Trick or Treat - A UNICEF Halloween initiative

My Dear Sexy Readers,

I'm sure I don't need to remind you that today is Halloween!!!

If you are in the US, this is a great alternative to the unhealthy trick or treat tradition:

Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF began in 1950 as a way to help kids who need more than candy. Since then, children all over America have gone door-to-door on Halloween with UNICEF collection boxes, calling out, "Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF!" They have raised more than $170 million for the U.S. Fund for UNICEF since 1950.

Trick or Treat for UNICEF

Now, this is not the usual science topic I treat you to ;) But as you can see on the image above, one the thing you can help raise money for is Vaccination kits for children.

This gives me a fantastic opportunity to let you know or remind you if you've seen it before that Seran's infographic on children immunisation programme is up.

This is another thing you can do this Halloween, you can share it, you can tweet it, you can +'s it - Help dismiss some of the claims anti-vaxxers make to rally hesitant parents.

It's becoming a cruel fact that we cannot rely on our herd immunity anymore so our children need our help to build it back up so all of them, vaccinated or not (for medical reasons or others) are protected!

See you Soon for more Sexy Science,

Why should I vaccinate my baby?

Hi sexy science readers! :)

Did you know that smallpox was the first, and the only infectious disease of humans that has been completely eradicated through our medical advancements? The eradication of this disease was kick-started by Edward Jenner, who led the vaccine revolution…

“Should I vaccinate my baby?”

…But even then, there was resistance to the concept of vaccination, and this resistance still continues today. Indeed, there are lots of myths and misunderstandings about whether it’s safe or not to vaccinate your baby. So to help sort out fact from myth, I’ve created a quick infogram that addresses some of these misconceptions.

Thanks for taking the time to read through this. At the end of the day, it’s info that shows vaccines can save lives!

Seran

What is Ebola?

My Dear Sexy Readers,

Here is Seran's first official post:


As of 2014, an epidemic of the Ebola Virus Disease has engulfed West Africa, killing 1 in 2 people who have caught the virus. Ebola seems like the disease from nightmares. Asides from the high mortality rate from the disease, it also causes horrific symptoms including bleeding from virtually every orifice of the body- including the mouth, genitals and eyes.

…And it’s got the potential to become even worse.

We currently don’t have a cure for Ebola and we’ve been finding it difficult to contain Ebola for a variety of social, political and economic reasons.

I’ve created a quick infographic explaining these points in a bit more detail…

…In short, however, the ‘big deal’ about Ebola is that it’s very deadly!

Thanks for taking the time to read!

Seran

What is Diabetes?

My Dear Sexy Readers,

I've been working on the second installment of #MyBodyDoesWhat series which will be a new infographic on Pancreas (Previous ScienceSoSexy infographics)! Little did I know that beginning of June was Diabetes week. How timely am I? - Well, I'm 2 weeks too late, but it could be worse, right?! (If you don't know what Pancreas and Diabetes have in common, keep reading ;)

8th - 14th June was the week chosen to raise awareness to this common life-long health condition. This year, using the different social media platforms, the word was #ican! An initiative to show help and support to anyone with diabetes by gathering examples of things that this condition will never let you stop from doing. Check out their live story stream over HERE.

3.2 million people are diagnosed with diabetes in the UK and an estimated 630,000 people have the condition, but don’t know it. In the world, the diabetic population stands at 365 million people, representing around 8.5% of the global population.

Diabetes is when our body either doesn't make enough insulin (produced by our pancreas) or cannot use its own insulin properly to help get the sugar (coming from food or our liver) to move from our blood into the cells of our body, causing build up of that sugar in our bloodstream.

The Insulin binds to its Receptor and makes the Glucose transporter move to the cell surface where it can open up a passage to let the Glucose come inside the cell. If there's no insulin or the receptor doesn't recognize or respond to it, the Glucose is stuck in the blood and accumulates = Diabetes

There are 2 types of diabetes
Type 1 is when the body doesn't produce insulin. It requires insulin to treat, is typically developed as a child or young adult, and is a disease that destroys pancreatic cells meaning no insulin production is possible.

Type 2 is when the body doesn't produce enough insulin or the insulin produced is not working properly. It is considerably more common and typically affects people over the age of 45, who are also overweight.

If you have followed my first #MyBodyDoesWhat infographic, you know that I'm going to use this series to explore what our body does because seriously it is freakishly genius. I think I should know more about it so I thought I would share with my Sexy Readers whatever info I gather! My second installment on Pancreas is basically "in the making" stage.

In the meantime, if you would like to share your own experience with fellow readers, feel free to hit the comments box, so

See you Soon for more Sexy Science,

Further reading
http://www.diabetes.org.uk/
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/

Become a Liver Lover! #Pint2014

My Dear Sexy Readers,

What wonderful treats we got this week with 3 beautiful nights at the pub, filled with exciting and interesting facts from "real" Scientists!
For recap', Pint of Science is a Science festival for everyone - especially non scientists - covering anything and everything in these 4 categories: Matters of the Mind, Understanding our Bodies, Physics and Chemistry, and Planet Earth!
I was lucky to be able to take 2 nights off from mummy's duties to go down the pub and listen to amazing talks, funny at times, and full of info easy to remember.

Pint of Science coasters - I would like to apologise to the organisers for 'stealing' these

On Tuesday 20th May, I went to the Oneill's in Earl's Court to listen to Dr Nathan Davies's talk entitled "Loving your liver, why we should all become hepatophiles", followed by Dr Jane Macnaughtan and her talk on "Better bacteria for a better you" (future post coming up - Now Ready HERE).
I chose these 2 talks because, bizarrely, I've been preparing blog posts on these exact same 2 subjects, so I thought "Well, well, well, my source of relevant literature can't be better than this!". I've already added some of the info on my first #MyBodyDoesWhat? infographic on the Liver which focuses on the liver's functions (not covered in this article). Also don't forget to check out #DYK 10 about Jaundice!

Loving your Liver - Why we should all become hepatophiles (= liver lovers)
Nathan was a very enthusiastic and lively Pint Of Science speaker. From his first power point slide, he got us all interested in wanting to know more about the amazing liver! Here are a few facts that he shared with us:

The Liver is an amazing organ and the most active in our entire body. Its filtering and detoxifying cycle occur up to 20 times per hour! It can function at only 20% of its capacity, and most amazingly, it is capable of regenerating itself in a matter of weeks, sometimes days.
Unfortunately, when a person suffers from a liver disease, he often cannot recognize the signs that are often dismissed as benign, such as tiredness and flu-like symptoms, until it's too late!
Nathan was telling us about those street check ups they performed on volunteers (e.g. blood test). Surprisingly, a quarter of this tested population had alarming state of liver damage and required immediate further check ups. It would seem as though we are not taking very good care of our liver!
In fact, liver disease is the only killer disease with rising numbers.
The number one cause of liver disease death is, would you believe it, obesity!!! The second and third causes are undiagnosed Hepatitis viral infection and alcoholism, respectively.

Units for typical drinks

• Obesity: What I didn't know is that, under a microscope, the damage that fat and alcohol do to a liver tissue is identical!

• Astonishingly, 90% of the Hepatitis-infected European population doesn't know it is infected by the Hepatitis virus. One in 3 person is exposed at one time or another to the Hepatitis B virus, of course not everyone will get infected as encounter doesn't mean infection.

• Dr Nathan Davies also approached the subject of alcoholism and binge drinking, which is worse? It is quite clear that constant and regular drinking is not making it easy on the liver to regenerate itself if it is constantly under "attack". And it's not very clever to binge drink, even if it's occasional, your gut bacteria hate it. As a consequence, they can leak out of your gut, provoking inflammatory responses and causing damage. So beware, don't count too much on your liver's regeneration power!!

As a conclusion, let's treat our liver right by doing these 3 simple things:

1. A Healthy BMI. This is so easy to check if you are in the right range
2. In case of doubt, get checked for Hepatitis infection. There are vaccination programmes!
3. Limit your alcohol intake: Here are the NHS recommendations on your unit allowance:

• Men should not regularly drink more than 3-4 units of alcohol a day
• Women should not regularly drink more than 2-3 units a day

I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I enjoyed going to the pub to get these facts for you ;) If you are interested in coming to this Science festival next year, do bookmark the Pint Of Science website, I will, of course, update you in time with their #Pint2015 programme.


I'll do a recap on Dr Jane's talk very soon, in the meantime you can check out this Twitter Storify for pictures from these 124 pub events happening all over the world - almost - at the same time over 3 nights!

 See you Soon for more Sexy Science,

#MyBodyDoesWhat? - The Liver Chapter

My Dear Sexy Readers,

As promised, I'm starting this brand new Sexy mini-series 'My Body Does What?' - Don't forget to say 'What?' on a higher pitch ;) with the amazing Liver! Because it's kind of boring stuff to read, I decided to make it into an infographic so you can Pin it, Tweet it, tumblr it for future reference ;). If you are a student, this won't make up for the studying you're supposed to do, but I think it's a nice basic help you can pin on your wall, and I really do mean print and pin it with a pin on a cemented wall, but Facebook wall is cool too ;)
I also would like to mention that last night, a few weeks after preparing the first version of this infographic, I went down the pub for the Pint Of Science festival! The event that I attended was in 2 parts. The first one by Dr Nathan Davies focused on the amazing roles and functions of the liver, what happens when it goes wrong, what should we do to avoid it. The second one by Dr Jane Macnaughtan focused on probiotics and their potential to heal the liver (future Sexy post coming up - Now ready HERE).
Yes, that's right, you can drink a pint and learn about what it does to your body - Enlightening ;).

For recap, I went to the +PintOfScience website, chose my city - London, my topic - Understanding our Bodies, and off I went to the pub to learn about the liver and probiotics. It was that easy, and if you missed your chance, there's always next year ;) I CAN'T WAIT to see what the organisers are going to prepare for us!! Watch this space! 

Alright, here it is the #Pint2014-modified version of our Sexy first #MyBodyDoesWhat? infographic:

#MyBodyDoesWhat? The Liver Chapter

BTW, I've just created a new Pinterest board for our Sexy Infographics, so feel free to connect with me.

Of course, let me know what you think, and what would you like me to cover next? I'm thinking more obscure but vital organs such as Spleen and Pancreas, what do you think?

See you Soon for more Sexy Science,

References
Wikipedia
National Liver foundation
SkepticRD
Dr Nathan Davies - Pint Of Science talk 20th May 2014

Did You Know? - Where does the word Jaundice come from?

My Dear Sexy Readers,

To celebrate the preparations for our brand new Sexy series 'My Body Does What?'. Here is a teaser for you:
For this new Sexy Short Subject, I would like to mention a Super fact I learned from someone I met at a job interview! I know, quite a random thing, but hey that's how we roll at Science So Sexy ;)

Did You Know that it was thought that Jaundice could be cured by gazing at a Yellow bird? #DYK10
Bilirubin is a yellow waste product that remains in the bloodstream as part of our normal metabolism and is cleared by the liver.When you are affected by a liver disease, it cannot do its job properly and the concentration of bilirubin in your blood increases, leading to a yellowish coloration of your skin. From the French/Greek, Jaune is Yellow, Jaunisse is Yellowness, hence the English word: Jaundice.
Interestingly though, the medical term for jaundice is Icterus, a Latinized form of the Greek word "ikteros" and to the ancient Greeks signified both "jaundice" and "a yellow bird". It was thought that jaundice could be cured if the patient gazed at the bird. The disease would transmigrate from the jaundiced patient to the hapless bird.

A beautiful Yellow bird

If you are interested in knowing more about our Liver and what it does in our body, stay tuned on Science So Sexy for next week's first chapter on the Liver, alternatively you can catch up the infographic on Pinterest if this is more convenient for your device.

See you Soon for more Sexy Science,

References
Medterms
Wikipedia

#MyBodyDoesWhat?

My Dear Sexy Readers,

Time for a new SSS mini-series called "My body does what?", which will be a collection of small articles/infographics summarizing the main functions of our organs and different parts of our body. I mean, yes I am a scientist and have had countless biology lectures covering all this, but do you know what? I'm the first to admit, I do not remember half of what I learnt, in fact it could be close to 2%. So this new mini-series is as much for you as it is for me :). So here it is, our brand new Sexy logo for our brand new Sexy Series - My body Does What? - with the 'What?' on a higher pitch ;) :

I could have started with the Heart, but I will start with the Liver! Don't ask me why!

If you are a student and looking for detailed information, this mini-series won't in any case be a substitute for your course, I'll refer you to my beloved Pubmed.
It will be sort of like a question mark check list!
Where is it?
What does it do in our body?
Why is it important?
Who is affected by a related disease?

So Keep your eyes peeled for our first installment coming up next week,

See you Soon for more Sexy Science,