MEDICO

Ok, seriously, this isn’t my call (mathematico-logics, I mean). My call is medicine. But then, my curiosity has been fueled by the peculiar date of birth of my friend. He was born on the 29 th of February, 1988, and so i'd try. Permit me to state the Naegele’s rule which is the standard way of calculating the due date for a pregnancy. The rule estimates the expected date of delivery(EDD) from the first day of the last menstrual period by adding one year, subtracting three months (or adding nine months), and adding seven days to the first day of a woman’s last menstrual period(LMP). Example: I am presenting a 26 year old Turkish woman, who is a banker whose last menstrual period (LMP) begun on the 16 th March, 2013(16/03/2013). What is her expected delivery date (EDD)? LMP=16/03/2013          +1 year= 16/03/2014           -3 months/+9 months= 16/12/2014     ...

Still in the spirit of medical ethics: Can I play a part in the death of someone else (Euthanasia: the practice of killing individuals with presently incurable diseases, thus assisting the death of such an individual)? Am I being merciful, or am I doing him/her a favor? On the other hand, am I simply taking a life that I cannot give? I’d rather go with what a Dr. said: “If a person wants to truly die, he/she can kill himself”. Why should I soil my hands by engaging in murder, when suicide is an available option? I tell you, if that person chickens out of taking his own life, then I have no right to assist. In fact, it simply means he/she sincerely doesn’t want to die. And by the way, who says an incurable disease like cancer/ HIV will not get permanent cures in the nearest future? Afterall, malaria was an incurable disease at some point too!

In the spirit of medical ethics, quackery is the promotion of unproven or fraudulent medical practices and a quack is a person who pretends, professionally or publicly, to have skill, knowledge, or qualifications that he/she doesn’t possess. Quackery’s salient feature is aggressive promotion of a quirky cause. Therefore, quackery while plying any trade, especially the medical profession, can be the result of a quirky state of mind. The established normal procedure is to make a clinical assessment (which is comprised of a comprehensive history and physical examination) with the view of establishing a clinical diagnosis; so as to provide a remedy; after investigations have been done for the confirmation of clinical diagnosis. Development of a management plan for an unexamined patient is quite quirky. In the same vein, treatment without having a clinical diagnostic base is quacky. In determining whether a person is committing quackery, the central question is what is accept...

Some individuals with the S gene (i.e. sickle cell trait) are protected by this gene somewhat, while others with this same gene are maximally at risk of crises! Why is this? This is just because of the secrets of dominance and recessiveness of this gene. i.e. individuals with AS(normal gene + sickle cell gene) genotype have lesser risk of coming down with malaria, while those with the SS genotype (2 sickle cell genes) are relatively exposed to sickling of their red blood cells and many other diseases associated with their typical crises. Moderation is the ability to conform to a particular range of normalcy, without being overtly excessive. Obsessiveness, on the other hand is a reference to a state of addiction to the premiering of a cause or inability to constrain one’s self from doing something one is passionate about. Obsessiveness could result in crisis, as much as the over-expression of the S gene could result in the much known sickle-cell crisis.

A beloved preacher once made a statement. He said “Many people have asked and they have received. But they have stopped there. Only few go on to seek and find”. The visual sense serves for light to the individual. Without adequate functioning of this sensitive organ, there is groping. We are but blind folks. However, what a man has not sought, it is assumed that he hasn’t seen. We ought to act on what we see if it happens to be rightly desirous to us. Therefore, seeing is not complete without seeking. Seeking what we see implements the achievement of the desires of our hearts through our visual senses. Happy seeking!

Tremor, an involuntary, rhythmic, oscillatory movement of a body part, is the most common movement disorder encountered in clinical practice. Rest tremors occur in a body part that is relaxed and completely supported against gravity. Action tremors occur with voluntary contraction of a muscle and can be further subdivided into postural, isometric, and kinetic tremors. While Parkinsonism is associated with tremor at rest, lesions in the cerebellum is associated with intention (action) tremor. Most tremors are action tremors. Fear is a common emotion. It could stir you to action (action-laced fear), and as well, stir you away from action (action-less fear). It could also make you immobile, stationary and perpetually without risk (restful fear). So is fear still relatively good, since it can stir one to action? Well, I don’t think so. This is because, though fear could be an emotion, it is also a pathological spirit (2 Tim 1:7). Therefore, both fear and tremors signify an underly...

A typical medical practitioner knows all about this process of clerking, this is basically the first thing he does when attending to a patient i.e. he clerks. Clinically, clerking involves: 1.       History Taking- involves taking demographic data, noting the main presenting problems, past medical history, history of main presenting complaint, family history, occupational history, drug history, alcohol history e.t.c. Basically, it helps in determination of symptoms. 2.       Physical Examination- is useful in the elicitation of signs of the disease in question. 3.       Provisional and differential diagnosis: the clinical history and physical examination conducted will help the clinician arrive at provisional diagnosis, from which he arrives at a differential diagnosis. 4.       Management Plan- involves investigative procedures (e.g. haematological investigations) as well as...

As earlier discussed in this blog’s last post, amnesty and amnesia, though similar, cannot be synonymized. God forgives and blots out iniquity of men; thus granting a form of ‘political pardon’. However, the sin of a man finds him out, the consequences of his folly do not evade him, as laws are set in motion by one’s actions. This typically shows, that no matter how much amnesty we receive, there really is no amnesia, as the laws set in motion most times, do not respect amnesty. Simple truth. There is however something interesting about these phenomena; and that is the fact that every noticeable fault is a privileged opportunity to learn and grow. If you survive a situation, get political pardon (even when there’s no amnesia), you get stronger…like a common saying: Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Thus, even if you don’t receive the much sought after amnesia, you get something more valuable. You get freedom. You get to train people. You get strength. Sometimes, ...

Amnesty, as a terminology, is mostly used in the world of politics and there, it is defined as the obtaining of a general pardon, especially for someone who’s committed a political crime. It can also be said to be a period during which crimes can be admitted or illegal weapons handed in- without getting prosecuted! This is closely, yet aloofly related to amnesia, a medical case in which there is a definitive loss of memory, as a result of shock, injury, psychological disturbance and it could also be a pointer to a medical disorder. It is worthy of note, that these two terms are derived from the same Greek root, and so, are quite related. In fact, I think, in spite of the fact that amnesty has to be justifiable and though amnesia could be a pain-numbing exercise in which one could engage in- sort of like a personal dream land; amnesia could indeed be the first step towards ‘healthy’ amnesty. However, from my point of view, there are times when one has to wisely ‘climb out o...

Checks and balances   refers to a mechanism designed to limit power a single individual or body of government and provide for the harmonious interrelationship of the people and all of the organs of government or other social institutions. Checks and balances are intended to allow legitimate power to govern and good ideas to be implemented, while abuse of power, corruption, and oppression are minimized. The good thing about checks and balances is that they prevent a person from using his/her power to gain something at the expense of another. The vestibular apparatus, located in the human inner ear is responsible for establishing balance in the human body. The apparatus has 3 main functions: 1.       Plays a major role in subjective sensation of motion and spatial orientation. 2.       Vestibular input to areas of the nervous system involved in motor control elicits adjustments of muscle activity and body position, allowi...

It is an exciting task to describe money in terms that the medic understands perfectly. Thus, I’d like to correlate the term money with the term cells The beautiful thing about both of them is that they are both units. A cell is the basic unit of life while money is also the basic source of life on earth. In financial institutions, in fact, money can be described as life. This means both the cells and money are units which could comprise a large pile of something relatively valuable and thus, are of utmost value. Why would I be describing cells as money? Well, it is very hard as humans, for us to learn if we cannot link our consequences to our actions. That is why in simple terms, money and cells are being correlated. Let us start with the description of actions and consequences. Are there any causative agents and consequences for having too many cells in for instance, the blood? Yes, there are and as a matter of fact, I just described LEUKEMIA! However, someone might ask, w...

Although the nervous system is a pretty tangible mass comprising nervous tissue mainly, and time is quite intangible; there are pretty astonishing facts that they seemingly buttress in spite of their clear differences. Taking a break from our series on hearing right, we observe the astounding similarities between the nervous system’s component, the brain and time. 1.       Both offer you a grand choice : You  can decide to either fritt away or invest your time, as much as you can choose to waste a large part of your brain while shying away as much as possible from doing anything remotely mentally-exerting. 2.         Memory: The common phrase “Time will tell” briefly encapsulates the fact that time really, does manage to bring up decisions, actons, words of the past to stare into our faces. The concept of memory (which time makes use of) isn’t any stranger. Memory storage occurs in the brain; and certainly, in the hea...

THE MIDDLE EAR: FACING THE BATTLE HEADS ON The middle ear is the portion of the ear between the outer ear and the inner ear. Here, sound waves become mechanical vibrations and impedance matching occurs. Structure: The   middle ear   begins with the eardrum at the end of the ear canal. The middle ear contains three tiny bones, called the   ossicles. These three bones form a connection from the eardrum to the inner ear. As sound waves hit the eardrum, the eardrum moves back and forth causing the ossicles to move. As a result, the sound wave is changed to a mechanical vibration. Function: ·        The function of the middle ear is to carry the vibrations from the external ear to the inner ear. When sound vibrations enter the ear, the eardrum vibrates. The vibration of the eardrum makes the ossicles vibrate. The ossicles, in turn, amplify these vibrations and carry them to the inner ear, where they will be translated into electric s...

What you hear, whom you hear, where you hear, determine where you will be heard- and what you will be heard saying.” The principle of hearing right is classified aright by the bible. “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing the word of God”, we read. From here, we can deduce: -Faith in the word of God comes by hearing the word of God -Faith in the word of man comes by hearing the word of man -Faith comes by hearing faith-filled/faith-driven/faith-driving words -Fear comes by hearing fear-driven/fear-driving words Actually, the ears listen to what we read. If you cannot pronounce a word i.e your ears cannot process it, it doesn’t make much sense, even if you can read it! Hearing affects our attitudes, and I sincerely wonder how the deaf function attitudinally. We shall get to that some other day. The human ear has 3 parts: Ø   The outer ear- consists of the pinna and external auditory meatus Ø   The middle ear- made up of the ear ossicles: malleus, incus and...

Hi pals! I would like you to be informed of a new series of discussions this blog would be subsequently treating. It would feature the special senses: i.e the senses of vision, taste, hearing and smell in a creative way. Want to learn more about this series and how they relate to our hearts? A little preview… This series will treat the following gates to our hearts: 1.       The mouth gate- Will deal with our tongue, taste buds (can you imagine?) and lips 2.       The eye gate- “Open the eyes of my heart Lord”, are lyrics of a popular song. What’s the correlation between eye defects and the conditions of our hearts both physically and spiritually? 3.       The ear gate- The outer, middle and inner aspects of the ear and their relative significances to the heart; and other interesting things will be featured here. 4.       The nose gate- Hmmmn, even I am still wondering wh...

“For each body cell, there is a now” The human body is an astonishing hub of activities, with so many processes concurrently taking place. Today, energy yielding processes are the focus. Listing the main energy-consuming and utilizing cellular processes in the body will take but a few seconds; they include: Ø   Glycolysis : the breakdown of glucose to pyruvate with the release of useable energy. A metabolic process which occurs in almost all the body’s cells. Glycolysis yields 2 net molecules of energy in form of Adenosine Triphosphat e (ATP) Ø   KrebsCycle: also known as the Citric Acid Cycle, the Krebs cycle is the final common pathway for the oxidation of carbohydrate, lipid and protein- in short, all energy sources- since they can all be converted into acetyl-CoA, one of the metabolic substrates of this cycle. 10 ATP molecules are formed per turn of the citric acid cycle. Ø   Gluconeogenesis: Process of energy production i.e glucose synthesis, ...

Gal 5:6 - For [if we are] in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith activated and energized and expressed and working through love. The heart and the lungs are like faith and love, their functions intertwined, their locations proximate, the feelings that they generate just as conclusive. They produce hope for the survival of the physical body, just like faith and love produce hope for the spiritual body’s survival. Experiences of today made me realize something: we need faith intertwined with love to breathe as spirit beings, as much as we need the functional capacity of our cardio-respiratory apparatuses to breathe the breath of life. It’s that important…faith and love I mean.

Gal 5:6 - For [if we are] in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith activated and energized and expressed and working through love. The heart and the lungs are like faith and love, their functions intertwined, their locations proximate, the feelings that they generate just as conclusive. They produce hope for the survival of the physical body, just like faith and love produce hope for the spiritual body’s survival. Experiences of today made me realize something: we need faith intertwined with love to breathe as spirit beings, as much as we need the functional capacity of our cardio-respiratory apparatuses to breathe the breath of life. It’s that important…faith and love I mean.