Universal Medicine

Placebo is defined as a medically inert substance or technique, which is administered like a drug that results in a psychological response such as relief. The use of placebos has been around for many years. Medical trials used to widely use a placebo as a control to test whether a drug was efficient in its function by seeing if the drug worked any better on a patient than the placebo. However, the use of placebos has decreased over time. There is no sufficient explanation for the placebo effect, thus there are many conflicting views on whether it is a real or just an illusion, as well as how it works. From research of the placebo effect, some studies have found that a placebo can cause psychological effects, via changes in neurobiological signalling pathways. One of the ways this supposedly works is down to the expectations of the placebo, such as a fake pill thought to reduce stress, causing a release of endorphins activating the reward pathway in our brain. Endorphins bind ...

Every single day we ingest a group of chemical pigments known as "flav o noids" via a myriad of different plants and fruits. Lucky for us, it seems that along with the variety of colours that these chemicals express, they also provide us with several significant health benefits that otherwise would put our lives at increased risk. For instance, studies have shown that a daily intake of 50-800mg of flavonoids can have a huge impact in reducing the threat of both heart disease and heart attacks. How do flavonoids protect us from various dangers such as those listed above? Well, nigh-on all the mechanisms by which favonoids operate are a mystery to scientists. However, one well-documented and researched method of action is their role as antioxidants, particularly the flavonoid quercetin. Quercetin is the most structurally optimised of the flavonoids to combat free-radical oxygen molecules/atoms that occur around the body. Because of the ability to expunge these free radicals ...

CRISPR: Modernising Medicine   Sci-fi films often depict a boundless view of medicine, whereby one can step into a futuristic pod-like machine, several buttons can be pressed and an individual is almost instantly cured of any bodily ailment. Although medicine is most definitely not there yet, something has entered the forefront of scientific research for its ground-breaking possibilities. Crispr stands for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, and it is the crux of genome editing technology.   Crispr is used to make reference to CRISPR-Cas9 and other systems which can be employed to target specific sections of DNA along a selected portion of genetic code in order to alter them, and often lead to permanent modification within living cells. When mutations take place in a human genome that lead to disease, Crispr can be used to make the necessary changes so the disease does not take full effect. So, how does Crispr work? A Crisper ‘spacer’ s...

“I will use treatment for the benefit of the ill in accordance with my ability and judgement, but from what is their harm and injustice i will keep from them” - Your Doctor ( Hippocratic Oath) Putting aside the long hours of hard work and years of continual study; patients   putting their total lives and trust within a physician's hand imposes unbelievable responsibility and a pressure. In addition, the process individual coming to one another and sharing personal information they wouldn't disclose with a priest nor rabbi, and then more importantly disrobing and allowing touch begins a ritual of exceeding importance between patient and physician, providing   a career of physical emotional and moral challenges. In this week's blog post we explore how   the most recent ethical issue within the NHS- The Charlie Gard controversy,   and the doctors response to the a morally troublesome situation acted upon the best interest of the patient. The recent case of...