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Many of you out there reading my blog, might be wondering what I was wondering - "Now that a vaccine has come, yet it causes severe allergic reactions, etc." So, this post is especially for all those curious minds ! Severe allergic reactions in many people who received the COVID - 19 vaccine produced by Pfizer and BioNTech maybe due to a compound in the packaging of the mRNA that forms the vaccine's main ingredient. A similar mRNA vaccine developed by Moderna, which was authorised for emergency use in US, also contains the compound, polyethylene glycol (PEG). PEG has never been used before in an approved vaccine, but it is found in many drugs that occasionally trigger anaphylaxis - a potentially life - threatening reaction that can cause a fast heartbeat, a plunging blood pressure, rashes and shortness of breath. Some immunologists believe that a small number of people previously exposed to PEG may have high levels of antibodies against PEG, putting them at risk of an ana

More than 150 coronavirus vaccines are in development around the world - and there are high hopes to bring atleast one into the rescue in record time to ease the global crisis. In order to instruct the immune system to mount a defense, some vaccines need to use the whole coronavirus, but in a killed or weakened state. Others use only a part of the virus - like a fragment of the virus. Some transfer the coronavirus proteins into a totally different virus that is unlikely to cause disease or even incapable of it. Finally, after such prolonged months of extensive research, some vaccines under development rely on deploying pieces of coronavirus's genetic material, so our cells can temporarily make the coronavirus proteins needed to stimulate our immune systems.  I would be posting some of the recent developments relating to COVID and vaccines, on a regular basis, whenever I can, to give you all some more insight into when an end for this pandemic is most likely to come. So let me begin

Every year, World Heart Day is celebrated on 29th September, to raise awareness around Cardiovascular Diseases(CVD) and how they can be prevented. World Heart Day is a reminder for people across the world to stop and assess lifestyle choices for them and their loved ones. Due to the inherent genetic makeup, Indians are more vulnerable to heart diseases. The role of salt intake in the development of heart failure is not known. Maintaining healthy weight behavior for 25 years may reduce the risk of hypertension in young adulthood and middle age. Estimated sodium intake of more than 3.7 g per day appears to be associated with adverse cardiac remodelling, worse systolic strain, and worse diastolic e' velocity. A heart healthy lifestyle can improve brain health in adults and reduce the risk for cognitive impairment, including dementia. Research has shown that the same risk factors that cause atherosclerosis are also major contributors to late - life cognitive impairment and Alzheimer&#

 The brain... Everytime you think, feel or perform a multitude of unconscious processes, the 100 billion neurons in your skull conduct electrical signals to communicate and carry messages between them, ultimately creating, well - you, and everything you do. It's the most complex, essential and identifiable organ in the body, acting as the centre of the nervous system in all vertebrates. But what if how you think and feel isn't just controlled by the brain, basically the central nervous system, but in fact, a second brain that you didn't know about? The brain uses the vagus nerve to connect and communicate with many parts of the body, including the vocal cords, heart, lungs and most of the digestive tract. It also uses this nerve to convey 'fight or flight' messages to the body, which explains why you might experience a cracking voice, racing heart, shortness of breath and a knot in your stomach when you're really stressed or nervous.  But while this extensive ne

  First of all, thanks to everyone for attending the 2 min survey I had posted earlier. Since many were unaware about the different terms mentioned there, I decided that through this platform, I'll share with you what each term actually means. Starting, with the different types of cancer treatments currently available:  1. Chemotherapy - It is a drug treatment that uses powerful chemicals to kill fast growing cells in your body. This treatment is most often used to treat cancer, since cancerous cells grow and multiply much more quickly than most cells in the body.  2. Bone marrow transplantation - It is a procedure in which a patient receives healthy stem cells (blood forming cells) to replace their own cells that have been destroyed because of high doses of chemotherapy or radiation. 3. Surgery - It is the process of removing the tumor and the nearby tissue by operation.  4. Radiation therapy - It is the process which uses beams of intense energy to kill cancerous cells.  WHAT ARE

My friends have been complaining to me like this - "Dude, I don't know why but my mind is wandering a lot and I'm struggling to stay focused in what I'm doing. Can you please suggest me something to help me focus better?" So I decided to write this blog mainly for them and for many others who face the same issue.. When we're reading, our minds typically wander anywhere from 20 to 40 % of the time. Voluntarily keeping our attention on one thing continuously can take a lot of effort, so it's not surprising that many struggle with this sometimes. Luckily, there are ways to keep our attention spans from burning out, once we understand how they work. Our brain is split into 2 systems - System 1 and system 2. System 1 is the involuntary, always - on network in our brains that takes in stimuli and process it. It's the system that makes automatic decisions for us, like turning our heads when we hear our names or freezing when we see a spider. System 2 runs

Today, being World Environment Day, why not celebrate the environmentalist living inside each of us? The 2020 theme being 'Celebrate biodiversity', let's conserve and protect this biodiversity, which is very much essential for us. It's an idea that is increasingly in vogue for ecologists. Biodiversity doesn't have to be just about the number of a species in an ecosystem. Equally important to keeping an ecosystem healthy and resilient are the species' different characteristics and the things they can do - in terms of specific traits such as branch length or body size. It may be necessary for understanding and forecasting how flora and fauna cope with a changing climate. For decades, the study of biodiversity was essentially a numbers game: the more species an ecosystem had, the more stable and resilient to change it was thought to be. That mindset made sense because there was so little information available about the structures of an ecosystem and the function