Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder: we all knew or at least imagined what it was even before anybody gave us the definition for it. Drinking alcohol during pregnancy has so many risks including physical, mental and neurological, that all range in severity to the infant. This disorder actually breaks down into two categories; Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) and Fetal Alcohol Effects (FAE). 

Did you know that Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is one of the most common causes of mental retardation and THE ONLY ONE THAT IS 100% PREVENTABLE!! This is a devastating statistic, especially considering it is the second highest congenital (present at birth) infection in the United States. 

  

This condition is marked by hyperactivity, impulsiveness, difficulty maintaining attention, varying degrees of mental retardation, motor problems, heart defects, and facial abnormalities. Even those who were somewhat exposed to prenatal alcohol have shown impairments in learning, memory, language, and attention. Sadly, all of these effects are irreversible and will in fact last a lifetime. 

This condition is marked by hyperactivity, impulsiveness, difficulty maintaining attention, varying degrees of mental retardation, motor problems, heart defects, and facial abnormalities. Even those who were somewhat exposed to prenatal alcohol have shown impairments in learning, memory, language, and attention. Sadly, all of these effects are irreversible and will in fact last a lifetime. There are also some facial features and patterns that are known characteristics of this syndrome. Some are thin lips, small eyes, and an upturned nose. 

There is no amount of alcohol that should be taken by someone who is pregnant or even trying to get pregnant. There is a National Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome in the United States that is not only trying to make the risks of drinking alcohol during pregnancy more aware, but has different treatment and support systems for those diagnosed. 

I also read a heartbreaking story about a woman named Donna Williams who is brave enough to talk about how the result of FASD have affected her. This is a small excerpt from her blog. 

"I was late to develop, toiletted by 3 and a half, echolalic until gaining functional speech by age 9-11. I was faceblind, saw my world in bits (Simultagnosia) and so was meaning blind, object blind, context blind and was also meaning deaf. I could learn physically and by rote and was great with lists, but learning from watching or listening, forget it."

Prescription Drug Abuse

I'm aware the textbook doesn't cover any information on prescription drugs, but considering some prescription drugs are stimulant drugs as well and they're so commonly abused now days, I figured I'd expand on this topic. "After marijuana, prescription and over-the-counter medications account for most of the past-year use of commonly abused drugs among high school seniors." Approximately every day in the United States, an average of about 2000 teenagers use prescription drugs without a doctor's guidance for the first time. 

Data for past-year use of prescription and over-the-counter medicines include the following: Vicodin (8%), Adderall (6.5%), Salvia (5.9%), Tranquilizers (5.6%), Cough Medicine (5.3%), OxyContin (4.9%), Sedatives (4/3%), and Ritalin (2.6%), a combined total of 37.2%. Data for past-year use of illicit drugs includes the following: Marijuana/Hashish (36.4%), Synthetic Marijuana (11.4%), Salvia (5.9%), MDMA (Ecstasy 5.3%), Hallucinogens (5.2%), Inhalants (3.2%), and Cocaine (any form, 2.9 %).

Prescription drug abuse is when a human being takes a prescription drug, usually prescribed for someone else, or in a different dosage than that prescribed to them. The most common of these drugs are at two different extremes; pain relievers or depressants and amphetamines (stimulants such as Ritalin and Adderal). Some pain relievers include: Vicodin, Oxycotin, Xanax, and Valium.  

People abuse these prescription drugs for a number of reasons, including to get high, treat pain; or because they believe it will help them with their schoolwork, by being more alert, attentive, working faster or retaining information better. A study showed that males are more likely to use these stimulants to get high, while females tend to use for attention benefits. It is also known that teenagers will not only take the drugs orally, but might even crush the pills, and snort or inject them into their bodies. 

Many people think that abusing prescription drugs is safer than abusing illicit drugs like heroin and cocaine because the manufacturing of these drugs are regulated and given by doctors. However, this doesn't mean that it is safe in any way. They too have powerful effects in the brain and body. For example, opioid painkillers act on the same sites in the brain as heroine does. Amphetamines bind to transporters used for the reuptake of dopamine into presynaptic neurons. This then causes the level of dopamine to rise in the synapses, and as we read in the textbook, high levels of dopamine in the nucleus accumbens (in the brain) mediate pleasurable effects, keeping these young teenagers wanting more of this feeling. Long term uses of certain prescription drugs can lead to physical dependence and eventually tolerance. This means that one's body will sooner or later adapt to this drug exposure, causing him/her to need a larger doses of it in order to achieve the same initial effects. Withdrawal symptoms can and most likely will occur also once the use of the drug is stopped. 

Santiago Ramón y Cajal - Neuroscientist & Artist

We read slightly about Santiago Ramón y Cajal in our textbook about how he came to be the Pioneer of Neuroscience. From Spain, Ramón y Cajal dreamt of the life as an artist, his father, however being a professor of Applied Anatomy, had a different plan for him and "convinced" him to study medicine. He began, after many examinations, as an army doctor, assistant at a school, then finally, at his own request, obtained his degree of Doctor of Medicine. After several different Professor and Director jobs at schools and museums, he began to publish scientific works. Cajal shortly after became the first neuroscientist to discover that the nervous system was not continuous but was comprised of interconnected individual cells.  

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1906 was awarded jointly to Camillo Golgi and Santiago Ramón y Cajal "in recognition of their work on the structure of the nervous system"

Not only was Cajal an extremely brilliant scientist, but he still somewhat achieved his dream of becoming an amazing artist as well. "His detailed drawings are still considered definitive today."

This illustration was drawn from a histological stain of a human retinal cell and is one of the first drawings of a neuron. 

Depicting the cells of the retina. 

Now, I personally don't really understand the drawings, but they are still considered definitive today and it was amazing for Cajal to be able to come up with these during his time. It is said that he used to look at silver chromate stained neurons under the microscope before wandering across the street to the café where he would drink wine and draw what he had seen entirely from memory. 

"How many interesting facts fail to be converted into fertile discoveries because their first observers regard them as natural and ordinary things! It is strange to see how the populate, which nourishes its imagination with tales of witches or saints, mysterious events and extraordinary occurrences, disdains the world around it as commonplace, monotonous and prosaic, without suspecting that at bottom it is all secret, mystery, and marvel." Cajal. 

Animal Testing for Cosmetics

Many of us women use cosmetics daily. However, when have we stopped to check on the back side of the product for a sign that informs us the item has not been tested on animals. Or looked up online which cosmetics out there do test their products on animals before releasing? It's not likely, unfortunately, that many of us have.  We forget that animals experience discomfort, suffering, and ultimately die, all in the name of aesthetics and "looking good." So what exactly happens during animal testing?  

I always imagined the experimenters putting lipstick on a rabbit's fur and later checking that no critical damage or breakouts occurred, therefore passing the test and selling the item in the market. Animal testing can either be with a finished product such as the lipstick, or with individual ingredients within a formulation. The usual main focus of cosmetics testing is making sure that a product does not harm a human's eyes and or skin. Another aspect that is tested in cosmetics is any toxicity related to ultraviolet light, for example, an item that would make one wearing it more susceptible to sun damage. 

Cosmetics testing without the use of animals is now increasing as there are many countries where it is banned, and hopefully, this will spread out and take place in all countries. 

I read a blog in which a young woman, Jacqueline Traides, volunteered herself to undergo animal tests in order to make a statement and aware others of the needless suffering of animals. This act took place in a Lush shop window in London, with staff outside warning go byers, especially those with children, of what they would be witnessing. (The website gives a lot more gruesome pictures.)

This performance was done in hopes of enlightening people of what happens, and get as many people to sign the Fighting Animal Testing petition, banning cosmetic testing on animals in the UK. Sure enough, in fewer than two weeks, they succeeded and received more than 250,000 signatures! 

Now just for fun, here is a list of companies that do and do not test on animals. Enjoy!