Controlling blood glucose is an example of negative feedback. No it's not insulting the way the pancreas looks. Goodness, we're not in middle school. Sheesh. Okay so negative feedback is when the body has to change conditions to keep something in a narrow field. So it corrects things, it stops processes from continuing. Whereas positive feedback compliments your new scarf. Hehem. It encourages a process to continue. 

High levels of blood glucose 

Glucose levels cannot go higher than around 110 something or others (I can't remember test units if you can't tell...). So your hypothalamus carefully monitors this. If it senses too much glucose it signals the pancrease's beta cells to produce insulin. The insulin encourages the muscles and the liver to take up glucose. The glucose can then be used for cellular respiration. The glucose absorbed by the liver is converted in to the storage polysaccharide glycogen. 

Low levels of blood glucose (sugar)

On the flip side, too low blood sugar is also undesirable. So your hypothalamus signals your pancreas again (it's a busy little fellow). This time it makes the alpha cells, in the pancreas, produce glucagon. Glucagon then stimulates the liver to break down some of its glycogen storage into glucose. This glucose can then be released into the blood stream, thus increasing blood sugar. Problem solved. 

Be nice to your pancreas, it works hard. Every day. You should try it sometime. Kidding. But seriously try and do something  productive, we'll all thank you. 

Keep reading folks

Tea: Lipton's caffeine free Mint tea (pretty good, need to get a new box this is my last tea bag)

Alrighty then. Let us begin. Glycolysis occurs in the cytoplasm of your cells. Not the mitochondria. Cytoplasm. Glycolysis occurs in all organisms, whether or not they undergo aerobic or anaerobic respiration, so that's cool.

It starts off with glucose, which is a 6 carbon molecule.
Glucose is then phosphorylated by two ATP molecules, making fructose 1,6 bisphosphate (still a 6 carbon molecule). 
This is a highly unstable molecule and thus splits into two 3 carbon molecules called glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate (G3P for short).
This splitting process is called lysis.
Once all this has occurred there is an even more wordier and lengthier process whereby the two G3P molecules are oxidized, involving ATP synthesis and the reduction of NAD+ (coenzyme).
Both of the G3P molecules are oxidized forming a NADH (reduced NAD+).
The released energy of the forming of this coenzyme is used to add another phosphate to each of the G3P molecules.
Leaving us with a G3P molecule with two attached phosphates each.
Our busy friends, the enzymes, now remove all four of the phosphate groups and add them to four ADP molecules, to form ATP.
We are now left with pyruvate, whoopee.

This is only the beginning... Brace yourselves, it's going to get more complicated.

Now on to those who need to know this for school, or this is a controversial idea, actually find this interesting, I will try to explain inspiration and expiration. 

Hint: Itty-bitty blood vessel makes another appearance. Again, if you haven't read my past article about this, let me reiterate that I actually mean capillary. Please don't call capillaries, itty-bitty blood vessels on anything of importance.

Moving on. So inspiration and expiration are absolutely vital (and I don't mean this in the hyperbolic way that this word is often used), without these two processes, you would be dead. Literally. Not figuratively. Literally. Why? Well these are the two mechanisms involved in breathing. You know the thing you do so you get oxygen? Kind of important when you think about it. Another use? Well during cellular respiration (I will cover this later) we produce CO2 (sorry I don't have a subscript key). You should know carbon dioxide is kinda toxic to your body. So it's a tad necessary to get rid of it. This is also accomplished by our friend expiration. I just noticed how similar the word friend and fiend are. I better remember my r's... 

I'm sure you are all dying to know how it works at this point. *crickets* 

Anyway. There are five (I believe) mechanisms that are involved in inspiration. Yes, there are also five in expiration, but patience young grasshopper. Hold your horses, etc. etc. 

Numero uno. Your external intercostal muscles (located near the ribs) contract, stretching out, thus pushing out your rib cage. At the same time your diaphragm contracts. This means that it extends downwards. Finally one set of abdominal muscles also contract.

So what does all this contracting accomplish? No. It does not accomplish overpopulation. Goodness. It means the volume in your lungs has increased. And what do we know about the relationship between volume and pressure? 

Come on people. Say it all together. They are inverse to each other. So as the volume in the thoracic cavity increases the pressure decreases. Good. I'm glad we've gotten this sorted. 

And since pressure has decreased, well, surprise surprise, so has the pressure on the lung tissue. Gasp. Yes I know. It's true. Radical. 

What happens next you ask in fascination? Well. I'll tell you. Maybe. Yes. Okay. Well, a partial vacuum is created. No not the thing you clean your floor with, trust me I've had a 20 minute conversation with someone about vacuums, all the while they thought I was talking about the household appliance, when in reality I was talking about black holes... Anywho, partial vacuum created.

Now, with this partial vacuum created, air from the outside world with flood in through your nasal passages, and/or mouth. Because, well gases moves from areas of high pressure to low pressure. And as I hope I've made clear, there is a lower pressure in the lungs. 

Pfew. We're done. I think I neglected numbers after número uno. Well, I'm hoping you can figure it out... More to come soon. 

Anyway, I was watching this character, and I could not for the life of me figure out why I recognized him. Suffice it to say my aha moment was quite fufilling. Slowly I thought to myself, Gilmore Girls. Then I thought, Dean? Then I thought, no way. Then I thought oh that other guy! I believe his name was Jess? Well. That's that. Just thought I'd share.

labeled for reuse on flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/bagogames/17214773856

Labeled for reuse on flickr

Spoilers FYI.

Honestly though, if your looking this stuff up, you must realize there will be spoilers. So in the future expect no warnings from me. Not going to happen. We are mature enough to predict the consequences of clicking on articles/blog posts about series. 

So since everything is sort of muddled in my brain, forgive me if this is covering multiple episodes. Well, what are you gonna do?

First we find out Thea dies.

And then she doesn't...?

But so she didn't die, Oliver becomes Raz... 

Well. I guess it was unexpected, then again it's the league of assassins. If they want someone, they get them. No matter what the cost.

So now that Oliver is in training with the league he has essential become a cold hearted animal. Pleasant. The latest episode (that I have watched) was painful to watch, to put it lightly. We see a character with dark undertones, become that very darkness itself. 

I'll be interested to see where he ends up. 

In most of the population (unless you have haemophilia) when you cut yourself, eventually your blood clots and you stop bleeding. This is quite a vital mechanism, considering how valuable our blood is. Without the process of blood clotting, you could literally die from a papercut (yes I mean literally, not figuratively). 

So, how does it work? Well first you need a cut. If you bleed, that means some of the itty-bitty blood vessels (called capillaries) have been damaged. Side not: please don't call them itty-bitty blood vessels on a formal assessment. These itty-bitty blood vessels will send chemical messages, essentially shouting to your body that they have a boo-boo. Uncle platelet, will soon hear their screaming and make his way to the damaged blood vessels. Uncle platelet, is made up of fragmented cell parts produced in the blood marrow. These little cell parts with then try and create a plug to stop blood from exiting your body. Uncle platelet and itty-bitty blood vessel will then continue screamin (via chemical messages), letting your body that it still needs help. The chemical messages with cause prothrombin (protein) to break down into thrombin (enzyme). Thrombin is an enzyme for the transformation of fibrinogen to fibrin. So, as enzymes like doing, they will catalyze this reaction. Fibrin can then float on over to your boo-boo, and create a mesh. Viola, you are no longer dying from a paper-cut. Unless you have haemophilia, in which case, sorry...

Although this story may not have a happy ending, it gives me great hope. While reading it I couldn't help feeling the utmost respect and admiration for these fishermen. Unfortunately there aren't too many people out there, like them. But their actions mean all is not lost.