Pain and swelling actually do good.

I know that this is definitely a different area to venture into - our body, and how it is self taught to protect us. Unlike the laws of physics, there are no established rigid laws here, just findings from carefully conducted studies, but amazing to learn nonetheless. Don't worry, I promise a set of thought provoking questions towards the end. For now, stay with me and wonder at the wonders of the always taken for granted human body!

Our body is designed to protect us through its three lines of defense. And while going through them very briefly, we will learn about the intricacies involved and thereby learn what is the significance of pain and swelling and how they are actually a boon in disguise.

The first line of defense is our waterproof skin and the mucous lining present under our nose, in our mouth and gut. Skin prevents certain microbes from entering our body. Skin contains something called interferons, something that immediately attacks the virus. They were named interferons because they cause interference. The mucous lining and the saliva in our mouth kill certain other types of germs.

Once the germs manage to cross this barrier and get in,  'Non specific protection' comes into play. Non specific in the sense, it attacks 'any' pathogen. Pathogen is the term used for the harm causing foreign body that attacks us and causes illness. Now, how does the body identify a pathogen? Pathogens have a certain thing ( protein) called antigen attached to them. Once , this antigen is spotted, lot of things happen. Some of it include inflammation, redness, pain. Who spots the antigen? Our blood contains certain cells called lymphocytes. These lymphocytes engulf the foreign objects by a process called phagocytosis. Okie so far. But why does swelling and redness happen? That part is called inflammatory response of our immune system.

What happens during that inflammatory response? Certain cells produce a substance called histamine, which inturn dilates the vessels allowing lot of white blood cells to flow into,the affected area, to enable quick healing. Hence the swelling. Pain is a good thing because, it alerts you that something's wrong and helps you locate the area that needs attention. Plus, in cases where we touch a hot plate, pain alerts the brain and the brain instantly sends motor signals to the hand to withdraw.

Now, just for the completeness of this article, we discuss the third line of defense. The 'Specific response' of the immunity system. There are two types of lymphocytes called T cells and B cells. And they attack very specific antigens. As in, pathogen A will have a particular type of T and B cells and pathogen B will have a totally different type of T and B cells. Hence they are called specific response.  They produce antibodies specific to the antigens and bind to them and destroy the pathogens.

Another lovely thing I learnt is some of the T cells that bind themselves to the antigens stay on as memory cells. That is, so that the immune system can remember them and can be prepared to launch an attack immediately once they strike again!! Awesome isn't it.

That's a brief write up of our well armed immunity system. Let's also touch upon allergies and what they actually are. Allergy is a response of our immunity system to something called an allergen. The immunity system identifies it as a pathogen and attacks it. Like for instance, pollen allergy. That is, an actually harmless pollen when it comes it contact with our nasal membranes (say), trigger the production of histamines, thereby causing swelling of the nasal membrane and production of excess mucous. Hence nasal congestion, watery eyes or nose. All our immune system is trying to do is to expel the pollen which it considers harmful. What do we do in such scenarios?

Anti-histamines to our rescue. What do they do? They combine with the inactive histamine receptors and prevent them from going active. That is, they get attached to the histamine receptors, thereby preventing histamine from attaching itself to the receptors. Thereby reducing the effect of histamine. Anti-histamines are what make up your allergy meds. They don't cure your allergy, they reduce the symptoms and ease your discomfort. ( Two kinds of anti histamines. Generation 1 and Generation 2. Generation 1 anti histamines cause drowsiness cause they cross the blood brain barrier. Whereas the Generation 2 anti histamines don't cause drowsiness and are said to have lesser side effects.) This anti histamines was such a huge discovery back then that the guys who discovered them were awarded the Nobel prize!!

Coming to think of it, histamines help our body heal. So why was this anti histamines so important? When do we take them? Should we take them at all? (Please consult your doctor before taking them.) The point to remember is, though the symptoms are to help, they cause us discomfort. At the point where you feel you need relief, take them (after consulting your doctor ofcourse) To support this argument more, think of this. Fever is a symptom where in the body increases the temperature to kill certain type of pathogens. Vomit is an action where your gut forcefully expels things it wants to eliminate. Watery eyes and nose are because the immune system is trying to send the pathogen out through the mucous. cough is a way of expelling the irritant through your mouth. Rash and itching is your body's way of telling you to scratch the allergen out !! They all cause discomfort, and we do take medicines for them at the drop of a hat.There is a very thin line indeed between when our body can handle it and when it needs some help. And your doctor is the only one certified to advise you in this regard. The next time, before popping any On-the-counter medicines, think twice!!

Common cold, The most common discomfort causing condition that most of us pick up very frequently. Did you know that common cold, like an allergy cannot be cured (by taking medicines)? Simply because there are more than 200 types of viruses that can cause common cold and the ever mutating strings that keep producing more viruses on the fly. So we can't treat the cold, but why do we take medicines then? Just to reduce the symptoms and provide some relief. Did you know, medicines we take for common cold actually contain anti-histamines? Simply because, allergies and cold have mostly the same symptoms. And I read somewhere that we shouldn't overdo these cold medicines for children under 6 (some AAP recommendation) And it goes on to say, prevention is the best way to handle common cold. Prevention includes, frequent washing of our hands, sanitizing them, teaching children and adults to cough with their mouths covered ( where you cought into your elbows) and healthy lifestyle and diet. Some common home remedies that I've read that helps is, steam bath, lot of warm liquids, chicken soup,saline nasal drops.

I'm not a doctor, not a pharmacist, not an immunologist. I'm not certified to give opinions regarding any of this. However, I just wanted to alert you guys to all there that is, so that you know what to ask your doctor and also discourage you to self medicate.For me, it all started with an ant bite.Believe me, its true. I was sleeping blissfully and woke up with a start when i felt stinging pain in my eyelid. I dint know what. I washed my eyes and to my horror my eyelid swelled up like a bonda ( a delicacy in south India which looks like a ping pong ball ) so much so that I had displaced eyebrows for an entire day! While i was searching for home remedies on the internet, I hit upon these histamines. And that lifted my other eyebrow too!! (in wonder and awe I meant ) I dug deeper and I learnt about our beautifully designed immune system. And because I have a toddler, dug deeper into anti histamines, common cold and medicines. But who created this awesome immune system, how did it come into place? How did the lymphocytes know how to differentiate our own cells from the harmful pathogens? Who taught them that ? Now that's a set of questions I have no answer to. And that makes all this even more amazing! Doesn't it ? Appreciate your life, adopt a healthy lifestyle, help your immune system protect you and stay healthy !

Doesn't more Force mean more speed (or effect) on the object?

I love doing these IQ quizzes wherein at the end they give a report analysing your brain type or even say your 'thinking type'. I took one such quiz today and it went on to explain two types of thinking. They called it System 1 and System 2 type of thinking. System 1 is our basic intuition type of thinking, that is, simply put, the first thing that comes to your mind when a stimulus hits you (a question here ) System 2 is an elaborate and logical thinking. That said, If I ask you, "Doesn't more force mean more speed(or effect) on the object ?" , what would you say? System 1 thinking would lure you to say "yes" , but your System 2 thinking would pressurize you to say "It depends..." . On what ?

For example, one of the previous post talks about gravity and its effect on two objects, the ball and the feather.We said, gravity depended on mass of the object. We also said, the acceleration of the objects was independent of their mass. So to sum it up, it means, the gravity force acting on the objects were different, heavier object gets a bigger gravity force acting on it than the lighter object, however the rate at which they fall towards the earth is the same. Isn't it difficult to visualise? We tend to think, more the force, more the speed. Right? So how would you explain this phenomenon? Close your eyes. Take a min (or more) Think about it.

Let me tell you about my closing-the-eyes-to-think experience.I tried visualizing pushing a ball with little force as opposed to pushing it with extra force. Hmm.. the ball would move the extra length or maybe faster when I pushed it with extra force right? Doesn't help. Maybe my example needs two different objects, in particular, of different masses. Then  I tried visualizing pushing a heavy door as compared to a not so heavy door. Hmm.. now maybe I was getting somewhere. But, 'aahaa' was no where in sight ! And then my mind went blank! (like how a television switches off) Clueless and all the more curious I was.  I've this senior at college who's my go-to guy for any technical question. I ping and disturb him with this question. He gives me a lovely explanation.

"Imagine, you have a cricket ball and a tennis ball in your hand. And that two storeys down, there's a glass floor. Drop both the balls at the same time, from the same height. Both reach the floor at the same time. However, the cricket ball might crack your glass floor, wherein the tennis ball could've happily bounced off to glory. Which leads you to conclude, the cricket ball carried more force with it and ended up cracking the glass floor, as compared to the tennis ball, but both of them fell at the same rate." Makes a lot of sense isn't it. Different force, but can fall at the same time. ( I had to mention this because, all the stuff I write about in these posts, including the pictures, is all from the internet. None of it is my own thought. I'd just read all of them, and compile them into an article. However, this beautiful explanation was his very own)

We've learnt couple of  things today. Being able to give the right examples to aid understanding is a talent that some people are blessed with and that though the objects fell at the same rate under the influence of gravity, they were affected by forces of different magnitudes. And, more importantly, whenever possible, let your system 2 thinking support your system 1's solution before a big decision. Stay logical, stay happy!!

No question, only a little reflection.

Just to take a small break from our series of science wonders, this post is a reflection of my thoughts. Earlier the other day, I shared one of my posts with a junior ( from college ). He said, "It's elementary 12th class physics, dude". What's the deal? That set me thinking. Why did I find these things so out-of-the-world amazing now? He has a point. I'm sure we learnt all of these concepts way back in school.

Let us rewind a bit ( or a lot bit for some of us, me in particular ) how did we learn these concepts back then? Hold on... Wait... It's all coming back to me. I remember the names of the concepts and then I remember some formulae and then I remember essay questions wherein I had to arrive at the formulae and say "hence proved" and then I remember problems problems and a whole array of problems of the same type, just with different numbers. Problems, where, if I got the second decimal point wrong, I would get a you-let-me-down look from my teacher and a big red zero adorning the page. Did I want that? An obvious no! So what did I do, checked and rechecked my calculations on my worksheet, and made sure I remembered the formulae right. And in the process, forgot to remember the concept involved leave alone appreciate it's beauty!

My point here is not to scorn at our existing education system or for that matter the teachers. I've been lucky enough to have some of the amazing teachers throughout my school life, teachers who were willing to go the extra length to make sure we were taught what was supposed to be taught. I know what a demanding job it is. I have all my teachers high on a pedestal. I distinctly remember one chemistry professor in college. One of a kind I say. All his classes, each of his assignment questions, each of the questions in his  question paper, all of them had a reason to be there. Solve a question from his question paper and right there in the middle of a gruelling exam, you get ur awe for the subject. Like I said, I've seen wonderful teachers!

Also, our education system. Their intension of giving us innumerable problems of similar type was just to drive the point home. I agree. And there's a lot of info to learn given the limited time. They designed the best we could do in the stipulated time frame. Ok. Understandable.

Now that my schooling days are done, and now when I happen to read about these amazing things in the Internet , I couldn't help but think, if I had learnt these concepts this way, without textbooks , with the everyday result of success and failure of carefully chosen experiments, would I have shied away from physics the way I did when I was in school?

So, it's not the teachers' fault, not the education system's too and definitely not mine. I realised, instead of lifting a finger to blame and sit back, why not use the finger to type and read about these things in the internet. You know, the World Wide Web is an amazing thing that has happened to mankind. Over these days, when I looked at the various resources out there for us to read, woh!man, was I thrilled. Mind boggling simple experiments,  Amazing explanations, lovely animations and videos to aid understanding. The only problem was, too much to read and a lot of places to look up. And I thought, I should share the knowledge I've learnt, in the way I would've liked to learn it, ( with examples and videos and animations and more importantly, no numbers ), all compiled and categorised and organised in one place.  I've used numbers and formulae only when I couldn't avoid them, added lot of thought provoking questions, included mind boggling try-at-home experiments, and tried keeping it as interesting as the articles I read to be able to write these.

Now that we have no exams ticking above our heads, let's take our time to understand the wonders of the world around us and bask in our very own  "aaaha" moments.