Church of the Flying Glomerulus

It's either this or all glory to the Hypnotoad. 

A friend was talking to me about the glomerular tuft and how the professors were using that term without exactly explaining what it was. I said that I think it's a name that refers to all the capillaries and other goodness within Bowman's capsule and that if this was so, the name is kind of fitting since the glomerular components do look a tuft of random stuff just thrown together.

But anyway, I'm not sure how many people are familiar with this, but the glomerulus to me looks a lot like the Spaghetti monster in the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (which is a parody religious order). I think it was created to protest something about teaching Intelligent Design in schools along with evolution, but that's besides the point. The point is: if spaghetti were alive, I would want it to have eyes. 

NASH: Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis

What is MASH even about?

My poor blog, I've neglected you for far too long! And I'll probably ignore you from here until the new year, so here's a quickie to make myself feel like I've been up to something useful.

Here's a play on the MASH TV show! I've never actually seen it, so I think it makes the reference so much better. NASH stands for nonalcoholic steatohepatitis. It's a liver disease that looks like alcoholic liver disease because you'll find all kinds of fatty change to the cellular architecture on the microscope. You'll likely see this in obese patients.

Hemochromatosis

More stolen chemistry humor!

Hemochromatosis is an iron overload disease.

It is a disease characterized by a defect in the HFE gene. This will negatively affect the cell's ability to produce hepcidin, a molecule that prevents cells from secreting iron into the blood. The cell cannot make hepcidin so iron will be continually secreted out of the cells and into the blood.

Hemochromatosis therefore = an insane load of iron in blood!

Vitamins The Body Can Make

This is Donkey Kong. I don't know why he looks like the Hamburglar.

I know we all love Flintstones vitamins, but did you know that the body is capable of making two fat soluble vitamins? One is Vitamin D (via UV light hitting the skin) and the other is Vitamin K (courtesy of bacteria in your gut). DK stands for Donkey Kong. Donkey Kong Country for the SNES is quite possibly one of the best Nintendo games ever. Another fun Nintendo game involving monkeys is Super Monkey Balls, for reasons I won't divulge.