PROMPT: Part 1: Set a timer for 3 minutes, and make a list of as many human non-infectious diseases that you can think of that are influenced by microorganisms.
- Depression
- Anxiety – Other mental health disease
- Alzheimer’s
- Obesity
- Atherosclerosis
- Diabetes
- Inflammatory Bowel Disease, GERD, Gastric Ulcers
- Gastric Cancer
- Allergic Disease
- Asthma
- Immunodeficiency Diseases
Part 2: Refer back to your Writing Exercise #1 that you completed the first week of class. Reflect and discuss how your responses have changed from week 1 to week 10, and what the most important topics you will take away with you once you have completed the course.
After my reflection on the initial writing exercise, I noticed that my new list was both longer and easier for me to list just based off of my own knowledge and memory. When I composed the first list, I remember having to search the web to help myself narrow down exactly what might be influenced by microorganisms. After going through the course, I learned a lot about microorganisms and just how they can affect our bodies. What I learned is that the gut microbiome has a very large influence on our health and how our bodies operate and respond to their environments.
The main thing that I learned is that there are many indirect connections that microorganisms have with our bodies. Indirect connections have been pinpointed as the driving force for many of the issues that I listed above, especially in the most recent years. We have learned in this course, that the relationships between microbes in the gastrointestinal tract and human health are much more important than we have ever thought that they were. We are starting to see that microbial influence on non-infectious disease works in reciprocation as well, and both are extremely important to be aware of. Research has started to show in recent years, that certain non-infectious diseases may also have a large impact on the diversity and colonization of the microbial cells in the gut as well.
I have taken some things away from this class that I am sure will help me as my life goes on, especially in my career. The most important thing that I have taken away from this course is that the gut microbiome is extremely and incredibly complex. Not only is it complex, but scientists have only just begun to peel back those layers of complexity, and we are quickly realizing that we hardly know anything about the processes and mechanisms of the gut microflora, or the extent of the influences that microbial cells have on human health.
