What happens in glioblastoma, exactly?

What is it? Glioblastoma is a very aggressive type of brain cancer. The symptoms often get worse quickly, and they can include things like headache, personality changes, and nausea. About 15% of brain tumors are glioblastomas. Unfortunately it is very hard to treat, and the average length of survival after diagnosis is only 12-15 months with 3%-5%…

What happens in narcolepsy, exactly?

What is it? Narcolepsy is a disorder that makes you less able to control when you want to sleep or when you want to be awake. The perhaps best known symptom is having periods of excessive daytime sleepiness – people with narcolepsy often become very tired or even fall asleep for a few minutes in…

What happens in COPD, exactly?

What is it? COPD is a lung disease that impairs the normal flow of air for a long period of time. The typical symptoms include cough and shortness of breath. COPD worsens over time, and as the disease progresses, normal things like walking up stairs can become near impossible. COPD is extremely common; it affects…

What happens in rheumatoid arthritis, exactly?

What is it? Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a long-term condition that typically causes joints to become painful, swollen and warm. It is an autoimmune disease which means that it is caused by the body’s immune system attacking the body itself. RA affects about 0.5% to 1% of adults in the developed world. Women are affected…

What happens in Leigh disease, exactly?

What is it? Leigh disease is rare genetic disorder that mainly affects the brain and the spinal cord. The first symptoms typically appear within the first year of a child’s life, and they include things like diarrhea, vomiting and trouble with swallowing. As the disease progresses, the brain slowly looses control over the muscles. This…

What happens in acne, exactly?

What is it? Acne is a long-term skin disease. It is characterized by areas of skin with lots of blackheads, whiteheads and pimples. It typically appears during adolescence and it causes significant psychological stress to many teenagers, as people that age are often already self-conscious about their physical appearance and having imperfect skin doesn’t help…

What happens in chickenpox, exactly?

What is it? Chickenpox is a very contagious viral disease. It is known for the small, itchy blisters it causes. Other common symptoms include fever, tiredness and headache. Chickenpox is very common – in 2013 about 140 million cases occurred worldwide. However, practically everyone went through the disease before the chickenpox vaccine was developed, and the…

What is CRISPR, exactly?

So this post is going to be a bit different but I’m so excited about CRISPR that I couldn’t resist writing about it!  I hope you find it interesting  🙂 CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats – I know, let’s just stick to CRISPR!)  are parts of DNA where the same code is repeated over and over…

What happens in sepsis, exactly?

What is it? Sepsis is a life-threatening condition in which the body’s reaction to infection starts to damage its own tissues. Typical symptoms include fever, increased heart rate and breathing rate, and confusion. In severe cases sepsis can cause things like poor organ function and insufficient blood flow. In septic shock the sepsis has caused a…

What happens in gonorrhea, exactly?

What is it? Gonorrhea is a sexually transmitted bacterial infection. There are often no symptoms at all. Sometimes men can feel burning while urinating, pain in the testicles, or there might be discharge from the penis. Women can feel burning while urinating, pain in the pelvis, bleeding from the vagina when they are not on…