HEALTH AND WELLNESS

                                                                                 WHAT ARE ARVs? In a healthy person, helper T cells stimulate or activate the immune system to attack infections. HIV particularly targets these helper T cells. It uses the cells to replicate itself, weakening and destroying helper T cells until the immune system is seriously compromised. Antiretroviral drugs [ARVs] disrupt this replication process. Currently, four main types of ARVs are administered. NUCLEOSIDE ANALOGUES and NON-NUCLEOSIDE ANALOGUES prevent HIV from copying itself onto a person’s DNA. PROTE...

At the Central Market o Lilongwe, Malawi, Grace sells luxury shoes. She appears happy and healthy. Her cheerful smile, though, hide a tragic story. In 1993, Grace and her husband were overjoyed at the birth of their daughter, Timmy. At the outset, Timmy seemed to be in good health. Yet, she soon stopped gaining weight and contracted one infection after another. At the age of three, Timmy died from AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome). A few years later. Grace’s husband also began to get sick. One day he collapsed and was taken to the hospital. Doctors could not save him. Grace’s husband of eight years died of AIDS-related complications.   Grace now lives alone in a one-room house in the suburbs of Lilongwe. One might expect that at 30 years of age, Grace would be beginning to rebuild her life. She, however, explains: “I have got HIV so I will not get married or have any more children.” HIV, or human immunodeficiency virus, is understood to be the virus th...

                         OUR BODY: A COLLECTION OF MICROSCOPIC CHAINS Have you ever thought of your body as a collection of microscopic chains? Perhaps not. But in reality, “at the level of its smallest relevant components,” says the book The Way Life Works, life employs “THE CHAIN AS ITS ORGANIZING PRINCIPLE.” For that reason, just a small defect in some of these chains can have a MAJOR impact on our health. What are these chains? How do they function? And how do they relate to our health and well-being? Basically, they are chainlike molecules that fall into TWO main categories. The molecules we will consider in this article are the PROTEINS. The others are the molecules that STORE and TRANSMIT genetic information –DNA and RNA. Of course, the two groups are INTIMATELY related. In fact, one key function of DNA and RNA is to produce life’s vast array o...