What I Learnt Last Week 17: The Nasal Polyps, Antibodies and Alzheimer's, Hormones' effect on girl's interests, Secret keeping traits, and The Danger of Fast Foods.

Approved by the U.S Food and Drug Administrations after Phase III test

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Tuesday: Antibody wipes Alzheimer's Plague in mice

What is Alzheimer's disease?

The Alzheimer's disease is a neurodegenerative disease that affects the memory. It is a type of dementia that affects the behavior, thinking, and mood, language and other things that have to do with the memory. So, let's go to antibodies...

What is an Antibody?

Not intending to make this unnecessarily long, antibodies are proteins used by the immune system to get rid of pathogens like viruses in the body. Okay, let me add that antibodies are Y-shaped and they are large.

This plague started as a sticky clump that forms in the brain, damaging surrounding cells and as at the time, it gave doctors a hard time trying to find the perfect treatment. This sticky clump's major component is a brain protein known as the Amyloid beta which also contains a small amount of the Alzheimer's Protein known as APOE.

Researchers have made it known that an antibody can wipe out the Alzheimer's Protein and the plagues alongside on early discovery. The sticky clumps bring about progressive brain damage that might degenerate to forgetfulness, mood swing, confusion, memory loss and other Alzheimer symptoms but a victim might not necessarily have to face all this if the APOE are faced by the antibodies early enough before Alzheimer's symptoms start. It is, however, better to make sure the plagues are removed than halting their effect on the brain; this is to ensure the brain is safe.

The scientists in their experiment changed the APOE gene in the mice to that of human to know how important this might be for humans. Then, the scientists proceeded to inject the mice weekly with either placebo or antibodies for six weeks. After the six weeks, they paused to measure the level of plagues in the brain but it had been reduced to half by the antibody, HAE-4. This was not the most surprising thing, but that the HAE-4 didn't remove the APOE present in the blood. The HAE-4 removed the APOE attached to plagues in the brain but left the APOE present in the blood. This could be due to the importance of APOE in transporting fats and cholesterol in the blood or better still the difference between the structure of the APOE in the brain and the one in the blood.

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Wednesday: Hormones may affect girl's interest

I've always thought girls that play hard, rough, and involve themselves in masculine activities do so because they are surrounded by too many boys or maybe they are just being too forward. I've always thought being surrounded by too many boys creates a social environment that overrules the girly behaviours in females making them behave like males.

Then, I thought it could be the decision of the girl child but then I couldn't justify that. How would I prove a girl of 2years old that prefers to play hard, jumping from a seat to the other, cracking her toys open just to see what's inside?? Was it her decision as well??? Just then, I knew there was more - like there could be a biological reason and the social environment thing I always thought of could be wrong. Yes, I was right, there was a biological reason but then, I was wrong on the other side. The biological reason is on one side, the social development is on the other side. They both determine the gender development, interests, and activities.

The hormone, androgen is a hormone common to males than females. When female foetus is exposed to the androgen hormone, it affects their interests, and it makes them do things that are associated with males when they are born. The androgen hormone can not determine the gender of the child, playmates but their interests. When children are very young, they are known to play with children of the same gender as they - an already known evidence of sex segregation. Let's see for example the findings of the researchers....

The researchers recruited about 54 girls in two categories: ^[1] Those exposed to androgen and ^[2] those that were not. They found out about their interests, daily activities and gender identity after interviewing on at least seven evenings within a period of four weeks. From their findings, it was established that:

^[1] Although androgen is associated with masculine activities in females, it does not affect their gender identity or playmate.

^[2] The only effect of androgen is on the interests of females and it doesn't exceed that according to this research.

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Thursday: Some traits might make you a secret keeper

We all have that one friend that trusts us and brings most or all of his secrets to us to lessen the burden on him. Some do so because they trust us, some just to lessen the burden, some to get an advice, some because they think we might have a solution and most importantly, they expect it to stay between just the two of you but you might also have a confidant, you might want to tell to ease yourself. Funnily enough, your confidant might also have another confidant, who has another confidant and then, it's no longer a secret anymore. So, what happens when the news gets back to that friend?? Distrust! Dispute!! We all can get the lis t going...

Worry no more! Or you might still have to worry a little, lol.. Scientists have now conducted a research having four different characteristics in mind ( politeness, compassion, enthusiasm, assertiveness as suggested by the psychologists). Some people might consider enthusiasm, politeness as a reason to share their secrets with someone. They think if he's polite and enthusiastic to hear it, he'd be able to keep the secret and maybe proffer a solution but that's really wrong. Someone enthusiastic to hear might be enthusiastic to hear the latest gist and so might be enthusiastic to tell it as well. On the other hand, politeness might mean that they'll be able to keep the secret but no proffer a solution to it.

After about five studies on about 1000 participants, scientists picked compassion, assertiveness including empathy and care to be the best characteristics or feature you should look out for if you need someone to keep your secrets with. We all don't want to walk around our vicinity being frowned upon by the residents because of a secret that got leaked. Apart from the reliability of the people with these features, the assertiveness and compassion trait are one of the best trait a secret keeper or confidant can ever possess. They are what make them proffer a solution to the problem before it gets out of hands.

_{PS: You know we are humans and have a mind of our own, one might have these features and still spread the secret. So, it's advisable you choose a devoted friend that you trust or at least has this traits.}

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Friday: The Dangerous Chemicals Found in Fast Food and Restaurants

Huh?? Dangerous chemicals...?? Fast foods...?? Restaurants..?? Yeah, you heard right.. Even I myself am guilty of this. I eat at restaurants, fast foods very frequently until recently. Although I stopped for a reason, I didn't know there was more. I used to react to it in a funny kind of way but I always thought the reactions would go and I'll go ahead to eat it again until I finally decided to let go. Then weeks later I saw this, it was a knock out blow. I knew I couldn't keep eating fast foods even if I thought I had to. Not after what I saw..

Ami Zota researched on fast foods consumption in the United States because it was on the high side as at two years ago. It was noticed that harmful chemicals are also ingested alongside the food purchased. The chemical phthalates, is a very dangerous chemical as it can be traced to infertility, pregnancy complications, cancer, obesity, and diabetes.

Most fast foods are packaged with plastics, some are even prepared in plastic wraps of which plastic is the main source of this chemical. Although the chemical can be found also be found in cosmetic products, body lotions, gloves, boxes, the major source is plastics. This study revealed that eating fast foods exposes a person to about 40% more phthalates than other people that just eat in their homes.

_{PS: Not the fact that it's a fast food makes it dangerous but the fact that plastics are used in most of its preparation procedures and plastics contain this dangerous chemical.}

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