17
votes
Accepted
Why do you die if you cannot breathe?
Short answer
This is a difficult question to answer. As far as I am aware, asphyxiation results in excitotoxicity, which causes unconsciousness, brain damage and eventually, death.
Background
...
- 52.2k
6
votes
Why is the heart adversely impacted by chronic psychological stress, yet it benefits from routine physical exercise?
From the perspective of sympathetic nervous system
Exercise induced adaptations of heart
A common phenomenon in endurance athletes is the athlete's heart /athletic heart syndrome
Once athletes stop ...
- 1,955
6
votes
Accepted
How can heart disease cause excessive sweating?
The answer lies in compensation. Take myocardial infarction, for starters. MI, if large enough, severely weakens the heart, and hence, at the same level of stimulation, it can no longer pump blood ...
- 4,669
5
votes
Accepted
What is the cause of a protuberant belly in kwashiorkor?
The Gastroenterology paper you cite doesn't mention distended bellies at all. There is no dispute that fatty liver is a symptom of kwashiorkor. But the Wikipedia article makes it quite clear that ...
- 504
5
votes
Accepted
Why gout attacks mostly big toe?
The question has been explored in great depth in the cited paper. Have a look.
Roddy E. Revisiting the pathogenesis of podagra: why does gout target the foot?. Journal of foot and ankle research. ...
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5
votes
How does vitamin C increase iron uptake?
Vitamin C both enhances iron uptake, and affects iron metabolism:
in addition to the known ability of dietary ascorbate to enhance nonheme iron absorption in the gut, ascorbate within mammalian ...
- 14.2k
5
votes
Similarity between a heart attack and a spasm
I was able to do some reading and research and I found some interesting information that was a). news to me. And b). the answer is yes... And no.
A spasm can be the cause of a heart attack by causing ...
- 1,122
4
votes
How much is local blood non-Newtonian in Pathophysiology?
According to this conference proceeding blood is very nearly newtonian at normal shear rates. More accurately blood is very thick and a shear-thinning fluid, but the shear-thinning effects don't scale ...
- 4,038
4
votes
Accepted
Pathophysiology of pink frothy sputum in pulmonary edema
Even though the fluid in pulmonary edema is a transudate, there is blood in it. This is substantiated by the fact that there are microhemorrhages in acute lung congestion and hemosiderin laden ...
- 3,657
3
votes
What is the cause of a protuberant belly in kwashiorkor?
Abdominal distension is common in kwashiorkor, and many reasons have been proposed for it [1,2]:
Dilated bowel loops (because of gas produced by bacterial overgrowth),
An enlarged liver (because of ...
- 1,287
3
votes
Accepted
Pneumonia in children after abdominal operations
Abdominal surgery results in a painful wound that affects the abdominal muscles, which are important for coughing. The Lungs and respiratory tracts constantly secrete mucus that flows upwards to the ...
- 189
3
votes
Predictive Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) for Bipolar Disorder
Yes, there have been a variety of studies that do association analysis of variants with bipolar disorder. Here is a recent one that validated 11-30 variants depending on how you count.
However, in ...
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2
votes
Accepted
How many diseases can be linked to disruption in the microbiome of a human?
It is an open question and an active area of research. You will not be able to get a definitive answer to your question of number, as each new discovery will add to the total.
As for repopulating, we ...
- 4,975
2
votes
How can low cholesterol cause mortality?
What you have asked for is a causal answer to correlated findings. There is no cause-effect evidence (at least from my searching) showing low cholesterol will indeed cause stroke. Associations like ...
- 534
2
votes
Pneumonia in children after abdominal operations
Pneumonia after abdominal surgery can develop due to:
Decreased breathing movements when lying in the bed
Anesthetics/sedation use that decrease the sensation of irritation in the lungs and hence ...
- 8,049
2
votes
Why is the heart adversely impacted by chronic psychological stress, yet it benefits from routine physical exercise?
I have an answer, but it is not ideal because science's current understanding of the answer to your question is somewhat limited.
The detrimental influence of physiological stress upon the heart is ...
- 466
1
vote
Accepted
Why ketoacidosis is less common in patients of Noninsulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus?
This is a good and important question. The answer is not obvious, or necessarily well understood. Hyperglycemic crises occur in both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. In type 1 diabetes, the crisis is more ...
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1
vote
Accepted
What does the immune system do to stop pathogens that aren't killed by macrophages?
There are two broad types of infection classified by their persistence: acute and chronic infections.
I find that most courses on immunology nicely cover acute infections and their detection, and ...
- 8,091
1
vote
Why is the heart adversely impacted by chronic psychological stress, yet it benefits from routine physical exercise?
I believe the best answer to your question is that psychological stress increases the levels of a chemical compound called cortisol in the body (a glucocorticoid stress hormone) while physical ...
- 1,029
1
vote
Accepted
Who were "Dawson and Wilson" (mentioned as authors of an embryonic postmortem examination method)?
This article (A Note on the Staining of the Skeleton of Cleared Specimens with Alizarin Red S) looks to be the one by Dawson.
Update: I think the Wilson your text is referring to is James G. Wilson, ...
- 1,313
1
vote
Why does mud therapy work by some pain related diseases?
The answer on the linked question is apt: transdermal administration of medications or other compounds include exclusively lipophylic compounds, i.e. uncharged 'fatty' materials, such as nicotine, ...
- 52.2k
1
vote
Where does the exudate comes from during inflammation?
exsudates almost exclusively come from the capillary compartment. If you think about the structure of the vessels, this appears logical.
The capillary compartment :
has vessels only several microns ...
- 1,410
1
vote
Can non-carbonated energy drinks boost alcohol intoxication?
A very well-written question, so I'm sorry if my answer is a bit too simple. Perhaps it will attract attention of somebody with a better answer.
I think the effect could be mainly caused by the fact ...
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Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible