• Question: what is the most interesting thing you know about disease in the human body?

    Asked by anon-351930 on 14 Mar 2023.
    • Photo: Edward Guy

      Edward Guy answered on 14 Mar 2023: last edited 14 Mar 2023 12:14 am

      Sickle cell anaemia is a genetic disease where our red blood cells collapse due to low oxygen levels. BUT, humans evolved sickle cell anaemia to combat an infectious disease, malaria. The malaria parasite lives in healthy red blood cells but in patients with sickle cell trait, the malaria parasite causes the red blood cell it is living in, to collapse as it uses up some of the oxygen. Therefore, humans have evolved one disease (sickle cell) to fight off another (malaria)!

    • Photo: Oyin Olotu

      Oyin Olotu answered on 14 Mar 2023: last edited 14 Mar 2023 12:53 am

      There is an effect called the placebo effect. People with diseases or health issues can take something that is not a medicine for example a sugar tablet and technically it should have no effect on their disease because it is not an active medicine (it’s just sugar) and it will have an effect and make the person feel better because they believe and think it is working

    • Photo: John Clark-Corrigall

      John Clark-Corrigall answered on 15 Mar 2023:

      One of the bacteria I work with was isolated by a german doctor from a soldier during world war 1 who didn’t get dysentery whilst his company mates all did. It turned out that a bacteria in the healthy soldier’s gut protected against dysentery. It’s been available on the market as a probiotic supplement since 1954 in europe.
      I think it’s really cool that there’s people walking around that have potentially unique bacteria that prevent them from getting some disease!

      Ed’s malaria & sickle cell anaemia is probably the best example that comes to mind. And I hadn’t even considered Oyin’s placebo effect but that’s such a cool example. There’s loads of these examples which are really interesting.

Comments