We continue where we left off in the land of culinary medical metaphors: Humans are known to form organisations which study tissues that weigh only 20 – 30 grams. That’s the average mass of the thyroid gland in an adult which is located in the neck region. Sometimes under activity of the thyroid gland (hypothyroidism) can […]
Tag: medicine
When something inside you is crushed like a nut
The pressure in the esophagus (the tube connecting the mouth and stomach) can become abnormally very high. Because of this high pressure an analogy was drawn between the esophageal pressure and the pressure generated by a nutcracker giving the term – nutcracker esophagus: R Fass, R Dickman. Nutcracker Esophagus-A Nut Hard to Swallow. Journal of […]
Your eyes look like sunflowers (or: careful with copper)
Chromium, copper, iron, manganese, molybdenum, selenium and zinc sound like the components of a sophisticated machine – indeed there are, when you consider that the human body is a machine. Below is an account of how one of these components can make parts of a person resemble a sunflower: Copper in small quantities is essential […]
Celery and viruses
Animated and pictured here for illustrative purposes (courtesy of my improbable colleague) is the rubella virus. This virus is ‘closely related’ to the vegetable celery by virtue of the clinical picture it produces. On X-ray images of the long bones (e.g. thigh bone and shin bone) – in virus affected individuals – the bone has […]