Let me introduce myself to you!!

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St. Kitts & Nevis
I'm a physician doctor with an MD degree. My passion for teaching has always been appreciated by students with whom I have shared my knowledge. I'm a passionate teacher of medical biochemistry and would like to share my knowledge about this beautiful subject with all those who is interested to learn to understand the cellular metabolic events and to understand the metabolic disease process. I would like to learn new things by keeping myself updated with current research in the field. Let us share the knowledge each other!!

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Today's Question (18th September, 2013) - Dr Prakash Mungli, MD., All rights reserved.

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Today's question (September 12, 2013) - Dr Prakash Mungli, MD (all rights reserved)


Explanation to one of my Facebook group question on osteogenesis imperfecta

Please take a look at my Youtube video on explaining question on osteogeneis imperfecta and other related disorders.

You can share your questions or comments below.

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Today's Question (May 15th, 2013) - Dr Prakash Mungli



BOHR SHIFT - BRIEF REVIEW

Bohr shift is basically an explanation for the transport of O2 from alveoli of lungs to peripheral tissues and transport of CO2 in the form of bicarbonate (H+ and HCO3) from peripheral tissue to the alveoli of lungs.

In lungs under high partial pressure of O2, Hb in RBC loads O2 and becomes oxygenated, when RBCs reach peripheral tissues where the partial pressure of O2 is less and CO2 is more and hence O2 is released.

The mechanism how the O2 is loaded onto Hb in lungs and how O2 is released in peripheral tissues in the presence of high CO2 is explained in my YouTube video below. Take a look at it to understand the mechanism. If you have any questions or comments, drop it in the comments section below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yf321BoP2jA




Thursday, May 9, 2013

Thursday, April 11, 2013

EXPLAINING ONE OF THE KAPLAN BIOCHEMISTRY QUESTION FOR STEP-1

Here is the Kaplan Biochemistry question on Pompe disease, in the process of answering this question I tried to explain other disease related to question option. Check it out by watching the YouTube video below.



If you have any question, ask me as a comment below. You can also take a look at my YouTube channel for more biochemistry related videos.

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Answering one of the Kaplan questions on carnitine!!!

In the video below I tried to answer one of the questions from Kaplan on carnitine. Play the video below to know the details.
Should you have any questions, please dont hesitate to drop me a question either by leaving it in the comments area or shoot me an e-mail!!

Friday, March 8, 2013

Why regular consumption of carbohydrate rich diet makes you fatty????!!!

Most of us do care about how we look physically, we do and try every thing that we can (although some do it religiously and some once in a while) to be physically fit and look good!!! Ideally optimum balanced diet and regular exercise will maintain the normal weight but some times it becomes difficult to follow this.There may various reasons for this but most important and most common reason for not keeping up with regular exercise is that inherently we are lazy!! 

Despite being too lazy one can still maintain the normal body weight by just watching what they eat!! Eating too much of carbs will make one put on weight like a chicken and look like a hippo!! Why eating too much of carbs makes us fatty!!! its because of the following biochemical reasons!!

When we take too much of carbs, our blood glucose will shoot up and will lead to increased release of insulin. Insulin is an anabolic hormone and it will make all that is possible to conserve this glucose in the form of glycogen and fat in our body. The intention behind this is good!! The reason that insulin will help to store excess glucose as glycogen and fat is to create reserve energy in case when person gets into fasting and starvation.

This idea of storing when available plenty was well suited for our ancestors from hunter-gatherer era. In this era when the availability of food is plenty (of-course for those who are more fortunate compared to the people in third world countries where they suffer from malnutrition (read under nutrition). More fortunate person is the one who look like hippo when they don't really care how much they eat and what they eat!!

Insulin released in response to high glucose will keep all the necessary enzymes active so that glucose is converted to glycogen. When the glycogen stores are full, it will convert glucose to acetyl CoA which will be converted to fatty acids. This process occurs predominantly in the liver and the fatty acids are transported to other tissues including adipose tissue. Glucose can also be converted to acetyl CoA and converted to fatty acids in the adipose tissue. 

So excess carbs beyond the body energy needs are converted to fatty acids and these fatty acids in the liver and adipose tissue will be converted to triacylglycerol (TAG) and predominately stored in adipose tissue beneath the skin (white adipose tissue). Continuous accumulation of this TAG in adipose tissue without any utilization (because person is too lazy to burn!!) will lead to obesity. This is the reason why when a person consumes high carbs without much activity will look like a hippo!!

So idea is to limit the carbs in the diet and being conscious about what we eat. Following a simple rule of diet, high protein low carb low fat with lot of vegetables and fruits will keep our weight in check!!!  Hope this helps you to shed that extra pound and make you look good and fit!! 

Thank you for your time and you are most welcome to leave your concise criticism and comments!!

Friday, March 1, 2013

Transporter of O2 in human body: Who is it?????

Ever wonder why we breath in and breath out!!!! Yeah I know you think I'm crazy asking this stupid question!! Yes my question seems stupid but actually it is not!! Recently I came across an interesting calculation about what if we would have purchased oxygen (O2) to breath in to survive!!! Just like we buy gasoline for our cars or cooking gas or electricity for daily needs, just in case if we would have purchased O2 for our daily needs, it would have costed 1 million US $ from birth to 65 years of age!!! Interesting is it!!! Fortunately we are getting it for free!! We owe much to Mother Nature!! Any how, I will get back to my today's topic.

From the time we took our first breath till the time we stop breathing we continue to consume O2. Do you know why we breath and where this O2 goes??!!! Let me explain. The O2 we inspire from atmosphere is carried from our lungs alveoli and delivered to billions and billions of cells in our body!! What these cells will do from this O2??

The O2 delivered will be used by these cells in what is known as "electron transport chain" which is located in the inner mitochondrial membrane of the cells which contain mitochondria. This means some of our cells do not contain mitochondria and do not run electron transport chain. Why most of our cells run electron transport chain in mitochondria?? This is because by running electron transport chain they synthesis what is known as "ATPs" in mitochondria. ATPs are "energy currency" in our body and our cells will trade ATPs for some of the process that they conduct. This is the reason why mitochondria in our cells are referred as "power house" of our cells.

Now who will deliver O2 from the lungs to the peripheral cells (to cells out side the lungs)? The transporter of this O2 from the lungs to the peripheral cells is "hemoglobin" which is present in red blood cells (RBC). Hemoglobin is a tetramer composed of four subunits (two alpha and two beta) and each subunit has one heme group and hence hemoglobin molecule has four heme groups. Each heme group in hemoglobin will bind to one O2 molecule and hence one hemoglobin molecule will bind four O2 molecules.

When our RBCs present in pulmonary vasculature (lung blood vessels), because lungs have higher partial pressure of O2 (PO2) hence O2 loads on to heme groups of hemoglobin. While loading of O2 on to hemoglobin, each subunits in hemoglobin will exhibit a phenomenon referred as "cooperativity"!! Means each subunit will help each other to load O2!!

The hemoglobin loaded with O2 will leave the lungs and run across the vasculature of the peripheral tissue where the PO2 is less and concentration of proton (H+) is more. This leads to unloading of O2 in the peripheral tissue and the O2 is taken up by the peripheral cells to run the electron transport chain to produce ATPs!!

Now imagine what will happen if hemoglobin stops bringing O2 from the lungs!!! The peripheral cells will not get O2 to run the electron transport chain to make ATPs. This lack of ATPs will make these cells to unable to trade some of these process which needs ATPs. Hence the cellular process will be affected and that ends the life of the cell as well as the human body!!!

I tried to explain the complicated process of O2 transport in our body in simple words. There is much molecular details for O2 transport and delivery to the peripheral tissues but at the end the result is what I have explained above.

For more details from me on oxygen transport function of hemoglobin and on electron transport chain you can visit my YouTube channel from the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/user/pmungli

You are most welcome to leave your thoughts, comments, questions or any other thing that you would like to express.

Thursday, February 28, 2013

WHY HIGH PROTEIN LOW CARB LOW FAT DIET HELPS TO LOSE WEIGHT!!!

In my previous blog I have discussed about why long term fasting or starving is a unhealthy way of losing weight. In this blog I would like to discuss why HIGH PROTEIN LOW CARB LOW FAT DIET is a healthy way of losing weight!!

When a person follows HIGH PROTEIN LOW CARB LOW FAT DIET, low carbohydrate content in the diet will not provide sufficient glucose needed by the cells specially for red blood cells and neurons. These cells are heavily dependent on glucose for their metabolic needs. When there is no sufficient glucose available from diet this leads to low blood glucose level which decreases insulin (hypoglycemic hormone) and increases glucagon (hyperglycemic hormone).

Elevated glucagon will try to maintain the normal blood glucose level. Generally glucagon will initially breakdown glycogen stored in the liver to release glucose into blood stream. Since the person on HIGH PROTEIN LOW CARB LOW FAT DIET will have minimal glycogen stores because to maintain sufficient glycogen stores one need to consume carbohydrate rich diet. So when glycogen stores are minimal in a person who follow HIGH PROTEIN LOW CARB LOW FAT DIET so the next source of glucose for glucagon is the protein!!

Generally under prolonged fasting conditions and during starvation glucagon will breakdown skeletal muscle protein and release amino acids. Most of these amino acids will be converted to amino acid alanine and get converted glucose by a process called gluconeogenesis!! Now the point here is when a person is on HIGH PROTEIN LOW CARB LOW FAT DIET the protein required for this gluconeogenesis under the influence of glucagon will be provided by the dietary protein. This will spare skeletal muscle protein being degraded!! So dietary protein is converted glucose by gluconeogenesis in the liver and released into the blood stream which will be used by red blood cells and neurons.

Now how this will help to burn fat from adipose tissue and help to lose weight!! To make one glucose molecule from protein derived amino acid alanine liver cell needs 6 ATPs!! Liver cell will get these ATPs from the electron transport chain which will use reducing equivalents like NADH + H and FADH2. Majority of these NADH+ H and FADH2 will come from fatty acid oxidation.

When a person is on HIGH PROTEIN LOW CARB LOW FAT DIET so there is less fatty acid coming from the diet hence to meet energy needs for gluconeogenesis fatty acids from adipose tissue will be utilized. How adipose tissue will release its fatty acids stored as triglycerides? Note that under low glucose conditions glucagon that is released apart from keeping gluconeogenesis process active will also break adipose tissue (lipolysis) by activating an enzyme called hormone sensitive lipase. This enzyme breaks triglycerides in adipose tissue and release fatty acids.

Fatty acids released from adipose tissue along with the glycerol molecule will be carried to the liver and fatty acids will undergo oxidation to release acetyl CoA and reducing equivalents (NADH and FADH2). Further more acetyl CoA will undergo citric acid cycle to release more NADH and FADH2. These NADH and FADH2 will get into electron transport chain to make ATPs. The ATPs generated here will provide ATPs needed for gluconeogenesis.

In this way HIGH PROTEIN LOW CARB LOW FAT DIET will lead to increased levels of glucagon in the body which will keep gluconeogenesis and lipolysis active. Gluconeogenesis will utilize protein to make glucose and the energy needed to make this glucose by gluconeogenesis is provided by fatty acid breakdown which comes from adipose tissue.

Overall, HIGH PROTEIN LOW CARB LOW FAT DIET will break adipose tissue (white fat beneath the skin) to provide energy needed to generate glucose from dietary proteins while maintaining the skeletal muscle mass. This type of diet supplemented with fruits and vegetables will help to lose weight in a healthy way!!!

I hope this article has helped you to understand scientific reasoning why HIGH PROTEIN LOW CARB LOW FAT DIET supplemented with fruits and vegetables is an healthy way of losing weight!!! If are most welcome to leave your comments or questions.

Friday, February 22, 2013

WHY CHRONIC ALCOHOL INTAKE LEADS TO FATTY LIVER


Although consumption of alcohol leads initial sense of euphoria and well-being, but on long term use it leads to many complications. One of the initial complications associated with chronic alcohol intake is FATTY LIVER. 

One of the causes for alcohol induced fatty liver is the metabolic changes that alcohol does to hepatocytes!! Generally 85%-95% of alcohol is metabolized in the liver by alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) enzyme to acetaldehyde (a toxic by product of alcohol. Acetaldehyde is metabolized in the mitochondria of hepatocytes by aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) enzyme into acetate. Acetate is released into circulation and is taken up by extra-hepatic tissues particularly skeletal muscle. 

Both ADH and ALDH catalyzed reactions each will generate NADH+H. This increases the levels of NADH+H levels both in mitochondria and cytosol. Now what’s the big deal about it!! This is the main reason for the development of fatty liver!! 

Elevated levels of NADH+H will decrease citric acid cycle in mitochondria which leads to accumulation of acetyl CoA. Acetyl CoA gets out of mitochondria as citrate and in cytoplasm citrate is converted back to acetyl CoA. Acetyl CoA now in cytoplasm gets into fatty acid synthesis pathway leading to increased fatty acid formation. 

Fatty acids will combine with glycerol to make triacylglycerol. This fatty acid containing triacylglycerol will accumulate in the hepatocyte over a period of time leading to FATTY LIVER!! A case stem based question on the above concept. You can leave your answer as a comment below.





If you have any queries you are most welcome to drop me an e-mail at prakashmungli@gmail.com.


You can also check my Facebook group BIOCHEMISTRY MADE EASY for other questions posted previously. Follow the link below to access Facebook group. 





Thursday, February 21, 2013

FASTING AND STARVATION DOES NOT HELP FOR HEALTHY WEIGHT LOSS!!

Most of us believe that just by skipping breakfast and lunch we are going to loose weight and achieve that imaginary figure that we always want to have!!! By skipping breakfast we are basically allowing our body to get into fasting condition because of the long time gap since last dinner. This will lead to low glucose level in our blood and that makes alpha-cells of our pancreas to release glucagon.  

Glucagon will try to increase blood glucose level. So the immediate source for it is the glycogen stored in the liver!! It will break the liver glycogen to release glucose into blood stream which can be used by red blood cells and the neurons. But the glycogen can last for few hours depending on individuals glycogen reserve. The glycogen reserve can last anywhere from 12 hrs-24 hrs depending on the amount of carbohydrate diet consumed since three day prior to the fasting. Since people who use fasting as a means of loosing weight will hardly have any glycogen reserve!!! 

So when glycogen reserve is exhausted then which is the next source of glucose for glucagon???  The next source of glucose for glucagon is skeletal muscle protein!!! Surprised, yes, under fasting condition and starvation, our skeletal muscle will breakdown to release amino acids into blood stream. Amino acids will be taken up by the liver, mainly as alanine, and will be converted to glucose by GLUCONEOGENESIS!! The glucose produced will be released into blood stream which will be used mainly by red blood cells and neurons. You can observe the graph below for the time line for various metabolic events!! 

Click on the slide picture below for better visualization!!!


This process will continue for next seven days, by seven days of starvation, our body would have lost 60% of muscle mass!! At this time, body will stop breaking muscle protein and will adopt itself to use fatty acid derived products called ketone bodies. Ketone bodies will be synthesized by liver under the influence of glucagon. The source for ketone bodies is adipose tissue fatty acids present in the form of triacylglycerol. 

Triacylgllycerol breakdown from adipose tissue (lipolysis) generally begins with glycogen degradation but will be at very basal level until seven days of starvation. A week after starvation, lipolysis predominates and will produce significant amounts of ketone bodies which will flood our blood stream. Brain by this time will adopt itself to use ketone bodies but red blood cells will survive only on glucose which now comes from gluconeogenesis process from glycerol!!

So when someone is using short term fasting as a means of losing weight, they basically are losing their skeletal muscle!! So stop fasting and have low carbohydrate, low fat and high protein diet to lose weight!! 

In my next blog I will explain why low carbohydrate, low fat and high protein diet will help to lose weight!!!

You are most welcome to leave your comments or e-mail me for your queries at  prakashmungli@gmail.com