All Natural! All Safe? Everything is a Chemical

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Media sources today are full of stories of chemicals in our food, in our environs, in our bodies.  The basic premise of these stories is that these chemicals, by their very nature every bit chemicals, must be harmful and therefore avoided.  Dissimilarity this with the counter argument, also quite common in the aforementioned media sources, regarding all natural foods, supplements and general cure-alls which, by their very nature as being all natural, must be quite benign and at the very  least, not harmful.  This is a dandy misconception and ignores a simple bones truth that everything is made upward of chemicals.  In fact, it is surprising to some people to learn that chemicals are the basic building blocks of the human trunk which is made up entirely of chemicals.  We contain at least 60 unlike chemicals, ranging from elementary elements similar carbon and atomic number 26, to other chemicals with very complex structures.

Many more unlike chemicals are found in nature.  Fifty-fifty the most sophisticated and talented synthetic chemist cannot replicate all of the substances found in nature.  More chiefly, some of the most toxic substances known are 100% all natural.  But they are not all safe.  In fact very few substances are all safe.  The most basic chief of toxicology "The Dose Makes the Poison" is true, regardless of whether a substance is naturally occurring or designed by a chemist in the lab.   For example, pure water tin can be harmful and even deadly when too much is consumed too apace.

The resources in this department elaborate on what constitutes a chemic regardless of whether natural or synthetic, how this designation relates to toxicology, natural and constructed chemicals in foods, and usefulness of chemicals, whether synthetic or natural, in medicinal applications.

Overviews with more details most this topic

This is a good overview of this bailiwick from a Scientific American  blog postal service:  :  http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2013/04/10/natural-vs-synthetic-chemicals-is-a-gray-thing/

Basic overview of "natural vs. synthetic":  http://www.rsc.org/images/NaturalNotes_tcm18-115179.pdf

How this relates to Toxicology:  The text at this link does a proficient job of explaining that the source of a chemical (for example, natural vs. synthetic) does not determine its potential to cause damage.  http://www.compoundchem.com/2014/05/19/natural-vs-man-fabricated-chemicals-dispelling-misconceptions/

Medicines and synthetic chemical science

More about Percy Julian and how in the 1930s he was the first to synthesize physostigmine.   This naturally occurring chemical is now an important pharmaceutical drug.

http://www.chemheritage.org/percy-julian/history/v.html

Nevertheless more than on this pioneering achievement:  http://www-tc.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/julian/media/lrk-disp-natvssynth.pdf

Natural vs. synthetic with emphasis on food

Fun blog covering the chemistry of everyday "stuff", including an interesting accept on the human being impact on fruits and vegetables over time: https://jameskennedymonash.wordpress.com/category/infographics/bogus-vs-natural-foods/

An interesting analysis from a New York Times author nearly genotoxicity of chemicals found naturally in nutrient..  Genotoxicity refers to the ability of a chemical to alter a cell's Deoxyribonucleic acid, either directly or indirectly, causing a mutation that could lead to cancer.    http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/06/06/synthetic-v-natural-pesticides/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_php=truthful&_type=blogs&_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=2&

This resources provides more detail almost this topic from the scientists named in the New York Times commodity above

http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cpdb/pdfs/FoodQuality.pdf

Reference:  Natural and Synthetic Chemicals in the Diet: A Critical Analysis of Possible Cancer Hazards by Lois Swirsky Aureate, Thomas H. Slone and Bruce N. Ames, in Nutrient Safety and Food Quality, Bug in Environmental Science and Technology 15

  1. E. Hester & R. Thousand. Harrison, eds. Cambridge, U.k. : Regal Guild of Chemical science, pp. 95-128 (2001)

Basic resources that help to understand more most chemicals in full general

What is a chemical? Everything is a chemical!  The most basic form of pure matter is an element.  In that location are 118 elements listed in the modern periodic tabular array. http://world wide web.rsc.org/periodic-table

Pure gold is ane case of an element.  If you lot were to interruption gold downwardly to the smallest size possible, to a size where it still exhibits all of the properties of gold, you would be left with a single atom of pure gold.  Atoms are combined together to form more complex structures, chosen molecules.  When atoms from two or more than elements are joined together, the molecule is also called a chemical compound.  Everything around us is created from these molecules and compounds, from the air we exhale, to the food nosotros eat and the bodies that carry us through our lives.  Your chemistry instructor was not lying when she proclaimed on your first solar day of class that "Chemistry is life"!

This resource is a bones primer on elements and  molecules (Elements and Molecules, 6:08).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?5=6pUzPh_lCO8&list=PLllVwaZQkS2op2kDuFifhStNsS49LAxkZ&index=one

A basic overview of chemical analysis of compounds: https://world wide web.youtube.com/watch?5=QcC4OsSxWYU&index=2&list=PLllVwaZQkS2op2kDuFifhStNsS49LAxkZ

Level: Beginner

Related topics:  Basics of Dose and Exposure, Water Intoxication (Hyponatremia).

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