Ride Along

Salvete omnes,

I would like to apologize (again! I know...) for not posting more often. I've been very busy between school, rescue squad, and various projects for school. This week I had to wire several IC chips on a breadboard for a digital LED display board. I first had to figure out the message that I wanted, then I had to draw out the K-maps for it and simplify the Boolean expression, which needless to say, is not so fun. It turns out that the project required 10 IC chips (7404, 7408, 7411, 7427, 7432) as well as a 555 timer. That was an absolute nightmare and to make matters worse, the teacher didn't allow us to wire the breadboard normally. We had to make each wire flush to the breadboard and at perfect 90 degree angles (which kind of ruins the point of a breadboard). I keep seeing wires everywhere now, I must be hallucinating.

As for the title of this post, I have a friend that is about to do a ride along tomorrow. That's going to be interesting. She wants to be a doc too, so it'll be a good experience for her at least. I have absolute confidence in her.

I'll post more later. Right now it's dinner time!

Medical News:

Coffee Consumption Linked To Increased Risk Of Heart Attack

'Individuals who have a genetic variation associated with slower caffeine metabolism appear to have an increased risk of non-fatal heart attack associated with higher amounts of coffee intake, according to a study in the March issue of JAMA.

It is not clear whether caffeine alone affects the risk of heart attack or whether other chemicals found in coffee may be responsible. Caffeine is metabolized primarily by the enzyme cytochrome P450 1A2 (CYP1A2) in the liver. Variations of the gene for this enzyme can slow or quicken caffeine metabolism. Carriers of the gene variant CYP1A2*1F allele are "slow" caffeine metabolizers, while individuals with the gene variant CYP1A2*1A allele are "rapid" caffeine metabolizers.

"In summary, consistent with most case-control studies, we found that increased coffee intake is associated with an increased risk of nonfatal MI. The association between coffee and MI was found only among individuals with the slow CYP1A2*1F allele, which impairs caffeine metabolism, suggesting that caffeine plays a role in the association," the authors conclude.'

Stay safe everyone,
Bravomedic out.