#158 Hazards of earphones (English)

Hazards of Earphones

How often do you use your earphones? Even though people are well aware of the side effects of earphone usage, earphones are still many people’s go-to due to their noise cancelling capabilities. Since earphones can provide exclusive music hearing to yourself and block external noise, people tend to ignore its adverse effects. However, we should shed new light on the downsides of earphones that threatens one of our most important parts of our body, the ears. If you put your earphones on and listen to them for a long period of time with high volume, you will have high chance of hearing loss and might as well become deaf. 

When a high frequency sound reaches our ears, that sound knocks the basal part of cochlea. There are cilia on it. Cilia are sensory organelles that receive vibration and changes the sound into electronic signals.  After that, the signals get transferred through neuron system and are sent to the brain. However, during this process the basal part and subsequently the apex part of cochlea get destroyed. Even though cochlea do have self-healing abilities, when those parts are irrevocably damaged or destroyed due to its constant exposure to high frequency sounds, the cilia will inevitably come to its limits. Then cilia will have a lasting damage and aren’t able to function properly which eventually leads to a hearing loss. According to the Journal of American Medical Association, hearing loss in teens is “30% higher than it was in the ’80s and ’90s”. About 1 in 5 teens have suffered some degree of hearing loss due to their exposure to loud music by the usage of earphones. Earphones should be less used, or we shall find an alternative way to listen to music. Luckily, due to the rapid technological development, we might soon find a measure to this problem. 

KSY

#157 Scar mark by a cut (2) (English)

Scar mark by a cut

The factors that determine the degree of the scar for a wound that requires a suture:

1. Were appropriate measures taken when initially injured?

2. Who and how was the suture of the wound processed?

3. During the epithelialization of wound, how was the wound disinfected?

4. Were the stiches removed at appropriate times, and to prevent to wedge of the wound, was the taping therapy followed?

5. To prevent the formation of a pigmented scar, was the UV light avoided?

6. As the scar soared from the wound site, was the condition of the wound carefully examined for proper treatments?

The aforementioned factors can be explained more explicitly…

1. Right after the getting a wound, the area must be cleansed to extract foreign substances and bacteria. If they are not properly removed, the healing time can be delayed, increasing the chance of forming a scar.

* Using a saline solution is efficient in cleansing.

2. The suture of the wound must be proceeded by a plastic surgeon with sufficient anatomic knowledge. As the anatomical continuity is restored, the healing progression is quickened.

3. To accelerate the epithelialization, it is essential to disinfecting with axenic and moist dressing. Dry dressing can cause the formation of a scab (crusta), delaying the healing time. Also, the excessive secretion of histamine can lead to itchiness. Scratching the wound site can remove the scab and damage the wound again, resulting with a scar.

* Moist dressing is when you place a moist gauze with a dry gauze, so the discharge at the wound can be easily moved towards the dry gauze through the wet gauze. Recently, silicon pad is widely used. In virtue of the vacuum effect, the growth of the cells that create corneous tissue is hindered and the fibrosis blast cell can be managed.

4. For the wound to be healed anatomically, the suture is used. However, since suture adds tension to the tissue around the wound, the stiches must be removed at an appropriate time to avoid scars forming. To prevent the gap in the wound, the insufficient tension near the site can be maintained with taping (3-6months).

5. When the wound, while it is in its healing process, is exposed to the UV light, the melanin cell in the stratum basale of the epidermal tissue is stimulated and the melanin pigment is secreted in vast amounts, causing the scar to be darkly pigmented. Hence, it is important to prevent the exposure to sunlight.

6. When there is excessive synergic effect, momentarily, the dark red soared scar is formed, which intensifies the itchiness. In this case, scar can be prevented by the application of the ointment to a wound, silicon seat, or triamcinolone injection.

LCY

#156 Scar mark by a cut (1) (English)

Scar mark by a cut 

The healing process of a cut can be distinguished into 3 periods as following:

Although there are some cases when healing process does delay, normally it lasts approximately 21 days. As shown in the graph, there are consecutive processes – hemostasis and coagulation, inflammation, epithelization, proliferation, and maturation – for the complete heal.

1. Hemostasis and inflation

This is when the tissues that have been damaged either due to the harm or necrosis and foreign substances are removed. This is the most important step that ultimately influences the subsequent treatments. This process can be easily understood by comparing to a situation wherein a wall is broken down, and to restore it, one has to clean and organize the place. To proceed this step, the body produces several kinds of inflammatory cells that secrete substances that induce the growth of new tissues.

2. Mesenchymal cell migration and proliferation, angiogenesis, epithelialization

Mesenchymal cell moves to the wound and proliferates. This cell promotes growth of new blood vessels and differentiation of cells in the skin epithelium layer. Consequently, the wound is covered by the epithelium.

3. Collagen synthesis, wound contraction, proteoglycan synthesis

During this step, the granulation tissue is newly synthesized. Fibrosis blast cell is transported towards the site of the wound and synthesize collagen fiber, which is one of the crucial connective tissues. Also, proteoglycan, fibronectin and elastin are also synthesized. Hence, during this process, the extension strength of the skin of the wound increases abruptly. Simultaneously, the scar of the wound initiates to soar.

4. Wound remodel

The inflammatory cells are removed and vascularization and fibrosis progress halts. During this step, the collagen fiber undergoes both synthesis and atrophy. As the collagen synthesis augments, the scar is excessively formed, causing a dark red protrusion. After 6 months, the collagen fiber is reorganized incrementally, leading to a decrease in the proteoglycan, which pressures the blood vessels making the scar fade. If the red scar is present continuously as its soared state, it is known as the hypertrophic scar. Furthermore, if the scar proliferates even beyond the wound site, it is called keloid.

To sum up, a scar is healed as it matures after inflammation and epithelialization. During the inflammation, the bleeding is stopped, and the cells required for healing moves to the wound site. Then, the skin epithelium is reproduced during epithelialization. In proliferation, for the derma to maintain the tension, the extension strength of the wound site is strengthened. At last, in maturation, the tissue is the derma is rearranged to return to its original condition. To prevent the wound from leaving a scar, suitable treatments must be undergone for each step to minimize the ache and the scar.

LCY

#155 Why Go Vegan? (English)

Veganism is essentially the choice to abstain from any consumption of animal by products. This concerns the clothes you wear, the items you use on a day to day basis, and most importantly the food you put into your body. This post is designated to going over the main reasons people decide to go vegan, and why it’s not as bad as most people make it out to seem! Just a disclaimer: WE DO NOT EAT GRASS ALL DAY.

Health and nutrition

Veganism has been proven to have several benefits concerning health. Both meat and dairy products have high amounts of saturated fat which can cause cardiovascular problems. Reducing saturated fats means a healthier heart and life! Vegan diets are also typically high in fibre which is great to fight colon cancer as it leads to healthier bowel movements. These are just two factors which are improved through switching to veganism concerning diet and health. Several other diseases are prevented too, if you don’t believe me then look it up!

Environmental protection

As most of you know, climate change is a serious problem and will slowly destroy our planet if we don’t do anything to help. Diet is a huge part of global warming. Industrialized animal farming is a huge factor which needs to be taken more seriously. In order to be able to produce such large amounts of meat and dairy thanks to mass consumption around the world, land has to be clear. This environmental degradation ultimately means that there is less land and less trees. Trees are extremely important as we rely on them to convert our carbon dioxide into oxygen. Without trees, carbon dioxide levels will rise leading to a further rise in global temperatures. In order to prevent the harsh effects of climate change, the world really needs to reconsider diet and mass farming. Even one person stopping the consumption of animal by-products can help.

Of course there are several other reasons to take up a vegan diet concerning morality, social justice and basic logic. Diet, health and environmental reasons however are the most related to biology. If you are interested in reading more about veganism and why you should consider a change of life style, simply search it up. You won’t be disappointed! One last thing, following a vegan diet is not bland or restricting in anyway like most people seem to think. In fact, it opens many people up to actually being able to experience variety in their life. Hopefully this post provided you with some helpful information and maybe even an incentive to change your ways for the greater good! GO GREEN.

	McA