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  poison , in biochemistry, a substance, natural or   synthetic , that causes damage to living tissues and has an injurious or fatal effect on the body, whether it is ingested, inhaled, or absorbed or injected through the skin. Although poisons have been the subject of practical lore since ancient times, their systematic study is often considered to have begun during the 16th century, when the German-Swiss physician and alchemist  Paracelsus  first stressed the chemical nature of poisons. It was Paracelsus who introduced the concept of dose and studied the actions of poisons through experimentation. It was not until the 19th century, however, that the Spaniard  Matthieu Orfila , the  attending  physician to  Louis XVIII , correlated the chemistry of a  toxin  with the biological effects it produces in a poisoned individual. Both concepts continue to be fundamental to an understanding of modern  toxicology . Poisoning  involves four elements: the poison, the poisoned organism, the  inju

  Before human  disease  can be discussed, the meanings of the terms health, physical fitness, illness, and disease must be considered. Health could be defined theoretically in terms of certain measured values; for example, a person having normal body temperature, pulse and breathing rates,  blood pressure , height,  weight,  acuity  of vision, sensitivity of hearing, and other normal measurable  characteristics might be termed healthy. But what does normal mean, and how is it established? It is well known that if the temperatures are taken of a large number of active, presumably healthy, individuals the temperatures will all come close to 98.6 °F (37 °C). The great preponderance of these values will fall between 98.4 °F (36.9 °C) and 98.8 °F (37.1 °C). Thus, health could in part be defined as having a temperature within this narrow range. Similarly, a normal range can be established for pulse, blood pressure, and height. In some healthy individuals, however, the body temperature may r

There are several genetic mechanisms by which resistance to antibiotics can develop in bacteria. These mechanisms give rise to resistance because they result in biochemical modifications that alter certain bacterial cell properties that normally render the cell sensitive to an antibiotic. Examples of biochemical modifications that lead to resistance include the production of enzymes that inactivate the drug; the alteration of the  protein , enzyme, or  receptor  targeted by the drug; the activation of drug efflux pumps that deliberately remove the drug from the cell; and the alteration of cell-wall proteins that  inhibit  drug uptake. There are two important types of genetic mechanisms that can give rise to antibiotic resistance:  mutation  and acquisition of new genetic material. In the case of mutation, the rate at which resistance develops can be attributed to the rate at which bacteria mutate. A mutation is a permanent change in an organism’s genetic material. Mutations occur natur

  We all miss a day of school or work here and there thanks to a cold or a sore throat. But those maladies have nothing against the ones presented in this list—six afflictions that many of us have come to know all too well. And if by some miracle of hygiene you’ve somehow managed to escape the awfulness of these unpleasant and disturbingly common infections, then brace yourself, because your luck is likely to run out. Viral Gastroenteritis to Spite Us Stomach flu, "winter vomiting," "traveler’s diarrhea"—affectionate names for what is known clinically as viral gastroenteritis, an acute infectious illness of the tract by which food normally enters the human body, is broken down, and exits without event, more or less. During an episode of gastroenteritis, unfortunately, there isn’t so much entering as exiting. Various highly contagious viruses are to blame, but rotavirus is one of the most frequent causes. In infants and children worldwide, it is the most common cause

attachment theory , in  developmental psychology , the theory that humans are born with a need to form a close emotional bond with a caregiver and that such a bond will develop during the first six months of a child’s life if the caregiver is appropriately responsive. Developed by the British psychologist  John Bowlby , the theory focused on the experience, expression, and regulation of emotions at both species (normative) and individual (person-specific) levels of analysis. Normative features of attachment theory Bowlby’s fascination with the emotional ties that bind humans to each other began with an  astute  observation. In all human  cultures  and indeed in primate species, young and vulnerable infants display a specific sequence of reactions following separation from their stronger, older, and wiser caregivers. Immediately following separation, infants protest vehemently, typically crying, screaming, or throwing temper tantrums as they search for their caregivers. Bowlby believed

 NEW ORLEANS: Eating a diet low in carbohydrates can help prevent type 2 diabetes and lower blood sugar levels in diabetics, a new study has found. A new study led by Tulane University researchers found that a low-carbohydrate diet reduced hemoglobin A1c (a marker of blood sugar levels) in patients with type 2 diabetes. In general, low-carbohydrate diets focus on proteins and non-starchy vegetables, while limiting consumption of grains, fruits, breads, sweets, and starchy vegetables and fruits. Doctors usually recommend a low-carbohydrate diet to people with diabetes, but there is very limited evidence about whether eating low-carbohydrates can affect blood sugar in people with diabetes or people with diabetes. are present. According to experts, carbohydrates provide 45 to 65 percent of a person's daily calorie intake, according to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. That is, 900 to 1300 of the 2000 calories per day are from carbohydrates. Conversely, limiting carbohydrates to 20