Brain module

There are so many things that can go wrong in the brain. That is my first thought when looking at all of the different types of brain diseases. So much that we know about, such as why tay-sachs occurs or what is happening during multiple sclerosis, yet so much we don’t know. We have no abilities to cure or prevent these things from happening, they just simply happen. With multiple sclerosis specifically we see that there is demyelination in the brain and spinal cord which creates a slow signal through the cord. Yet we have no idea why it is happening or what to do to prevent it from continuing. There are so many diseases like this. We are getting better at mapping the brain and deciphering what is being affected and what spot in the brain it is happening at, but we still are clueless to what will actually help end these diseases. One problem that has been evident with brain diseases is that they are so variable from person to person. They present differently, they affect on different levels, and they are shown to be affected by treatments very differently. 

The brain is not only controlling so much of our physical aspects, but it also controls our thoughts and our emotions. Different chemical imbalances can affect people differently as well. It is not always a biological thing that happens. Brain injuries can even change personalities from time to time. There are so many psychological things that can happen from the brain including depression, schizophrenia, and OCD. These can also have a gradiance on how it is affecting that specific person. They also have different treatments that work better for some than others. The brain is not something that is universal. It always includes trial and error with the treatments as well. 

One big problem that we see too often is from concussions. It is a major way that children and adults are injuring their brain. When playing sports, getting in a minor accident, and any other everyday task could accidentally get hit a little too hard in the head and lead to injuries. A major problem is seen with that first point, playing sports. Students are very passionate about their sports and want to participate as much as they can. Being active is wonderful and very necessary to staying healthy, however, once a concussion occurs, it is highly likely that it will happen again. A brain injury needs time healing before we start throwing it around again, and most times we do not give it sufficient time that it needs. Protecting our brain is important and making those too young to make informative decisions take the time they need to heal is a major way we can improve the health of our brains. 

Drug Unit

Beginning the slide show I thought it was interesting that we learn about antagonists and synergists when it comes to drugs. Stopping something such as pain, or promoting something such as serotonin is a big part of why we use drugs to begin with. One thing that I thought of about antagonists is how drugs can interact with different things in our bodies in different ways. One example of this is birth control. There have been many people on birth control that still have babies because they take things that interact with the birth control and make it shut down and not do the task that it was meant to do. A major thing with this is grapefruit. Something so random that you would not think twice of eating, but could change your whole life if you end up with a child that was unplanned. 

One thing that I also thought was interesting was that there are impurities in many drugs. This took me back to organic chemistry. When making things such as crystals we would measure out our impurities through melting point and mass spectrometry. No matter how careful we were, we always seemed to get impurities within our substances. This would be attached more to drugs that people make and then sell, such as crystal meth. These drugs are already so harmful, but with other impurities it can cause extra harm to the body. Depending on what they are, they can even act as their own synergists to the drug which could enhance the effect that it has on the human body. 

Drugs have a lasting effect on the body, especially the brain. One effect that it gives is dulling of the pleasure center of the brain. Most of these drugs that people take will mimic that of chemicals that our body will already produce. By doing this, it enhances what it does, such as dulling pain, giving extreme joy and happiness, and so on. When this intake is coming on so strongly, it will begin to cause damage to the receptors, and now that high dose is becoming more and more of a duller sensation. Another effect that will happen is loss of a reward system. The body no longer needs to create these chemicals because they are found regularly in excess. Now whenever we take these, the body no longer feels as much of a high, but instead becomes dependent on them. It needs it to survive because the body no longer makes the normal amount of chemicals. Not only does the high become less of a high, but the low becomes lower. This is also because the body is not producing the normal amount of these chemicals, when the drugs are not coming in we get a very low crash of these levels. 

One major thing that surprised me within learning more about drugs, is that people start so young. Children as young as the eighth grade began intaking drugs. It was on the lower part of the chart, but it was big enough that it did get charted. One of the higher groups on the chart is in the 12th grade. Children this young are still developing their brains. Their way of thinking and pleasure centers are even in different parts of the brain. Taking drugs at this stage of life can alter their whole growing process and permanently derail their growth. Another part that really got me thinking was that 45% of Americans over the age of 12 have tried an illicit drug. That is almost half of the population of young adults or older. The fact that it is just 12 years old is crazy. How do they even have access to these things? One way that we can help prevent long term damage due to drugs is by protecting those young enough not to know better. This would also help prevent addiction which would derail their whole lives. Learning how to teach this important lesson of not experimenting with such harmful deadly things is an important thing that we should be looking into doing in a more successful way. 

In my abnormal psychology class we have talked about how drugs and alcohol are so addicting that they even can change the makeup of our brains. They change the levels that our brains receive of the drugs and chemicals, and a dependency can usually result from these things. Not only can this lead to biological changes on dependency of chemicals, but it can also cause psychological changes such as anxiety, depression with really high highs, and even suicidal thoughts. Changes in the brain can also affect things such as the peripheral nervous system and connection between the different parts of the brain and neurons. Different drug uses can affect the ability to move our muscles the way we want to and other things such as heart rate, digestive system, and everything else in between. Nerves are also unable to regenerate, meaning we can permanently damage them through drug use. Drugs leave more of a trace than for the time of it being in our systems.