Today on Daily-Dose-On-Curiosity : ​Why is the medical symbol a snake on a stick?

​Why is the medical symbol a snake on a stick?

The serpent and staff are known as the "Rod of Asclepius". Asklepios is the Greek god of medicine and healing, hence the symbolism. Snakes represented rejuvenation in those days. Many mistakes the caduceus (a short staff with two snakes and a winged tip) for the symbol of medicine, or they call the staff of Asklepios the caduceus.

Image by Maicon Fonseca Zanco from Pixabay

The caduceus is the symbol or Hermes (Roman = Mercury) the messenger and symbolizes travel, trade, etc. That may not be all, but some of the confusion dates back to the 1920's when the US Army mistakenly used the Caduceus used for their medical staff.

How exactly does the sun provide us with vitamin D?

It is a myth that sunlight provides us with vitamin D or that vitamin D is present in sunlight. The fact is that vitamin D is synthesized in plants, animals, and humans in the presence of sunlight. There are two types of vitamin D: vitamin D2 (ergocalciferol), found in plants, including ergot and fungi, and vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol), found in animals. Vitamin D2 (ergocalciferol) and vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) are synthesized from sunlight in the presence of ultraviolet (UV) light as follows.

Image by Silvia from Pixabay

In plants, ergocalciferol (vitamin D2) is derived from UV exposure to ergosterol (a type of sterol found in plants). When animal and human skin is exposed to sunlight, cholecalciferol (vitamin D3) is produced in the skin by exposure to UV rays of 7-dehydrocholesterol (a type of cholesterol found in animals and humans). Sunlight triggers the first of three chemical reactions that convert an inactive compound in the skin into active vitamin D. Ultraviolet B rays from the sun convert a natural precursor of vitamin D in the skin, 7-dehydrocholesterol, into vitamin D3. This travels to the liver where it is converted to
25-hydroxyvitamin D by adding oxygen and hydrogen to vitamin D3.

Doctors test this intermediate and still inactive form of vitamin D in your blood to determine your vitamin D status. The final activation of 25-hydroxyvitamin D occurs in the kidneys where more oxygen and hydrogen molecules are attached to 25-hydroxyvitamin D and converted it to its active form known as 1,25 dihydroxyvitamin D or calcitriol.

So there you have it for today's
#Daily-Dose-On-Curiosity, Tomorrow is another section, stay tuned!

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