Some time ago, there was a news that made people watch serious discomfort.
Aunt Wang, 63, went to a hospital in Hangzhou for treatment, and she had a bad stomach and wanted to check it out.
As a result, a colonoscopy revealed that she had colonic melanosis.
The colon of a normal person is rosy, while Aunt Wang's colon is covered with brownish-black patterns.
According to doctors, the most common factors that form the melanosis of the mucosa of the large intestine are the damage and apoptosis of high doses of anthraquinone drugs and irritating laxatives on the epithelial cells of the mucosa of the large intestine.
Many health care products on the market that sell "detoxification", "beauty" and "bathing the gastrointestinal tract" contain anthraquinone drugs, including enzymes that Aunt Wang has been taking for three years.
Whose money is best cheated?
The Spanish novelist Cervantes said: "As long as it is science, it will not deceive people, and the deceived are those who do not understand science." ”
Indeed, if you understand a little nutrition, it is easy to distinguish the principles behind the new concept, which cannot stand up to scrutiny;
After learning a little about quantum mechanics, I learned that the "quantum wave reading method", which claims to read a book in 1 minute, has nothing to do with quantum mechanics...
Today's three books will take you to understand yourself and human beings in science.
A Brief History of the Human Body
Some birds and mammals are able to turn off only half of their brains at a time, so that half of the brains can nap and the other half of the brain can stay alert, which is why you don't fall out of bed when you sleep;
Thin people have more gut microbes than fat people, and thin people have microbes that don't have enough to eat, which at least partially explains why they are so thin;
The more education you receive, the less likely you are to develop Alzheimer's disease, and having an active brain that is constantly exploring can block the invasion of Alzheimer's disease;
A child who is only half your height falls to the ground and hits his head, and he feels only 1/32 of the impact of an adult, which is why small children always seem to be indestructible luck;
There is evidence that nursing mothers absorb the baby's saliva through the breast catheter, analyze it through the immune system, and adjust the number and type of antibodies according to the baby's needs.
A Brief History of the Human Body is an encyclopedia of the human body, and our body began with single-celled spots floating in shallow seas 3 billion years ago and underwent a long evolution to create the unique you we are now.
Author Bill Bryson visited 18 international leading academic research and medical institutions such as Oxford University, Harvard University, Stanford University, etc., and expressed every part of the human body from simple introduction to in-depth research, from appearance to interior, from health to disease, in simple and humorous language.
The lifespan of human beings today has been greatly extended compared to any other era in history, but this has come at a cost.
Daniel Lieberman, a professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University, noted: "For every 1 year of increase in human lifespan since 1990, only 10 months are healthy. ”
We have extended our lives well, but we have not been able to extend the same quality of life very well.
Aging is a common outcome for all species, it starts inside the organism, and it's impossible for anyone to escape it forever, but you can slow down the process with a cautious, benign lifestyle.
Telomeres
When do people start to age?
In 2009, Elizabeth Blackburn and two other colleagues were awarded the Nobel Prize in Biology for discovering telomeres and the role of telomerase in aging.
Telomeres are small segments of DNA-protein complex present at the ends of chromosomes that serve to maintain chromosome integrity and control cell division cycles.
It is like a hat on the head of a chromosome, every time the cell divides, the telomeres are a little shorter, and when the telomeres can no longer be shortened, the cells cannot continue to divide.
More and more cells can no longer divide, and people become older.
Therefore, telomeres are called "life clocks" by scientists, and they play an important role in determining the lifespan of animal and plant cells, and the longer the telomeres, the higher our health level and the longer we live.
The length of telomeres is closely related to genetic factors and lifestyle.
Chronic stress, negative thinking, interpersonal conflict, and discordant community relationships can all hurt telomeres.
In the book "Telomeres", Blackburn gives a good news, telomeres recession is not irreversible, if you can change the mood and daily behavior, you can effectively protect telomeres.
Cells can regenerate, functions can be rebuilt, and if you want to make the muscle stronger, you need to use it often; if you want to bear more pressure, you have to hit it moderately.
Occasionally giving moderate physical and mental exercise is the way to maintain health in line with biological laws.
Virus Planet
A two-year-long COVID-19 pandemic has made us feel the power of the virus, which has easily interrupted our lives, even destroyed a family, and devastated people.
Viruses occupied the planet long before humans emerged, and they are still ubiquitous despite extreme conditions such as heat, cold or drought.
The Virus Planet writes:
Contains up to 100 billion virus particles per liter of seawater, and the number of virus particles in the entire seawater is about 10 to the power of 31, and if they are lined up in a line, the length will be 42 million light years;
Viruses in the ocean transmit about 10 genes to the power of 24 each year between different hosts;
10% of the photosynthesis on Earth is carried out by the virus gene, that is, every 10 breaths you breathe, there is a breath of oxygen that the virus gives...
Whether it's cold viruses, HPV viruses, avian flu, Ebola, we know very little about them, and every outbreak and epidemic is not just because a person eats a wild animal.
Before that, viruses had been active around us for a long time, they were constantly infected, subdued, hidden, escaped, reinfected, mutated, mixed, jumped, until one day they were brought to the world by people running around the world...
"Viruses" contain two sides, one side is a life-giving substance, and the other side represents a deadly venom. Viruses are indeed deadly in a sense, but they also give the world the indispensable creativity.
Humans have formed an inseparable mixture with viruses.
By removing the viral gene from the body, we may not be able to live out of the womb at all, and people may also be able to fight infection in their daily lives with the help of viral DNA. Even part of the oxygen we breathe every day is produced by viruses and bacteria in the ocean.
Creative and devastating, the perfect combination in the body of the virus.
Wang Xiaobo said: "Science is the product of reason, it is the most honest and responsible thing in the world. ”
Scientific truth does not come from an authority, but from rational facts, reasoning, and verification.
Even if Newton makes a judgment, you can use facts and experiments to refute him.
Each of us has been inspired and changed by science.
In the face of science, we know the objective laws of nature, do not take the will of man as a transfer, and learn to be in awe;
In "Evolution", we understand the survival philosophy of "natural selection, survival of the fittest";
In "A Brief History of Time", we explore the origin of time and the universe, and appreciate the mysteries of cosmology...
With the help of science, we learn to understand the world objectively and fairly, and to examine the world.
Author | Kale, write other people's stories well, live your own life.
Image | Visual China, Network (if there is infringement, please contact to delete)