A urinary tract infection (UTI) is an infection in any part of your urinary system — your kidneys, ureters, bladder and urethra. Most infections involve the lower urinary tract — the bladder and the urethra.

Women are at greater risk of developing a UTI than men are. Infection limited to your bladder can be painful and annoying. However, serious consequences can occur if a UTI spreads to your kidneys.

Causes

Urinary tract infections typically occur when bacteria enter the urinary tract through the urethra and begin to multiply in the bladder. Although the urinary system is designed to keep out such microscopic invaders, these defenses sometimes fail. When that happens, bacteria may take hold and grow into a full-blown infection in the urinary tract.

The most common UTIs occur mainly in women and affect the bladder and urethra.

Risk factors 

Risk factors for urinary tract infections include:

Prevention

Take these steps to reduce your risk of urinary tract infections:

Laboratory studies do not often go as planned, and while this is usually a source of endless frustration amongst scientists, some wonderful discoveries have been made by accident in the past, such as the pacemaker and penicillin. Now, researchers may have happened upon something that could turn out to be a powerful agent against a particularly aggressive type of cancer.

After endeavoring to find ways to prevent cancerous cells from dying during experiments, scientists from Stanford have discovered that it is possible to force leukemia cells to mature into a type of immune cell that, ironically, may help the body clear up other tumor cells. The study has been published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) is a rapidly-progressing cancer of the immature cells that differentiate into white blood cells, or lymphocytes. There are several different types of ALL, which are classified based on the type of lymphocyte (B cell or T cell) the cancer originates from, and how mature these cells are.

For the current study, scientists were investigating the most common type of acute lymphoblastic leukemia, known as as precursor B cell ALL, or B-ALL. As the name suggests, this cancer originates from a rogue B cell that became stuck at an early stage of maturation. These immature cells are unable to fully differentiate into normal B cells, partly because they lost some cellular molecules, known as transcription factors, which are required for their development. Transcription factors are proteins that stick to bits of DNA and then switch certain genes on or off.

B-ALL is a particularly aggressive cancer with a poor prognosis, so scientists from Stanford were keen to learn more about it with the hope of finding ways to tackle it, but they were struggling to keep cells isolated from a patient alive in the lab. “We were throwing everything at them to help them survive,” lead researcher Ravi Majeti said in a news release.

Inflammation is a highly complex process that can occur when the immune system needs to attack what it perceives as a threat, or if there is an injury that needs to be repaired.

This generally involves swelling due to extra fluid bringing in cellular reinforcements and increased temperature to help kill pathogens. While temporary inflammation can be annoying albeit helpful, chronic inflammation is associated with a number of diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, and heart disease. However, a new paper published in Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology describes a large meta-analysis that found taking anti-inflammatory medications for a prolonged amount of time may also be bad for the heart, raising many questions.

The study was conducted by the Interleukin-1 Genetics Consortium and utilized medical data and genetic analyses from over one million individuals. In particular, the paper sought out variants of the IL1RN gene, which encodes the interleukin-1 family of pro-inflammatory cytokines. It had been suspected that the IL1RN variations inhibited interleukin-1 pathways, therefore resembling the effect of taking the anti-inflammatory anakinra for a long period of time.

“Drugs such as anakinra are licensed for the treatment of inflammatory conditions including rheumatoid arthritis, but we know little about the long-term health consequences of blocking interleukin-1,” senior author John Danesh of the University of Cambridge said in a press release. “Our approach was to use ‘nature’s randomized trial’ to get answers currently beyond the resolution of drug trials. Our genetic analysis suggests, surprisingly, that blocking interleukin-1 over the long-term could increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases.”

They found that individuals with the genetic variations were less likely to develop rheumatoid arthritis, which is understandable as it is an inflammatory disease. The risk of developing other inflammation-associated diseases such as stroke or diabetes were unaffected. However, the risk of heart disease—which is normally attributed to chronic inflammation—was shown to increase for those with the anti-inflammatory genetic variations, which seemed a bit puzzling.

In fact, this decreased inflammatory response was connected to an increased risk for a number of heart-harming factors. These individuals were more likely to have higher levels of LDL (bad) cholesterol, more likely to experience an aortic aneurysm, and 15% more likely to have a heart attack. This is contrary to what they expected to discover, and it is not clear why that is.

http://www.honeliat.com/

When I was growing up, the rule in my house was clear: If you had a fever, you were sick enough to stay home from school. Otherwise, pack it up and get going.

As a mother with a child who had a chronic disease, I can tell you it was sometimes so hard to force her out the door when she was complaining of  an ache or a pain. Was it her Crohn’s disease, a basic tummy ache, homework that wasn’t prepared? With the latest measles outbreak, we as parents are becoming hypervigilant. How do you really know if your child is too sick for school?

Experts at the Mayo Clinic report that the top four causes of missed school are:

The Cold Threshold: A Fever

Colds are easily spread by contact with infected droplets in the air; ear infections can start with a cold and keep a child home from school as well. Colds are so common that if kids stayed home every time they had one they’d never graduate.  If they are coughing hard, which can spread the infection, or have trouble breathing, keep them home. Mayo Clinic pinpoints a fever exceeding 100.4 F as the magic number to keep your child home. Most ear infections clear on their own so gauge your child’s discomfort level before sending them on the school bus.

Stomach Flu or Minor Tummy Ache?

Stomach flu (viral gastroenteritis) spreads through contact with an infected person or by eating or drinking contaminated food or water. Children with stomachaches should stay home if they’ve vomited more than twice over a 24-hour period or have diarrhea or fever.  If the stomach flu came on suddenly with no other accompanying symptoms, assess whether they may have eaten something that didn’t agree with them. Also consider whether they may be constipated.  (Alternatively, perhaps there’s a math test that day for which they are unprepared.)

Pink Eye: Highly Contagious, so Err on the Side of Caution

Pink eye (conjunctivitis) can be bacterial but is generally caused by a virus associated with a cold. Both types are highly contagious. Viral pink eye will run its course, and bacterial pink eye can be treated with antibiotics. Children should be kept home while there’s pus discharge and until they have been on antibiotics for at least 24 hours.

Sore Throat: Could It Be Strep?

Sore throats, also called pharyngitis, are usually caused by viruses. If a sore throat doesn’t go away within a week and is accompanied by a fever and/or tonsillitis, consider strep throat. This is bacterial, so you’ll need antibiotics to take care of it. Send your child back to school after their fever is gone and they have been on the antibiotic for more than 24 hours.

The Academy of Pediatrics Committees on Infectious Diseases and School Health recommend that a child with minor illnesses go to school unless they are irritable, lethargic, have mouth sores causing difficulty swallowing, have a rash with fever, or are exhibiting behavioral changes. When there is no fever, they can eat and drink normally, and they’ve had enough rest, the party’s over.

How Not to Get Sick in the First Place

Always check with your doctor if you’re unsure what to do, and use these tips to keep your kid in school:

www.everydayhealth.com Copyright ©

The tiger (Panthera tigris) is the largest cat species, reaching a total body length of up to 3.38 m (11.1 ft) over curves and weighing up to 388.7 kg (857 lb) in the wild. Its most recognisable feature is a pattern of dark vertical stripes on reddish-orange fur with a lighter underside. The species is classified in the genus Panthera with the lion, leopard, jaguar and snow leopard. Tigers are apex predators, primarily preying on ungulates such as deer and bovids. 

They are territorial and generally solitary but social animals, often requiring large contiguous areas of habitat that support their prey requirements. This, coupled with the fact that they are indigenous to some of the more densely populated places on Earth, has caused significant conflicts with humans.

Tigers once ranged widely across Asia, from Turkey in the west to the eastern coast of Russia. Over the past 100 years, they have lost 93% of their historic range, and have been extirpated from southwest and central Asia, from the islands of Java and Bali, and from large areas of Southeast and Eastern Asia.

The lion is one of the five big cats in the genus Panthera and a member of the family Felidae. The commonly used term African lion collectively denotes the several subspecies found in Africa. With some males exceeding 250 kg (550 lb) in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger. Wild lions currently exist in sub-Saharan Africa and in Asia (where an endangered remnant population resides in Gir Forest National Park in India) while other types of lions have disappeared from North Africa and Southwest Asia in historic times.

 Until the late Pleistocene, about 10,000 years ago, the lion was the most widespread large land mammal after humans. They were found in most of Africa, across Eurasia from western Europe to India, and in the Americas from the Yukon to Peru.The lion is a vulnerable species, having seen a major population decline in its African range of 30–50% per two decades during the second half of the 20th century. Lion populations are untenable outside designated reserves and national parks. Although the cause of the decline is not fully understood, habitat loss and conflicts with humans are currently the greatest causes of concern. Within Africa, the West African lion population is particularly endangered.

Lions live for 10–14 years in the wild, although in captivity they can live more than 20 years. In the wild, males seldom live longer than 10 years, as injuries sustained from continual fighting with rival males greatly reduce their longevity.[6] They typically inhabit savanna and grassland, although they may take to bush and forest

Anemia develops when you don’t have enough robust, healthy red blood cells to carry oxygen throughout your body. The blood cells may lack enough hemoglobin, the protein that gives blood its red color. Anemia affects one in 10 teen girls and women. It also develops in men and children and is linked to some illnesses. 

Low blood pressure, also called hypotension, is blood pressure low enough that the flow of blood to the organs of the body is inadequate and symptoms and/or signs of low blood flow develop shock.Low pressure alone, without symptoms or signs, usually is not unhealthy.The symptoms of low blood pressure include lightheadedness, dizziness, and fainting. 

Carbohydrates are one of the main types of nutrients. They are the most important source of energy for your body. Your digestive system changes carbohydrates into glucose (blood sugar). Your body uses this sugar for energy for your cells, tissues and organs. It stores any extra sugar in your liver and muscles for when it is needed.Carbohydrates are called simple or complex, depending on their chemical structure. Simple carbohydrates include sugars found naturally in foods such as fruits, vegetables, milk, and milk products. 

Lipids are molecules that contain hydrocarbons and make up the building blocks of the structure and function of living cells. Examples of lipids include fats, oils, waxes, certain vitamins, hormones and most of the non-protein membrane of cells.

 An incubator is a device used to grow and maintain microbiological cultures or cell cultures. The incubator maintains optimal temperature, humidity and other conditions such as the carbon dioxide (CO2) and oxygen content of the atmosphere inside. Incubators are essential for a lot of experimental work in cell biology, microbiology and molecular biology and are used to culture both bacterial as well as eukaryotic cells.Incubators are also used in the poultry industry to act as a substitute for hens. This often results in higher hatch rates due to the ability to control both temperature and humidity. Various brands of incubators are commercially available to breeders.

An autoclave is a pressure chamber used to sterilize equipment and supplies by subjecting them to high pressure saturated steam at 121 °C (249°F) for around 15–20 minutes depending on the size of the load and the contents. It was invented by Charles Chamberland in 1879, although a precursor known as the steam digester was created by Denis Papin in 1679. The name comes from Greek auto-, ultimately meaning self, and Latin clavis meaning key—a self-locking device.Other types of autoclave are used in the chemical industry to cure coatings, vulcanize rubber and for hydrothermal synthesis, growing crystals under high temperatures and pressures. Synthetic quartz crystals used in the electronic industry are grown in autoclaves.

A Petri dish (sometimes spelled "Petrie dish" and alternatively known as a Petri plate or cell-culture dish), named after the German bacteriologist Julius Richard Petri, is a shallow cylindrical glass or plastic lidded dish that biologists use to culture cells– such as bacteria – or small mosses.Modern Petri dishes usually feature rings and/or slots on their lids and bases so that when stacked, they are less prone to sliding off one another. Multiple dishes can also be incorporated into one plastic container to create a "multi-well plate". 

A microscope is an instrument used to see objects that are too small for the naked eye. The science of investigating small objects using such an instrument is called microscopy. Microscopic means invisible to the eye unless aided by a microscope.There are many types of microscopes. The most common (and the first to be invented) is the optical microscope, which uses light to image the sample. Other major types of microscopes are the electron microscope (both the transmission electron microscope and the scanning electron microscope), the ultramicroscope, and the various types of scanning probe microscope.

In addition to glucose, many other carbohydrates ultimately enter the glycolytic pathway to undergo energy-yielding degradation. The most significant are the storage polysaccharides glycogen and starch, the disaccharides maltose, lactose, trehalose, and sucrose, and the monosaccharides fructose, mannose, and galactose. We shall now consider the pathways by which these carbohydrates can enter glycolysis. 

Arginine is an α-amino acid. It was first isolated in 1886.The L-form is one of the 20 most common natural amino acids.In mammals, arginine is classified as a semiessential or conditionally essential amino acid, depending on the developmental stage and health status of the individual.