Farewell

This semester for my College Composition course we had to create a blog and write about one topic for sixteen weeks, instead of the usually six different types of essays and a class reading book. I admit it was a great challenge for me to pick a single topic to talk about for that many weeks but it was an achievable goal. I chose the topic of healthcare because I am an LPN striving to become a RN. I have a great interest in the medical field and this blog allowed me to share and explore parts it with my classmates and the communities I have joined along the way.

I have found a great many resources that I can come back to later on if I have any questions or concerns. Or even if I simply want a new viewpoint of an issue I am dealing with in the medical field. I was shocked that I actually enjoyed writing my blog post after a while because some of the facts I was researching were quite intriguing. Such as the post about the leeches called “Vampire Bugs?”, the post on acupuncture called “Thin Metal Needles Oh My!” and lastly my favorite post “Killer Bite”, which was on the use of snake venom in medicine. I had a lot of fun doing that post because I love snakes and find it amazing how they are used in the medical field at the same time.

This was a new experience for me because I have never been the type of person to blog before. I didn’t understand if you were supposed to talk about one thing or have just a bunch of different random blog post. I thought the people would post entries because of the mood they were in or what happened that day to them. What I have found is that blogs are used to communicate across the world about different events and to find and share your interest with people all around. Blogs make it quite easy to find people who share the same interest as you. I now have a new found respect for blogging and glad I had this experience this semester.

Olive oil is one of nature’s wonders. This natural product is used in a variety of ways in organism’s lives. For example olive oil is used by humans in cooking, as a body moisturizer, as hair moisturizer and in medicine.  Olive oil is fat from the olive on the olive tree. The oil is obtained from the olive by mechanically and chemically grinding the olive.

The source of the health benefits from Olive oil comes from the polyphenols (an antioxidant that protects the cells in your body from damage) in the oil.Health benefits of Olive oil are that it lowers the bodies “bad” cholesterol (LDL), because of this olive oil in turns lowers the risk of heart disease in humans (“Olive”).  It has been shown that olive oil reduces blood pressure in the consumer. Olive oil has a role in preventing and helping people suffering from osteoporosis (decrease in bone mass, which causes a weakness in the bones). It aids in this disease by increasing bone mineralization and calcification (“Olive”).

This oil is soothing on the gastrointestinal tract and contains valuable vitamins nutrients and antioxidants (“Olive”). These antioxidants (a substance such as vitamin C or E that removes potentially damaging oxidizing agents in a living organism) are being studied in the belief that they prevent cancer. The antioxidants also promote a healthy immune system in the consumer. Olive oil is used on the skin to lock in moisture that is otherwise lost during the day. The same goes for using oil in your hair. In your hair the oil softens and detangles your hair while proving you with a relaxing experience and adding a shining coat to your hair. This can also work on the hair of your cats however; you place it in the food of your pet not directly on them (Howard).  

 http://www.nytimes.com/video/2013/02/25/health/100000002085482/the-benefits-of-olive-oil.html

Howard, Brian. "8 Surprising Uses for Olive Oil." The Daily Green. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2013.

"Olive Oil Health Benefits and Nutrition." Olive Oil Times. N.p., 10 Apr. 2013. Web. 10 Apr. 2013.

Killer Bite

Snakes to me are one of the biggest fears that people of this world have.  I am personally quite fond and scared of snakes. I admit one day I would like to own one of the small pet sized python snakes. However, when I am at the zoo or watching the animal channel and see these snakes that are over five feet long (I, myself, am only 5’2) I feel a tad bit uneasy. So I don’t know if I have a true fear of snakes seeing how I’m fascinated with them, but at the same time being scared of them.

It is funny to think that this creature contributes to the world of medicine. To be more specific the venom of this creature contributes to the medical field. How in the world could a snake contribute to the world of medicine? It is hard to think they can when there are snakes that can kill you almost instantly with a single bite such as, the infamous black mamba.

Snake venom in medicine is being studied to treat high blood pressure, strokes, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and heart disease (“Office”).  What is believed with snake venom is that the same proteins that can cause death and damage in the prey of the snakes can be manipulated to be beneficial to the health of a human being (“Office”). There are two medications that are made from snake venom Eptifibatide (Integrilin) and Tirofiban (Aggrastat).  These medications are used in stroke and heart disease patients to help prevent a heart attack. Snake venom causes a human to bleed out; but by manipulation of this action the venom instead of bleeding out the patient, it prevents and dissolves blood clots in the patient to prevent future heart attacks. The most important property of snake venom is the protein in it.

Though I wrote out hospital prescribed medication above, in other countries such as Bolivia in this video the venom of snakes are put into homeopathic medicines.

http://dalje.com/tv/en/index.php?id=9516q4d42d2f5010

Most companies and researchers get their snake venoms from places like this so they don’t have to directly deal with the snakes as they tried to milk the fangs and at the same time do their research. From this video it is easy to come to the conclusion that even though the use of snake venom in America is sort of a new concept it is not the same for the lands outside of the United States that have been using the venom for a while.

 

 

"Office of Science Education - Animals In Research - Stories of Discovery - Making Medicines from Poisonous Snakes." Office of Science Education - Animals In Research - Stories of Discovery - Making Medicines from Poisonous Snakes. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2013.

Against Alternatives

An opposing view was hard to come up with for my blogging topic, which is contributors to medicine. In my English class we worked in groups to help each other figure out an opposing viewpoint. For mine, after me and my partner read my blog post on acupuncture multiple times she came up with the view point of people not believing in alternative forms of medicine.  Again alternative forms of medicine means there are no uses of drugs or chemicals and no invasive surgeries. Everything is mainly all natural for example the use of shark skin.

I can understand why people would not believe in some alternative forms of medicine such as acupuncture. Acupuncture cannot be scientifically explained as I stated in my previous blog post. The whole mechanism believed at work is that the body reacts to substances in the needles. A person opposing alternative medicine couldn’t help but wonder what substances is the body reacting to if there are no drugs or chemicals involved. That mechanism alone could make you wonder if acupuncture is really an alternative form or not.

Some people could choose not to believe that alternative forms of medicine work because like I said about acupuncture, there is rarely any scientific research to back up what is believed to be the result of the treatment. To be forward another reason could be that we have these medical hospital and research hospitals for a reason. In the hospitals there is better equipment and people who have studied all types of diseases and disorders to know how to control whatever health problem is going on with the patient. In these hospitals there is never one person doing all the research on a patient, there are multiple doctors, nurse, etc., who specialize in different areas of health who dedicate their time to the patient.

Follow up to "Peaceful Sleep?"

As a follow up to my Sleep Apnea post I talked with my father about how he has coped with being diagnosed with sleep apnea and his treatment with the CPAP machine. My father was diagnosed with sleep apnea about four years ago. My mother forced him to go to the doctor because at night he would snore so loudly it would wake everyone up. Sometimes he would snore so loudly that he would wake himself up. Although I found it funny the first time I saw him do it, I knew it was not good for his sleep routine.

 He would wake up in the morning tired as though he had not even slept during the night. He technically was not sleeping during the night, when he was snoring during the night he was trying to breathe. With sleep apnea you stop breathing during the night and the snoring is your body trying to restart itself. When I learned about sleep apnea I became fearful for my father because some people with sleep apnea don’t wake up or restart their breathing when they are asleep and die. At first with the CPAP machine my father was a little uncomfortable because of the face mask but he was waking up well rested in the morning.

The way my father coped with his diagnosis from what I seen was by remaining calm. I believe that do to the fact that his diagnosis was controllable. There was a solution to his sleeping problem and it was not invasive. When he first got the machine he did immediately use it, he didn’t just look at the box and set it aside. There was slight difficulty with figuring out how to use the machine but eventually he got it together. After a few days that is when we saw a change in him.

 He was actually waking up in good moods now, he wasn’t as tired as he was before. My father reminded me of Darth Vader from Star Wars because he had the whole face mask and when he would talk with the mask on he sounded just like him. The sound of the machine doesn’t disturb my mother because it is almost a soothing sound to her, kind of like the machines that make the rain forest and ocean noises. The machine doesn’t make any crazy noises like a VCR use to; it is easy to tone out. My father said sleeping with his mask now is easy because he is not a wild sleeper. He lays on either his side or back and doesn’t do much moving. The way the mask is positioned on his face if he turns around in bed the tube doesn’t coil around his neck.

I’m happy to say both my father and mother adjusted fairly well to his diagnosis of sleep apnea and the usage of the CPAP machine. They are both happy especially my mom. Her sleep is no longer disturbed by his snoring and he can now sleep peacefully through the night. I am happy my father actually uses his machine because the fact some people don’t wake up scares me.

The Man Eater

I love to eat seafood. I love to drive down to the wharf (seafood market) in Washington D.C and walk around getting fresh tuna, and salmon to fry up at home. The happiest moment is when we go get the fresh tiger shrimp and king/soft shell crab to boil when I get back to home. I also enjoy sushi very much, it took me a while to warm up to the idea of eating raw fish but I managed to do it and now I am addicted. One thing we never think about when we eat seafood is the health benefits that they give us.

One particular sea creature that offers us human’s health benefits is the shark. To be more specific the fin of the shark offers us medical treatments. The use of the shark fin is considered an alternative treatment. This treatment has been around for many years, mainly in the Asian culture. What makes shark fin so medically useful is when it is in soup form it promotes general well-being. Also, one of the most commonly known medical properties of shark fin is that it has anti-cancer bodies (“Traditional”). Although there is no scientific research that has proven this, it is a strong belief in some culture.

Shark fin is made up of cartilage which is a form of connective tissue. In Japan it is sold in whole, tablet and powder form by herbalist. It is sold in the West in a powdered form as a dietary supplement. This treatment has drawn not only positive but negative attention especially from environmentalist.  It was stated in the article “Traditional Medicines Continue to Thrive Globally” that the environmentalist believe that the use of fin in medicine is threatening to deplete the population of sharks. Also it was stated that people were cutting off the fin of the shark while it was a live and threw it back in to the water (“Traditional”).

I personally would like to see more experimenting done with sharks fin because the belief in its anti-cancer bodies is so strong that I believe there is something there to it. I plan on trying shark fin soup one day. I do not think physically trying tradition alternative treatments could hurt you much because if they did I hope they would not have been continually practiced over time. I actually found a restaurant not to far from here in Annandale called Duck Chang's Restaurant, which sells the soup.

 

 

"Traditional Medicines Continue to Thrive Globally." CNN. N.p., 24 June 2009. Web. 27 Feb. 2013.

Bacterial Breakthrough

 Illnesses have been around on this earth for years and years. In the ancient times there was not the knowledge we have now of all the medications we have discovered and created. As many diseases present themselves over time on the unknowing population there are people who arise from the crowd and chose to take on the issue at hand. One person we have to thank for stepping up in a time of need is Selman Waksman. Mr. Waksman is the discoverer of the antibiotics we heavily use today for maintenance and cure of bacterial infections that have been discovered, researched and named.

Selman Waksman was born July 22^nd, 1888 in Priluka (“Selman”). His parents were Jacob Waksman and Fradia London. Waksman parents went about his schooling in a private manner; his education was through private tutors and school training also was with private tutors. I always wondered about the argument public versus private education, which one is better. After he completed his private schooling and received his matriculation diploma in 1910 he came to the United States. Waksman received his bachelor’s degree in science in 1915 from Rutgers College.  He obtained his master’s degree in science in 1916 from the same school while he did his graduate work at the New Jersey Agriculture Experiment Station (“Selman”). He received his PhD. in Biochemistry in 1918 from the University of California. I want to follow his path of schooling. He continually went back to school after receiving each of his degrees. I would like to do that too. No “taking a break” after I get the first degree just hard working back to back.

He returned to the college he received his first two degrees from and by 1940 he was the Professor of Microbiology and the Head of the department. Following this achievement in 1949 he was made the Director of the Institute of Microbiology of Rutgers College (“Selman”). In 1943 Selman Waksman discovered antibiotics from the Genus Streptomyces soil. He yielded over 500 antibiotics from this soil. Some are streptomycin, neomycin. Waksman retired from his life of science in 1958. After all of his contributions and hard work to the medical field and mainly science field he died August 16, 1973.  Waksman was married to Deborah Mintik. Together they started the Foundation for Microbiology which supported the research of microbiology at various institutions of the world (“Selman”). They had one son Byron Waksman who followed in is father footsteps and became the Professor of Microbiology at Yale University Medical School.

 

 

"Selman A. Waksman -Biography." .N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Feb. 2013.