Human physiology is the science of the mechanical, physical, and biochemical functions of humans in good health, their organs, and the cells of which they are composed. The principal level of focus of physiology is at the level of organs and systems. Most aspects of human physiology are closely homologous to corresponding aspects of animal physiology, and animal experimentation has provided much of the foundation of physiological knowledge. Anatomy and physiology are closely related fields of study: anatomy, the study of form, and physiology, the study of function, are intrinsically tied and are studied in tandem as part of a medical curriculum.
New research has identified the mechanisms that trigger disruption in the brain's communication channels linked to symptoms in psychiatric disorders including schizophrenia. The University of Bristol study, published today [17 Aug] in the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences, could have important implications for treating symptoms of brain disorders.
Safety evaluation is a critical part of drug and cosmetic development. In recent years there is a growing understanding that animal experiments fail to predict the human response, necessitating the development of alternative models to predict drug toxicity.
The National Institutes of Health has awarded $2.7 million to the Women's Medicine Collaborative to study the placenta and its function to determine whether changes in the placenta are linked to sleep abnormalities.
Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California kidney researcher Janos Peti-Peterdi is the 2015 recipient of the ASN-AHA Young Investigator Award.
Statins' success in reducing atherosclerosis-related events has elevated the medications to wonder-drug status, with some researchers advocating for their wider use as a preemptive therapy for cardiovascular disease.
Each of your kidneys wears a little yellow cap that helps keep your blood pressure in check, and much more. But in some people, it starts running amok, pumping out a hormone that sends blood pressure sky-high.
Approximately 60 percent of young people habitually skip breakfast up to four times a week, previous research has shown. Although health experts recommend breakfast as a strategy to reduce an individual's chance of obesity, little research has examined if the actual type of breakfast consumed plays a significant role in one's health and weight management.
If the thought of a post workout ice bath is enough to make you shiver, new research from QUT and The University of Queensland (UQ) will warm your heart.
Drugs called ion channel blockers, which are commonly used to treat cardiac, neurological, and psychiatric disorders, might prove useful in cancer therapy, according to research findings in fruit flies and mice by UC San Francisco scientists that led to unconventional treatment of a case of metastatic brain cancer.
Biomarkers are an important part in detecting certain cancers such as the BRCA gene in breast cancer and the PSA antigen in prostate cancer. They are easy to identify in a blood test and can help in diagnosing and giving a prognosis.
Understanding how and why we evolved such large brains is one of the most puzzling issues in the study of human evolution. It is widely accepted that brain size increase is partly linked to changes in diet over the last 3 million years, and increases in meat consumption and the development of cooking have received particular attention from the scientific community.
While most of us worry about the fat cells building up on the fleshy parts of our bodies, scientists have started to pay serious attention to another kind of fat cell deep inside our bones, in what's called the marrow.
Case Western Reserve scientists may have uncovered a molecular mechanism that sets into motion dangerous infection in the feet and hands often occurring with uncontrolled diabetes. It appears that high blood sugar unleashes destructive molecules that interfere with the body's natural infection-control defenses.
Last December, researchers identified more than 1,000 gene mutations in individuals with autism, but how these mutations increased risk for autism was unclear. Now, UNC School of Medicine researchers are the first to show how one of these mutations disables a molecular switch in one of these genes and causes autism.
Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Health System have received a $1.2 million grant from New York State to advance their promising technology for treating paralysis and other effects of spinal cord injuries (SCI).
Our bodies have ten times the amount of microbes than human cells. This set of bacteria is called microbiota. In some instances, bacteria known as pathogens can cause infectious diseases. However, these micro-organisms can also protect us from certain diseases. Researchers from Inserm, Paris Descartes University and the CNRS (French National Centre for Scientific Research), through collaboration with teams from China and Sweden, have recently shown how microbiota protects against the development of type 1 diabetes.
Intra-abdominal fat cells may contribute to the development and progression of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), according to a study published in Cellular and Molecular Gastroenterology and Hepatology, the basic science journal of the American Gastroenterological Association.
By now, the old saw, "You are what you eat," has been well-used in describing the microbiome. However axiomatic that phrase may be, a new study has also found that who and when that consumption is done can affect microbiome make-up.
It takes a surprisingly small cluster of brain cells deep within the cerebellum to learn how to serve a tennis ball or line up a hockey shot. Researchers at McGill University led by Kathleen Cullen from the Department of Physiology have discovered that to learn new motor skills, neurons within the cerebellum engage in elegant, virtually mathematical, computations to quickly compare expected and actual sensory feedback. They then quickly readjust, changing the strength of connections between other neurons to form new patterns in the brain in order to accomplish the task at hand.
Exercise promotes heart health. However, many lifestyle factors cause heart disease, and regular activity may not be enough to prevent heart attacks. A new study in the American Journal of Physiology-Heart and Circulatory Physiology expands on the heart benefits of exercise, investigating whether regular exercise still helps the heart even after a heart attack occurs.
Terms
While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena
answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses.
Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or
authors. We do not provide medical advice, if you search for
medical information you must always consult a medical
professional before acting on any information provided.
Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with
OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their
privacy principles.
Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential
information.
Read the full Terms & Conditions.