Writing Exercise #14

Asthma, diabetes, obesity, stomach cancer, dysbiosis, Chron’s disease, depression, anxiety, mood disorders, rheumatoid arthritis, IBS, IBD, ulcers, colon cancer, variety of cancers, diabetes, Cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s disease

Most of the diseases I listed in this exercise are the same as the first writing exercise post. However, this time I did include mental health issues, such as depression and anxiety. I also became more specific in the types of disease. The readings from this class discussed a variety of body systems and diseases impacted by our gut microbiome and really opened my eyes to the links that medicine is still searching for. The class also heavily emphasized how large a role the gut microbiome has on the overall health of an individual and made me look at the bigger picture of investigating diseases. Moving forward, I hope to stay up to date on the research regarding mental health and microbiomes due to my own experience with depression and anxiety. If I ever work in medical care, I also want to have a broader view when addressing disease and provide several options that a patient can have access to treat symptoms, instead of focusing solely on one medication or one cause. I currently work for Deschutes County as a public information officer support and while I don’t have the power to create postings about the gut microbiome, I could possibly speak more about it with my supervisor when we hold health information sessions. I mainly deal with information regarding COVID but hopefully, I can take a broader approach to how it impacts the body and as a county what we can do to help those struggling with the after-effects of COVID.