Ebola isn't such a foreign problem after all.

My city of Cleveland has now seen Ebola:  Read the news here

Optimizing Blog Speed

I have connected my blog with Google Analytics so that I can see things like average time spent, bounce rate, new v. returning visitor, etc. It is very helpful and interesting.

I just looked up how fast my page loads through Google Analytics. I was a bit surprised and embarrassed. It was around 7 seconds which is pretty slow especially since my users are probably only half interested/just wasting time on the internet. Who would actually wait 7 whole seconds for something they did not even care much about? No one, not in this fast-paced, impatient, give-me-entertainment-now-culture.

So I optimized it. I'm not sure how it all works, because I just followed a youtube demo. But it was excellent so here you go:How to optimize blog speed by eliminating render blocking

My site was so slow  because I have all these widgets that take forever to load. Now my site content will appear before the widgets are done loading. The loading time is down to 1.53 seconds!

At least I think that's how it works.

From watching this demo, computer coding looks a hella lot like DNA coding. On every blog spot, the html is nearly identical. There are just a few pieces of the code responsible for the different phenotypes. Ahh sorry, is my INTP showing?

Comment below. and let me know how long it took for your browser to load up my site! Thanks!

"Historians are bad communicators of their diligent research. 

Politicians are diligent communicators of their bad research"

-Sufia

This is why problems exist.
The silence of our wisdom is lost with the noise of our politics.

Historians, speak up! Connect with scientists. Connect with doctors. Connect with engineers. Connect with lawmakers. And most importantly, connect with the common people!

In our lovely democracy, the common people are capable of the most change.

Why do I write about this write now?

Today I attended a medical history book club at Case Western Reserve University's historical Dittrick Medical Museum. It was great. Enlightening, I felt apart of an elitist club,

The problem? Historians were communicating their observations with fellow historians. What good does this do?

If we were to confer back to MBTI, then historical societies are simply groups of perceivers who like to sit around and think about interesting things, but lack the desire to do much about the world's problems.

Most people are Judgers. They are doers. So perceivers, please educate the doers on what we should do. Its your societal contribution.

Sorry this post is so crappy. I'm starving and have this terrible migraine.

Which brings up a question: Is the mood of an INTP highly dependent on his or her physical condition? Because when I am just slightly hungry I get moody and all my cognitive functions are pretty much hopeless. Thoughts?

Organic Chemistry's natural affinity to a love-hate bonding relationship with Students

I am a freshmen at CWRU enrolled in Organic Chemistry (capitalized because of its Godly Importance).\

I am taking several other courses towards a Biomedical Engineering degree, but they are all irrelevant compared to Ochem. My other classes are like the much older children of a mother who has just given birth to a precious new baby. Nobody cares or has time for the other children. The baby demands your full attention - actually, it ionically steals your attention.

It makes me stay up until 2am. It makes me cry when I just can't figure out the right confirmation. It makes me skip a meal. It makes me hold in my pee until I'm finished with an assignment. It makes me watch kitten videos and rom coms just to remind myself that happiness still exists.

But like a mother to her baby, I love it. It's fulfilling and gratifying. It trains your brain like no other subject, and it makes you smarter, more calculated, and logical.

It is a required course for pre-meds. Most of the pre-meds I have spoken to hate the fact. Ochem is the bane of their existence. They don't understand why they have to take it....And just a few years ago, they actually didn't have to.

It's a new requirement. And its generally known as the weed-out course for pre-meds. If you can't handle Ochem, maybe you're not ready to handle the stress of med school or of being a doctor.

And they - whoever makes up these rules - have a point. Organic chemistry requires judgement and decision-making. There are always several possible solutions, but there will always be one "major contributor", i.e. best solution given the "constituents" of the issue.

It requires logic and problem solving. An Ochem student must search through the library of their brain to knowledgeably assess the situation, narrow down options, and ultimately choose the most likely successful arrangement.

Logic, common sense, and judgement - three necessary components of a good doctor that the wrote memorization of a typical biology class will never teach you.

So, yes, it sucks.
But it's necessary and if you study it enough, you realize that it's beautiful.

Hang in there future Ochem students.
And read this article on Harvard Ochem: How to get an A- in Organic Chemistry

The irony of this post: I wrote this to distract myself from Ochem. I have an exam tomorrow...

Sen. Claire McCaskill Slams the Charismatic Dr. Oz

Senator McCaskill, chair of Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Insurance  publicly spanks Dr. Oz on his televised promotion of scam weight loss pills

My take on how it went down:

 "I'm surprised that you are defending...I mean I've tried to really do a lot of research in preparation for this trial, and the scientific community is almost monolithic against you in terms of the efficacy of the three products that you've called miracles."

....Transformation from demure doctor to petulant cat pending...

\

Read/Watch the Hearing Here

How do you Bend it like Beckham? The Science of Soccer

(I decided Ronaldo looked better doing it)

Click here to learn The Science of a Successful Footballer...or just enjoy the games and be normal like everyone else ;-)

So Death is a Disease and the Human Body is Flawed...Right.

A riposte on anti-aging research. (Read my former post)

The average consumer with private insurance now spends more on anti-aging prescriptions than they do on medications to treat actual chronic diseases, according to the American Public Health Association.

The lengths we take to defy the natural effects of aging - slowing mental alertness, sexual dysfunction, menopause, aging skin, balding, etc.- signal a shift in the social perception of aging. These ailments are thought to be the symptoms of a progressive degenerative disease that without treatment can lead to *gasp* death.

This looming fear of death has justified a market for anti-aging research. Scientists our now looking within the human body to extend life.  We are treating the natural changes in hormone levels and gene expression as we did bad sanitation - as flaws worthy of manipulation. We frame life-shortening genes as though suspects of murder. When in reality, they are considerate executioners of a body about to suffer the ailments of inevitable death. 

I think it is extremely dangerous to challenge the wisdom of our body mechanics, whether you believe it has been created from God's perfection or from evolution's pursuit of perfection. 

Maybe as a young mind and body I am in no position to judge our changing perceptions of aging. But it just seems silly to me to spend billions of dollars worth of research to delay something as inevitable of death.  Maybe it is just the inner Camus (whom I am reading now) that is speaking. I highly recommend his classic existentialist novel, The Stranger, in which he states:

Bottom-line: the purpose of medicine is to manipulate the biochemistry of an unhealthy body so that it may become normal again. Death isn't abnormal or avoiadable. Let's stop treating it like a disease.

Pushing off the Inevitable: Research Resisting Mortality

It seems that every time I dare turn on the T.V. I am involuntarily scarred by commercials of old men craving a sex drive. It makes you wonder...are Americans increasingly obsessed with youth? Or is the market simply appealing to the aging baby boomers? Whatever the reason, I'm here to discuss some of the research going down on anti-aging.

past century has seen a 30 year increase in the average American lifespan. Scientists attribute this dramatic, 140% rise to cooperative measures taken to control infectious disease, improve sanitation, and promote the use of antibiotics and vaccines. However, there is a limit to the number of years these measures can add to the average lifespan, which has now steadied at 77 years in the U.S.

If not external environmental factors (i.e sanitation), then what other factors limit our lifespan? Turns out, the answer is within. Scientists are increasingly examining internal factors - genetics, immunology, cell biology, neurology, and microbiology - to understand the secrets of long life.

With billions now flowing into anti-aging research, I will briefly summarize  some of the prominent advances in hormone therapy, gene mutation, and drug therapy as they relate to the quest to extend life.

Hormones Therapy

"Finding a 'fountain of youth' is a captivating story," says the National Institute on Aging. "The truth is that, to date, no research has shown that hormone replacement drugs add years to life or prevent age-related frailty."

Accordingly, the FDA has not approved hormone replacement drugs for combating aging. 

And yet, hormone replacement pharmaceuticals staunchly continue to support a booming, one-billion dollar industry – and customers are willing to pay high prices. A hormone based dietary supplement known as DHEA (dehydroepiandrosterone), which the body converts into estrogen and testosterone, sells at $12.95 for a single capsule. 

There exists a deep divide in confidence of hormone replacement therapies between pessimistic scientists and optimistic doctors and patients. The truth is that there have been no long term clinical research conducted on many hormone drugs, including DHEA.

Patients seem to use the simple logic that since hormone levels are highest in youth, added hormones in old age will increase youthful energy and strength. In reality, the body remains a delicate balance in hormone levels that can fluctuate every hour to maintain stability. Hormone therapies disrupt this natural, healthy variation.

Human growth hormone (HGH) can be especially dangerous, with studies even suggesting that people with naturally high levels of growth hormone die at younger ages than those with lower levels of the hormone (Read Hanneke Hop's experience with HGH shots).

 Read more on Hormone Therapy:

Overall discussion on aging with emphasis on hormones

A discussion of HGH

Gene Mutation

 

C. elegans, a microscopic round worm...
he's kinda cute

Studies have shown that genes attribute to 25% of  the variation in the human life span. 

Dr. Cynthia Kenyon, director of the Hillblom Center for the Biology of Aging at the University of California, San Francisco has identified daf-2, a gene thought to play a major role in aging. 

Kenyon used the model organism, Caenorhabditis elegans, because of its simple physiology and short lifespan of just two to three weeks. She found that when the daf-2 gene was mutated, the roundworms lived twice as long. 

In a later study, researchers led by Gary Ruykun, found that daf -2 codes for the creatively named  DAF-2 protein, which acts similarly to the human insulin receptor proteins. 

Further research found that single daf-2 gene actually controls the expression of a whole slew of genes through a cascade of events. Daf-2 reduces the expression of daf-16 (via phosphorylation),  a gene that encodes a transcription factor and thus regulates hundreds of other genes. In concert, this cassette of genes regulate a variety of physiological processes including: metabolism, fertility, stress response, collagen levels,and cell growth.  

Thus, daf-16 is crucial to life extension and healthy aging, and mutating its suppressor, daf-2 could extend life. 

If daf-2 limits lifespan, than why has the gene and its corresponding insulin pathway passed the test of evolution? Would it not be unwise to ignore what evolution has determined to be fit for survival? 

It turns out that daf-2 is vital; dysregulation of our insulin pathway and natural aging processes (slow of cell growth, fertility, and metabolism) can lead to both Type II diabetes and cancer, two diseases that increase with age. 

I suppose that evolution has decided that it is best to die younger, free of disease than to live longer and be crippled by these debilitating ailments. Would you agree?

Read more on gene mutation:

Summary of UCSC anti-aging symposium featuring Dr. Kenyon's research

Successful gene therapy in mice

Describes genetic control of aging 

General article on various target aging genes

Drug Therapy

If I were to discuss just one anti-aging drug, it would be resveratrol. It is a chemical that is found in small quantities in red wine, but it is now being produced synthetically for stronger, more concentrated activity. 

It all has to do with calorie restriction. Calorie restriction is the only well established factor to increased lifespan.  Calorie restriction, in its role in inducing metabolic changes, improvement of insulin sensitivity, and regulation of neuroendocrine function, has been shown to reduce diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disorders, and other age-related ailments. 

So where does resvertarol come into play? It turns out that this chemical naturally mimics calorie restriction by enhancing the expression of the key enzyme, SIRT1. Mechanisms in which it does so are unclear, but it proves to be a promising field of study. 

What implications do you think exist when our bodies reap the benefits of calorie restriction without actually restricting calories?