McKenzie Metcalf- BHS 323

When it comes to the food that I eat, I am very consciences about what I am putting in my body. I choose to eat a fairly healthy, plant-based diet consisting of mostly vegetables, legumes, complex carbs, nuts, and fruits. Some specific foods that I choose to eat that I know benefits my gut is greek yogurt. Greek yogurt contains good probiotics that help promote the growth of the beneficial bacteria in our guts. Complex carbohydrates such as multi-grain bread, bananas, beans, and others also help support the health of bacteria in our gut.

Another specific thing I choose to put into my body to help my gut health is kombucha. Along with the good taste of it, I know it provides many amazing benefits. There are naturally occurring bacteria that live within the drink due to the fermentation that aid in digestion, and protects against the overgrowth of yeast in our GI tract.

I know that I could also be taking a probiotic supplement, but I think that my diet is good enough that I am getting the proper nutrients from it.

There are many things that can change your gut microbiota. The first thing I thought about was your diet. I’m aware that fermented foods like kimchi, yogurt, pickles, and kombucha all contain good probiotics that feed the bacteria in your gut with good nutrients. This allows your gut bacteria to grow and flourish more. Taking a probiotic supplement also helps maintain a proper ecosystem for you gut bacteria to live in.

A behavior that is important for good gut health is regular exercise. Studies have shown that increased exercise also increases the abundance of beneficial microorganisms. Sleep is also an important aspect in controlling healthy gut bacteria. Lack of sleep results in the imbalance of certain bacteria ratios in the gut which can be detrimental to ones health. Smoking is another factor that changes the gut micro biome populations and ultimately leads to the risk of developing Crohn’s Disease.

As a healthcare professional, I would focus on finding treatments for the strains of HPV that were categorized as the most high-risk. These high-risk strains include HPVs 16, 18, 31 and 45 because they are found in approximately 80% of all cervical cancers. Since there are already vaccines for HPVs 16 and 18, focusing on HPVs 31 and 45 would be a good start. Other strains that aren’t as high risk, but are still considered possibly carcinogenic are HPVs 33, 35, 39, 51, 52, 56, 58, and 59.

Since HPV is a sexually transmitted disease, it would be best to administer these vaccines to children before they become sexually active. Vaccines that are already being administered currently cost around $130/ shot. I believe that this is a fair price (without insurance) and should be the goal price for other vaccines that are being made.

1) In the research article titled Symbiotic gut microbes modulate human metabolic phenotypes written by Zhu Chen from Shanghai’s Second Medical University, a group of scientists studied the different types of microbes that exist in seven test subjects and compared their metabolic phenotypes. 2) Chen provided evidence that each test subject had a unique colony of micro bacteria within their gut and the Bacteroidetes-to Firmicutes ratios between them all correlated with obesity. 3) The purpose of this paper was to study the effect of bacteria within our bodies that leads to certain diseases in order to gain knowledge about how to prevent/treat these diseases. 4) This scientific article is intended for those who want to create pharmaceutical drugs to treat obesity and other diseases that deal with the gut micro biome.

A non-infectious disease is a disease that is not contagious and can’t be given to other people. They are likely not caused by pathogens, but there a handful that can be caused due to microorganisms. Cancer, coronary heart disease, asthma, Alzheimer’s, and diabetes are a few examples of non-infectious diseases that are influenced by microorganisms.

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