Writing Exercise 11:

Prompt: Reflect on the peer-review process with you as the reviewer. How did it feel to read and critique someone else’s writing? What did you learn that you can apply to your own writing as you revise your final essay?

After reading and reviewing an article, I find it hard to critique one’s writing, but I find it easier to ask questions about the content and data the study is discussing. Mainly when I was the reviewer I looked for what they are evaluating and if they explained it well. What they are trying to prove or understand from completing the study and what their purpose is. I would evaluate how they completed their methods and if it was the most valid way. Now I can apply this information to my final essay in ways such as what is the purpose of this study and what am I trying to prove or validate about it. For my final essay I will focus more on is this science valid and why should I believe it? I will also go back and make sure I was interpreting the studies and their results correctly. 

Writing Exercise 10

Prompt: Describe the process of peer review to someone who does not frequently read scientific articles. In your response, consider the pros and cons of peer review and how that might impact the credibility of the results that come from that scientific article.

The process of a peer review is to evaluate the quality and how valid the study was. The purpose of a peer-reviewed article is to explain the results from the study and eliminate anything that needs to be changed or reevaluated. A peer review article typically has many authors, all within relatively the same field of study. One positive aspect of peer reviews is that many different people get a chance to evaluate the study which brings more to the table. This enables there to be more opinions on the study and more ideas from others. Having multiple people view the study eliminates any bias towards the study and the results. I think that some disadvantages of peer reviews are that because many people are evaluating it, the process of the study could take longer. I also think that possibly since there are many people evaluating the study, the process and results could not be as accurate since there are many people collaborating. 

Writing Exercise #9

List and describe as many changes in human behaviors as you can think of that contribute to decreased exposure to microbes.

  1. C-Section: when the child is born through a C-section rather than vaginally the child is not exposed to as many microbes 
  2. Formula vs Breast milk: when a child is fed formula they are not exposed to as many microbes because formula lacks all the bacteria and microbes transferred from the mother to child during breastfeeding 
  3. Washing your fruits and vegetables: not washing your fruits and vegetables before eating will expose you to many new microbes 
  4. Having roommates/living with a lot of people: when you constantly surround yourself with a lot of people you are exposed to their bacteria and microbes which makes you more exposed to microbes overall 
  5. Taking probiotics: exposes you to microbes in the probiotic 
  6. Eating a diverse diet: eating many different foods will expose you to many microbes

Writing Exercise #6: Philosophy on Antibiotics

Prompt: Describe your personal philosophy about how and when you have taken or would take antibiotics. What experiences or prior knowledge do you have that shaped that personal philosophy?

Personally, I was not aware of the negative side effects of antibiotics until a few years ago. I have taken antibiotics a few times. One of my courses of antibiotics was prescribed by my dermatologist for my skin. I was on it for two months and during this course of antibiotics, I took a probiotics supplement. I did understand the negative impact of antibiotics, but at the time I was very insecure about my skin and antibiotics were the only treatment available. From now on I will only take antibiotics if absolutely necessary and there is not another option. I have learned a lot more about antibiotic resistance and I want to be careful by watching how many antibiotics I have or will consume. I have also always heard that it is important to finish your antibiotic course, even when symptoms stop, which I want to learn more about. 

Writing Exercise #5

Prompt: What choices do you make in terms of food/nutrition/product use and consumption that may have an impact on your microbial communities? Consider choices that are intentional and choices that are perhaps non-intentional.

Before this class, I did not focus on clean eating to benefit my gut microbiome, but just for my overall health. Now after being in this class for a few weeks I understand and have learned a lot more about how your diet affects your gut microbiome. Personally, I am a vegetarian so I don’t eat meat or fish. I have always incorporated a lot of vegetables in my diet. I frequently eat spinach, cucumbers, tomatoes, avocados, and celery which I am sure are good for your gut microbiome. I try to limit sugars because I know it’s not good for your health. But from what I have learned in this class, sugar directly negatively impacts your gut microbiome. I also have been taking a dietary probiotic supplement every day for almost a year. I started taking probiotics for my skin and for digestion help so this was an intentional choice.  I don’t eat yogurt or other foods that are high in probiotics so I take my probiotic supplements to make up for it. I have always focused on my diet and tried to eat as clean as possible just for overall health reasons but now I have more reasons because I have learned how important a clean diet is for your gut microbiome. 

Writing Exercise #3: Gut Microbial Community

Prompt: Brainstorm a list of behaviors that an individual could engage in that could cause changes to their gut microbial community. Pick 3 specific behaviors from your list. For each, discuss how that behavior could change the microbial community and the potential health impacts (beneficial, detrimental, neutral) that could result for the individual’s health.

Many factors can affect one’s gut microbial some include, probiotics, Diet (sugars), stress, sleep, and exercise. 

Probiotics:

Probiotics can affect one’s microbial activity because they are made of good bacteria. Good bacteria is important to have in your stomach because it helps eliminate the bad bacteria and creates a good balance between good and bad bacteria. Everyone has a different microbial community but probiotics will help everyone keep a solid balance of good and bad bacteria. 

Diet:

Everything you put in your body affects your body and overall health. Eating foods with high probiotics can positively impact your gut microbial community such as yogurt, kombucha, and pickled vegetables. A highly processed diet can negatively affect your microbial community because it will decrease the amount of good bacteria in your gut. Food with high amounts of sugars has a very bad effect on your microbiome by decreasing the diversity of bacteria in your gut. 

Stress:

Stress has an impact on gut microbial activity because stress affects the body as a whole. Stress affects digestion and triggers your flight or fight response with decreased digestive activity. When digestive activity is decreased your body does not absorb nutrients as well as it normally does. Stress causes inflammation in your body and overall has negative effects not only in your gut microbiome. 

Writing Exercise #2: HPV

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the association between humans warts and viruses. This was discovered and documented by a physician named Giuseppe Ciuffu in 1907. According to the article, HPV strains 16,18,31, and 45 are responsible for causing about 80% of cervical cancer (Sarid & Gao, 2011). Cervical cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer death for women in the United States over the last 40 years (National Institutes of Health, 1996). Although the number of cases and number of deaths has decreased over the years with proper prevention including regular pap smears and HPV shots, cervical cancer is still a very prominent issue and treatment should be continued to be researched. 

Since we already have a vaccine for HVP16 and HVP18, it is necessary to construct research to find a vaccine or treatment for the next most harmful strand of HPV. I believe the next HVP strand to be covered in the new treatment should be HVP31 or HPV45. Since strands 15,18,31, and 45 are the most responsible strands for causing cervical cancer and we already have vaccines for HPV15 and HVP18, HPV31 and HPV45 should be our next target. 

Human Papillomavirus is a sexually transmitted virus, spread primarily through vaginal and anal sex. The vaccine for HVP31 and HPV 45 should be administered before one is sexually active to prevent the transmission of the other two most common strands leading to cervical cancer, HPV31, and HPV45. Administering the vaccine for HVP31 and HPV45 before someone is sexually active will lower the transmission of HPV and in result lower the number of cases of cervical cancer. 

References:

Sarid, R., and Gao, S. 2011. Viruses and human cancer: From Detection to Casualty. Cancer Lett. 305(2):218-27.

National Institutes of Health. Cervical Cancer NIH Consensus statement. 1996;14(1):1-18 https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/cervical/statistics/index.htm. January 2021.