Curated Paper 2

I find it interesting how many different ways that pathogens can affect our bodies and the bodies of other animals and plants. It amazed me how something so small can have catastrophic effects on our bodies when we are able to handle other things so well. For example the smallest of pathogens released into our body from the wrong tick could kill us in a matter of days. Microdoses of certain drugs could kill the unadapted with just a single touch. The microscopic level of disease fighting and control the body has is amazing. When I look at slides in my histology class it brings perspective to just how complicated we are. You could take for example a slide with a piece of a tissue that is a square centimeter and blow that up to the size of a 100 inch smart board and still struggle to count all of the cells in a singular slice of that slide. To think that each of these cells can communicate and effectively warn each other of everything that is going on without us consciously knowing about it is outstanding. Like I said though there still are these things such as pathogens that can throw our bodies off from time to time. I look forward to learning more about them and how they play differing roles in the body. 

To begin with agriculture, I don't know why but I have always thought of this as more growing crops then I have raising livestock. I enjoyed the map and thought for sure that we would produce more alfalfa and hay then livestock but I guess I don't know. I did like how it pointed out that there needs to be some kind of diversity in order to manage and keep healthy cultures in the world. For example while working on the bee project for this class I have learned that there is a lot of widespread disease among the domestic honey bees when compared to the wild honey bees. I know that this is theorized to be because of genetic diversity as well as having far fewer stressors than the average farmed honey bee. I have also seen this in the circle four pig barns near my house now called smithfield. I have helped out a few times with loading pigs and the amount of medications these pigs need to be on to stay healthy is insane. A few years back they had some massive widespread disease that was killing millions of pigs. This is due to the lack of genetic diversity. The proposed solution is to broaden the foods we eat so that we do not rely on the same few animals and plants for the majority of our nutrition. 

I have seen that there is a lot of work that goes into farming as I grew up in a farm town. There are thousands and thousands of acres that are farmed every year for multiple seasons. Much of this crop goes into feeding the pigs, cows, and horses. It has always made us wonder how much weight a cow has to eat in order to make the ribeye that I am eating. Did a farmer have to grow a fourth of an acre? At what point does the profit margin become too small? I know that around here many farmers lose money doing what they do. If you don't have a lot of acreage and new enough equipment to harvest in time then you will lose money every year. Many of them have to work multiple jobs and farm as well. 

One thing I don't think we are planning for is the continuous growth and increase in resistance and virulence of pathogens. For example Covid was something that struck us by surprise and messed up a lot of things. However we still had food. What would happen if all of the sudden a new strain of a crop killing pathogen struck the entire country. As we know this could lead to massive financial hard times and strain on the economy. If there were multiple factors in the same year that pressed multiple of our main food sources it would really hurt. The constant use of pesticides and preservatives is what we have to be cautious of. If we continue to use them eventually they will no longer work and we will be left with an ever growing population to feed on an ever shrinking supply of food. 

One thing that I didn't realize is that we have so many different trades and deals with african farming for bananas and other goods. This is surprising to me because I feel that food would have to travel for weeks to get to a grocery store and every time I go to the store the bananas look perfect. I buy them and then like 3 days later they are too soft and mostly brown. It makes me wonder what they have to use in order to preserve them that long. I never thought about trading as being a possible issue with spreading disease from corp to corp either. If one country such as Aftrica in this example is not taking the proper precautions and doing all it can to prevent disease, we are trading with them. Then we are technically also not doing as much because that hard work we had could all go down the drain if it started carrying disease overseas. 

I don't know how bad the potato market is right now but no matter what time of year I buy potatoes I almost always have some with those black blight spots on them. I feel that we should be able to find some cure to this. If there are this many potatoes being affected then how many are being thrown out because they are in too rough of shape to be sold. Lets just pretend that there are ten percent of potatoes that are too poor in condition to sell. If there are a million pounds of potatoes produced every year that is 50 tons of potatoes that are going to waste. That is enough to feed a hell of a lot of people. The cure to that compounded over time could help to bring costs down and strengthen economies. 

Toward the end of the slides I enjoyed reading about zoonotic disease and the ability for animals to spread it to one another and to us as well. This is something we definitely need to keep an eye out for because there can be some of the worst things as well as some of the best that come from this. For example I believe the black plague was from rats to humans. This was catastrophic and caused many deaths without people even knowing why. On the flip side there was milk made with smallpox. While smallpox was breaking out and running rampant it was discovered that milk maids would only get slightly sick and then make a quick recovery. This was because they had built up antibodies to cow pox which were similar enough that the immunity could transfer over and bleed into the benefits of a far more dangerous disease. I feel that there is a lot that we can learn from animals in the way they are able to combat disease and overcome it through a gene pool. When we farm animals it makes this a little more complicated because the animals don't have the necessary genetic diversity to all survive a massive disease if it strikes. This could wipe out entire herds as well as populations when we are not careful. 

The euthansia techniques used when there is a massive outbreak that cannot be controlled and is suspected to lead to a mass casualty across the country is quite striking. First off I was not expecting the picture of all those pigs piled up. I have smelt dead pigs and that is not a pleasant smell so openly burning the corpses has got to be one of the most feral things I could think of. Though it does make sense why they would have to do this I feel that it would be much better to focus on preventative measures before we get to this point through frequent testing and analysis. Any time it has gotten to the point that an entire city needs to be ridden of a specific breed of livestock I feel there was a lack of preparation on the part of the farmer and city. For example the foot and mouth disease is probably the best known example. 6 million animals were slaughtered and burned as a result of this disease in order to stop the widespread disease from infecting all livestock everywhere. The United States has done a good job at keeping this at bay but other countries have had some cases in the last 10 years or so. Ultimately this costs people billions of dollars and I find it hard to kill an animal when you don't intend to use the meat for food. Let alone millions of them. 

The second slide set showed just how many different ways that the human body can get messed up from disease. The many ways we spread disease, as well as the ways we measure what it is affecting or damaging. I found viruses to be one of the coolest ones because this nonliving thing takes over our cells and forces them to replicate its DNA and make more of its proteins. This is something that seems like it should be extremely smart but it's not even considered to be a living thing which I find to be wild. Overall this was a very insightful section into pathogens and I still have a lot to look into on this seemingly endless topic. Gene editing ultimately is something that I think will be the future of medicine for better or for worse. I feel that there is only so much we can do with modern medicine before everything we are fighting against has built the proper immunity to no longer be affected by any of this. I look forward to also seeing how this ties back to the overall theme of ayurveda and the mental connection to fight our ability to be sick and the degree to which we are sick. I have enjoyed the reading and journaling on this section and plan to dig deeper into the honey bee versions of this as I continue to work on my project in hopes to have a very detailed and informative result for that work.

I began by watching the youtube video that described the left-right conflict found when trying to say what color the word is when the word is a color that is different from the color of the text. I found that I could even be tricked if I was using my peripheral vision because I could see the word enough that it had been committed to memory and I would occasionally still read the color before telling the correct one. I found that it is interesting how complex our brains are. It then makes sense that each area of the brain would be designed to perform a different function. After all we do so many things all at the same time it is important to distribute the tasks and senses into different sections and also be compressed together by working together. I thought that the video was well done and I also learned that the cerebellum is in some ways like a second smaller brain. It is in charge of things like digestion and other bodily functions that we don't have to think of to do. Our cerebellum just does all of this on its own. 

From the slides I was able to learn what MS is. I have heard of MS many different times in my life but have never really known what it is or how it works. From what I could gather they believe it has something to do with development in different climates or geographical locations. When someone has MS they begin to have the myelinated axons in the brain and spinal cord can become demyelinated. This causes slower signal transfer and can mess a lot more up. It seems from the slides that the disease varies a lot in when and how it onsets and will go through fazes of being active and dormant. In my histology class we are just now learning about the nerve cells and all of the complex layering that goes on in the brain and spinal cord. I hope that one day they will be able to find a cure for this and be able to reverse any damages done to those who are currently fighting MS. 

The next section of the slides covered Huntington's disease. This seemed to be a lot more of a predictable disease as if you have one of the genes for it you will show the phenotype. That means if someone with huntingtons has children statistically half of their children will also have Huntington's disease. From what I learned the problem comes from the coding of 23 glutamine amino acids in the protein called huntingtin. As of right now the use of huntingtin is not understood but it is believed that the affected huntingtin molecules are unable to be learned and block nerve signals.

I have had a little knowledge of Alzheimers from conversations with people, but also from the show my wife and I watch called Grey's Anatomy. The general idea on the show was that it was something that can be genetically inherited and there are multiple genes that can code for it. I did not know that the neurons break apart and tangle like that. This would explain the loss of memory. I feel that it makes it much harder to understand how people can have random times where they remember and then lose their memory again. After taking genetics I feel that these are all things that would be selected out in a population, however with all of these it seems that you are able to have kids and live most of your life before they begin to affect you. 

The final one is Tay-Sachs disease. This one really hit home to me because it can affect young children all through their lives. The disease is caused by a frameshift mutation on the HEXA gene. This makes the carrier unable to break down gangliosides that build up in the neuron. This leads to deafness, blindness, and often leads to loss of motor function. Though more rare it can occur in children and usually leads to death by 15 years old. If it does occur later in life its normally 30-40 years of age. 

I was amazed with how much head trauma happens every year in the United States. It intrigues me that the same injury can cause so many different outcomes. I think it shows just how much we don't know about the human brain. With just the slightest change in approach angle of an object or striking the head at a slightly different angle it could leave one person fine, and the other an entirely different person. I found it odd that many of the injuries change people to have outbursts and be less capable of understanding social situations. Honestly it all goes so far over my head. In histology the brain is something I can't seem to wrap my head around. A bundle of millions of cells that can think and act as one, that makes decisions different from everyone else, with what seems to be infinite storage. I don't know that we will ever figure everything out. I believe that every person's brain is different. That as we develop and grow and have experiences our brain makes physical changes. There really is no other way that I feel it could work. I can't get stuck in this rabbit hole, because I am learning about the brain and all its parts and what it does while my brain just casually types out this paper about what it thinks it is.  I felt that the trauma or abuse studies that were shown can be proof that the things we experience can and will change the makeup of our brain. 

The brain injuries can lead to many imbalances in the body that vary a lot depending on the damages done and to what areas the damages are done. Some may lose the ability to retain memory, others may lose the ability to form words. There are some that may have known what they want to say but the words don't come out anything like they want it to. Some die due to regular rhythms to be out of touch such as heart or respiratory rates. The extent of what can happen from a brain injury is mind blowing. There are a lot of things we still have to learn about the brain. I believe as approaches and understanding improve we could reach better outcomes from these kinds of injuries and hopefully reversal of them. It is also my hope that the information we learn can help to fix the genetic diseases found in the slides from earlier. 

I feel that this next topic can potentially play a key role in how we solve the mysteries of the diseases and cancers of the world. I would like to first talk on what I know about drugs so that there is a contrast between what I know now vs what I learn as I read and research the subject. I know that there are generally 2-3 types of reactions. There are drugs like weed and alcohol that slow everything down for you, I believe these are called downers… But I am not sure. The second type would be energizers and I believe this would be like meth and cocaine. However I am not entirely sure. Third would be something strictly hallucinogenic like mushrooms. This has got to have some kind of effect on neural pathways because people see some crazy stuff. I feel that there is a community at large who likes to do a wide variety of these things and try them all out. I have personally never done any of these so I could be way off. I have family members that drink and smoke, and some friends that have smoked weed but other than those I haven't really seen or heard of peoples experiences with anything. I feel that other drugs are more done in private so we will see how all of these things affect the brain. That's my very minor understanding of how and what drugs do to the body. 

Okay okay okay I was so wrong, in my previous statements I have only taken into account the fact that there are illegal drugs and not the over the counter drugs, and or things like the flu shot or a nasal spray. I have used these kinds of drugs and though I don't know how they work I do know that I will use about anything I can to get out of having to take a medication or pill. If I am taking ibuprofen then I really am feeling it and I need a little boost. One thing that bothers me is we still don't know how tylenol affects the body or by what mechanism it does what it does and to me that's crazy. It is interesting that we can have something on the shelves without knowing exactly what it does. Another one that I am scared for the future of is Ozempic. It seems to be all the craze right now but ultimately I feel that it's going to be doing more harm than good. In the majority of people that I know that take it they don't change the kinds of food they eat and therefore they eat less of the foods that are already low in nutrients. You can see how their muscles in their face shrink away and im sure this cant have good effects on muscles like the heart. Time will tell with this drug but I remember bringing this up to my father in law who remembers there was a similar drug out when he was just getting out of high school. That drug was later linked to heart failure and he has had many of his friends and people in his class die due to heart related issues much younger than they should have. I like the testing and things that are done by the FDA to make sure that something is “safe” before use but I still feel that things should be monitored and watched in human trials on patients who “have no other option and want to send a hail mary” this way effects can be tracked and monitored before a drug goes public and millions have access. 

I learned from the video that the way the majority if not all drugs work is by messing with the sending and receiving end of the nerves. That is the axons and dendrites. The compound or drug will act as more of a neurotransmitter and get more of a response or a stronger stimulus or it will dampen the response and cause delays. There is also the possibility for the drug to hold or delay other chemicals that may build up from use of the neurons and in this case cause mixed signals as well. 

From the slide set I was able to learn a lot about how drugs work with the brain. There are many sites in the brain where a chemical key of sorts is needed to activate or deactivate certain emotions or release other chemicals and endorphins into the body. What is so unique to drugs is they fit the mold of the key and are able to fit into the hole and activate pathways. I also learned a lot about what addiction actually is. Before I saw addiction as just enjoying something so much you were unwilling to make changes in order to quit. I never realized that it physically alters your brian so that those desires to use and do anything to continue to use outweigh any other desire even if it can and will kill you. This makes sense to me now that I think about it. Growing up I just felt like someone who wanted to quit could just quit like cigarette or alcohol if they wanted to stop they could just stop. The hard part about quitting is you have to physically change your brain back or change it again so that the addiction no longer runs your life.
There are many different ways that drugs can affect the brain. In the first case shown you don't even have to be the one that did the drugs. If a pregnant woman is doing drugs this can lead to the baby having developmental issues and that child's brain will not fully develop as it should. The unique thing about this is that we have rapid growth in the number of neurons in our brain and then all of the sudden that growth stops and synaptic pruning kicks in. This is where the brain cuts down on the number of neurons and neural pathways it has by killing off the ones it never uses. Thus if someone was to have this brain development issue they would be behind in most of their every day activities and decision making and those skills and traits or lack there of will then be “locked in” with pruning and take a lot of work if they have a chance at recovery. 

The brain's ability to reward itself for doing activities that keep it alive makes sense from an evolutionary standpoint. I feel that it is something we all do. For example I know that when I lift or have a good meal that feels good to me and I find pleasure in that. Prolonged drug use can hijack this reward system in search for the dopamine that is produced when you take drugs. This spike in dopamine can be much higher than any other cause and affect reward we give ourselves for surviving. 

I found it super interesting that drugs that are inhaled have a much more prominent and quicker response time to the brain than drugs that are injected into the bloodstream. I feel like inhaled drugs would have to also enter the blood in the lungs taking longer than just being injected but I am not sure of the exact mechanism for this. 

I find it odd that it says marajuana alcohol and over the counter pills are not drugs that cause addiction, but they may be gateway drugs to lead you further down the path of addiction to other drugs. I know of a young guy who I used to work with that would smoke weed all of the time and he would tell me that it was “ impossible to be addicted to weed” . I never really believed him because he would always say that he could quit any time he wanted at the drop of a hat. I have never seen him quit for more than a week and he even stole from his family sometimes to feed this addiction. Hence why I am confused why this powerpoint says they cannot be addictive. 

From the article on ayurveda I really liked how it showed the 3 sides to our lives, ayurveda, modern medicine, and science. The balance of all 3 of these is what is key in avoiding and overcoming addiction. The problem is when we take drugs and get addicted we tend to avoid taking care of what should be done to keep all 3 in check because of our false sense of what is important or what is life and death. It goes back to the hijacking of the reward system that I talked about earlier. If our ayurveda is to be in check then we need to remain off drugs that alter it significantly. However there may be medication or other treatment that may help our body to find more of its natural rhythm and help to restore a more appropriate level of ayurveda. 

Overall I feel that this was all a very useful dive into drugs and how many people actually use them. Looking at the graph of illicit drug use form the 70’s to 2016 I was shocked to see how high the percentages were. Considering I have never even seen drugs to my knowledge I am going to blame the fact that I grew up in a small town religious Utah as one of the reasons I don't feel that we match this chart entirely. For all I know it could be and I just happened to never be involved or know anything about it.  I have enjoyed reading about all of the different types of drugs and classes. How they are managed as well as mismanaged. I enjoyed seeing a deeper level of how these things can actually impact the brain and body and how no joke these can really be. It amazes me that there is still such an epidemic of opioids even with doctors being given more strict instructions to stay away from those things. I know that as I have observed, it is always the recommendation of the doctor to alternate tylenol and ibuprofen before he even thinks to prescribe something like percocet or any other heavy drug. I hope that as our knowledge continues to increase we will be able to find better ways to help those who are addicted to overcome their addictions and to be able to start over with the choice on whether or not they want to use. I feel that any time I see someone smoke or drink they tell all the young folks to never start so that they won't end up like them. Great reads this week and I look forward to seeing how all of this ties even more together.

Curated paper 2 - Ryder Vance

 

Changes in biology can be brought through a variety of ways and can consequently produce a variety of effects. The intentional or unintentional altering of brain chemistry, metabolic pathways, or genetic makeup can produce short-term and long-term changes to individuals with potentially negative or positive effects. This basic principle is the process through which modern medications function to treat illnesses and conditions as well as how pathogens cause illness in a host. The body’s natural state is not a state of inactivity, or in other words, no biological changes or functions; but it is rather a state of homeostatic response, a balance between changes on the spectrum of reactions. When this spectrum sways too far to one side we often see adverse or unfavorable responses. In examining various areas of our biology, we can see how imbalances from biological changes can result in countless different outcomes.

The brain is an extremely complex organ in the human body responsible for countless functions which we rely on day to day for our survival. It is one of, if not the most complex organs in our body. With over 100 billion nerve cells that communicate between each other along with other specialized structures and lobes, the brain is responsible for functions like higher cognition, recognition, speech, and much more. It is hard to begin to process the value of our brain as far as its role in making us who we are in terms of individuality and thought processing. Of course, this itself is a paradoxical view to consider using our brain to think about the value of our brain. Nonetheless, it is extremely interesting to think of how our brain relates to the concepts of interconnectedness and ayurveda in our body and its functions.

              When examining this idea of interconnectedness, it is pertinent to look at neurological disorders and their effects on the body and the consciousness of the individual. Neurological disorders like Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, Alzheimer’s, and more can impact other areas like motor functions, cognitive and emotional behavior, and psychological processing. Personality can also be affected by mood disorders like Schizophrenia, paranoia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and more. Multiple Sclerosis is a neurological condition in which the brain and spinal cord axons demyelinate in patches resulting in symptoms of weakness in extremities, vertigo, gait disturbances, visual complications, and more. Recovery is often lengthy for many individuals, and it has no known cause. It is treated by corticosteroids prescription during active periods while beta-interferon shows signs of preventing relapse and slowing disease progression. Huntington’s disease is a progressive condition which leads to dementia in the patient. It typically presents itself as changes in mood and character along with defects in memory and attention eventually resulting in involuntary rapid movements of the body. Dementia is used to generally describe a deterioration of cognitive abilities as a result of diseases like strokes, Huntington’s, Parkinson’s, and Alzheimer’s.

              Injuries can also affect the brain and as a result personality and cognitive functions. Injuries to the brain from a physical force are known as traumatic brain injuries and are recognized as a risk factor for psychiatric disorders. These injuries can impair cognition, physical functions, along with mood and personality. These injuries are caused by severe impacts from car accidents, firearms, falls, concussions, explosions, infections, toxins and more. Brain injuries are complex and challenging to understand for several reasons. One is that we are still learning to understand the complexities and interconnectedness of each aspect of the brain. Additionally, the way the brain heals from injuries is still somewhat unknown and different from other organs in the body. This subsequently makes it hard to treat these injuries. Major personality changes associated with traumatic brain injury are generally grouped into five major subtypes: affective liability, aggression, disinhibition, apathetic, and paranoid. Traumatic brain injuries to me are extremely fascinating and personal. I played football for many years and saw firsthand the effects of mild traumatic brain injuries from concussions. In one instance I took a severe hit to the head during football that caused me to have headaches, visual sensitivity, and even a minor stutter for a few days following. These instances were one of the driving factors that interested me in biology, disease, and medicine.   

              Injuries and disorders of the brain are an interesting example of interconnectedness. We can see how conditions affecting relatively small areas of the nervous system can subsequently affect virtually every other area of the body to some extent. By continuing to understand the connection within the brain and between the brain and the body, we can perhaps find better ways to assist in treating some of these conditions, many of which have no clear cure or treatment plan. With improved knowledge on the brain and the causes of its many potential disorders, we can likewise restore better balance to the system and hopefully improve the quality of life for the countless individuals who are affected by them.

Drugs are a big part of the modern medical landscape and are another example of how changes in biological reactions can occur. Be it preventing and treating illegal drug use and abuse or use of prescription drugs to treat medical conditions, it is a massive aspect of medical care for most practitioners. Drugs work by altering or inhibiting the neurological and metabolic pathways causing physiological, psychological, and behavioral changes including desired effects and side effects. Most drugs resemble naturally present chemicals of the body and thus can interact with specific receptors in the body to produce their effects. Drugs literally change the chemistry of body, both for the better or the worse. Additionally, many drugs can be highly addictive and create problems for individuals when they contain impurities which alter their function and cause problems in the body. Drugs can also interact with each other and other substances in the body to produce amplified or inhibitory effects, changing brain chemistry and function both temporarily and long-term. Additionally, the body can also become less receptive to its natural chemical messengers due to frequent use of drugs. This can result in cravings, dependence, and addiction. 

              Drug usage has an interesting impact on our class discussions of imbalance. Drugs are often used to treat imbalances, or when used incorrectly they can create them. Cocaine and similar drugs increase the presence of chemical messengers in our system creating powerful effects from the amount present. Even when used properly, drugs can create imbalances and adverse effects on the body. For example, use of strong anti-inflammatory drugs to relieve inflammation for injuries can cause the body to “rebound” with severe inflammation when treatment stops. This is because the body begins to rely on the presence of the drug to respond to the inflammation and thus doesn’t produce its own anti-inflammatory responses. This is just a couple of examples on how drug usage impacts our bodily system’s imbalances.
              There’s a great need for changes in our use of drugs in the world. Both illegal/recreational and prescription drug usage come with risks and problems. The opioid epidemic is one of the leading causes of death in America currently with tens of thousands of people dying from opioids annually. Countless families are impacted by drug addiction and drug-related effects. Potential changes lie in changing the care model for patients. As it stands, patients are most often treated for their symptoms rather than the underlying issue, particularly when the cause isn’t clear. When this is the case, drug therapy and usage may create additional problems rather than improving the true issue. By improving diagnosis and alternative care methods, our societal dependance on drugs will be lowered and subsequently the negative problems associated with them will be lowered.

Pathogenicity describes the disease-causing capacity of a microbe in its host. This capacity is a result of a variety of factors along with the ability of a host to resist the pathogen. Pathogens can rapidly (or slowly) spread among hosts resulting in a variety of short- and long-term changes. Looking at plant diseases, not only can these destroy crops, but they can also impact the health of animals who rely on the crop for food or shelter. This shows a small example of how disease can cause imbalance not only in terms of health but also on a broader scale. 

              Parasite interactions are another interesting example in the discussion of pathogenicity. Host-parasite interactions and relationships describe a relationship in which a parasite invades a host organism while commandeering its resources and providing nothing, or harm, in return. These types of interactions have played a large role in evolution, shaping how organisms and species have developed over time. While we generally think of parasites as negative and harmful, there are many instances of non-health threatening parasites which are commensal with their host. Infectious agents including bacteria, viruses, fungi, algae and more can be ingested, inhaled, or acquired through direct contact and penetration of tissue. There are countless examples and types of infectious agents with an equally endless list of symptoms and outcomes. 

              Diseases can be transmitted in a variety of ways. Common transmission methods include openings to the body. Diseases can also be carried by vectors, which are living organisms that can transmit the pathogen to another organism from the reservoir or host. Inanimate objects called fomites can also transmit pathogens from one host to another. Factors that control growth of all organisms including pathogens are availability of nutrients, parameters of the environment, and competition with other organisms. When discussing parasites and pathogens specifically, we also have to consider the host immune system. Parasites cause damage to hosts by damaging tissues and causing imbalance. Tissue damage can be caused by toxins, enzymes, and more causing organ necrosis. Metabolic function can also be disrupted in a plethora of the body's systems. Excessive and unbalanced immune responses may also cause indirect damage to the host. 

              Interaction between hosts and their parasites can also stretch beyond the general disease complications and actually alter the genomes of the organisms. Genetic variation can be generated by mutations in the DNA along with duplication of genes or chromosomes, shuffling exons to produce new genes, or horizontal transfer of genes between cells. In the case of agricultural diseases, there is somewhat of a loss of genetic diversity due to selection of specific types of agricultural crops. This can be problematic when diseases come because there is a lack of genetic diversity to resist the disease. 

              When examining changing genomes, it is important to also analyze gene therapy. Gene therapy has often been the source of healthcare debates due to the complexity of the ethics surrounding it. Vague statements from committees like the HUGO Ethics Committee have avoided controversy surrounding things like germ-line cell therapy and lacked descriptive language to be clear on the issues. Proponents of gene therapy have suggested that life and what makes it up can be broken down into simpler characteristics like cells, molecules, atoms, and so on. This perspective can be used to show that certain kinds of therapy are really only making small adjustments to these building blocks. As with all medical intervention, gene therapy comes with risks and consequences both for good and bad. These all play a role in determining the ethical boundaries and how to ensure the ethical pillars of nonmaleficence, beneficence, autonomy and justice are respected with each patient.

              Pathogenicity to me is an extremely interesting subject. I have always been interested, and simultaneously frightened, by how disease is spread and pathogens exhibit their effects on a host. As with most things, I’ve found education to be a great tool in combating what frightens me about disease. We often fear what we do not understand well, and to me pathogenicity is no exception. Seeing the subject broken down into its most basic components gives me greater perspective into the balance of how life works. It seems impossible to totally eliminate disease and genetic disorders, but with greater education and research going into them there is hope for improvement in treating and managing conditions. This unit has really increased my appreciation for the idea of ayurveda or balance; seeing how disease and immune response are greatly tied to this concept. If an ailment becomes too strong, the body suffers and can even die. Likewise, if an immune response is too strong and overpowers the body, it can also cause suffering and damage to the individual. This critical balance is something that has really caught my attention and helped me to appreciate the need for an appropriate equilibrium in order to maintain a healthy life. 

 

Curated paper #2 Trevor Murray

         When diving deeper into what happens in the brain, I find it interesting that some
 researchers make a clear distinction between the brain and the mind. In a paper that we were
 assigned to read, Mind, Brain, and Personality Disorders. They separate the two entities in their
 own categories by showing that the brain is based on genetics, biology, and is simply the organ
 that controls the rest of the body based on internal factors. On the other side the mind is actually
 based on environmental factors, dealing with more psychological factors in the individual. This
 distinction can help shape and help us better understand some neurological diseases that affect
 a lot of individuals. At the same time while looking into these diseases, I was also curious to see
 some of the societal complications that can arise when these neurological diseases progress
 too far.
         One of the first brain diseases that a majority of us hear about is Alzherimer’s disease.
 Alzheimer’s disease is a specific type of dementia, with loss of cognitive function and memory.
 One main thing that causes neuron death are plaques in the brain, the plaques are formed by
 beta-amyloid, and while Beta-amyloid is needed by neurons to continue their normal function.
 With Alzheimer’s they actually get cut up into pieces, causing them to clump together, disrupting
 neuron activity. With neuron activity declining in those areas, they’ll start degrading and begin to
 die off. The second form that can take place is entanglements in the neurons, where the tau
 protein, which is found in neurons to help with microtubule and neuron stability, becomes highly
 phosphorylated. The tubules will start to break apart, neuron microtubules break apart and get
 tangled together. Overall while there are different forms of how the neurons in the brain are
 impaired for Alzheimer's disease the major areas that are affected are typically the entorhinal
 cortex and hippocampus. And will eventually affect the cerebral cortex which is responsible for
 language, reasoning, and social behavior.
         When looking at the societal impacts that Alzherimer’s has had not just in the U.S. but
 globally as well. When looking at the numbers provided by Alzheimer's Association on their
 website. We see that there are nearly 7 million people in the U.S. living with Alzherimer’s with
 the number projected to rise to 13 million people by the year 2050. Globally, there are 55 million
 individuals with dementia, with this number projected to rise to 139 million individuals by the
 year 2050. One thing I found to be interesting on the Alzheimer's Association page, is that
 women were twice as likely to get Alzheimer’s than men. When looking into reasons why that is,
I came across a gene known as the ApoE4. Typically the gene codes for apolipoproteins that
 help regulate fats and cholesterol that circulate throughout the system, and even within the
 brain. Other variants of the gene can code for proteins that help clear clumps of proteins within
 the brain, preventing blockages to occur. However, the ApoE4 gene isn't the best at being able
 to clear the protein clumps out of the way which causes the onset of neurodegeneration. While
 both men and women have the ApoE4 gene, women have been observed to have worse
 memory performance, as well as greater brain atrophy causing this imbalance we see with
 women being more susceptible to the effects of Alzheirmer’s.
         Apart from Alzheimer’s disease, one of the other brain diseases that I was looking into
 more deeply was schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a chronic mental illness that affects how an
 individual can interact with others, mostly by affecting how an individual thinks, feels, or
 behaves. They’ll mostly experience delusions, and hallucinations that can interrupt their normal
 thought process, and change how they interact with their environment. While the cause of
 schizophrenia hasn't been discovered, it’s seen to be a blend of both genetic history and
 environmental factors. For individuals who have schizophrenia they have a history of traumatic
 experiences in their childhood, in either living conditions, or even by experiencing some form of
 domestic abuse in their home. For a period of time, my mom worked in the social services for
 the county that we lived in. While she didn't work for the foster care system, she did work in
 dealing with individuals and their cases with food stamps as a welfare fraud investigator. A
 majority of the time she was looking into families where the parents were either inappropriately
 using the food stamps they were given, or they were lying and neglecting their children to get
 more food stamps. And while she never did see children or even adolescents with
 schizophrenia, some were starting to develop mental illnesses due to the family situations that
 they were living in.
         These experiences that my mom had, showed me the importance of mental illnesses
 and the awareness that people should have. While I’ve been working on my biology degree at
 SUU, I’ve also had the opportunity to work on a Criminal Justice minor. Which has helped me
 understand some of the inner workings of the criminal justice system that we have in the state of
 Utah as well as the country. When it comes to understanding mental illness in the criminal
 justice system, it’s very interesting to see certain symptoms that individuals experience may
 seem disorderly or even non-compliant. Which leads to individuals with mental illness interacting
 with law enforcement and the criminal justice system more frequently. According to the National
 Alliance on Mental Illness(NAMI), individuals with mental illnesses are over-represented in our
 nation’s jails and prisons. 2 out of every 5 people that are incarcerated have a history of mental
illness. At the same time the crimes that they are incarcerated for are typically non-violent,
 misdemeanor crimes (i.e., petty theft, disorderly conduct, loitering, trespassing, etc.). It’s hard to
 see individuals who may not have had full control of their actions placed behind bars, and
 instead of getting the proper treatment they need, they’re sometimes met with subpar treatment
 which can actually lead to worsening health. Showing that the gaps of care and knowledge
 about mental illness within the criminal justice system, need to be fixed. While those fixes won't
 happen overnight, individuals with mental illness should be able to be passed off and receive
 the proper care that they need, instead of being incarcerated.
         On a different note, I was curious to see that drugs and medications that typically benefit
 us, can also lead to symptoms or forms of mental illness. When thinking of ayurveda and how
 that applies to drugs and medications that we take, the effects are usually beneficial. Typically
 these drugs and medications can alter how neurotransmitters absorb or release certain
 chemicals in the brain. For instance, individuals with depression can take a wide variety of
 different antidepressants to help raise levels of serotonin and norepinephrine. It does this by
 blocking the re-absorption of serotonin in the brain and allows serotonin to stay longer and have
 more of an effect on the individual. Helping them by boosting their mood, increasing motivation,
 even helping their happiness levels. For other drugs like morphine and methadone, they block
 neurotransmitter pathways to prevent specific hormones and chemicals from being absorbed.
 This causes great forms of pain medications, since they block pain receptors that are in the
 brain and central nervous system.
         However, while opioids like morphine and methadone can alleviate pain in the body, I
 saw some research showing that they can have adverse effects on mental health in the form of
 addiction. One of the main drugs that I saw when dealing with these adverse effects was
 methadone. Methadone is typically what’s used to wean people off of morphine. Yet the
 substance itself can actually have the same addictive effect on the brain, causing people to seek
 after it more. When reading about it, the addictive effect that it can have is so strong that it’s
 typically administered by appointment with a caretaker/doctor and is given in very small doses..
 There’s even disclaimers saying that if you’ve missed a dose, you’re supposed to skip it and
 forget it instead of trying to take two doses to make up for it. The hard part is seeing how this
 addiction can actually take a toll on an individual's mental health. When I was originally looking
 up why methadone is so addictive, or how someone can become addicted to it. The first thing to
 pop us is the Suicide and Crisis hotline. After seeing that be the first thing to pop up, I was
 extremely disheartened. For one, a drug that is used to be able to help those overcome
 addiction to pain killing opioids, to then become the addiction itself, is insane to think about. But
at the same time it’s insane to think that people suffer such an imbalance of either pain or
 having an addiction that they feel the only way they’ll be able to overcome it is to overdose,
 potentially ending their life. Ultimately, methadone is just a small drop in the pond when it comes
 to drug dependency as well as individuals struggling with mental health in the form of addiction.
 Which is why more research needs to be done to be able to help individuals fight their addiction
 and help them overcome drug dependency by finding other types of pain blockers that are less
addictive.

Curated Paper 2 : Maleah Johnson

     The brain is one of the most important organs within our bodies, yet we don’t know a lot about it.  There are so many diseases, and disorders that we know about, but are not sure how they progress or how they are able to be treated.  The harder thing is that symptoms can vary from person to person due to everyone’s brain being different.  Yes there are the same symptoms that will be presented, but it’s how they infect the individual that is varied.  There are different types of brain diseases, such as; neurological disorders, storage disorders, personality and mood disorders, developmental, as well as prion diseases.  Dementia is one of the disorders that lies underneath the neurological disorders area of brain diseases.  Dementia is a disease that many individuals have had to deal with, especially in relation to their loved ones.  Dementia is defined as the deterioration of intellectual abilities due to disease.  This is a disease that affects many different areas of the brain including; memory, judgment, concentration, and can occur usually with personality changes, and emotional stability.  There are many diseases that can cause dementia, some of those diseases are; stroke, Huntington’s and Parkinson’s disease, Korsakoff’s syndrome (severe amnesia), as well as Alzheimer’s disease.  When one of my grandparents passed away, he had been sick for a couple of years by this time, but right before he passed I was able to visit him back home, since this was during my freshman year, but I believe he had been experiencing dementia episodes.  My grandma was telling me that he didn’t remember a lot of the grandkids names, but he remembered mine at the time.  It was something that was hard to hear due to my siblings and my cousins spending everyday at my grandparents during the summer, and my grandpa would pick us up from school every Friday to spend time together while my parents were at work.  This was one of my core memories from my childhood, so hearing that he was forgetting who some of us are, was hard to swallow.  There were times I would call and let him know that I was coming over to visit, but by the time I got there and walked inside the house, he always acted very surprised that I was coming over to see him. 

 One of the stories that stood out to me the most while researching different types of brain injuries was the story about Phineas P. Gage.  This is a story I really only found out about 2 years ago, and I thought the individual who was telling it to me was lying to see how much I would believe.  I ended up looking this up and was really shocked to find out that this story was true.  The story of Phineas P. Gage is one that baffled me for a long time, due to injuries that this happening, especially in the brain, always end in death, but he didn’t.  From what I’ve seen and heard, when you get struck with anything in the brain, you might be alive for a few moments but you will ultimately face death.  This is something I’ve always believed until I came across the story of Phineas P. Gage.  From what articles about his accident state, Phineas was working on a railroad when the accident happened.  An iron tamping rod was driven through his head, entering below his left cheekbone and exiting from the tip of his skull.  From what we now know about the brain, the tamping rod passed through Phineas’ left frontal lobe, which is associated with decision making, planning, as well as personality.  From what we know about Phineas it’s said that his behavior changed drastically after the accident, completely changing who he was and how he acted, especially towards others around him.  Before the accident he was known for his responsible and agreeable nature, but after the accident he was described to have become impulsive, profane, and unreliable.  We truly don’t know as much as we could about the brain, but the brain is one of the most important organs within the human body.  This provides our thinking, our actions, and shows how to program who we are as individuals.

The brain makes up who we are as people, how we process situations thrown at us, how we remember the things we have experienced throughout our lives.  This is something we think we know a lot about.  In reality we don’t know as much as we would like about the brain, due to it being the most complex and often mysterious organ within the human body.  When I looked more into what we actually know about the brain, it listed the following as known; basic functions, brain regions, and neural networks.  Basic functions are something we have a good understanding about, such as controlling movement, regulating senses, and processing emotions.  Brain regions we also know about, due to teaching it within courses and how we know what controls come to each region, but we’ve identified specific brain regions associated with different functions.  For example, the hippocampus for memory and the prefrontal cortex for decision making.  We are beginning to understand neural networks by understanding how neurons connect to form complex networks that underlie our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.  Some things that are still a mystery to us would include; consciousness, memory formation, complex thought, and brain plasticity.  When thinking about consciousness we are still unsure about how the brain gives rise to consciousness, we don’t know much about how those functions work themselves.  While we know that the hippocampus is involved in memory formation, the exact mechanisms for how a memory is formed and stored are still being studied, but there is no set in stone answer for this question yet.  

Drugs are used to resemble chemicals in the brain that are typically produced naturally in the body, but when the body can’t produce those chemicals then drugs are used to mimic those chemicals.  There are many beneficial drugs that an individual can take, that some individuals need to take in order to function on a day to day basis.  For some reasons that can sometimes be unknown, an individual will not be able to produce a naturally producing chemical, causing a chemical imbalance and making it so that the person reacts and does things differently from others.  Like mentioned previously there are many drugs that are used to benefit an individual who may be lacking in the production of certain chemicals, but there are also drugs that can increase the feeling, or mimic what certain chemicals are produced for.  This can cause an individual to become addicted to the feeling and in turn become addicted to a certain drug(s).  The definition of addiction is stated as, “The fact or condition of being addicted to a particular substance, thing, or activity.”.  According to an addiction article, “48.5 million (16.7%) Americans (aged 12 or older) battled a substance use disorder in the past year… About 27.2 million Americans, aged 12 or older, reported battling a drug use disorder in the past year.”.  Addiction is a disease that changes the structure and chemistry of the brain, it is also a compulsive use of drugs, despite any cost to health, family, or social standing.  

While researching how drug addiction and drug abuse can pose a challenge for balance in the human body, I wanted to see how it related to Ayurveda.  Ayurveda views drug addiction/ abuse as a disruption of the balance between the 3 doshas, which are; Vata, Pitta, and Kapha.  The 3 doshas represent the primary energies of the body and mind, and their imbalance can lead to various physical and mental health issues, like mentioned previously, which can also include addiction.  When drugs disrupt the Vata, this can lead to anxiety, restlessness, and insomnia.  When drugs disrupt the Pitta from excessive use, this can cause irritability, anger, and inflammation.  When drugs disrupt the Kapha by overindulgence, this can lead to sluggishness, lethargy, and weight gain.  We know that ayurveda is the connection between the mind and the body and we know that drug use can fool the brain into producing the right chemicals that we are needing, which in turn can throw the balance of your physical and mental states.  Extended drug use takes an impact on your physical body, this is something a lot of people notice before anything else. 

 Since the drugs are fooling the brain by producing ‘fake’ chemicals within the body, it will stop production of the natural drug and then you have to rely on the durg to even produce that chemical in the long run.  This is how dangerous addiction and drug usage can be, but we don’t always know why someone is taking these drugs so we can’t always judge. Like we’ve experienced previously there are some good drugs that can be used on a daily basis, and sometimes have to be used on a daily basis for an individual to function in their day to day life.  I know that in my life that the brain isn’t able to produce the amount of certain chemicals I need to function on a day to day basis.  I have to take medication in order to function, and there is a major difference in when I do and don’t take my medications.  Sometimes it gets to the point that my friends and family will ask (if they are aware of my medication) and ask me if I’ve been taking it or if I haven’t.  When I don’t take my medication I feel like something is off in my body.  This is where medication can come into play and have a positive role, this is what is able to help me function as a ‘normal’ human being.  

As we know pathogens are any microbes that cause disease, but each pathogens scope and severity of a disease can differ.  Pathogenesis is the way a disease or disorder develops, it covers everything from the initial exposure to a full pathogen.  The steps that pathogenesis can occur would be in the following 5 steps; exposure, colonization, invasion, damage, and outcome.  Each pathogen is different in its own way, but how each pathogen reacts and causes infection, depends entirely on the hosts’ own immune system and how it reacts to the pathogen itself.  The body as we learn from immunology has its own defense system, but pathogens can bypass those systems and that is how those illnesses come to be within an individual's body. The outcome each different pathogen can have differs with each pathogen.  Some of the outcomes can include recovery, chronic infection, or at times even death. 

Something that we are all familiar with, due to learning about in our other biology classes, is the host-parasite interactions and relationships.  Host-parasitic relationships are ecological interactions where one organism, the parasite, benefits at the expense of another, the host.  Some key phrases that will be used while describing host-parasitic relationships can be the following; parasitism, host, parasite.  Parasitism can be described as a symbiotic relationship, where one organism (typically the parasite) benefits by exploiting another organism (typically the host).  Host is described as the organism that harbors the parasite.  Lastly parasite is described as the organism that lives on or within a host and derives nourishment from it.  As the parasites evolve, and evolve new strategies to corrupt their hosts, but in turn the hosts are also evolving their defenses to resist infection, which concludes in an arms race between the parasite and the host.  Life cycles depend on the parasite and the host themselves, but many parasites can have complicated life cycles that tend to involve multiple hosts.  Having multiple hosts can increase the parasite’s transmission opportunities and allow it to spread to new hosts.  

Microbial interactions can help shape the dynamics of parasite-host relationships, which can greatly influence  the infection process, disease severity, as well as host immune response.  Some of the most known key interactions I found while researching were modulation of host immunity, nutrient competition, alteration of host physiology, direction interactions with parasites, and transmission dynamics.  As I’ve stated above, the microbial interaction explains a complex relationship between the species involved in all reactions.

x

Curated Paper #2

When I took Microbiology, I found the study of pathogens to be the most interesting part of the entire course. Though many pathogens are typically types of single cellular bacteria, in a lot of instances they seem to have a mind of their own. A great example of this is Ophiocordyceps unilateralis. This fungus will infect an ant and effectively control the Ant’s brain by releasing psychoactive chemicals. Once these chemicals are absorbed, the ant will typically move to a location that is elevated off the ground, such as the top of a plant so the fungus can release its spores so they will spread far distances. The fungus then will cause the ant to bite down into a leaf where it will become anchored after it dies. Though Ophiocordcyceps unilateris does not have a brain to consciously manipulate the behavior of the ant, it is amazing to think that a function so complex is just a consequence of natural selection. 

Shortly after graduating high school in 2019, I had the opportunity to move to the Philippines to serve a church mission. When I arrived, my mission leaders fervently advised us to wear bug spray each and every day. The reason they were so adamant about this is because mosquitoes in the Philippines sometimes carried the Dengue virus. The Dengue virus is almost exclusively passed around via mosquito bites but in rare cases humans can pass onto each other via horizontal transmission. While in the Philippines, I met and as well as heard of a few missionaries that had contracted Dengue. Some of the missionaries were hospitalized for around 10 days and lost extreme amounts of weight. One of the missionaries was committed to play linebacker in college and weighed around 225 pounds. After his bout with Dengue fever this missionary was left weighing only 190 pounds. Besides the weight reduction, those with Dengue fever typically exhibit symptoms similar to those of an extreme fever. Extreme joint pain, headaches, vomiting, and high body temperatures typically burden patients. Though the human body is strong, adept, and efficient, microscopic viruses coming from an organism as small as a mosquito can take quite the toll on our physical well-being. 

It is interesting how our body can become resistant to certain pathogens based on where we live and spend most of our time. If someone who was a lifelong Utah resident decided one day they were going to live in Ecuador, their body would likely not be prepared for the pathogens that may be present in the environment. Pulling another example from my time in the Philippines, when I first arrived in the country we were handed bright orange water bottles that had an internal filter. One of the rules that we had was that we would never drink water that was given to us unless we could make certain it came from a 5-gallon jug that had been processed at a water filtering shop. If we were to drink tap water from other sources, we had to put the water in our orange bottles first so we could drink the water only after it had been thoroughly filtered. When we would walk through little villages of bamboo huts deep in the jungle, I would wonder to myself how all of the people were not sick all of the time from drinking contaminated water. Years later when I took microbiology it dawned on me that these people’s immune systems likely had adapted to be able to handle pathogens that were specific to their area.

All in all, it is clear to see how vital it is for society to maintain high standards in sanitation and cleanliness in the medical and food production industry. Though very small, pathogens can leave a nasty mark on a patients’ health. It is also vital we minimize the circulation of pathogens because there are many that we do not know how to treat.

While listening to a podcast this summer hosted by Dr. Andrew Huberman, PH.D., I realized an important reality in the world of healthcare. While it seems that we have many protocols in place to evaluate physical health, such as a general physical that can be carried out by a General Practitioner, it seems that we do not really have a reliable way of evaluating the health of one’s brain. Dr. Huberman talked a lot about how in society, we have many health practices that are encouraged to increase and maintain our physical health such as lifting weights, running, and eating whole foods. On the flip side, in regards to our brain health, we don’t necessarily focus on maintaining or improving our brain health, rather we just engage in intervention to fix problems after they have occurred. I personally believe the reason we are so hands-off when it comes to focusing on the health of our brains is because we do not understand our brain is an actual organ that needs proper care and attention. 

Another thing about brain pathologies that is very interesting to me is the fact that the rate of dementia and neurological deterioration disorders have seemed to skyrocket in recent years. I wonder if the introduction of so many new technologies that automate a lot of jobs that used to require human brain power has caused us to coddle our brains. It seems that our brain does function like a muscle and if we don’t exercise our brain regularly it seems that it is way more susceptible to pathologies. I think that more and more studies on the effects of smartphones on the human mind will be beneficial to see how we can adjust our use of smartphones to better take care of our brains. 

Overall, it seems that we need to put an increased effort into recognizing our brain for what it really is; an organ that needs to be taken care of. If we can put more and more research into ways in which we can improve our brain’s health, I think it is likely that we can start to see declines in neurological disorders that are currently so common. Though I am optimistic that more research in brain pathologies will result in better methods promoting brain health. However, I understand that the brain is a very complex organ with so many connections to other parts of our body that it will take many, many years to feel like we have a good grip on all of the core functions of the brain. 

I think it could be argued that the introduction of drugs, especially drugs that are psychoactive, has probably altered society more than just about anything in the last 100 years. Aside from the physical and emotional effects on the user, drugs have put an incredible amount of stress on the justice systems of societies worldwide. For example, after recreational use of marijuana was legalized in Colorado, officials later reported that they observed dramatic negative effects in their state’s level of productivity. Though it is clear to see many negative impacts of drug use, I feel it is important to keep in mind that approved drug use in clinical settings is an amazing blessing. The fact that we have been able to synthesize compounds that are able to safely pass through the blood brain barrier and alter cellular communication among neural cells is nothing short of unbelievable. The challenge with drug impact in society is trying to make sure that we are focusing on harnessing the beneficial clinical effects while trying to diminish the use of drugs that are dangerous, such as the use of drugs like cocaine and meth. 

While serving as a missionary in the Philippines, I was able to witness many cases of extreme alcoholism and how it can put excessive amounts of stress on the family of the drinker. All of these experiences being so close to addiction have led me to become rather fascinated about how this process actually takes place physiologically in the brain. I think an important thing to remember when talking about addiction is that the body does an amazing job at being efficient. The brain especially is very plastic, meaning that the brain can essentially rewire its connection between neural cells to provide new needed (or perceived to be needed) functions. One way in which addiction can occur is if a drug that mimics the structure of a neurotransmitter, such as LSD mimicking serotonin, starts entering the brain frequently. After regular use of LSD, the brain will start to produce less serotonin neurotransmitters because it doesn’t perceive the need to expend energy to produce something that is regularly entering the body exogenously. The brain then develops a dependance on the exogenous influx of the drug due to its decreased production of the neurotransmitter. This leaves the experiencing withdrawals when they stop regularly using the drug because they will likely not be producing adequate levels of serotonin. This can leave the user feeling depressed, anxious, and unable to focus on the tasks.

In terms of how neuroplasticity can work against the brain in the process of addiction, cocaine is a good example. Cocaine achieves its effect by blocking dopamine reabsorption in the axon terminals of the presynaptic neuron. This causes increased amounts of dopamine to accumulate in the synaptic cleft which will cause increased activation of dopamine receptors in the dendrite of receiving neurons. The increased amounts of dopamine cause the user to experience extreme feelings of euphoria, pleasure, and energy. This sounds great, however, the major drawback is that the increased amounts of neurotransmitters eventually will desensitize dopamine receptors to counteract the influx of dopamine neurotransmitters. This will cause the user to feel depleted of pleasure when they experience normal levels of dopamine, leading the user to feel depressed, anxious, or experiencing extreme cravings when they go without the drug. Though the exact mechanisms of action are not fully understood, chronic cocaine use can lead to changes in our neurons in the prefrontal cortex communicating with each other. This can cause the user to make bad decisions due to impaired judgment and reduced emotional inhibition. Though the brain’s high levels of plasticity can be extremely physiologically beneficial in certain cases such as injury, our brain’s plastic abilities tend to work against us in the case of use of illicit psycho-active drugs. 

I believe the fact that drugs can quite literally cause our brain to rewire itself should cause us to feel more compassion to those you have fallen into addiction. Though their activity at the beginning to purchase and start using illicit drugs is indeed criminal, they might struggle to reform simply from the fact that they are no longer able to use their brain properly. In my life experience, I have come to see that most users desperately want to stop using. However, even when the last thing they want to do is keep using, their altered brain tells them that they must keep using to survive. Most of these individuals started out in what was deviant behavior but later only keep engaging in drug use because they quite literally are almost completely physically dependent on it. I’m not saying that every state in America should follow what Oregon has done and decriminalize all drugs, however, I think we can be better at being more understanding towards those who are addicted to drugs. Understanding the true science of addiction really tells us that these individuals have been significantly altered in a physiological sense.