Detached

Man, I feel lost.

Its like, I'm here, but I'm not really here. Get what I mean? The past 2 weeks had been like, monotonous. It was always, wake up-class-sleep-eat-study-study-sleep. Coupled together with the Academic Team's "BOOM program" which is just around the corner, I've got no time for my blog, Time Mag, Newsweek, and I can only simply browse through the headlines of TheStar, enough to know that KJ now leads the UMNO Youth. Sucks ain't it? I feeeel detached!

Endocrinology is definitely not a piece of cake as first thought. Again, Physiology's surging ahead, proving to be the bomb in pre-clinical medicine. It had only been 2 weeks into the new semester and we've already got nearly 80 pages, to not only be read and understood thoroughly, but to be summarized too, seeing that what's on page 9 has shit-to-do with what's on page 67. And don't make me start on the other subjects - Microbiology, Pharmacology, Histology and whatnot.

Don't like me whining? Bite me.

28July28July28July28July28July28July28July28July28July28July28July28July28July. xD

I vote Earth. You?

Obesity and Diabetes Mellitus

This will be a post related to Medicine, so do give it the skip if you aren't interested. Lol.

Classes have just restarted and I'm already missing the holidays. :P

Anyway, during PBL today, the doctor asked us the relation between obesity and diabetes or in other words, how can obesity lead to diabetes? I remember I read a journal about it once, some time last year. Haha. The only words which I could recall just now was something about "the cells can't really use the insulin released", so I simply kept quiet. When I got back home, I looked it up again. And yes, I'm on the right track. ;) I'll share it here for those interested.

Normally, glucose homeostasis is maintained by several mechanisms, namely insulin secretion, insulin action, hepatic glucose production and breakdown of glucose by cells. There are several cells in the body which are exquisitely sensitive to the action of insulin like the adipose tissue and muscles especially. So, in the fed state, insulin is released, glucose is taken up by these cells and there is inhibition of hepatic glucose synthesis. Likewise, in the fasting state, insulin synthesis is brought down to the basal level, hence causing inhibition of glucose synthesis to a lesser degree, just enough to maintain the normal blood glucose level which is about 120mol/dL.

In obesity, there's an increase in adiposity, which causes glucose intolerance due to insulin resistance. There's a decrease in the cellular sensitivity to insulin action i.e. the cells can't respond normally to basal levels of insulin. At the early stages, this phenomena can be compensated by the pancreatic beta cells, by increasing the secretion of insulin causing hyperinsulinemia. But, if no intervention takes place, eventually these cells will be exhausted and are no longer able to produce insulin, hence causing diabetes mellitus.

Obesity has now become one of the major dilemmas of the medical world. Not only it is a risk factor for diabetes, it also a pronounced cause of cardiovascular diseases like atherosclerosis and hypertension. The best way to overcome this is not by using drugs or surgeries, but a change in lifestyle. Sounds simple right? I don't think so. People are lazy nowadays. Haha.

Anyway, I think that reading up about something and writing about it (not copy-pasting), can really help make the knowledge embed in your (or in this case, mine) long term memory. Give it a try. ;)

Catch up.

One whole week had passed and tomorrow, I'll be starting my 6th semester here - the last of my pre-clinical years. If I were to poke around my thoughts, my first step into the faculty felt recent. Without paying much attention to the time that's passed, I'm at the last hurdle of pre-clinical medicine. Will I fall? Or will I soar high? Am I up for it?

Anyway, this holiday had been very restful for myself. Things have been smooth and not at sixes and sevens like they usually do. I'm fully rested and stress-free, ready to accumulate stress along the way to August. Lol. Accumulate stress, that's something I'm good at. How to handle it? Simple. For a guy, I'll just find ways to increase my testosterone level. ;) (Do take note you're talking to a med junkie here)

Ps. Watchmen sucks. Don't bother queuing up for a ticket, if ever there's a line that is.

Holiday To-dos

1. Sleep
2. Sleep
3. Get a pair of new shoes
4. Sleep
5. Clean up the room
   
6. Clear up the desk
7. More sleep
8. Read up Medicine of the Prophet p.b.u.h.
9. Cook something tasty apart from fried rice. :P
10. Apply for I.S.I.C.
11. Buy some fiction books
    
12. Catch-up on stinking Malaysian politics
13. Read Newsweek daily
14. Have I mentioned sleep?
15. Laundry, urh.
16. Movies!
17. Do nothing. xD
    

Aching

I came back from Mansurah at 3 this morning and boy was I tired. Took a cab home, washed up for a bit, and got changed before throwing myself on my bed. And now here I am, with a cup of tea at 10 in the morning, writing up an entry, as if I've got nothing better to do. (Ps. I really don't have anything better to do) This is what I call a holiday. :) Not needing to have yourself following a schedule, doing anything you want, or in my case, not doing anything. My daily routine's off, and I like it. ;)

Anyway, I woke up this morning with aches. Urh. I used to feel them all over the body everytime I wake up from an exhausting day (any event which requires a hell load of labor). But today, I'm only feeling it in my shoulders. Hehe. It's the least I expected after playing three 20 minutes game of 5-on-5 basketball. I can't say I really enjoyed playing cause I felt my team lack the coordination. We seemed rather lost for the first two games, but by the third, I no longer get out of breath easily. We all got accustomed to each other's position and we finally managed to have fun. I myself got a few shots in, including a three-pointer. Yay! :P Though we didn't qualify for the semis, it was a relieve being able to be on the court again after God knows how long. Comparing Alexandria University's schedule with the other universities in Egypt, I envy them. Sigh.

Oh, regarding the other event I took part in, we lost, horribly. To a bunch of HEAVYWEIGHTS from Mansurah. I don't think my team managed to move the other team for even 1 inch. Instead, we got pulled all the way. Haha. What a bummer. However, even with that defeat, Alexandria guys' team got 2nd place overall, ahead of Cairo and behind only to the hosts, Mansurah. Having fewer number of participants compared to the contingent from Cairo, we considered 2nd place, a well-earned, hard-fought success. :)

Ps. Meor's in Amsterdam now. Darn him for touring Europe before me! :P

Life is..

Good. :)

Exams are all but a memory now having completed my IT exam this morning. I passed, thank God and what's left now is the long wait for the results. But now is not the time to be waiting anxiously, expecting the worst of what may come. Now, is the time for.. recreation. :P

I've been pretty much in my room all the time for the last month, going out only for the exams and food. As a result, I feel, somewhat nerdy. Hehe. I definitely need to freshen myself up throughout this week of holiday or I'll go nuts half-way through the 2nd semester. And the process of "nerd-detoxication" will start tomorrow at the PERUBATAN Sports Carnival in Mansurah. Go Alexandrian athletes! ;)

Alexandria will be sending a contingent of 140ish-strong athletes for tomorrow and we shall flood the stadium with floods of greeeeeeenn. Too bad I hate green. So, I'll be wearing black. Haha. I'll be taking part in 2 events btw - tarik tali and basketball. We'll only be playing just for the fun of it, really. No pressure in bringing back the gold. :P

I'm leaving at 9 tonight. I'll get some pictures for my next entry. Till then. Go Alex! ;)

Pathology - Checked!

Ooh ohhh. I can smell freedom now. :P

After slugging it out for a month, the end of my finals is just around the corner. After today, there's only 2 more days with 3 more papers to go - Problems & Professional Skills, Human Rights and IT. And after all these, I'll be shooting hoops in Mansurah. ;)

So, down to business. Pathology was hard. The essay was good but the MCQ? Stinks. Sang 'A,E,I,O,U' twice just to get an answer. You know what I mean. :P The questions were stinking specific. Too specific as a matter of fact. I believe it was the first time they actually asked us some numerical figures in an exam. Why would I even bother to read how many percent of Non-Hodgkin's lymphomas arise from lymph tissue and how many percent from non-lymphoid tissue. It had always been only either "commonest" or "least common". Never numbers. Pfft.
I did take a swipe at it and answered 70%/30%. I guessed close enough. Hehe. The answer was 65%/35%. Doubt the professors will give marks for being 'close' though. :P

I really want to give myself a B+ for the effort but I've to go for a B. Booohoohooo.

Oh well. I'm too close to the end to be too bothered by it. Winter break, here I come! xD