Why do we have two kidneys, but just one heart? Wouldn’t it make more sense to have extras of everything in case something goes wrong? Why can’t we be like the lowly earthworm, with five different hearts? Or those girls with two bladders and two uteruses? Or that other girl with four kidneys? Some extras make sense — for example, having two eyeballs gives us better, binocular, vision. The heart and brain have two parts each, of course, but each side has a different function. One chamber of the heart pumps out oxygenated blood, the other pumps in deoxygenated blood; and each lobe of the brain is responsible for different functions and operations. The liver regenerates, so need for two of those, and you can live without the spleen and gallbladder. But as for the double kidneys, we’re not sure why one wouldn’t suffice to clean the bloodstream, and why do we need two lungs? Rutgers University anthropologist Susan Cachel told Discovery Health the one heart/two lung system started about 300 million years ago, when we emerged from the muck onto land. For whatever reason, that’s what we needed to survive on land, and it’s remained the same ever since. Not a very satisfying answer, if you ask me, but there you go.
Archive for the ‘Modern Medicine’ Category
Two Better Than One?
Posted: Monday, August 30th, 2010Urine My Heart
Posted: Wednesday, August 25th, 2010
Will you take this kidney to be your lawfully wedded wife? I do! Rick White and Kelley Agard, both of Iowa, were married on Monday and Kelley’s donating her kidney to Rick — who has polycystic kidney disease — today. What a fabulous bride!
Print Me a Liver
Posted: Monday, August 9th, 2010
So they can print blood vessels now — but how about hearts? It could be coming sooner than you think. Wired magazine has a great photo essay covering company Organo’s fascinating bioprinting business. The printed veins will soon undergo testing in animals, and later, clinical trials in humans. Amazing stuff! Photo by Dave Bullock/Wired.com.
Lungs at Work
Posted: Thursday, July 29th, 2010
Thousands of hearts and minds — and lungs — will be won at the U.S. Transplant Games, which begin tomorrow in Madison, Wisconsin. The games were started by the National Kidney Foundation, but double-lung transplant, bone marrow and heart recipients will compete in sports ranging from badminton to basketball to track and field. More from the Washington Post. {photo Nhat V. Meyer/San Jose Mercury News}
Like a Lady
Posted: Friday, July 2nd, 2010
Here’s two things men don’t need — a machine that helps them menstruate and a foot nipple. Fantastic.
Hormonal Circus
Posted: Friday, June 25th, 2010
Dear Thyroid guest blogger Dr. Sara Gottfried wrote a fascinating post about the endocrine madness caused by the hormones released by the adrenals, thyroid and sex glands. “Once I got how all these crazy thyroid, adrenal and sex hormones fit together, much of the thyroid chaos fell away, both for my patients and myself.” Dr. Gottfried writes. Read on for some fascinating lessons on this wild hormonal soup that can wreak havoc on your thyroid and how you can balance your system.
We Heart CHLA!
Posted: Monday, June 21st, 2010
Children’s Hospital Los Angeles officially has the coolest and spunkiest transplant unti ever — a bunch of the amazing nurses on staff there participated in a recent Donate Life walk outfitted in I Heart Guts tees and carrying stuffed guts as they walked. They made fab posters (“Lungs, Livers and Kidneys, Oh My!”) and raised money to support organ donation awareness. So cool! Thanks, Cassandra, for these great photos, and for including the guts in your amazing work!
Longevity Meds
Posted: Thursday, June 10th, 2010
Scientists at the National Institute on Aging may have found a fountain of youth in the transplant anti-rejection drug rapamycin. A medication long used to help prevent the rejection of transplanted organs, the drug has recently been found to extend life in other ways — lab mice who took rapamycin had their life expectancies extend as much as 38%. {via CNN}
Mind Your Guts
Posted: Friday, May 21st, 2010
We most often think of serotonin as being a mood-altering chemical that works the nerves in our brain to make us happy or sad, but did you know that most of the body’s serotonin is actually produced in the gut, where it works to regulate your bowels? “Such a copious amount of serotonin is released into the gut every day, in fact, that it would be lethal if the excess were not disposed of by certain cells in the gut lining that contain serotonin transporters,” says an article on Psychiatric News, which describes this interesting brain-gut connection. While you’ve still got serotonin on the brain, check out this gorgeous serotonin molecule necklace by Made With Molecules.
Glucose Robot
Posted: Wednesday, May 19th, 2010
Could a robotic pancreas someday regulate blood sugar levels for diabetes patients? Perhaps. This gadget measures blood sugar levels and delivers insulin so you don’t have to, however, don’t expect to see it on store shelves anytime soon, the manufacturers have a lot of hoops to jump through before this thing is perfected and approved. {via Ubergizmo}
