Porter Harris

Capstone: Biology of Disease

September 20, 2018

Curated Paper 1

Back in January of 2014 I began my journey here at Southern Utah University. During this time of my life I was eager to begin my higher education, hoping to understand more about myself and what I want for my future. This moment was pivotal for my future. Reflecting on my previous years in grade school, I was determined to keep my passion for discovering new things in the classroom each day. General classes helped me realize that I needed to make a decision quickly as to what I wanted to focus my time around here at SUU. Although some other subjects interested me, I chose to run the course of science in my education. After a couple of encounters with some doctors, I decided that medicine was the field that I wanted to pursue for my own career. There is a great balance between known and unknown within the medical field that I find myself obsessing over. With every new patient walking into a medical clinic there is some type of unsolved mystery that they want answers to. Doctors have to reflect on what they know and then inquire what they do not know to help with this great medical dilemma. Constant change is brought into this profession, which changes how doctors go about each day. This balance has been the main topic of discussion in our biology of disease capstone course. 

            Ayurveda is not commonly spoken of here in the United States. After some research and discussion on the topic I have been able to formulate my own understanding of the meaning when talking about Ayurveda. This ancient form of healing has been around for as long as the world began documenting information. A balance in all things has been the core to Ayurveda and continues to shape the way we have analyzed the human body. When disease comes into play, balance has almost everything to do with how we go about treating/curing the disease. Almost all aspects of the human body require being in some sort of balance. Too much or too little of fluid levels, chemicals, hormones, vitamins or minerals could play an enormous role in determining whether the body functions properly or not. The body has the ability to regulate these levels and acts on those imbalances through the nervous system. Our bodies are able to make changes on their own in order to fix issues, but this does not always work the way that it should, increase the need of outside sources. It is critical that we can further explore the thousands of disease that our bodies could encounter.

            Diabetes is a disease that draws a lot of concern to the health care professionals of the world. According to statistical analysis, diabetes is on the rise globally and we are expected to more than double the number of diagnoses in many different countries around the world. Educating everyone about the risks that diabetes brings to the body and the ways to prevent this deadly disease can be a major factor to reducing the number of diagnoses each year. Some major factors to micro-manage within the body are blood pressure, fat intake, and blood glucose levels will ensure that we minimize the probability of developing diabetes.

            The sad fact is this disease could absolutely be prevented if individuals had a more in depth knowledge of diabetes and the pre-conditions that come with it. A friend of mine was diagnosed with diabetes when he was only 16 years old. He had no sign of being overweight, but his unhealthy eating and drinking habits had lead him to his diagnosis. I was a missionary companion with him for 4 months; so everyday I was able to observe how he coped with his disease. Levels of blood sugar were taken multiple times a day often followed by an insulin shot. The level of attention that he had to give to this disease on a daily basis gave me a strong desire to get acquainted with diabetes. From this experience I have learned more about how the disease can occur, the mechanism behind it, and ways to prevent myself from getting it.

            My career here at SUU has helped me obtain crucial knowledge that others are not as fortunate of receiving. I have been in many courses that have helped me understand how the body works both anatomically and physiologically. This education will catapult me to where I need to be in order to achieve my long-term goals in the medical field.