Physiology Friday: How to tell if your are getting a viral infection

It's Physiology Friday again. I had to take a test this morning and it threw the whole day off for blogging. Sorry.

Anyway, on to the physiology. I was talking to a friend the other day and mentioned that I knew I was getting sick because all of a sudden my skin got really dry and flaky. This friend looked at me like I was crazy. Not that I'm not crazy. No. That's a very accurate diagnosis. But that particular statement was actually based on, you guessed it, physiology.

Let's back up a little. First, you need to know something about your body. Your body is made up of cells. Bam! You just survived BIO 101. Some of these cells grow and reproduce quickly and some grow and reproduce slowly. Bam! Bam! BIO 102. This is the easiest class ever. Now if you are keeping up, this next point shouldn't be too much a stretch. The cells that grow and reproduce quickly need more energy. They are like teenage boys, always eating whatever they can get their grubby little hands on. Some of these cells can be found in your hair, in your GI system, in your respiratory system, and in your skin. They all need lots of energy to function properly.

When you get sick with a virus, the virus stages a hostile takeover. It comes inside the cell and says, "Stop what you're doing! You must make 5 gazillion copies of this beautiful me that you see before you." And since the cell is used to blindly following orders, it stops everything and goes into full on production of viruses. This takes a lot of energy. A lot. Of. Energy. Do you see where the problem comes in?

When only one cell is doing this, it's no big deal, your body has extra energy to spare normally. When there are a bunch of cells doing this, your body begins to run out of energy. And so the cells that need a lot of energy to function normally begin to suffer. This explains why your hair feels more brittle when you are sick. This explains why you might even notice your hair falling out more when you are sick. This also explain why your skin is dry and flaky when you are sick. Your body is sending crucial nutrients to cells making viruses and not enough to cells responsible for replenishing your skin. And there you have it, dry skin will often precede a viral infection.

It's physiology baby. I might have a little crazy, but I got me some science too.

*if you are really good at connecting the dots, you will see that this is why pregnant women often have clumps of hair fall out while pregnant and why they complain of dry skin - they have a baby sucking up all their energy.