Vitamin D deficiency has been linked to more severe illness and an increased fatality rate due to COVID-19, the disease caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Observational studies at the AZ Delta General Hospital in Roeselare, Belgium, at the Hospital Universitario Marquis de Valdecilla in Spain,
Many people experience some decline in memory with age, which stems from slower processing speed in the brain, along with a decline in attention and retrieval of information. Word finding, for example, can become problematic with age, but the information is not lost and typically the word or missing information
The medical condition Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which primarily targets the epithelial cells, lining the surface of the respiratory passageways and lungs, where it causes viral pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Elderly patients, people with asthma, and those
Towards the end of 2019, the appearance of the highly contagious novel virus SARS-CoV-2 in Wuhan, China, with the capability of very efficient person-to-person transmission, has resulted in the greatest world-wide public health pandemic of the twenty-first century. The medical condition called COVID-19 that resulted from infection with the virus,
Towards the end of 2019 the appearance of the very contagious novel virus SARS-CoV-2, spreading around the world like wildfire, has resulted in a medical condition called COVID-19, which was found to affect individuals differently. In most infected individuals, the disease did not cause serious illness, but in a minority
The functioning of the human body can be compared to a chemical factory, where many individual chemical processes are integrated into a single unit with a common purpose – to keep us alive. Just like any factory, the body needs raw materials to fuel these chemical production processes. The body’s
The three macronutrients that we need in our diets are protein, carbohydrates, and fat. During digestion, enzymes in the gut break down the most plentiful fat in our diet, triglycerides, into fatty acids and a molecule called glycerol. Once absorbed these molecules reassemble into triglycerides, and as they cannot move
The first few weeks of breastfeeding are an amazing period of bonding time for mother and baby. Just as amazing is the essential composition of nutrients contained in breast milk – the most complete food imaginable, cleverly adapting to the needs of the growing infant. However, the most spectacular part
Less intense than cocaine and heroin, but nonetheless addictive for some people, sugar activates the same region in the brain that makes you experience a high and feelings of pleasure. Like using hard drugs, bingeing on sugar blunts the “pleasure” response over time, making you want the sugar fix more
Besides the unique human brain, the liver is the next most complex organ in the human body. The liver is a workhorse and is involved in a magnitude of functions, such as the processing of nutrients from all we ingest; converting them into fuel, storing energy, while making essential proteins,
