Month: June 2020

Alzheimer’s Association – Help fight alzheimer’s

This foundation spends lots of time, energy, and money to fight Alzheimers and bring awareness to a disease that can’t be seen, it is only felt. But felt it sure is, felt around the world by so many people who watch in agony as their loved ones deteriorate slowly.

Researchers have already done a lot of work uncovering what causes memory loss. More funding will encourage further research. The trick will be to connect the research with what we know about as scientists of microbiology – about how microbiota and gut behavior play such a role and are such an affect throughout the entire body.

Part 1: Set a timer for 3 minutes, and make a list of as many human non-infectious diseases that you can think of that are influenced by microorganisms.

Crohn’s disease, Polio, Congestive health failure, gangrene, GERD, heartburn, pancreatitis, irritable bowel syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoporosis, stomach ulcers, diabetes, dementia, Alzheimer’s, sundowners effect, gum disease, periodontal disease.

Part 2: Refer back to your Writing Exercise #1 that you completed the first week of class. Reflect and discuss how your responses have changed from week 1 to week 10, and what the most important topics you will take away with you once you have completed the course.

WOW.

I remember what I wrote in week 1 and this doesn’t even compare. I still may have gotten a few weird answers in there but I just thought through the entire digestive tract and picked up so many diseases that we get, that are affected by bacteria or viral infection and are not infectious. This was eye-opening. I have learned so much in this class from our readings and from our discussions.

In W. P. Hanage’s article, he discusses the importance of five key questions when interpreting scientific literature:

• Can experiments detect differences that matter?
• Does the study show causation or correlation?
• What is the mechanism?
• How much do experiments reflect reality?
• Could anything else explain the results?

Explain the significance that each of these questions have on interpreting scientific literature. Which is most helpful when discussing controversy, and why?

That’s why you experiment, no? The whole point of doing experiments is to separate by different factors so you can see different outcomes. Sometimes data is insignificant. I guess it depends on the experiment.

Causation is when one thing causes the other thing and correlation is when two things occur at the same time but not necessarily if they cause the other the occur or vice versa. If you’re performing a study, you’re trying to see how and what the outcomes are about. So it’s important to know the causation before the correlation would even matter or be significant.

Understanding the mechanism will provide answers about how to manipulate the process any any given step in the middle. The mechanism helps us to understand the method of how things comes about. It is how we learned cures for many diseases because the mechanism is where we’ve been able to insert changes or alterations in order to prevent further action.

Scientists go above and beyond to make their research emulate reality so that the results will actually be applicable to their real life subjects.

There will always be outliers. There will always be things we can’t explain. This is the anonymity and magic of science. It is incredibly complex, often beyond our comprehension.

Describe how microbial communities in the body could influence brain and mental health states. Then, describe how brain and mental health states could influence microbial communities in the body. In what ways might these promote health and/or disease?

Gut health is connected to diarrhea, vomiting, and constipation. All of these symptoms are uncomfortable and undesirable. Being sick has a negative impact on mental health – it can be embarrassing and make you feel like disconnecting from other people. That is more of a social factor but I do believe that the precursor emotional components stem off of the physical discomfort that accompanies being sick with gastrointestinal issues.