Month: March 2018

If I were in charge of a funding agency, I would be looking for projects that help to further our knowledge on the affects of microbes within our bodies. One example of a project I would fund would be the research into the use of probiotics in treating microbial life within our guts. I think that if research is properly funded and done well that it can give us a lot of important data on the changes that everyday people can make to increase their health and decrease their risk of illness. Through this research we could explore how everyday foods decrease the risk of stomach ulcers, inflammation, and overall potentially decrease the risk of people developing gastric cancer due to those microbes. In decreasing illnesses, that would positively effect the amount of funding that is spent on healthcare and could be used for further research into other topics or simply used to improve our communities.

My newer list of microbial influences on diseases:
Asthma
Obesity
HPV
Hepatitis
HTLV-1
Gastric Ulcers
atherosclerosis
Chron’s Disease
IBD (Inflammatory Bowel Disease)
Diabetes Mellitus
MS
Arthritis

The old list of microbial influences on diseases:
asthma
cystic fibrosis
emphysema
diabetes mellitus
lupus
celiac
MS: multiple sclerosis
rheumatoid arthritis

In comparing the topics discussed in week 1 one to week 10, there has been a lot more knowledge that I have gained. Before I was honestly just trying to think of any type of illness that could be affected. After taking this class and reading so many different scientific articles about different diseases, I was easily able to come up with a lot of diseases. It was interesting that I was able to come up with the details that were discussed in these papers. In taking this course, I will take with me the in-depth knowledge of specific diseases. I also will take with me the awareness that the microbial world has on my current and future health. It is vastly important that people are aware of the influences that these microbes have.

The five different questions that W.P. Hanage’s article states are really important to interpreting scientific literature, with the use of these questions people can become better at sorting through scientific information. It reminds the readers to not believe or initially believe everything that an article publishes; a lot of them are filled with hopeful statements and might not be presenting all of the necessary information. Below are the five questions also with why each is important when reading scientific literature.

• Can Experiments detect differences that matter?
  From the treatment created, is it able to correctly identify a specific microbe or does it just target a broad range of microorganisms? You want to make sure that if there was a specific illness being caused that there is a specific treatment to cure it.

• Does the study show causation or correlation?
  This question props people to think of whether this microbe is specifically causing an illness or whether there are other factors that are contributing to it (like diet) that are causing the illness. It wouldn’t make sense for a treatment to be created for a specific microbe is something else is actually causing the illness.

• What is the mechanism?
  It is important that the mechanism used to the specific microbial species being studied. They are highly specific and does the treatment even evolve the right aspect to have an effect on the microbe. We want to be able to correctly pinpoint the best mechanism for treatment.

• How much do experiments reflect reality?
  With this question, people can think about the logistics of an experiment. Would the propositions being presented make sense for the situation? It makes a person stop and consider whether or not this would actually solve a problem or whether it is another factor that is influencing the illness.

• Could anything else explain the results?
  This question is very important in promoting further research to be done on any scientific topic. It also allows people to truly think about the proposition that the article is promoting to its audience. Does it make sense? It makes people think about the other influences that can be contributing to the specific topic.

In my opinion, the most important question to ask is the last one. Although they are all are helpful in creating a better ability to critique scientific literature, the last questions proposes more thorough thinking. Basically when asking if something else could be potentially creating these results, we are allowing others to further the research on this topic. If we assumed that the results were 100% correct, people would not feel inclined to come up with new experiments or design ideas that could be contributing to that topic. It would be assumed that that would be a waste of time.

 

Microbial Influence on the Brain: Microbes are very useful for our body and can have many different properties that are good and bad for our health. As far as the brain, microbes create neuroactive compounds like neurotransmitters and metabolites that help with brain function. Messages from microbes within our gastrointestinal tracts can be carried through your vagus nerve. Without these key elements, our body wouldn’t be able to function as it normally does. Neurotransmitters send signals throughout your whole body and help with pretty much every function that you do.

Brain Influences Microbial Health: Many of the useful microbes that are inside our bodies reside within the gastrointestinal tract. The brain influences that tract along with the immune system, both of which influence the genetic makeup of the microbes. Damage to your brain can cause damage throughout your body including the microbial communities, they may be influenced if your brain’s ability to upkeep the gastrointestinal tract is altered.

Microbial Influence on Mental Health: Since microbes have been found to influence the health of your brain, it would make sense then that they would also have a direct influence your mental health as well. It is thought that when you have proper functioning and relationships with the microbial life and the brain, there are lower levels of depression. During pregnancy, it is found that the influence of microbes can cause people to be born with autism or schizophrenia. 

Mental Health on Microbial Life: Depending on the mental state of a person, can influence the item that they eat or the situations that they put themselves in. These environments can affect the microbial health that is within them. An example of this could be someone suffering from depression, in which they may have difficulty with performing daily tasks or feeling motivated to go and exercise. If they drastically increase in weight, this alters the ratio of specifics within their gastrointestinal tracts.

As with most influences on health, each aspect has a chance of promoting health or a chance of promoting disease. As far as brain influences, it controls the certain gastrointestinal environments within your body in which controls the types of microbial species and ratios that grow. These ratios can be beneficial to your body or they can be harmful. In return, the microbes within your body can influence your brain through the vagus nerve and immune responses. Mental health also has this type of relationship. Certain environments can create beneficial or harmful microbial life that can cause either good or bad effect. It forms these effects that people can be “normal” or not. Potentially having bad mental health can be harmful to one’s self by promoting negative influences on your body which in turn influences the microbial health. It seems that each has the potential to be beneficial or harmful.

In reviewing other people’s writing, I was able to see other types of writing styles and how they set their pace of the paper. I found it to be difficult to give critiques on certain parts because I didn’t want to give the wrong information. An example of this would be the use of nonpeer-review sources. I am still struggling to understand which method is correct in citing them and I found that other people are just as confused as I am. Some people wrote them in ASM while others just didn’t include them at all. I found that it was tricking in giving advice that you yourself had a difficult time understanding.

Overall though, I really liked seeing other people’s work. I was able to see the strengths in their writing styles and I found myself being like “Oh I want to incorporate a sample like this or support like this in my paper.” It was also interesting to see the topics that they choose and how they are able to relate that to the real world overall health. I found myself really enjoying reading their papers and understanding how I would be able to rearrange my own to make the flow of the paperwork a lot better.

I was able to learn about different topics, which were good, but also some ways in which to better adjust my own paper. I was shown examples of strongly written introductions and some great use of explanations for their sources. I also want to go back and make sure that I have an explanation for the sources that I decided to pick. I was a really useful exercise and I think that it made me feel more confident in my abilities to write.

 

In doing a scientific peer-review, it begins like any other peer-review of a paper. You have to thoroughly read and understand what is being presented to you, noting the transitions and language that is used compared to the audience at hand. After that, it differs from the normal review. Using scientific review persons are aimed at looking into the specific topic used and whether or not that topic was successfully established throughout the whole writing. You also look at whether or not the opposing topic is talked about and supported by evidence. It is important to not be completely biased with the paper that is being written but rather is able to acknowledge the counter-argument and use that to build a stronger case for yours.

With scientific writing, it is very important that the sources are appropriate for the topic at hand. You want to have sources that are peer reviewed and cited properly within and at the end of the paper. It is also a better argument provided if the sources vary in the type of articles (clinical trials, primary research, reviews) so that your discussion is widely supported.

Here are some pros and cons as to the influences of peer-review

Pros:

• Able to adjust and focus work
• Able to obtain a second opinion of your topic and the relevance of your sources
• You can miss the errors within your work
• Able to get new ideas concerning a specific topic of choice

Cons:

• Bias in the response given
• Incorrect information that can lead a person to adjust their paper and make it worse
• Unable to add any relevant information to adjust the paper

Even with the risk of the cons related to peer-reviews, I think that is it really important that people have their papers reviewed. I think that it overall adds to the detail and accuracy of their work.