Today I began my day by browsing through the top articles
from USA Today. This class has helped me make connections form the knowledge
that I am learning to the latest research and breakthroughs that are being
published about these topics. For instance, one aspect that is garnering more
attention is the snowballing effect that stems from lack of sleep. The main
finding reported in this article is the alarming number of teens and young
adults that are turning to sleep aids because of inability to fall asleep
naturally. It was reported that “less than 3 percent of teens get the
recommended 8 to 9 hours of sleep a day stemming from multiple reasons”. This
has led an increased number trying different avenues to quell the inability to
sleep. They found that 28 percent have turned to some kind of over-the-counter,
prescription, or natural remedies. This
can be a particularly harrowing discovery because a significant number of these
teens did not go to the doctor to receive medical help, rather, relying on
self-diagnostic techniques. To tie this back to Ayurveda, when our body does
not receive the adequate sleep physical composition of brain and other organs
changes slightly and the body tries to compensate. However, when these
behaviors persist, they can lead to more worrisome disease. It is in our best
judgement to give our bodies the adequate sleep so they can carry out the
normal functions without relying on outside medications.
Another article published by the New York Times grabbed my
attention with only its title, “Is sleep a luxury that college students cannot
afford?” This article was extremely different from the majority of the dense
figure-driven articles that are prevalent in the field. It mentioned that a
whopping 75-94% of college students get less than the recommended dosage during
the weekday school schedule. This
staggering lack of sleep attributes to complex physical, mental, and emotional
complications that indicate the body and soul are combined.
Along with reading through the news to stay in touch with
the latest studies, another way that I’ve learned beneficial information is
through presentations. During class there were two presentations that discussed
information that seemed extremely interesting. There two presentations pertained
to the screen time before bed and CTE. In the first presentation, the presenter
mentioned that “blue-screen time right before bed has the same effect on neural
blood flow as drinking a cup of coffee”. This was not surprising because from
personal experience, sleep quality has decreased when technology has been used
immediately before bedtime. This discovery has led to personal changes in my pre-sleep
schedule where after 10P.M.
Following the presentation about screen time, the most
intriguing presentation was about CTE. It is a disease caused by repeat impacts
on the brain which damages the proteins and leads to similar effects as
Alzheimer’s or other devastating brain diseases. Another interesting aspect of
research presented was the fundamental difference between the two. In CTE
individuals the symptoms did not have a late-onset pattern. Instead there were
instances of 17-year-old deceased individuals that CTE was a determining factor
in their deaths. This is entirely different from dementia, Alzheimer’s, and
other disease which show a characteristic late onset of the disease. All of
these brain issues have similar symptoms and that is because they all exhibit similar
aggregation of amyloid fibers.
After the poster presentation we progressed into the topic
of gene therapy. Individual research into gene therapy yielded increased
understanding about the enormity of the field. A podcast recommended by SUU
facility member was the main source of education for self-help learning of gene
therapy. In this podcast, it discussed the use of gene therapy in women during
pregnancy by investigating the use of harmless viruses to carry copies of a
gene to a fetus that lacks those specific genes. This has been only studied in
monkey’s but is looking to make the jump to human trials within the next couple
of years. This technological advance would help provide an answer to a myriad
of diseases developed in the womb (such as Tay-Sach’s) and allow healthier pregnancies.
Additional research through the NIH National Library of
Medicine yielded more in-depth results. In the many scientifically-dense papers,
there were multiple informational items that provided excellent insight. The
first is the use of gene therapy as a preventative type of medicine and also directly
treat diseases. Insertion of genes are used as a way to treat the displacement
misplaced genes or lack thereof. The research article was a prototype that had
me insert my body, height, ethnicity and then identified me according to other
common sequences.
The focus of the discussion in class was based on the ethical
and moral debate for use of gene therapy. The benefit as discussed above is to
devise systems ensuring healthier humans and through further understanding of
genetic material more specific uses in healthcare will be granted. For example,
gene therapy can and is being used to produce marijuana plants that produce
less THC and more of another protein that is responsible for the
anti-inflammatory aspect of marijuana. However, the viewpoint that has provided
substantial footing for being against gene therapy. It is the theory that with
this new idea and technology humans can “Play God”, by creating and designing a
genetically favored child.
Although there is a push to develop this technology, not a
lot of experts have communicated the risks that come from gene therapy. There
are quite the number discussed in class that include immune system
complications, over-expression of protein, DNA introduced into reproductive
cells, and vector viruses that infect more than one type of cell. Although
right now it seems like gene therapy seems like the answer there are always
problems that arise and some of these risks are those problems. Overall, I
think that gene therapy will hold some use in our medical system, but further
study and understanding of its effects need to occur first.
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