How and from where this nutrition is received by the tissue cells of our body? Do you know? We all know that our heart pumps blood from the body organs to the lungs, and then returns the purified blood back to the body organs. But there is also a microcirculation existing at a microlevel between arteries, arterioles and the venules, veins! The components of this circulation are the Capillaries. Only through the walls of these capillaries, the nutrition is received by the tissue cells!
This following article points to the fact that one should not be excess and cross his limits in everything:
Body
cells really tolerate your excesses. Most of the time your body
corrects the altered chemistry due to that. And the body cells are
satisfied with this correction and oblige to work as before with this
satisfaction inside your body. But when these excesses become more and
more, some of the cells revolt against getting the compromised supply of
nutrition that results by such excesses.
Recently there was news about an Indian-origin doctor implanting inside heart directly a miniature pacemaker, that is leadless - that too without surgery! Pacemaker is a device that stimulates heart when it fails to beat! Without heart's functioning, there is no life at all; so, this life providing device is much more important than anything else.
There is a double pump that receives fluid from various places and pumps it to be purified. And at the same time it receives also already purified fluid and pumps it to those various places. This pump is our wonderful Heart pumping the fluid, the blood!
Kids in 1970s enjoyed their summer holidays freed from the school classes and exams. I enjoyed a vacation by doing a small business :) I bought a few grams of a white substance from the mall, ground it into powder; soaked it overnight in a plate full of water. At morning I was delighted to see the plate full of a jelly-like delicacy. I added colourant and sugar to it and then, the delicacy was ready for sales to the boys and girls! What is that substance that I used?
Yes, snake's venom can save a person from diseases such as Diabetes mellitus! After venom is secreted in venom glands and it remained unused, where does it go then? Or what happens to it?
In India one can easily identify kiosks selling soft drinks by the bunches of tender coconuts hanging on the front of them. Even in winter these coconuts are available with them, since the water present in them has many other uses apart from being taken as a natural beverage. This Tender Coconut Water ('Elani thannee' in Tamil) found inside the greenish or orange tender coconuts ('Elanee') cools down the body in hot summer; so it is in much demand.
We notice occasionally that we have raised pimple-like areas on our skin each with a hair in its centre, when we enter into the chillness of outdoors or when we are excited much on seeing 'hair-raising' scenes. These raised skin areas are all well known as goose bumps (or goose flesh). How they are made?
Our world's bright future depends on the health of children born already and also on that of children unborn. Children born with Genetic disorders suffer with disabilities life long. If the genetic disorders are diagnosed in the unborn baby, we we could either prevent or treat them.
In one of my earlier blog posts I had intimated about the smallest bone in our body. Now we shall see here which one is the smallest skeletal muscle. There are two of it, one in each of our two middle ears. It is the Stapedius muscle. Its length is 1.27 mm only!
There are two different varieties of plants in my backyard that grow by themselves and have aromatic leaves in common. Both of them have medicinal properties and are very popular in India. What are they? Holy Basil and American Lime Basil. Yes, they have also some different and distinct properties.
Epilepsy is a disorder of the Central Nervous System where seizures (fits) are produced. Yet in most of the cases its causes are not known. But one of the causes has been found out recently as there were fits in viewers seeing a movie! The Twilight's movie, 'Breaking Dawn' - Part One is that movie.
In my boyhood days I used to spend summer vacations at my brother-in-law's house. Being a pharmacist, he gave me cute medicine boxes from his medical shop. One of those boxes contained samples of medicated bandage strips. I took out one of the them and peeled out the plastic covers from it. It exposed a reddish orange coloured cotton gauze in its centre. The plaster-like outer parts of the strip stuck to my fingers. I wondered how this small pad containing the antiseptic, Mercurochrome 'heals' wounds and abrasions.
We live, and are alive as we have our body organ, the Liver. Liver does many functions for our body. In its own illnesses such as Cirrhosis and Hepatitis C, it functions lesser than normal. Here this it has to be replaced with a donor liver by transplantation. But lo, donors are not readily available.
To have a free flow of water in channels we shall have to desilt it periodically. That is also being done in our body to have a free flow of blood to our brain. Pressure of blood flow dislodges any block such as clots or cholesterol present inside the blood vessels, or enzymes are rushed to the block's site and is dissolved by it.
I had wondered in my childhood how an elephant could digest the contents of a fruit without breaking its hard shell. My sisters had informed me about this that elephant swallows the entire fruit, and after digestion we could see the whole fruit intact in its dung - but without its contents! It explains well about the great digestive power of the animal but it may be an exaggeration. OK. What is that fruit?
We, the human beings, are the medium-sized member in the Mammal group of this world. We bear in our body the smallest bone that measures only 3mm in length and 3mg in weight! It is the Stapes bone (Stirrup bone). It is one of the three auditory ossicles (bones) found in the Middle ear of us, one on each side. It is the innermost bone. The other bones are the Incus present in the middle and the Malleus in the outer side.
In my school age days I was sent by my sister to buy Sabza seeds at groceries shop. She used the seeds to reduce her body heat. She soaked them in water overnight before drinking it on the next morning. I used to peep into the tumbler to see the wonder that the water in it had disappeared and that the seeds then had a white mucilaginous covering. The seeds also became sliding on the tongue and palate! I later found that these seeds are that of the Sweet Basil (Ocimum basilicum, 'Thiruneetrupatchai' or 'Karunthulasi' in Tamil).
It will be funny to see a tiny horse head to move about inside a aquarium tank, isn't it? It will also be exciting to see it as a 'mermaid' of horse! It is a Seahorse (Hippocampus kuda, 'Kadal kuthirai' in Tamil). It is not a mammal; but it is actually a bony fish! It lives in sheltered shallow waters containing coral reefs and sea weeds.
I found one day a plant among bushes on the wayside, becoming prominent by popping up by itself with its bright yellow heads. It had large leaves and had grown profusely within a shorter period of time. It was exactly like a robust Senna plant, as if it was from the era of Dinosaurs! I also found grannies picking up its leaves for preparing home remedies for illnesses (Granny's medical treatment, 'Paati Vaithyam' in Tamil!).
