Emily Olson

BIOL 4500-01

11/16/18

Curated Paper 2

Our discussion of the brain and mental disorders went right along with my Abnormal Psychology class. We discussed neurological disorders like Huntington’s disease and dementias. I personally like to talk about dementia. I work in the dementia unit of an assisted living facility. Dementia causes a deterioration of intellectual abilities. Memory, judgement, and concentration are all affected. It can cause personality changes and emotional instability too. I have seen this first-hand at work. We have a specific resident that needs assistance ambulating, dressing, and getting into/out of bed. The problem is that she hates that she needs help. She wants to do it alone. When we try to help her, she gets very upset and will yell at us. Within a few minutes, she will calm down and apologize for being so difficult, only to yell again a minute later. She has very little control over her emotions due to her disease. That can be a prominent factor that leads families to put relatives in assisted living homes. It becomes too difficult for them to handle. To be honest, some days it is too difficult for even the staff to handle.

The next topic was Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBIs). A TBI is usually caused by an external force such as a car crash or lack of oxygen. It can lead to a diminished state of consciousness and/or impaired cognitive abilities. Those with TBIs are a high risk group for developing other psychiatric disorders. If their brain is not functioning properly, they may become paranoid, their personality may change, or they may become depressed, among others. TBIs are complex. No two injuries are the same, so no two injuries heal the same. The general structure of the brain is the same throughout people, but specific structure varies from person to person. It is very difficult to predict how any person will recover from this type of injury.

Symptoms of a traumatic brain injury vary as well. When I was doing clinicals for my CNA certification, I met a patient who had tried to commit suicide via drug overdose. The attempt was unsuccessful, but the person ended up as a vegetable. His brain was damaged so severely that he no longer had any control over his body, and even had to breath through a ventilator. Other symptoms include personality change, affective (emotional/mood) instability, irritability and anxiety, laughs inappropriately and/or excessively, pathological crying, impaired social judgment, not sensitive to other’s feelings/reactions, inability to plan ahead, sexually inappropriate, apathy, and paranoid ideation. As we were listing these, I drew the connection between a TBI and dementia. All these symptoms are listen on our ADL (activities of daily living) charting list to watch for and assist our resident with. We have residents that cry randomly. We have some that think their families are trying to lock them in a room and gas them out. We have a few that have inappropriate sexual tendencies. Dementia is very similar to a TBI. With a TBI, the brain is damaged. With dementia, the brain is disintegrating and parts of the brain get damaged. People exhibit the same symptoms; the main difference is the cause.

Traumatic brain injuries and dementia both exemplify how the brain affects the body and mind, as well as your spirit. When the brain isn’t functioning properly, the body doesn’t know what to do. Personalities may shift. Who you are as a person can be altered. Everything needs to have a balance to function properly. When one thing is off, it is all off. Scientists are working in various fields to uncover treatments and therapies that can restore that balance.

Gene therapy is a very controversial topic. It can’t be used to cure a TBI, but may be used to treat genetic neuro diseases. The question is: is it ethical? Is it moral? These two are often confused. Scientists have argued over whether or not gene therapy should be implemented. There are very real risks involved. Even with precision, new genes may be inserted into the wrong place in DNA. If it is inserted correctly, the person’s immune system may attack it. DNA sequences are still being heavily studied, as there is so much yet unknown. There could be so many adverse complications that it seems to be not worth the risk, at least until scientists have a more complete understanding of all genes and expression patterns of each sequence. This knowledge could still take decades to uncover. Those with a religious background may have moral reservations. They say God created people just how they were meant to be. It changes a person’s natural course of life. They may say that when a person goes is up to God. If they have an ‘undesirable’ gene, it is meant to be a trial that they learn and grow from. Taking that away only shorts themselves.

Oh the flip side of all this, gene therapy can be very beneficial. Parents can know if their child tests positive for Down syndrome. With this knowledge, they can prepare their home and take classes to learn how to raise this child. People with cystic fibrosis and Parkinson’s disease (another neurodegenerative disease) may be treated and their lives made significantly easier and longer. Many babies with diseases that cause premature death and decreased quality of life can be treated and granted life. By altering the genetic makeup via gene therapy, many detrimental cases can be avoided and they can find a new genetic balance.

With a new genetic balance comes a new microbiome. Your body functions best with a cultured set of microorganisms inside it. This biome can be altered by diet and lifestyle. I recently learned from a nurse practitioner I was scribing for that wild blueberries are a natural way to prevent TAU proteins from building up and potentially causing CTE. This diet and corresponding microbiome set the body up for success. Neurodegenerative diseases like dementia are prevented. Altering your microbiome alters your physical and mental states too.

This leads to the topic of ayurveda and balance. A person’s body is obviously altered with gene therapy. Interaction of genes affect how body processes flow and how the person reacts to their environment. This influence from the body continues to the mind. Hormones that were evolved to work a certain way now follow a different pathway leading to an alternate chain of neural responses. The rest of the genes that remained unaltered may respond differently and dysfunctions could arise. Is this risk worth it for a shot at an improved life? The spirit is affected with dementia and brain injuries because the person’s whole sense of self is turned upside down. Gene therapy can prevent those effects, but also create an entirely different spirit and sense of self. Your spirit in turn affects how you live and therefore what microbiome you cultivate. From all sides, it the person as a whole is affected. All that remains is which self is balanced.