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Physiology & Medicine / Why do medics persist in talking of "blood thinners"?

« on: 07/08/2022 16:37:24 »

Anticoagulant  therapy reduces the chance of blood clot formation and does not result in "blood thinning". Yet this spurious description seems to be almost universally used. Actual blood thinning just might have some value in conditions like polycythaemia vera but otherwise it would have a negative effect on oxygen bearing ability which could be disastrous for a compromised patient.

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Physiology & Medicine / Re: Is Processed Food Healthy ?

« on: 05/08/2022 19:36:12 »

Nitrites are added to some meat products and these may be carcinogenic. However if you leave the nitrites out there is a substantial risk of botulism, a very serious form of food poisoning. As in most things in life it comes down to balancing risks.

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Just Chat! / Re: Ever had Stargazy pie or Spotted Dick or dined at Simpson's in the Strand?

« on: 03/08/2022 21:01:38 »

To me, the greatest gastronomic dish available in England is the indian curry as interpreted by the Bangladeshi chefs. I have tried curries in many countries and nothing comes near an "English indian" vindaloo.

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Just Chat! / alancalverd, hope you recover quickly

« on: 31/07/2022 22:43:14 »

The title says it all. My infection seemed to recede after about two weeks at which time my wife became ill and tested positive. A few days later(last tues) mine returned with a vengeance. It was about the roughest I have ever felt, I sincerely hope your's does not emulate mine.

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Chemistry / Re: What is the stability of silver bromide?

« on: 29/07/2022 16:11:32 »

But you are planning to use elemental bromine initially so I don't think the small amount released by photolysis would  present a problem. Bromine is however a particularly nasty substance and I would recommend looking for an alternative process. Silver pseudohalides  also undergo photolysis, eg silver azide turns black on light exposure.

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New Theories / Re: Is Mathematics Unintuitive?

« on: 29/07/2022 15:58:47 »

If the "reality" of mathematics was in doubt, we would still be living in mud huts.

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Question of the Week / Re: QotW - 22.08.08 - How do drugs affect the balance of sodium in the body?

« on: 25/07/2022 15:22:55 »

Most medications act on the body by one or more of the following: (a) by mimicking a natural signalling molecule either to positive or negative effect, (b) by inhibiting or inducing an enzyme. Hyponatraemia is common with diuretics and sometimes opioids. The mechanism is somewhat different between these two classes of medications but the net effect is on the renal tubules where sodium is normally resorbed. I don't know of naturally occurring hyponatraemia except with diet restriction, I suppose it could happen.

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Plant Sciences, Zoology & Evolution / Re: Great maggot mystery: how did maggots get into my frozen chicken?

« on: 23/07/2022 11:22:49 »

In connection with the phrase "hypochlorite is good enough for humans" here is story: a friend of mine was at an after hours drinking session in a licenced premises following some musical event where inordinate amounts of alcohol were consumed. Next morning one of the lads headed down to the bar to quench his ferocious thirst and finding a jug with a clear liquid he proceeded to drink it. It was bleach! I don't know how much got past his lips or what the immediate consequences were but I am told there were no unpleasant sequelae.

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Plant Sciences, Zoology & Evolution / Re: Great maggot mystery: how did maggots get into my frozen chicken?

« on: 23/07/2022 06:35:40 »

Food factories are not operating theatre clean.

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Physiology & Medicine / How are lectins absorbed without degradation?

« on: 23/07/2022 06:31:17 »

On a different thread the subject of protein absorption arose and it got me thinking about the toxic lectins abrin and ricin which are obviously able to bypass degradation, at least to some extent. The mycotoxin amanitin is a cyclic peptide with some unusual constituents and I can understand this being able to dodge digestive enzymes but the lectins are regular proteins. Is it due to unusual amino acid sequences, given that proteases tend to be specific about cleavage sites?

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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Re: Can we utilise antimatter to store energy from solar power?

« on: 23/07/2022 06:16:50 »

Petrochemicals, on what basis do you expect matter and antimatter to be mutually repulsive?

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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Re: Can we utilise antimatter to store energy from solar power?

« on: 22/07/2022 14:33:41 »

Even if it was energetically favourable how would one store it? Any contact with matter would lead to annihilation and explosive release of energy and most likely ionising radiation.

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New Theories / Re: Is Mathematics Unintuitive?

« on: 21/07/2022 12:30:41 »

Mathematics MODELS the line as infinitely thin. A real world line will obviously not match this definition, so what? You could of course, specify a particular minimal width to your line.

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Chemistry / Re: How to split radicals after Kolbe electolysis?

« on: 21/07/2022 08:35:18 »

You cannot make amphetamine this way.

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New Theories / Re: Is Mathematics Unintuitive?

« on: 20/07/2022 18:38:55 »

??

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Just Chat! / Re: Best self-defense for women?

« on: 18/07/2022 20:46:19 »

I did karate for 3 years(I was useless at  it). If in trouble with a male assailant and all else failed, we were told to strike (a) the testicles, (b) the eyes or (c) the hyoid, just above the larynx. That's all very well in theory but you have to be able to do these actions without thinking about it, just like hitting the brakes in a car if, say a child runs out. It has to be an automatic reflex and this only comes with extensive training.

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Physiology & Medicine / NRe: Is anyone here involved in studying nattokinase?

« on: 18/07/2022 20:28:04 »

Nattokinase is a protein that I expect would get torn to shreds by the digestive system. If, and that's a big if, it could be absorbed intact I suspect it would trigger an immune response as a foreign protein. Blood clots in the lungs are a life threatening situation and I would strongly advise following your doctor's advice explicitly and not to be experimenting with unproven therapies. There are mountains of dubious "health" products promising all kinds of benefits being pushed at people who are concerned about side effects of regular licenced meds. They are best avoided until proper trials are conducted, if ever. This is probably not what you wanted to hear, I only replied in the absence of any other reply. 

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That CAN'T be true! / Re: What causes motion sickness?

« on: 18/07/2022 10:32:11 »

This is another of these threads without hope of any degree of progress. Simply repeating the same nonsense again and again does not validate it. The op is beyond the reaches of logical argument, possibly deliberately so.

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The Environment / Re: Can we turn dog poo into a resource?

« on: 16/07/2022 14:39:44 »

I suppose it's debateable, as most issue are open to debate(excepting mathematical theorems, which can be proven). With the global incidence of antibodies I think the latent state, if a hazard, would have been obvious at the current state of medical science. To go completely off topic, huge strides have been made recently with the so called autoimmune illnesses: It looks increasingly likely that EBV is responsible through the immortalising of rogue b lymphocytes.

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The Environment / Re: Can we turn dog poo into a resource?

« on: 14/07/2022 20:14:31 »

Yes quite true, toxoplasma is much more likely in cats. However the hazards presented by these two organisms differ widely. Toxoplasma infection causes a flu like illness after which the parasite remains in the body for life but does not cause a problem as long as the immune system is not compromised(eg aids, chemotherapy), a behaviour similar to herpesviruses. Toxocara can cause repeat infections with the grave risk of blindness if the immature worm lodges in the eye. Toxocara is found in both cats and dogs, puppies apparently carrying the greater risk.