So this is a 350+ follower special (it’s absolutely crazy that I’ve gained this many followers in under the first month of being live on Instagram!) Thank you to everyone for your support and I hope to be bringing you interesting content during the next year or so. So why exactly did I want to call this blog the Biomed Water Cooler? The ‘Biomed’ part mostly because I am an aspiring biomedical scientist / researcher . Granted, it is a bit of an odd name (to say the least!), but the whole point was to generate short 10-15 minute reads that would strike up a casual conversation with your colleagues at your nearest water cooler! But what exactly is the notion of ‘water cooler talk? What are the benefits and drawbacks to it? Let’s discuss this a bit further…   So gossip (or to use the precise term – reputational information sharing) is usually associated with negative connotations – and rightfully so, it can have negative societal implications. But several studi...

Discovered in late 1907 by Alois Alzheimer, Alzheimer’s disease manifests in approximately 7.7 million cases per year and is a causative factor for 60% to 70% of dementia cases and according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). Although the speed of development of Alzheimer’s can vary between individuals, the average life expectancy for a patient following diagnosis is roughly three to nine years.   Alzheimer’s disease (AD) affects the hippocampus and causes atrophy. This atrophy leads to cognitive decline and results in impaired long term potentiation (LTP), a decrease in synaptic strength. The way AD is caused is by misprocessing of the amyloid precursor protein (APP). This protein changes shape and thus, cannot function effectively, leading to amyloid plaques accumulating outside neurones. It is unknown as to how AD arises but the common understanding is that APP is said to be transcribed and translated improperly, creating a different version of the protein called beta amy...

Approximately 1 in 4 people will experience a mental health condition during their lifetime and currently, over 7 million people in England are diagnosed with major depressive disorder (MDD). Despite these numbers, there is still a stigma around mental health disorders that exist, due to a lack of education and awareness. There are many different therapies and medications available to treat certain mental health conditions, however, these are over-prescribed and as a result, are losing their effectiveness. So what makes an MDD individual suffer on a biochemical level? Hormonal imbalances are the main reason and the most important hormone that controls one’s mood is serotonin.  Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that has a plethora of effects on various systems within the body. A lack of production can lead to several types of depression, hence why most medications aim to prevent reuptake of serotonin back into the nerve terminals from which they were released. The most common of th...