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1500 questions
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Why are peanut allergies so much more severe than other food allergies?
Based on my understanding of how adaptive immune responses arise, I would expect peanut allergies to be roughly normally distributed with regard to severity, like other food allergies. However, peanut allergies seem to be at least generally accepted…
sehrgut
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9
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Comorbidity of autoimmune diseases
Do people who have one autoimmune disease (for example rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's, Hashimoto hypothyroidism) have a statistically significant higher chance of developing another autoimmune disease in another part of their body later in life?
YviDe
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9
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How is alcohol eliminated from breast milk?
Searching for whether it is safe to breastfeed after alcohol consumption, I found lots of pages telling me that alcohol concentration in breast milk spikes after consumption, but then decreases again afterwards, same as it does in blood. From the…
YviDe
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9
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How does a thymus transplantation work? Why doesn't it result in rejection of the recipient's... everything?
I read that DiGeorge syndrome can result in a baby being born completely lacking a thymus. That page also says that this can be treated through thymus transplantation.
My understanding of the thymus is that it's where T cells mature, and one of the…
Chris.B
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9
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My nose presses in a lot
When I press in my nose, it goes from sticking out by 2.5 cm to just 0.5 cm:
Why is this, and is it anything to worry about? (The person in the photo is 12 in case that matters)
Tim
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9
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Is there a cure for bad breath?
I typically wake up with a mouth tasting like something died in it. Throughout the day it continues to taste bad, and I'm told it smells significantly worse. This has gotten to the point that it's getting in the way with relationships.
I assume this…
John
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Why do ~80% of children with autism appear to improve when they have a fever?
I read on this WebMD article (published in 2008) that children with autism appear to improve when they have a fever. What could explain it?
One hypothesis mentioned in the article is that:
fever may affect brain function at the cellular level by…
Franck Dernoncourt
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9
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What is the effect of smoking before or during early pregnancy on the baby?
I assume it will be harmful to the baby if a woman smokes while pregnant. How about the situation where the woman smokes, gets pregnant and then stops? Does the smoking in the period until the pregnancy affect the baby? How long before a pregnancy…
Alexander Popov
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9
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1 answer
How were Penicillin F, G, X and K letters chosen, etymologically?
Plenty of articles from around 1945 describe how multiple penicillin had been purified from Penicillium strains, and that these were named F, G, X and K in the USA, and I, II, III, IV in Britain, see Coghill 1945 for example, and later also Chain's…
BipedalJoe
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9
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2 answers
why has teixobactin not reached clinical use in humans yet?
Background:
A new antibiotic, teixobactin, was discovered in 2015 in a screen of uncultured bacteria (using ichip, an isolation chip composed of several hundred miniature diffusion chambers, each inoculated with a single environmental cell, allowing…
Dalton Bentley
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9
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3 answers
People who can't receive O negative blood?
In Season 5, episode 3 of New Amsterdam (also here), a patient can't receive O negative blood.
I, being "O neg", always thought that absolutely everyone, without exception could get O negative blood.
Are there any exceptions, even if incredibly…
Leonhard Euler
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9
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1 answer
Can shingles on one part of my body spread to another?
I broke out with shingles to my face. Can I spread the virus to other parts of my own body (for example, to my nasal mucosa) by scratching?
I've googled and found contradictory information. Some sites say "it can be spread to any part of the…
Matias
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Does increased consumption of fructose cause increased insulin resistance in humans?
As far as I understand it, diabetes is a disease that is composed of essentially two issues:
The pancreas' insulin production capabilities
The body's sensitivity to insulin
and I'm asking a rather basic question whose answer would seem like common…
Hisham
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9
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2 answers
Benefit of closing atrial septal defect in adults
Atrial septal defect is the most common type of hole in the heart encountered in adults. In many cases, the patients do not have any symptoms or difficulties. Are there any studies to show that there is an advantage of closing such defects (either…
rncardio
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How exactly is hypoglycemia a problem?
I am not someone from Medical field. I am asking this question out of curiosity. My question is about sugar levels in blood, particularly low blood sugar (hypoglycemia).
I can understand the problem with high blood sugar levels (hyperglycemia) as we…
HARVEER RAWAT
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