Germ Theory and Hygiene Hypothesis

I was bathing the other day and wanted to use a brand new bottle of body wash. I been using bar soap for a month or two now, because I ran out of body wash, but after taking a shower in a friend's house, he had this Lifebuoy, purple body wash, with yogurt extract.

That yogurt shit is total bogus because there is next to none in it since its listed in the ingredients after the preservatives. So really, I liked it because it smells nice. As I lathered on with my loofah, I suddenly remembered about germ theory.

What is it? It is actually a theory that disease is caused by microorganism. So hence an antimicrobial body wash like this that contains triclosan is good for us because it can kill up to 99.9% germs. (that's what the commercial said).

There is also a hygiene hypotheses that said, if you are too clean, you can infected with more disease because your immune system has never gotten infected before. Actually that is one reason why I stopped using antimicrobial body wash or soap. Unless I am working in health care, research or medical, normal soap would be sufficient enough.

Its really something that has both side debating. Heck even triclosan is now being questioned whether it is absorbed into the skin and into the liver. Go figure.

So the choice is still up to you. Pick a side and be happy with it. I just hope you do bath with soap, because cleanliness is next to godliness.. (I heard the quote somewhere, I don't really remember)


Can you imagine, all of this was in my head in my 7 minute shower. Owh I still use this body wash, because it smells sooo nice.

Iris

Hmm I was stumbling on some youtube videos when I stumbled upon on this video. Its about a African race baby with sky blue eyes. His eyes is completely natural even though both of his parents were African, with black eyes. Some say its just a genetic defect or a type of albinism that affects the eye only. I don't think its that weird for African people to have blue eyes. That guy is CSI Las Vegas has it, the "bitch" Willamina in Ugly Betty or better know as Vanessa William, has blue eyes, that guy in Beyonce Halo music video has blue eyes. Some African tribes do green eyes naturally, its just the little error in nature that us humans seem to appreciated it. These error include firey red hair and piercing green eyes of the Irish and Scottish people. It just does not stop with African people, some asian people were also born with naturally lighter color eyes. I seen a chinese guy at the cyber cafe with Amber eyes, amber is the color of your cars turning signal. I seen lots of people in Perlis with naturally amber eyes. Its very appealing. . My English teacher said, her Malay Brunei friend has green eyes. Wicked!. I never thought I would see is a Malay with green eyes, but I did recently. My friend's friend, has green eyes, okay his eyes were hazel, but hazel eyes can change constantly. I swear his eyes changed from amber to greenish brown. It was mesmerizing. If I wanted to change my eye color, I just put on some Freshlook Colorblends contact lenses. To me these are really the most natural looking lense on the market, because they blend in with your natural eyes color. I could wear green, amethyst, or brown, and most of the time people won't noticed it. Unlike other brands, they really make your eyes look scary because eyes naturally don't look that bright, even if you have blue eyes. Another video in youtube showed me people who had colored Iris implanted in behind their cornea !!!! yes, you can surgically change your eye color. Erghh, luckily these people are not promoting, instead they were warning the side effects of putting these lens into your eyes. Now they had to take it out, one at a time, because they ran out of money. So they walk with two different color eyes for a few months before they could raise the money to take the surgery again. Apparently Panama is the only country in the whole wide world who does this type of surgery. This is the website http://www.newcoloriris.com/index.html. They say its looks more natural than color contact. Natural my A@!, they look fake as hell, go figure. It like wanting to go blonde, instead of just bleaching your hair blonde, you go for a scalp transplant. Ergh.. This is scary just like fake boobs, extending limbs and so on.

However to be fair, there are people who needs to fake iris, the fake boob and limb extension, and we must not be judgemental to them. I wear color contacts sometimes and color my hair sometimes, but its something not permanent, and I could go natural when I choose too. Its fun to change it sometimes, as long as it safe, and my family does not oppose it, its fine with me. But having to go under the knife? and a procedure which is not FDA approved nor done else where? Hmm talk about a risk, and as they say beauty is pain. I rather have something I could turn back into something normal again if I choose to, then choosing something permanent. There is video here about a guy who so excited with his new blue iris, but in the end after a lots of problem and hearing stories of his friends going blind, he took them out. Its quite scary actually. I have been in similar situation with my color contact before. I used these permanent lenses but I was a cheapskate and did not use a protein remover, in the end what happend I had this bumps forming under my eye lids, that grab the contact lenses, which will pull the lenses up after I blink. No more, no permanent lense for me, I am sticking with good ol disposable lenses. I also make sure I rub my leanses when cleaning them to remove the protein deposits.

I could have light colored eyes too, naturally. How? Go live in place where there is winter, your skin, hair and eyes, go lighter in the winter, I had amber eyes in the winter. So cool.. but then really, real iris changes, and sometimes my I do get the amber eyes, albeit in the hot sun.. :p. Eyes are the windows to the soul, so any eye color is beautiful, however just like windows, we can change the original curtains if we wanted to ;)







This has nothing to with the eye, but I love the song Iris, by the goo goo dolls :D

Underneath Your Clothes, There Is A Different Story.

I hate sweaty arm pits. I hate it when I can actually feel the sweat trickling down my arm. A damp pit on your shirt is not very appealing to many. It kinda ruins your whole look that you do. One cannot be like the Hollywood stars and get botox injection to your armpits. Apparently other than wrinkles, it works great to prevent excessive sweating. However its too expensive and I am not sure having a needle jab into my arm pit. What's worst that is that sweaty arm pits can cause B.O.

There is nothing worst like body odor or known as B.O to some. It ruins job interviews, failed relationships, causes panic and increases anger level. Exaggerating? I think most of us has experienced how B.O can really make your day turn sour. What does one do? Do we have to become mouth breather, practice holding our breath as long as possible, or spray some perfume and that god forsaken pits. Don't confuse this with natural body smell. Some people do smell naturally good, blame the pheromones for this unique scent that is present in everyone.

These two problem related with each other and can cause discomfort to the person and those around them. Sure there is deodorant and anti perspirant in the market, but sometimes certain brands or certain application of deodorant do not work well on others.

My brother has terrible anti perpirant problem. He gets so sweaty and wet, it turned into the most horrific and foul smelly B.O. He tries to wear deodorant from all brands and type but none of it worked well enough for him. Somehow along the way, we noticed he stopped smelling foul and is dry enough for us to touch. He told us his secret. He uses a Speedstick Anti Perspirant and Deodorant and a Nivea Dry Impact for Men. He claims this was the combination to stop him from sweating. A stick type deodorant that is then covered by a spray type. I did not really believe his combination until I tried it myself. However, I used a Rexona Roll On deodorant and Nivea Dry Impact combination. The result, my underarms were dry. They usually get wet easily even by the slightest sweating, but not when I used the combination. It was a pleasant surprise for my self. Maybe some of you may think that the Nivea spray deodorant is the reason for the dryness, but I used the spray before and did not like how the vapours enter my nose. So I do believe both combination provided an excellent protection and coverage to me.

A friend of mine has this terrible B.O problem, but so far we did not pin point it to excessive sweating. Since his underarms were relatively dry. So it has to be B.O. A blogger friend of mine swears that using Nivea Whitening for women has cured his problem. It sounded strange, but it worked for him. So I decided to try and recommended it to my friend with the B.O problem. He hesitated at first but after I told him he really did stink and before this I did not had the guts to talk about it to him but after he said his girlfriend sometime complain that he does, I straight away spilled the beans to him and he gave in. The results? It really worked, Nivea Whitening roll on work to combat B.O. Now I don't have to open the windows when he rides in my car.
Note, this is not a advertisement for the products mention above (I love to, but I don't think the company likes me mix matching their products and other company's products together)

Cut into pieces

This a bag with the frozen cat inside.

A pouch containing some surgical tools

I first peel the head of the cat to reveal the skull.

It was tedious since the skull in incredibly hard and my scalpel blade kept breaking off

So I decided to get some new tool, which includes a saw, some knifes and a knife sharpener.

I need to saw off the skull before I can reach the brain.

Then I tried to pry the pieces open.

I am trying to pick out the shrunken brain. I put it in ziplock bag for future use.

Then I cut the gut open so that I could get the lungs, heart, and liver.

My lab mate help to photograph me in action. Beside he was stress out because of his work so he decided watching me hacking a frozen cat would be a perfect way to unwind. :p

Gel.. AGAIN!!!!

Yerrr, I am doing my gel electrophoresis again. I am still not satisfied with the previous one I did since the negative control also had a band. It supposed to be clear because I did not put any sampels in it.

Ok this might look off to some of you, but I took a picture of the camera so I can know which button to press. This is the camera to take pictures of the gel. Since the machine is against a wall, and the camera is tilted downwards, the buttons of the camera faces the wall. I got fed up feeling the camera so I decided to take a picture of it so I can know, which button turns on the camera or zooms in.

This is the picture of the gel under UV light on the computer screen. As you can see the third lane also has a band. It was supposed to be clear since it was the negative control. So right now I had to troubleshoot which step of the PCR experiment that got contaminated with the sample.

See the gel/agar-agar, with all the pretty purple and blue lines. Well the gel is carcinogenic so we need gloves to handle it. Full day for me, I managed to passage the T. gondii and the P. berghei into other mice. Hopefully tomorrow I can run PCR again and perhaps order everything else that is missing from my research. I just can't bear seeing my advisor empty handed.

He says, she says

I had lunch quite late with a colleague of mine. Well actually I came to the Golf first and the she came along just after I was finished but I still sat along with her to sembang2. We were talking about our project and such. We talked about my prof and our Master work.She was in her 3rd semester and she has finished half of her thesis. Her work is more field based while mine is molecular and very lab based. She has a supervisor who gives her all sorts of admin work to do, while all I have to do other than my thesis and class is to be the IT guy when my prof faces problems with his computer and Internet.

Right now I am getting prepared with my up coming project which is to produce recombinant protein. I am not saying that I was happy but I am not saying I am exactly annoyed but maybe its just an observation. She maybe a bit stress because it seems I don't do much work around here and just stayed in my tiny room. I mean she does not have a clue of what I am doing but she gives such comments? I think its not fair, because I never question her work in front of her. I mean I could just shot her down with the fact all she does is field work, which is great to help people, but for the future, it may be hard for her to do her PhD.
My work is molecular based which is the future of all research. No I don't have to go out and drive to all my research areas like her, while I could just stay in the lab all the time. Maybe she is stressed because she has to handle labs, and other supervisor admin work but that is how her supervisor work. Her supervisor wanted to train her to become a tutor. I still have class with my prof and doing all these molecular and genetic stuff that has never been taught during degree. Yes my personality is the type that is less stressed and laid back, which to some people it shows that I am lazy. Well that is me, like do you even know what I go through. I mean we all have issues of our own.

I was kinda annoyed that she assumed I am doing nothing much like what she is doing. Little does she know the hells gate that is about to be opened once I start producing my recombinant protein, vaccination trials, histopath slide preparation, and autopsy. I mean she and I has a completely different thesis. I know her supervisor does not agree with what my professor is doing and I know by heart my professor does not agree with what my friends thesis is about.

Well only time can tell right, whose thesis is more valuable. The race is on sistah.. we will see who does better...

(nothing like a friendly rivalry between friends right ;) )

Most of you will probably think, that I look crazy or mad. Has the stress gotten to budlee? some may ask..

It's 1.17am and I am still perky and cheeky with no sense of sleepiness.

Its because of this coffee, I ran out of coffee in the lab, so I need to restocked my supplies. I have my Old Town at home but Red packet Nescafe 3 in 1 taste so plain. I wanted to try this type of Nescafe added with Tongkat Ali and ginseng. It taste great, I guess to mask the herbs that they added they need to amke the coffee taste more appealing.

I was up looking at my yeast expression system to produce my recombinant protein. I finally found the correct one and I brought all the information I that my supervisor need to design the right kind of primer. She wants the genomic DNA profiling by next week, so I need to prepare.

From UPM to IMR

My master research involves parasites that can live inside white mice. White mice is a great host for T. gondii because the parasites can replicate quickly inside the mice. The problem thing is the mice died before I could transfer it to another mice. So terpaksa buat muka kesian and go back to IMR :(

I used the world most expensive longkang AKA the SMART tunnel. I can get to IMR from UPM a lot faster using this tunnel.

As you can see, I was really bummed out because my parasite died and I had to beg from IMR to give me a second sample. I also had to drive all the way to KL meredah traffic for that beloved parasites.

Parking in IMR is horrbile and there is not many of them . See how terribly I park.

Its because my car is too long for that particular parking space, argh how I wish I have the Smart Cabriolet, so what to do, parking mcm nih meh :p

Then I was happy..why???

I got these babies.. these cute white mice..:)

They are loaded with the T.gondii parasites so I can have my T.gondii collection again. I heard IMR and myself are the only people in Malaysia who has this particular strain of T.gondii.

Somemore when I returned to UPM, this truck blocked my path. If you look closely it seem this long trailer turn a bit to wide and cannot go through the corner

The day before tomorrow..

bYah today was a relatively normal day, but I had to make appointment with my lecturer to check the viability of my toxoplasma in my mice. The results were dissapointing. NO MORE PARASITE :(...

This so called "macho cute" pose was actually a diversion of the nice clouds in the background :)

The dead one.. it got infected with bacteria not parasites :(..

A funeral for the mice..... just the mice not the whole cage :D

Suprise me... there was a catfish inside the store where they stored the shovel.

Mice infected with Plasmodium brugei a rodent type malaria, used to study anti malaria medicine.

Lapor and bored and thinking about mice.

It was a nice and sunny day kat golf, so pleasant to eat. Too bad tetiba so many people came to eat. My order came quite late.

Work, blog or study.. choices I have to make each day :D

Klinik was empty today

Empty and yet I have to wait for so long.

Went out today to get my fave magazine, sunblock for CNY activity and medicine. People told me I made sounds when I breath, the doctor say my sinuses are blocked. If it does not get well I have to seen an Ear, Throat , Nose specialist..

Till Death Do Us Part

Some title right... Till Death Do Us Part, well my master project is something like that. I will stick to it till I can finish it or until death disables me from finishing it. It was an okay day for me, nothing new, just eating lots of mandarin oranges that the suppliers gave to the lab. I will have great skin and clear intestinal tract from eating too many of these mandarin oranges :D...

Just some of the catalogues that the supplier gave me so that I can order some equipments or chemicals from them.

Ah the library fine, I always seem to forget to return this particular book on time because I read it a lot.

Ladies and gentlemen this is my future, one of the mice that refuse to die after I inoculated it with my Toxoplasma gondii parasites. DIE DAMMIT DIE, or I will die from losing the parasites :(

You think DSLR camera are cool, try my digital camera microscope. These crescent shaped or half circle shape protozoa are my T. gondi in saline after I extracted it from the mice peritoneal. I then inject these protozoa into another mice, so that these protozoa will replicate. I used the mice as something to hold the parasites and replicated it. Something like a TESCO and Photostat machine.

Unluckily the mice gave birth to these pups.

Why unlucky you might say, its because I have to much already...

and more pups are coming out... I don't have enough space for them. I try to separate them but somehow some males managed to get mixed in, or maybe the mice undergoes pathogenesis. I have way to many of them, killing them is not merciful because they will die with out a cause, if I used them as experiments they will die while contributing to man kind. If you think these mice are cute, wait for the guinea pigs and rabbits...

What is this??? Nothing just trying the manual mode of my camera, I think I used ISO 400and white balanced using the high fluorescent mode along with macro mode.