Monthly Archives:: April 2013

1. I learned, truly, that the symptoms of a multitude of illnesses are the same. This was due to experiencing the struggle to diagnose someone with some general disorders.

2. I learned that some of the strangest, possibly dangerous, diets are necessary for some people to maintain good health. This was in particular with my case study Ethan, who couldin’t eat carbohydrates. Any other person, possibly, who wild have been put on the diet could die.

3. I learned I particular, of a rare mutation in cellular respiration where pyruvate cannot be aerobic ally transformed into acetyl-coA. Interestingly, I also learned that this mutation affects the patient neurologically. Despite the being no direct link, the lack of ability to generate ATP caused a lack of brain function. Though when it’s stated like so, it does seem a bit obvious.

I found the optimal diet project that we did in class to be really interesting and fun! It was cool playing doctor to diagnose our patients and finding a proper diet for them. What i learned most from the project was using a critical thinking approach to dove problems. It is a skill that requires you to take a series of steps to work towards a solution. I found this method super useful when taking the past exam, and I kept it in mind when answering questions I thought I didn’t have the answers to. It was also cool learning about how disruptions in diet can lead to serious harm in simple metabolic process’ and vice versa. All the different patients that we studied were presented in class and it was interesting to learn the connection diet has with cellular health. Through the project i also learned more about what sort of diet I should be striving for! I won’t be young for long, and it’s nice to know what sorts of foods support my bodily functions to be always up to par and more so, how they do it!

This class proved to be much more in depth than I’d originally imagined.
Along with that depth comes a vast amount of knowledge that we are expected
to take in, absorb, and digest so that it can be stored for later use.
While the process itself is much easier said than done, there is much that
I have learned over these past several weeks. I could point out random
facts or applications which I’ve discovered over the course but that
wouldn’t show anything. I think the most important things I’ve learned were
not necessarily found embedded within the course but stemmed from my
learning process and the discovery of myself as an individual.

What I feel is most important in the learning process is that which can be
taken and applied to life itself. While the specifics themselves may never
again cross my educational path, it was in learning them that I learned
more about myself. I am a procrastinator; I refuse to pace myself according
to an efficient schedule with set time blocks for set activities. Part of
this is habitual and will take time to fix. The other part is a general
stubbornness that I suffer from and need to consciously choose to overcome.
This class is different than any other class I’ve taken. In every other
class I’ve taken in my life, I would literally devote less than an hour of
study time a week to it and be able to test near perfect just by absorbing
the information in lecture. This class I believe was a wake up call in
regards to this notion. I found out after my first test that not studying
would not be a plausible choice. The second test showed me that cramming
the night before was also not a solution. I’ve learned that in order to do
well in your classes where information is abundant, it is necessary to pace
yourself and allow yourself time to truly digest the material. This is true
for life as well. Rushing through it gets you nowhere. Set a pace and stick
to it. I learned this semester that it’s okay to ask for help. I’ve always
grown up being picked on and in school, asking for help was seen as a sign
of weakness in a way. This concept stuck with me throughout most of high
school where I didn’t necessarily ask questions but would go out on my own
and find the answer myself. This was fine when the answers were readily
accessible but in this class it proved to be a challenge. I found that I’d
often get stuck on a concept without the answer staring at me regardless of
my searching. I began asking questions more (probably to the point of
exhaustion for Dr. Harman and Dr. Foster) and joining groups with others
who could help me along. This class showed me that being part of a
community of students and teachers aiming for the same goal has many
benefits. One of these is the fact that you have someone always there to
help you and all you have to do is have the initiative to ask for it. Above
all though, what I feel has been the most important concept to me was the
process in which we delved into the diet case studies. Health and nutrition
have been very notable resounding concepts throughout this class. I myself
had many false assumptions along the lines of what “healthiness” was and
how food impacts it. I have been unhealthily eating in excess for the one
and a half years I’ve been at PCC. It’s beginning to show I’m embarrassed
to say. However, with what I’ve learned from this class I’m getting back
into shape and eating right again. What amazes me about this though is the
fact that even after all the research and lectures and information we’ve
been presented with, we were never given any sort of template for what the
optimal diet should be. One is not needed however because over the course
of the diet segment we conducted so much research, read so many articles,
and applied so much knowledge that we have all beaten into our heads what
an optimal diet should be for just about any situation; and above all, we
have learned the necessary thought patterns required in order to arrive at
this conclusion. It is within this thought process that I believe the
fundamentals for which this class was designed are to be found. Asking
questions, finding answers, drawing conclusions through analysis of newly
found data. Rinse and repeat. This process has shown us how to be
independent learners, We can now solve just about any problem given to us
now just because we know what tools to use and how they will help. This is
a concept that will follow us for the rest of our lives and can be applied
to many various areas. I feel that this was the goal of the class and
regardless of what the future holds, I feel much more prepared for it now
than I did 3 months ago.

-Daniel Smith

First, i think that our topic was most difficult. We had to do a lot of research to figure out why the patient was suffering from these symptoms. Actually, other groups had around 5 reference while we had more than 20.
Second, we have to choose medications carefully. The patients seemed that to stop one symptom, she got another drug, and repeated again. However, some of her symptoms came from side effects. So, when we choose a medicine, first we must check both effectiveness and side effects of the drug, and we also must recognize what symptoms we have, to avoid getting side effects.
Finally, it is really important to understand what is the main cause. In the patient’s case, hypothyroidism was the main cause, and other symptoms came from side effects. So, her doctor had to focus on healing hypothyroidism. Knowing what is the primary cause can be adapted to real life. Especially, this idea is essential for critical thinking and conducting research, and this is one of the skills I have to improve.

The first thing I learned from this class is study is an independent thing. Figure the problem out myself is better than explained by classmates. Also, I learned some critical thinking skills. How to use the knowledge I learned to solve different but related problems. It is a slow process, but it will very beneficial for my future study. At last, I learned about what are complete packages. Seriously, my 2 professors are amazing. Why some people are so smart and pretty, while some are stupid and ugly. It’s mean, but it’s true. I am the kind of person who easily get lost. Sometimes, I don’t know what I want. But my professors inspired me a lot. I want to be a girl like them, have a career I like, and a life. Being confident even I am getting older. Thanks, professor Harman and Foster! It’s an unique experience to be your student.