mlabib's blog

I wanted to write about CBD today. CBD stands for cannabidiol. One of the many cannabinoids, or chemical compounds, found in marijuana and hemp. Research has shown CBD may be helpful by lessening anxiety for people who have schizophrenia or psychosis, or who are addicted to opiates. Because of its anti-inflammatory properties, CBD could even help treat acne. There's also evidence it can help children who suffer from epilepsy, which is why the FDA last summer approved a new prescription medication, Epidiolex, which is a formulation of CBD, meant to treat severe epilepsy. Although this is still under a lot of research, the results of taking CBD is so far positively correlated.  I have it in drops, and realize my anixety diminishes after 15 minutes ish. I like how this also comes in edible form, candy, medicine, so you have options! It is also legal, compared to contrary belief.

Every day I drink coffee. I do this without thinking about any possible consequences that come with this stimulant. Coffee is the drink that contains caffeine, but caffeine is the stimulant. Caffeine is a bitter substance that we can find in over 60 plants. These plants include coffee beans and tea leaves, amongst many more. It stimulates your central nervous system, which can make you feel more awake and give you a boost of energy.  Within one hour of eating or drinking caffeine, it reaches its peak level in your blood. You may continue to feel the effects of caffeine for four to six hours. For me, sadly, one cup of coffee is not enough to fuel me for 4-6 hours, maybe 40-60 minutes. Although, based on my research, it does not say that coffee is bad for everybody. It only says too much coffee could be detrimental. In that case, I believe we should reduce our coffee intake and try to have one cup a day if we are between ages 18-26.

Many students, including myself drink alcohol, ignoring the possible effects it can cause on our brain. We all know that while under the influence, it has an immediate effect on our brain, but I am curious about the long term effects. It wasn't until I did some research about it where I found out it was harmful to our brain and its' developement. While under the influence of alcohol, there will be a difficulty walking, blurred vision, surred speech, slower reaction times and an impaired memory. These by itself are very harmful to the brain. Of course, if someone drinks alcohol once, that does not mean they will forever be impaired, but it is drinking over and over again that can harm the individual. Alcohol can produce detectable impairments in memory after only a few drinks and, as the amount of alcohol increases, so does the degree of impairment. Large quantities of alcohol, especially when consumed quickly and on an empty stomach, can produce a blackout, or an interval of time for which the intoxicated person cannot recall key details of events, or even entire events. Additionally, you do not retain information because we do not go through "REM" sleep when intoxicated. People who have been drinking large amounts of alcohol for long periods of time run the risk of developing serious and persistent changes in the brain. Damage may be a result of the direct effects of alcohol on the brain or may result indirectly, from a poor general health status or from severe liver disease.

Many students, including myself drink alcohol, ignoring the possible effects it can cause on our brain. It wasn't until I did some research about it where I found out it was harmful to our brain and its' developement. While under the influence of alcohol, there will be a difficulty walking, blurred vision, surred speech, slower reaction times and an impaired memory. These by itself are very harmful to the brain. Of course, if someone drinks alcohol once, that does not mean they will forever be impaired, but it is drinking over and over again that can harm the individual. Alcohol can produce detectable impairments in memory after only a few drinks and, as the amount of alcohol increases, so does the degree of impairment. Large quantities of alcohol, especially when consumed quickly and on an empty stomach, can produce a blackout, or an interval of time for which the intoxicated person cannot recall key details of events, or even entire events. People who have been drinking large amounts of alcohol for long periods of time run the risk of developing serious and persistent changes in the brain. Damage may be a result of the direct effects of alcohol on the brain or may result indirectly, from a poor general health status or from severe liver disease.

There are few memories that have persistently stuck with me from my childhood up until now. One of these profound memories of mine was the day I received a phone call in high school from a physician letting me know my father was in an almost fatal car accident. His left radial nerve was punctured by a Ford F-150, and since that day, he has lost proper function of his left hand. Amongst the chaos of it all, one single question seemed to run through my mind; it was not “what happened?” but “how could I help?” Since that day, I have strived to pursue the medical career path with an interest in neurology. As a child, I was so intrigued as to how he could lose the mind-body connection from his brain to everything attached to his radius. Along with my father’s accident, my teens were filled with doctor appointments, overnight stays at the hospital, and even surgeries. At only 16, I was having two major MPFL (Medial Patella-Femoral Ligament) knee surgeries. My surgeon finished his surgery knowing he will be able to help me swim again. This made me wonder what it might be like to influence someone’s life in a drastic way, perhaps even save them. That doctor made a difference in my life and in many others, which is ultimately a part of my long-term goal. Along with knee surgeries, I even got salmonella, and had to be admitted into the hospital for eight nights. The strain of salmonella I had in my body was a mutant! My doctor told me it was not one of the big five strains and that scientists have not yet discovered it; this made me realize that there is so much more to discover in the medical world, and when scientists of today and tomorrow discover them, they can impact the world. 

Today I wanted to explore how to slow down the growth of he Drophilia flies. They grow and reproduce very rapidly, in even 24 hours you can see an entire reproductive cycle between male and female, of course unlike humans, where it takes a female 9 months to conceive. The Juvenile Hormone Inhibitor slows down the growth and development of the Drosophila flies, in both males and females. This indicates that the JH Inhibitor is correlated to the growth and development of Drosophila flies, although more testing would need to be done in order for this to be fully conclusive. I am also not a professional, nor a qualified scientistm but the Juvenile Hormone is necessary in the instar stages, so by adding an inhibitor, we delay this growth, which explains why the fly count decreases once the inhibitor increases, as well as the size of the fruit fly. More precisely, Juvenile Hormone supports the instar stages, which is the stage between the eggs and the pupa stage. Once the eggs hatch, there will be a decrease in the quantity of larvae that wil later on develop into pupae. This also effects their length. This shows how the Juvenile Hormone was able to delay and disrupt the developmental stages of fruit flies. 

The human eye is very much like the lens and screen you used in lab. When you look at an object the rays of light from the object are refracted through the lens cortex of the eye and an image is formed on the retina (screen) at the back of the eye. But for many people the image that is formed may not be clear. For nearsighted (myopic) people the image forms in front of the retina. For farsighted (hyperopic) people the image forms behind the retina. Fortunately there are many ways to correct vision problems so images form correctly on the retina. Essentially all methods involve changing the focal length of the eye by either adding another lens (eyeglasses or contact lenses) or directly changing the lens’s focal length through techniques like laser surgery.

There are three types of point mutations. There are missence mutations, nonsense mutations, and silent mutations. Missence mutations happen when there is a change of a single base pair. This tiny change causes te substitution of a different amino acid in the protein. This small letter change may have no effect, if the individual is lucky. However, it may render the protein malfunctional. An example of this would be sickle cell anemia. Second type of point mutation is nonsense mutation. This leads to an early stop codon. Unfortunately, when there is an early stop codon, the protein as a whole cannot be fully developed. This would be very bad if this protein is necessary to the individual. Lastly, silent mutation. This one is very interesting as it actually is not bad for the individual. This kind of mutation changes a base pair, but the amino acid stays the same, as some amino acids have different base pair letterings, but pair for the same protein. This being said, this has no effect on the individual