(Medical Xpress)—A large team of European researchers has identified a gene mutation that is responsible for causing a condition that leads to an inability to experience pain in humans. In their paper published in Nature ...
Scientists at the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle have determined the atomic architecture of a sodium channel. The achievement opens new possibilities for molecular medicine researchers around the world in designing ...
Jul 13, 2011
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Research at the Technical University of Ilmenau has shown that rainwater on the scalp can reduce damage caused by direct lightning strikes to the head. When the scalp is wet, fewer impacts are recorded compared to dry scalp, ...
Feb 12, 2024
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Yale researchers have identified a drug target that may alleviate joint degeneration associated with osteoarthritis, a debilitating condition that afflicts as many as 30 million people in the United States alone, which they ...
Jan 3, 2024
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Sodium in the form of table salt helps make French fries a tasty snack and bacon a delicious indulgence, but it is also a vital nutrient for the proper functioning of our bodies, playing a role in the movement of your muscles, ...
Nov 20, 2023
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Nearly everyone can lower their blood pressure, even people currently on blood pressure- reducing drugs, by lowering their sodium intake, reports a new study from Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), Northwestern ...
Nov 12, 2023
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A team of biomedical engineers from Brown University has developed a new hydrogel-based delivery system that balances the acidic environment in a tumor and greatly enhances the cancer-fighting activity of the chemotherapeutic ...
Sep 20, 2023
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Researchers from the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience have, for the first time, witnessed nerve plasticity in the axon in motion.
Sep 18, 2023
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New research shows that an experimental drug fine-tuned to a specific pain pathway can ease post-surgery aches, a finding that may eventually offer an alternative to highly addictive opioids.
Aug 3, 2023
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Researchers at NYU College of Dentistry's Pain Research Center have developed a gene therapy that treats chronic pain by indirectly regulating a specific sodium ion channel, according to a new study published in the Proceedings ...
Jul 27, 2023
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Sodium (pronounced /ˈsoʊdiəm/) is a metallic element with a symbol Na (from Latin natrium or Arabic natrun) and atomic number 11. It is a soft, silvery-white, highly reactive metal and is a member of the alkali metals within "group 1" (formerly known as ‘group IA’). It has only one stable isotope, 23Na.
Elemental sodium was first isolated by Sir Humphry Davy in 1806 by passing an electric current through molten sodium hydroxide. Elemental sodium does not occur naturally on Earth, but quickly oxidizes in air and is violently reactive with water, so it must be stored in an inert medium, such as a liquid hydrocarbon. The free metal is used for some chemical synthesis and heat transfer applications.
Sodium ion is soluble in water in nearly all of its compounds, and is thus present in great quantities in the Earth's oceans and other stagnant bodies of water. In these bodies it is mostly counterbalanced by the chloride ion, causing evaporated ocean water solids to consist mostly of sodium chloride, or common table salt. Sodium ion is also a component of many minerals.
Sodium is an essential element for all animal life and for some plant species. In animals, sodium ions are used in opposition to potassium ions, to allow the organism to build up an electrostatic charge on cell membranes, and thus allow transmission of nerve impulses when the charge is allowed to dissipate by a moving wave of voltage change. Sodium is thus classified as a “dietary inorganic macro-mineral” for animals. Sodium's relative rarity on land is due to its solubility in water, thus causing it to be leached into bodies of long-standing water by rainfall. Such is its relatively large requirement in animals, in contrast to its relative scarcity in many inland soils, that herbivorous land animals have developed a special taste receptor for sodium ion.
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