Part 1- 3 minutes, List Human Non-Infectious Diseases influenced by Microorganisms

• IBS, IBD, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, gestational diabetes, cancer, GERD, metabolic disease, Crohn’s disease, gingivitis, asthma, allergies, autoimmune diseases

Part 2: When looking back at my responses to this same prompt from week 1, I was able to come up with many more infectious diseases that are influenced by microorganisms in week 10. The first thing I noticed is that my responses in week one were just guesses as I had minimal prior knowledge in this field. Looking at this exercise in week 10, I am not only able to come up with more diseases, but I am certain in my answers and know a bit about why and how they are influenced by microbes. It demonstrates to me the vast amount of knowledge I have learned throughout the term and the interaction between microbes and human health. The most important pieces I will take away from this class are being able to critically evaluate scientific literature, techniques to support my gut health, and reasons that the gut microbiome plays such a large role in either maintaining health or being a culprit of disease.