Posts

Pandemic in times of global connectivity and disruption of scientific information

-
World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic in March 2020 when the disease spread across the globe. Till date, it has caused more than 300,000 infections and about 13,000 fatalities. Within days after declaring it a pandemic, WHO called it an ‘infodemic’. One important reason for calling a pandemic ‘infodemic’ is the propagation of misinformation and unscientific information parallel to the scientific data. Initially there was not much known about the virus when it appeared in the wet market of Wuhan, China. But as soon as Chinese health experts analyzed the cause of the new pneumonia, they found out a new virus, named SARS-CoV-2, was the causative pathogen. The disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 was named Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19). WHO calling it an ‘infodemic’ indicates the frustration of public health experts at the face of rapid spread of misinformation. Health systems across the globe started facing the real brunt of an abrupt overstrain caused by a unkn...
Post a Comment
Read more

Impact of political glitches and hostility on juvenile minds

-
What is your politics doing to your children's minds? Initially published by Daily Pakistan Global. Follow link here https://en.dailypakistan.com.pk/opinion/blog/what-is-your-politics-doing-to-your-childrens-minds/ During my medical school days when I would visit home for vacations, my younger siblings, who were going to KG at that time, would flabbergast me with political questions. It was summer of 2009, when one day my little comrade with his quizzical looks, asked me about political turmoil and corruption in Pakistan which, of course was not less than a shock for me. Probably, in his puerile mind, he wanted to know why in our country these occurrences were prevalent. He also heard of bomb blasts and certain people killing other people. I got worrisome, indeed, that what exactly was irking his mind. I had to calm him down first to be able to recognize what was he thinking. It was revealed to me that he overheard his teachers discussing content of newspapers and re...
Post a Comment
Location: Karachi, Pakistan
Read more

Regular exercise makes you age slower and more neuroplastic

-
Image
Simple scientific connotation of the process of aging Artistic depiction of brain plasticity Aging has been the debate since a while now, above all, the various factors responsible for it. The irrefutable delineation as a result of research studies and experimentation, aging is interpreted as a physiologic process which appears in the form of progressive waning in organ function. Organ functional decline occurs at cellular and molecular level. Biochemical molecules responsible for cellular processes become blunt, rigid and less active to perform the labor assigned to them, hindering cells to work normally like they used to. Important to note is all of these phenomena do not occur methodical or together. For instance a cell might lose a particular function but other cellular pathways will be working routinely. Aging occurs in each and every cell of every organ resulting in accumulative decline of bodily functions. Interestingly this complex physiologic process is observed ...
Post a Comment
Location: Pocatello, ID, USA
Read more