Health Claims As Verified by Dr JB Lim

The blogger’s note: Appended below are some health-related claims as verified by Dr JB Lim from his expert medical knowledge as received on Friday, 23 September, 2011 3:32 AM.Claims:
People who ride on roller coasters have a higher chance of having a blood clot in the brain.

Comments:
This may be possible because blood may gravitate, form occlusion and thrombosis within the cerebral vessels to the brain. This may even cause edema (fluid accumulation) and an elevated ICP (Intracranial Pressure) due to transient accumulation of CFS (Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), within the skull. He might lose consciousness due to rapid changes in accelerations, gravitational forces, blood flow to the brain.

Claims:
Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria in your ear By 700 times.

Comments:
This depends on the initial bacterial load of the headphone itself. Second, whether or not the headphone is passed on from person-to-person. Third, it is not possible for the bacteria to get inside the external auditory canal, let alone into the middle and inner ear where it can cause otitis media (ear infection). Hence this claim here is not entirely medically or microbiologically correct.

Claims:
Our nose is our personal air-conditioning system: it warms cold air, cools hot air and filters impurities.

Comments:
Correct.

Claims:
Our brain is more complex than the most powerful computer and has over 100 billion nerve cells.

Comments:
Very true.

Claims:
When a person dies, hearing is usually the first sense to go.

Comments:
It is difficult to know this, because a dying person would slip into unconsciousness just before he dies. There is no way an unconscious and dying person will tell you what in which order his / her senses are going…1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th…? Is this some kind of a last minute joke coming from a dying person? You will never know how he / she feels as he / she is struggling and is dying. He /she will not speak or tell you anything.

Claims:
The animal responsible for the most human deaths world-wide is the mosquito.

Comments:
Yes, this is very true. There are many diseases borne by the bite of mosquitoes. They are prevalent in over 100 countries, infecting an estimated 300-500 million people and causing about 1-2 million deaths each year. In India alone, nearly 50 million people are victims of mosquito borne diseases every year.

The most common disease spread by mosquitoes is malaria, with filaria, dengue, and now the Chikungunya virus in Malaysia, with brain and yellow fever more common in African countries. The brain fever is the neuroinvasive West Nile virus disease that causes the brain swelling (encephalitis). Some of these diseases caused by mosquito’s bites are more prevalent in the jungle of Africa and South America.

Claims:
The only part of the body that has no blood supply is the cornea in the eye.

Comments:
Yes, this is entirely true.

Claims:
It (the cornea) takes in oxygen directly from the air.

Comments:
No, this is not true. The cornea is has to be kept transparent and free from blood vessel from blocking it so that light can pass through it into the retina. However, the cornea is a living tissue, and hence it has to be kept alive with fluid, oxygen and nutrient. Since it has no blood vessel to carry oxygen, nutrient and fluid (water) to bathe, oxygenate and nourish the cornea constantly, the only way it can do this is through the tears which carries all three (oxygen, nutrient and biological fluid) to keep the cornea alive.

A lot of information from the Internet falsely claims that the way the eye gets oxygen is from the air. If this is so, what about the biological fluid (tears) and what about all the essential nutrients (glucose, amino acids, vitamins, trace minerals, etc) which the eyes and cornea also need to keep them alive?

Air may contain oxygen, but what about all the nutrients which air do not have. What about sufficient water (not just some moisture even in the most humid air), but sufficient water to bathe the eyes constantly with tears until some people can cry with tears dropping down. Air does not have so much water to supply the eyes constantly.

So the only physiological way is for the eyes to be constantly bathed by tears from the lachrymal glands. The tears in turn carry a B group of vitamin called riboflavin (vitamin B2) that acts as a carrier of oxygen via a mediated transport mechanism for the riboflavin (vitamin B2) plus oxygen to be carried across to the membrane where it releases the oxygen through the fluid (tears) to bathe and supply the transparent cornea with oxygen.

That is why, when a person suffers from vitamin B2 (riboflavin) deficiency, his eyes become watery (lacrimation) because the body tries to compensate for the lack of vitamin B2 (which carries the oxygen in its transport system) by increasing the flow of tears to the eyes. That is why he tears and ‘cries’ so easily. It is as simple as that – only if a professional explains this to others. However, it actually involves a very complicated ‘transport pump’ mechanism which only a highly qualified medical biochemist specializing in this area can understand.

Furthermore, if the riboflavin deficiency is severe enough, he will also show up a sign in his eyes, what we called ‘circumcorneal injection’. This is a very smart word which my late professor, Prof. John Yudkin at the University of London who taught us postgraduate doctors this in 1965. I still remember this word very well even though he taught us a long time ago.

Sometimes this is also called ‘circumcorneal vasculation’. This means when the oxygen is insufficient due to riboflavin deficiency, there will be an increase in the flow of tears carrying whatever riboflavin that is left with the oxygen tagged on to it, to keep the cornea alive. The body has no choice but to invade the cornea all round its circumference with blood vessels just to supply it with oxygen and nutrient. Why not then just get it from the air?

It is not as easy as that to claim that the cornea gets its oxygen supply directly from the air. If it is so easy as that, then there is no more need for the eyes to tear a lot, and the eyes (now) beginning to be invaded forcefully by blood vessels all round (hence the word ‘circumcorneal injection, meaning being injected all round by tiny blood vessels or capillaries. This is also called circumcorneal vasculation. Might as well get it from the air the easy way? Why a patient needs to tear so much and his eyes do get red as the cornea is being invaded all round it.

Under normal circumstances the eyes do not tear (‘cry’) excessively, or becomes red with invading blood vessels all round the cornea. All the eyes need to do is ‘to get the oxygen from the air’ as those idiots in the Internet claim. It is not as easy as that in the first place.

Why not ask thin air to supply the eyes with food (nutrients) and tears (water) as well. To all these morons, maybe they should ask air to supply the whole body with free food and free water as well? Then we can all just live on ‘fresh air alone’. There will be no need to drink and eat any more eh! Stupid, stupid people!

A lot of Internet claims (including this one sent to me) that the cornea must get its oxygen directly from the air, is absolute, complete, and total rubbish to the highest degree of un-professionalism. Only idiots believe in such scientific ‘information’ sent to others from the Internet.

Many of the info from the Internet are true, but there are also a lot of thrash and rubbish dumped into the Internet as well. They are dumped there by people without spelling out their academic and professional credentials. Sorry about being so harsh, sarcastic, frank and direct.

That’s all I need say.

Jew-B Lim