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  F ood is essential to the existence of life and provides energy for metabolic activities, thus sustaining all living organisms. In contrast, food adulteration is the addition of low-quality substances or products to food due to economic and technological reasons. This adulterant causes a deterioration of the nutritional content of food, making it unfit for human consumption. Several foods, such as cereals, pulses, dairy products, grains, meat, vegetables, fruits, oils, and beverages, contain adulterants. Food or food components are often contaminated or added in developing countries. Some of the prevalent causes are business strategies, imitation of another food substance, a lack of knowledge about the consumption of food properly, increasing production and sale of food, rising demand in the population, and maximum profit with minimum investments. The methods of adulteration include application of chemicals for artificial ripening of fruits and vegetables; mixing decayed fruits ...

G ram staining, one of the most frequently used techniques in microbiology, was developed by a Danish bacteriologist by the name of Hans Christian Gram way back in 1884. It differentiates between Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. This staining method is useful in classifying microorganisms and distinguishing them from one another. In this process, some of the bacteria, stained by the primary stain, Crystal Violet, and fixed with the mordant, retain the primary stain, and some of them get decolorized by alcohol. In gram-positive bacteria, peptidoglycan is layered on the cell walls, and the lipid content is very low. Decolorization leads to the drying and shrinking of the cell wall, closing the pores and blocking the exit of the stain from the cell. The trapped Crystal Violet-Iodine complex appears blue or purple. While Gram-negative bacteria readily absorb the crystalline violet-iodine complex, due to the thin layer of peptidoglycan and thick outer layer of lipids, CV-Iodine com...

Y ellow fever has symptoms that include fever, headache, muscle pains, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, and then the very severe ones like extremely high fever, jaundice, hemorrhage, bleeding, shock, liver failure, kidney failure, and death. Primarily, it affects people residing or working in subtropical and tropical rain forests of Africa and South America. Diagnosis is therefore important, and where such symptoms occur following travel to an area where yellow fever is occurring, doctors should request laboratory tests to confirm the presence of the virus. Since there are no particular treatments or drugs that can help cure yellow fever, vaccination is the most crucial aspect of its prevention. Doctors would always advise the patient to have lots of rest and water to help regain health. At the same time, pain-relieving drugs such as aspirin or other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs must be avoided. Severe cases require immediate hospitalization. The prevention measures include applying ...

  T here are two types of foodborne diseases: food infection and food poisoning. With this, all illness from food was generalized as "food poisoning," which is always used by the media and then technically wrong.   Food poisoning can result from ingesting poisoned food. The toxins might be formed either by the microorganisms themselves, be naturally present in food, for example, some mushrooms, or be introduced as a contaminant. The toxins directly affect the biological responses of the body. The impact is direct and takes effect only a few hours after the intake. Other symptoms include nausea and vomiting. Toxins can be generated by various sources, but the two most common producers of bacterial toxins are  Staphylococcus aureus  and  Clostridium botulinum . Some of the toxins, such as mycotoxins, have very serious long-term consequences, even at low amounts. Cooking does not kill most of these toxins since they are heat stable.    Food infectio...

  I t is an essential endocrine organ that manufactures and secretes hormones in order to regulate metabolism and energy use. It plays a very fundamental role in controlling different activities of the body by manufacturing and releasing specific hormones into the bloodstream. Major hormones released by the thyroid include thyroxine, T4, triiodothyronine, T3, reverse triiodothyronine, RT3, and calcitonin. These hormones control a great many functions within the body, among them being metabolism, heartbeat, breathing, digestion, body temperature, brain development, mental activity, maintenance of the skin and bones, and fertility. Hypothyroidism  is when a person has an underactive thyroid. It occurs when the thyroid produces and releases too little hormone; therefore, some metabolic processes start to slow down. This can be caused by Hashimoto's disease, thyroiditis, iodine deficiency, a nonfunctioning thyroid gland, overtreatment of hyperthyroidism due to medication, or eve...

J aundice is an abnormal yellowing of a person's skin, mucous membrane, and whites of the eyes when bilirubin or its precursors accumulate in the body. This results from the liver's failure to filter bilirubin, a yellow material formed when hemoglobin, the iron-containing protein found in red blood cells, breaks down. This may be due to diverse medical disorders that involve hepatitis, gallstones, and tumors. Jaundice is caused because at times the liver is not able to process all the bilirubin formed, or there is some obstruction in the passage of bilirubin from the liver. Jaundice occurs due to elevated bilirubin in the blood, which leaks out from within the blood vessels into tissues surrounding the blood vessels, causing yellowing of the skin and whites of the eyes. There are three types of jaundice: prehepatic, hepatic, and posthepatic/obstructive jaundice that occurs during bilirubin production.  The diagnosis is established by testing the bilirubin value of the blood and...

  A genetic mutation is a change in the sequence of your DNA. Your DNA sequence provides your cells with the information they need to work properly. If part of your DNA sequence is incorrect, missing, or damaged, you may have symptoms of a genetic disorder. WHEN DOES GENETIC MUTATION OCCURS? Genetic mutations happen during cell division when your cells divide and make copies of themselves. There are two kinds of cell division: Mitosis: The process by which new cells are produced for the body. While mitosis is under way, your genes are informing your cells to divide into two by making an exact copy of your chromosomes. Meiosis: The process of producing egg and sperm cells for the next generation. In meiosis, the chromosomes make a copy with half as many as the original had, from 46 to 23. That is how you were able to get your genetic material equally from each parent. HOW DO GENETIC MUTATION MUTATIONS OCCUR? Cell division causes genetic alterations. When your cells replicate, your b...

  D NA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is the hereditary material found in humans and most other species. It is stored as a code made up of four chemical bases: adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C), and thymine (T). Human DNA consists of about 3 billion bases, with over 99 percent of them being the same in all people. These bases are in a specific order that contains information about constructing and sustaining an organism, much like the letters in the alphabet come together in an order to form words and sentences. DNA bases are held together attached to each other through base pairing, which is further held to another molecule called sugar and phosphate. Whereas a nucleotide is just a base, a sugar, and phosphate, the double helix is two long strands of nucleotides, much like a ladder whose rungs are the base pairs and whose vertical sidepieces are sugar and phosphate molecules. Pictorial representation of DNA and RNA along with their bases

A ddison's disease is a rare chronic disorder in which the adrenal glands do not produce enough cortisol and aldosterone. It is most commonly triggered by an autoimmune reaction. It is curable with medicine. Adrenal glands Adrenal glands also known as suprarenal glands, are small, triangle shaped glands that are located on top of each of your two kidneys. They are a part of your endocrine system. Cortisol is a hormone that regulates your body's response to stress, such as illness, injury, or surgery. It also helps to regulate your blood pressure, cardiac function, immune system, and blood glucose (sugar) levels. Cortisol is vital for survival. Aldosterone is a hormone that regulates the levels of sodium and potassium in your blood. This regulates the quantity of fluid your kidneys excrete as urine, which influences blood volume and blood pressure. Addison's disease is also known as primary adrenal insufficiency. Secondary adrenal insufficiency occurs when your pituitary gl...

P neumonia is an acute infection of the lungs caused by bacteria, viruses, or fungal infections. The signs include inflammation, loss of fluid, difficulty in breathing, fever, and cough with yellow, green, or bloody mucus. The infection can either be confined to one lung, a condition referred to as unilateral pneumonia, or it can affect both lungs, which is called bilateral or double pneumonia. Community-acquired pneumonia is that which occurs outside health facilities, caused by a number of micro-organisms, mainly Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae, Chlamydia pneumoniae, and Legionella. Other causative organisms are viruses, such as the common cold, flu, COVID-19, and respiratory syncytial virus. Fungi, like Cryptococcus, Pneumocystis jirovecii, and Coccidioides, are uncommon and have the highest risk when one has a low immune level. Other causative factors in pneumonia are protozoa, like Toxoplasma. Hospital-acquired pneumonia in patients admitted for various other ailm...

C ushing syndrome is a condition characterized by an excess of the hormone cortisol, which is essential for maintaining blood pressure, regulating blood sugar, making memories, managing respiration, balancing salt, and converting food into energy. The adrenal glands, pituitary gland, and hypothalamus control cortisol levels. Cushing syndrome is caused by either internal (cortisol produced by the body) or external (side effects of certain medications). Women are more prone to the condition than men. Symptoms include rapid weight gain, hypertension, excessive hair growth, diabetes, purple stretch marks, and fatigue. Diagnosis is challenging and may be mistaken for polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) or metabolic syndrome. Tests for Cushing syndrome include 24-hour urinary cortisol tests, midnight salivary tests, low dose dexamethasone suppression tests, blood tests, and high dose dexamethasone suppression tests. Treatment options include chemotherapy, medications, radiation, and surgery. ...

  D engue fever is a life-threatening disease caused by the bite of a mosquito infected with one of the four dengue viruses (DENV). This fever seems to appear mainly in the tropics and subtropics: Central and South America, Africa, parts of Asia, and the Pacific Islands. Dengue is not directly contagious from person to person, except during pregnancy from a pregnant individual to their baby. There are four serotypes or strains of DENV: DENV-1, DENV-2, DENV-3, and DENV-4. It's caused by Aedes mosquitoes, carriers of both Zika and Chikungunya viruses. Once the mosquito bites an individual who has dengue fever, it automatically becomes the carrier of the disease. The next time it bites another person, it infects this person. Symptoms include high fever, rash, intense pain in the eyes, nausea or vomiting, muscle, bone, and joint pain, stomach/abdominal pain, frequent vomiting, throwing up blood or blood in the poop, nose bleeds, and extreme tiredness. Dengue fever is diagnosed by a blo...

M alaria is a killer disease that is transmitted by the female Anopheles mosquito. In the feed, the mosquito injects the malarial parasites (sporozoites) into the body to enter the blood stream Infection with the genus Plasmodium causes malaria and is transmitted to humans through the bite of an infected female Anopheles mosquito. The parasites that enter the blood stream in the form of sporozoites begin to multiply asexually in the liver; they do not cause any symptoms. Later, they are led into the blood stream, where they get into the blood cells, start multiplying asexually, open up the blood cells, and thus release more of these parasites into the blood to infect more cells. When these red blood cells rupture, they release a toxin called hemozoin. After the mosquito bites an infected human, they enter the body of mosquitoes and start developing and maturation. The parasites enter into the gut of the mosquito, where the male and female gamete fertilizes and finally forms a sporozoit...

  A drug is any substance used in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of abnormal conditions or the alleviation of symptoms. It reflects and, to some extent, affects the structure and function of the brain or the body. Based on their effects, drugs can fall into three main categories: depressants, hallucinogens, Inhalants, opioids, party drugs and prescription drugs Depressants , being the most widely used drug group, slow down the functioning of the central nervous system. They include alcohol, benzodiazepines, cannabis, and opioids. Hallucinogens distort the senses and can cause hallucinations, memory loss, distress, anxiety, increased heart rate, paranoia, and aggression. Stimulants elevate central nervous system activity. Analgesics such as aspirin, paracetamol, and ibuprofen work to relieve pain symptoms. Inhalants , which are volatile solvents, aerosol sprays, gases and chemicals such as nicotine, are fast-absorbed and can provide an instant high. Opioids , commonly ...

V irus are microorganisms that infect plants, animals, humans, and bacteria. They have genetic material, either DNA or RNA, enclosed in a protective shell called capsid. A few of them having an envelope that prevents self-replication without hosts, so they are just like parasites visibly smaller than cells by 100 to 1000 times.  Spikes exist on some viruses and examples are SARS-CoV-2 (Corona virus) and HIV. Types of viruses include influenza viruses, human herpesviruses, coronavirus, human papillomaviruses, enteroviruses, flaviviruses, and orthopoxviruses.  The other unique ones are retroviruses and oncoviruses.  Influenza viruses cause flu.  Human herpesviruses cause diseases such as herpes, chickenpox, shingles, Epstein-Barr virus, cytomegalovirus. Coronaviruses are a subfamily of viruses causing COVID-19, which includes the SARS-CoV-2 virus.  Human papillomavirus, HPV, causes warts and some cancer.  The enteroviruses attack the intestinal tract. Flavivi...

  T hyroid cancer is the type of endocrine cancer that develops in the thyroid gland, which produces those very hormones controlling heartbeat, metabolic rate, and body temperature. The cases of thyroid cancer are three times more frequent among women and AFAB compared to men and AMAB. Thyroid cancer falls into the following four types: papillary, follicular, medullary, and anaplastic. The thyroid cancer stages range from I to IV. Difficulty in breathing and swallowing, loss of voice, swollen lymph nodes, tiredness, loss of appetite, nausea and vomiting, and sudden weight loss are the characteristic symptoms of this condition. Radiation exposure, goiter, family history of thyroid disease or thyroid cancer, thyroiditis, gene mutations, low iodine intake, and obesity are among its causes. Courtesy: Google Diagnosis includes blood tests, biopsies, radioiodine scans, and imaging scans. The most common treatments include surgery; in this case, surgeons remove part of the thyroid gland-l...

  I t is such an infectious disease in which a bacterium infects the infected person's digestive system and multiplies to show the signs of fever, diarrhea, and stomach pain. One can ingest this bacterium from contaminated food and water, or one may go swimming in water contaminated by that. Shigellosis is a type of food poisoning; otherwise, it is known as bacillary dysentery, blood, or mucous membrane disease. To confirm the diagnosis, you will need to check the stool sample for bacteria, depending on the severity of the infection. Courtesy: Google Treatment for Shigella depends on the acuteness of the condition; hence, milder symptoms can be cured by simply resting at home and drinking plenty of water. The over-the-counter drug bismuth subsalicylate can be added to lessen the urge for diarrhea, but the drugs loperamide with Imodium or diphenoxylate combined with atropine with Lomotil should not be added because they reduce the passage of stool and thus keep the bacteria in the s...

B rain-eating amoeba, otherwise known as Naegleria fowleri, is a very rare and deadly infection caused by an amoeba that eats the brain. This infection occurs in warm freshwater bodies or untreated and polluted waterbodies. However, the amoeba infects only when contaminated water enters a person's nose. This amoeba reproduces by cell division, wherein under unfavorable conditions, it becomes an inactive cyst and becomes an active trophozoite when conditions become favorable. Brain-eating amoeba (Courtesy: google)     Naegleria fowleri dwells in warm water. The causative organisms can withstand temperatures as high as 115 F. Headache, fever, stiff neck, loss of appetite, vomiting, hallucinations, seizures, coma characterizes the manifestation of the infection. It takes 2-15 days for the symptoms to manifest after infection, and death predominantly results within 3-7 days after the symptoms set in. The name "brain-eating amoeba" makes one think it is some kind of micro-zomb...

  K erala has reported another case of amoebic encephalitis - a report involving a 12-year-old boy from Padoor (Thrissur). The causal agent has been suggested to be Vermamoeba vermiformis, a free-living amoeba (FLA) that is ubiquitous in the environment and responsible for numerous human diseases as well as other animals. Thrissur District Medical Officer T.P Sreedevi said the boy was infected in June and has been hospitalised at Ernakulam for treatment and then he was referred to Thrissur Government Medical College hospital for rehabilitation.  Fifth case   Courtesy: Google This marks the fifth case of amoebic encephalitis in the state over the past couple of months. The other four instances came from Kozhikode, Kannur and Malappuram involving teenage kids, with three deaths. In all these situations young people went into water bodies where they encountered the amoebic parasite, Naegleria fowleri.