HIV Article Response

For years people have struggled with the emotional and physical aspects of HIV. But with modern day technology and medication, people are able to live (for the most part) long and normal lives. Although these medications can lead to a fairly normal life, some recent studies have shown that patients with HIV have similar side-effects as early onset Alzheimer’s. But the big question remains: is it the medication given to help control HIV the problem, or is it HIV itself?  

In the article HIV-related memory loss shares similarity with Alzheimer’s by Katherine Harmon, ideas and evidence are shared that HIV has begun to show similar side effects as early onset Alzheimer’s disease. Although this HIV and Alzheimer’s disease are different conditions, similar connections are being made. For instance both HIV and Alzheimer’s patients exhibit cognitive dysfunction.  In Alzheimer’s disease, the spinal fluid also shows low levels of beta amyloid protein, much like some cases of HIV. However one major difference between the two is that the brain tissue in each disease is significantly different from the other. For example the article states that, when comparing the two brains, the patient with early onset Alzheimer’s disease has excess amount of plaques and tangles characteristics of Alzheimer’s while the patients’ brain with HIV does not. Another controversy mentioned in her article is that the cause of the cognitive dysfunction in HIV may be due to the virus itself or to the antiretroviral drugs to help control the virus. Although this is one interesting point, one scientist noted that cognitive dysfunction has been seen in HIV patients who have not received medical treatment for the virus. This suggests that the virus itself may very well cause the dysfunction. Due to these two controversies further research needs to be done.  

               

  After reading this article, it really solidified how much HIV can impact a person. I always knew that HIV came with harsh side effects, both physically and emotionally, and that people have struggled with it for years. However, I had no idea that HIV could go as far as impacting your memory. Knowing this just increases the importance of my values to stay abstinent until marriage. Though I am often made fun of for this value of mine, I feel better knowing that I am reducing my risk of contracting HIV and that I am keeping myself farther away from a life changing and life threatening disease. 

To read the article please click here.

Cloning

The Shakespearean Approach to Love

In our current high speed, non-stop daily lives we find it hard to  even get just a minute or two to sit down and eat, so how are people expected to spend time working on relationship problems? If only there was a simple way to fix those problems. Well according to scientists, there may soon be an easy fix to “solving troubles of the heart.”

In the article Love Potions Could Soon Help Soothe the Pains of Romance by Ian Sample, Sample talks about how scientists have been coming up with a “potion” to help people fall back into love. According to Larry Young, “greater understanding of the brain chemistry of love has revealed hormones that could be given to couples to rekindle faded passions or diminish problematic feelings.” He also states that “scientists are close to reducing the mental state of love to a biochemical chain of events, paving the way for powerful new treatments for the lovelorn.”  This potion would use two hormones, oxytocin and vasopressin which have been found to be crucial in creating a close bond with another person.  Even though the potion has still not been created, scientists hope to create it soon to help couples who are struggling. Although this might sound ideal and perfect for relationship problems, how do we know it works? We don’t. There is no proof that this will work. Even if it does work, there is no evidence proving that you will be attracted to the same person. So why spend all this time trying to create it. The answer is simple: it will give us an easy way to find and maintain love.

One thing I will take away from this article is how people are so unwilling to work for something they want. In our society, people nowadays are getting so used to just getting what they ask for or always having an easy access to what they need/want so that when the time comes for them to actually have to work for something they easily give up. Although I am still very young and am not some marital counselor, one thing I have noticed is that people have to work for love. It is not something that just can just take a “potion” for and it will be fixed. It is something people spend years to find and something they spend years to perfect. And although it doesn’t always work out, it is that one thing that keeps us as humans going. So I feel that no matter what scientists think and say, you can’t force someone to love you; you have to work for it. No potion is going to help.

To read this article, click here.