Gay, Lesbian and Transgender

Transgender is sex exchange.

"It would be interesting to see if there is a genetic basis for this tendency to be gay.  ...  It would also be worthwhile to go into the experiences of such people in their formative years, whether this had anything to do with them turning out to be gay." - Dr Mohamed Tahir, Wed, Dec 28, 2011 at 10:06 AM

"A constant stream of media articles--several per year--assures us that there is a link between homosexuality and biological features. These articles mention genes, brain structure, hormone levels in the womb, ear characteristics, fingerprint styles, finger lengths, verbal skills...... and by the time you read this, some others may have appeared. The headlines imply that people are born with tendencies which infallibly will make them gay or lesbian, and that change of sexual orientation will be impossible." - Dr NE Whitehead, Twin studies

"The process of gender identification begins approximately between age two and a half and four. For boys, it is during this phase that they begin to move from their primary attachment with the mother to seeking out a deeper attachment with the father. For males, the relationship between a boy and his father is the initial source of developing a secure gender identity. It is through the father-son relationship that a boy discovers what he needs to know about being male, including who he is as a boy, how boys walk, how they talk, how they act, and so forth." - Dr Julie Harren, Homosexuality and gender identity

Reading list:
Gay gene
Biological correlates 
Twin studies 
Homosexuality and gender identity
"Born that way" resources
Richard O'Brien (I am 70% man)
Matlovich (an airman and a gay Vietnam veteran)

Radio programs:
Radio Interview With Dr. Stanton Jones -- September 27, 2007

Study Questions:

1) Definition of gay, lesbian and transgender.

2) Causes of gay, lesbian and transgender.

3) Gay, lesbian and transgender issues today.

4) Genetics underlying gay, lesbian and transgender.

5) Neuroanatomy of gay, lesbian and transgender humans.

6) Solutions for gay, lesbian and transgender problems.

Health foods

With today's ageing population living longer and healthier, what do you think our elderly generation should eat to continue to live healthily till very old age? Can we possibly live past age 90 today?

Reading list:
Link 1 Colostrum
Link 2 Colostrum
Link 3 Colostrum
Link 4 Oxygen elements
Link 5 Acidophilus

Study Questions:

1) What is the concept of health food?

2) Are we eating healthily?

3) Why is eating health food important?

4) What can possibly happen if we do not eat health food?

5) What are examples of health foods?

6) What do health foods contain?

7) Are health foods beneficial?

8) What are the benefits of health foods?

9) Are health foods safe for human consumption?

10) Are health foods costly?

Risk factors for cancer

Dr. Epstein cites the 2008-2009 Annual Report of the President’s Cancer Panel, released in April 2010, includes a “Summary of Environmental and Occupational Links with Cancer.” This report documents “strong” evidence on cancer risks from exposures to 15 individual or groups of carcinogens, such as talc powder, ethylene oxide, and dioxane. The report also documents “suspected” evidence from exposure to the larger range of risks from exposure to about 40 other individual or groups of carcinogens.

Source: World Wire

Further work:

1) Make a list of cancer risks  & carcinogens.

2) Make a questionnaire & distribute (print or online).

3) Collect feedback & analyse.

4) Report.

Problems with vaccines

Watch this YouTube video on Rotavirus vaccines.
Further Reading Tonka Report on Vaccines
Modern methods in vaccine production 

Study Questions:

1) What are vaccines?

2) How are vaccines produced? What is the starting material?

3) How safe are vaccines?

4) What are some fears about vaccines?

5) Why should we worry about contaminated vaccines?

A big question is: Why do people who take the rotavirus vaccine develop cancer? 
Here is a link to Health Maven which has a lot of issues to think about.

It should be known that vaccines were experimented by doctors in order to find a cure. In the early days (1800s to the turn of the 20th Century), experiments were done by doctors on their own, in their own "labs". These early "labs" were usually their own farms or homes. At home, either the attic or the basement was used.

One doctor who experimented on a possible vaccine for demam kuning? was Dr Fisher. Dr Fisher had experimented on animal brains for a cure for what he thought had killed his father. He experimented on the brain of various animals including monkeys and guinea pigs. The ethical issues are: Is it ethical to use the brain of animals for vaccine experimentation? How were the animal brains obtained? If the animals had to be sacrificed and the brains obtained for experimentation, how were the animals sacrificed? Were the animals subject to grievous pain before killing? How were the animals killed? Is killing animals for experimentation allowed? In the case of Dr Fisher, his animals were subjected to a lot of fear and pain. Even after Dr Fisher died and his home was sold, the spirits of the animals killed for his experiments still haunt his basement till the ghost busters team came and drove them out. Two questions still worry us: Why did Dr Fisher subject his experimental animals to a lot of pain? Did he use live brains and therefore the animals were alive when their skulls were cracked open? We don't know the truth of the nature of his experiments until someone can reveal that. Until then we still have to worry about use of animals for experiments. Vaccines maybe profitable but is it ethical to use animal brains for their experimentation?

Source: This story is taken from ASTRO Animal Planet, 26 December 2011, ~6pm.

Blog: Lifelong Learning About Islam

I operate the blog Lifelong Learning About Islam for USM under the Ibnu Sina Research Cluster. The Dean (Prof Abdul Aziz Baba) has asked me to proceed with this research and making collaborative links with other institutions and persons. There are many activities & collaborative projects which are possible under this Cluster.

Here are some of the possible things which students can try look into:

Halal Index
Halal food
Medicinal plants at Bukit Uhud
Islamic Medicine
Prophetic Medicine & Practices
Solat in medical practice & patient care
Wudhu' & Tayamum in patient care
Sufism
PERKIM
S&T in Islam
Green Energy
Al-Quran for patient care
As-Sunnah for patient care
Terminal care in Islam
Lectures in Islam
Cultural practices in Muslim families
Celebrations in Islam
Welfare of Muslim families
Islamic dress for males
Islamic dress for females

Guide for Students

This is a guide for Muslim students. The link is for another blog which I operate for USM under the Ibnu Sina Research Cluster by the title of Lifelong Learning About Islam.

Guide for students

Trans woman

This is an interesting web page I found on Christmas Eve: Trans woman

There are many more men who desire to be transformed into females. Who are needed to make them female? Many doctors. Is it ethical to change a man into a woman?

On what grounds is surgery allowed for a "male" to be surgically transformed into a "female".

What are the evidences you need, as a doctor, before you can decide to proceed with surgery for such transformation?

If at any time in the future, the transformed person would like to return to his prior state, what are his/her choices?

What advice can you possibly give to persons who are thinking of becoming trans women?

Is trans woman allowed in Islam? Can Muslim males become Muslim females?

Is coughing a bad sign?

I will present to you a case I found today, quite an interesting case, from many aspects. Let's see...

An 80-year old Chinese grandfather complained of 2 weeks non-stop coughing. He was afebrile, tired and just laid in bed.

Upon probing, he said: "I'm not dead yet!" He continued coughing ... and tried to close his eyes to sleep.

A habit becomes noticeable at lunch time; when he ate, there was no coughing at all. After he completed his plate of rice, he started coughing again. What could his problem be? What are probable causes?

He went straight to bed after lunch, coughed and tried to sleep.

What could his problem be?

Upon further probing, he said: "I want to live another 10 years because all my ancestors died at about age 90!"

Well, well, well! So the patient has a wish ... and that is ... he wants to continue living another 10 years. But what do we do about his coughing? How do we relieve that and give him back his health, so he could live another 10 years?

Good thinking ... someone suggested to do a chest x-ray and see what that says.  Well, today's Friday, and a chest x-ray can only be done on Sunday. What can we do?

Further probing gave this information: His children had taken him to an expensive hospital where the doctor examined him and gave him medications worth RM50, but the coughing hasn't subsided.

My questions are: What did the doctor at the expensive hospital give him? Why did this patient expect to be cured when he paid an amount of money to the doctor? Does money paid mean a cure will be successful?

What are the dangers and consequences of leaving chronic cough untreated? What is the urgency in this type of cough that is refractile to prescribed medicines?

What do we do next? How do we proceed?

Choledocholithiasis

This is a good article everyone should read if they are more than 50 years old and feel bloated after food intake. This bloatedness can indicate that something is wrong somewhere within the biliary system, and often, there are ready-made gallstones in the gallbladder (they can't be found anywhere else anyway).

Now if I tell you that surgery to remove the gallstones is a quick-fix but a rather expensive affair, what is your immediate response if you were a patient suffering from gallstones? Of course you will want to try "everything else except surgery". What choices are there for the removal of gallstones?

You must have heard and read about "batu karang hempedu". Well, that's gallstones. The Malays call the gallstones "batu karang hempedu" as the "shiny colourful but ugly gall marbles" are bitter, comprising mainly of bitter substances in bile (don't tell me bile is sweet on exams or in viva!!).

We could use some imagination here. Think about how to remove marbles from a bag or from a tube. Well, if all the small marbles are inside the bag, we tie and sever the bag - simple? Yes. What if a marble is down somewhere in the biliary tree (which is a tube system anyway)? How do we get a marble out of a tube? Press it out? Press so hard till it pops out? Maybe an easier way is to tie the tube at 2 locations, immediately before and after the blockage. Then sever the bulge, maybe join the cut ends and get bile to flow freely again as before the blockage? Easier said than done. Surgical removal of the blocked tube is safer, I would think.

Anyway, try to read this article:

Ann Acad Med Singapore. 2010 Feb;39(2):136-42.

Laparoscopic common bile duct exploration: our first 50 cases.
Tan KK, Shelat VG, Liau KH, Chan CY, Ho CK.
Centre for Advanced Laparoscopic Surgery, Digestive Disease Centre, Section of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Department of General Surgery, Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Singapore.


Now that you have read the article, and I think you know a little bit more about gallstone removal, you may want to write your comments.

I have put this article up because we have put Professional exam questions on Cholecystectomy, but many students were not able to recall what that big word meant and therefore started answering as if I asked them to make a gallstone punch or something. So, look up that big word, and learn a few things from that article. The topic is important as many (if not all) who reach age 50 start developing problems relating to gallstones.

If you have to know a person's age, these are some clear signs (as I see it):
1) If a person holds/adjusts his/her book/paper at a distant in order to read it - the person is past age 40.
2) If a person says he/she needs her glasses to see something - the person is past age 50.
3) If a person says he/she feels stuffed or bloated after meals - the person is past age 50.
4) If a person says he/she has knee pain - the person is past age 50.
5) If a person says he/she didn't hear you well - the person is past age 50.

So, listen well when you are around people who are much older than you. This is the first lesson in medicine. Knowledge comes second and wisdom is third.

External link:
http://www.healthline.com/health/gallstones#Overview1

Respiratory Mechanisms in Acid-Base Homeostasis

Year 1 Medicine, Respiratory Block 2004/2005

Download PPT at:

Docstoc:
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/521224/Respiratory-Mechanisms-in-Acid-Base-Homeostasis

or

Scribd:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/49935334/Respiratory-Mechanisms-in-Acid-Base-Homeostasis-Yr1-MD-26Feb2005

dsDNA helix

This YouTube video shows you how to use zen magnetic beads to create a double-stranded DNA helix:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoKAgzHhnTg&feature=watch_response

Lunar eclipse

Tomorrow is lunar eclipse. The moon will appear unusually big, bright red-soft turquoise in the new sky while the sun starts to rise.

Watch the YouTube video for explanation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MujkxjrMA2Y&feature=player_embedded

Romance de amour

The Romance of Love is a good guitar piece for relaxing the mind after studying for your exams. I've added other songs too.
Romance of Love
Love Words 
Hopeless Love 
Kiss Me More
Secret Garden 
Feelings
How Deep Is Your Love 
My Endless Love 
Don't You Forget About Me 
Indian music

You cannot access YouTube from inside campus. Download and play it then. If you listen to this type of music, then your mental capacity increases by itself. You don't have to be born a genius but if you learn to appreciate good music, then your brain thinks positive, and your surrounding turns good, and all good comes to you. Brainwise, you become smarter with time, and naturally. This concept of maturing well within a short time is most relevant when you are going through university life and taking difficult subjects. In my time, I listened to good music and managed to take courses for up to 5 majors, all at once. The brain is especially smart if you give it the right food, music, oxygen and rest.

I have touched on music. Now I will touch on good food. The best food for the brain is a good breakfast, a good snack, a good lunch, and a good dinner. You can add supper if you are still not asleep after 12 midnight.

What is good for breakfast? For me it is scrambled eggs, tomato, baked beans, wholemeal bread, milk, orange juice, and apple.

For snack I have chocolate-peanut-macademia cookie (about 6 inches in diameter) and milk. The nuts are good for the brain.

What is good for lunch? For me it is egg foo-yong, anything taufu, mixed vegetables, and soup. Maybe some fried rice. Sometimes I just have a large submarine BBQ beef sandwich (Google that recipe) and orange juice.

For dinner, I usually have either Spanish rice or burger.

So now you know the secrets of becoming a genious.

Unedited.