Part One
A few non-infectious diseases that are influenced by microbes include:
- Crohn’s Disease,
- Diabetes Mellitus,
- Anxiety Dsiorders,
- Depressive disorders,
- Asthma,
- Allergies,
- Atopic Dermatitis (eczema),
- Liver Disease,
- Gastritis and peptic ulcer disease,
- Obesity,
- and certain cancers.
Part Two
In Writing Exercise #1, the examples that I came up with were Chronic liver disease, cervical cancer, chronic gastritis and peptic ulcers, lymphoma, asthma, and Diabetes. While I restated many of these diseases and conditions again, this time it was much easier to think of them. I remember at the beginning of the term having to look at multiple sources before coming up with this list, and even then being really unsure how they were caused by microbes. Today, this list came very natural and I would feel much more comfortable explaining the connections between the disease and how microbes contribute to the pathology.
This term I learned so much about how microbes influence our health, and I think that it will help me in the future as I embark on a career in the medical field. This class has given me a better understanding about the plethora of ways that microbes influence our health beyond their infectious qualities. As a future physician, the things that I learned in this class could influence how I choose to treat certain conditions, including not prescribing antibiotics as often or limiting cesarean sections to situations where they are deemed medically necessary.
