Agenda 8 for 10/31/01

Courses Wayne State University College of Lifelong Learning Interdisciplinary Studies Program Changing Life on Earth, GST 2020, 4 cr Section 981 (face-to-face Wednesdays 6:00 - 8:30 PM in 222 Cohn on campus) and Section 990 (online) Health Concepts and Strategies, GST 2010, 3 cr Section 981 (face-to-face, Wednesdays 8:40 - 10 PM in 222 Cohn on campus) and Section 990 (online) Health Concepts and Strategies for Elder Care, GST 1990 Section 981 (2 credits) and Section 982 (4 credits)	Instructor
	David R. Bowen 2311 A/AB Wayne State University Detroit, MI 48202 Schedule (link not working yet)	Daytime tel: (313) 577-1498 Evening tel: (248) 549-8518 At Ford: 313-390-2155 FAX: (313) 577-8585 Home Page: http://www.cll.wayne.edu/isp/drbowen Email: d.r.bowen@wayne.edu

Health - GST 2010	Genetics theme GST2020 Evolution theme GST 2020	Back to course welcome page
		Policies, Assignments, Course Meetings	Online Tools	Information about the class and participants	Lectures and further information from other sources	General information

Last updated: 10/31/01

Agenda 8
Wednesday October 31
Health Concepts and Strategies, GST 2010
Changing Life on Earth, GST 2020
Attached Directed Study, GST 1990

Announcements
1. Handouts:
  1. Agenda 8 for Wednesday October 31
2. GST 2020: Midterm put off until Wednesday November 7 to allow parents with young children to participate in Halloween. How it will work:
  1. There will be four questions from the list of seventeen questions (see link for "Quiz and exam topics" on the course home page). All of these questions are fair game, including ones that were already on Quiz 1. the exam will be open book, open notes, no other person besides yourself, ask me if a question appears to be ambiguous or confusing.
  2. All of the questions for Quiz 1, and some added since then (Numbers 10 and 14), ask for specific examples. On the Midterm, for these questions, I will break the question into A and B parts, A for the general information and B for the example. Each will count equally, 50% of that question.
  3. There will be the same requirement for "in your own words." This requirement will not apply to brief definitions, and you are also free to use technical terms (for example, "gene" or "DNA") without change.
  4. Face-to-face students will have the entire class session (6 PM to 8:30 PM).
  5. For online students, I will put the midterm on the course web site as with Quiz 1, by 6 PM on November 7, and you will have 42 hours to return it, until Noon on Friday November 9. If there is some reason why this schedule will not work for you, let me know as soon as possible.
3. New features on the course home page (http://www.cll.wayne.edu/isp/drbowen/gewf01)
  1. Online grade reports (see link under "Online tools" on the course home page). You must have filled out the Online Course Information Form and chosen "Yes" for Online Grade Reports and given yourself a password, in order to get these reports. Contact me if you want these set up for you.
    
    NOTE: I have had several comments: this system currently reports grades for all three courses, even if you are not taking all of them. Ignore the sections that for the courses you are not taking.
  2. Online class photo album (see link under "Information about the class and participants" on the course home page)
4. Tutoring available through ISP, Fall 2001 semester
  1. Writing and basic computer skills: contact the tutor, Ms. Lakeshia Murray, directly at 313-345-5541 (Home) or 313-283-7411 (Cell phone)
  2. Math: contact Prof Andre Furtado at 313-577-5886 or (Media Lab) 313-577-9903 or by email a.furtado@wayne.edu or awfsmd@aol.com
  3. Frank Koscielski is trying to arrange for a computer skills tutor.
5. Present and past assignments:
  1. GST 2010 Personal Health Project brief description was due October 3, but get it in when you can. Please note: the Personal Health Project is supposed to apply the course to you, personally. Suggested topics are in the Syllabus.
  2. GST 1990 Report 1 (short descriptive paragraph of project) was due October 3.
  3. GST 1990 choice for the second book, or for alternative resources (see syllabus) was due October 10.
  4. GST 2010 Essay 1 was due October 10. The essay form and grading standards are in the GST 2010 syllabus, and the choice of topics (answer one only) is on a separate web page on the course web site.
  5. Your choice of the optional chapters in the text was due last class: tell me about your two choices:
    1. One of Chapters 4, 5, 6, 7 or 8 (FULL) / Chapters Chapters 4, 5 or 6 (BRIEF)
    2. One of chapters 9, 10 or 11 (FULL) / Chapters 7 or 8 (BRIEF)
  6. GST 2020 Quiz 1 was due October 10 (face-to-face) or 11 (online). Contact me if you need or want a makeup.
  7. Personal Health Project Report 1 was due October 24 (see syllabus for details).
6. Upcoming assignments:
  1. GST 2010
    1. Essay 2 due on November 7. See Agenda 7 or the "Essay Topics" link on the course home page.
  2. GST 2020: Midterm on 11/7.
  3. GST 1990: Outline is due today, 10/31.
7. GST 2020.
  1. The third textbook, Diversity of Life, in the Starr-Taggert series, is in at the WSU Barnes and Noble campus bookstore. The bookstore manager said they are already starting to return unbought copies, but that this would be one of the later ones returned. Buy this within the next week or two, or risk having to find it elsewhere. Those of you that have tried know that this type of textbook is difficult to buy through regular commercial channels. Telephone: 313-577-2436. Hours: Mon & Tue: 9 - 6:30 / Wed & Thu: 9 - 6 / Fri: 9 - 5 / Sat: 11 - 3. Make sure that you have all three textbooks before they get sent back!
8. GST 1990: In The Practical Guide to Aging, you do not need to read "Managing Medicine"after section "Do Not Share Medicines!"but do read "Conclusion."
9. Stress in the news: From The New York Times 10/28/01 Pg B5: "Anxious Days, Fitful Nights: Coping Lessons Learned From Other Nations"
  
  "Living with fear is living with stress, and over time, researchers have found, the effects on body and mind can be debilitating.
  
  "Dr. Bruce McEwen, the director of the laboratory of nueroendocrinology at Rockefeller University, says the altered patterns of living that often accompany prolonged stress can have a lasting impact. Eating high-fat foods, sleeping badly, forgoing exercise of drinking more alcohol all cause changes in stress hormones that can increase the risk of heart disease, depression and some types of cancer.
  
  "'These are changes in lifestyle, which of course are very individual matters,' Dr. McEwen said. But it help if people 'pay attention to their lifestyle and how it's changed, he said.
  
  "Psychological well-being is also influenced by the strategies that people adopt to cope with the new level of stress. Tranquilizers and sleeping pills, mental health professionals say, are not a good long-term solution.
  
  "'I can't emphasize enough,' said Dr. Steven Hyman, the director of the National Institute of Mental Health, 'that if people do use benzodiazepines like Valium, Ativan, Clonipin or Xanax that they should use them for a short amount of time, certainly not more than two week without being reassessed by their doctor.'
  
  "Studies in Bosnia, Israel, Armenia and American communities where traumatic events have occurred suggest that some attitudes and coping techniques are more useful than others. Taking action may be important in situations where people have some control. But when events are uncontrollable, an excess of vigilance can do more harm than good.
  
  "For example, a study of bus commuters in Israel after a terrorist attack found that those who obsessively scanned the bus for suspicious passengers or dangerous objects were more anxious that those who distracted themselves with other thoughts. Another study, of Israeli children in sealed rooms during the Scud missile attacks of the Persian Gulf, found that those who spent the time playing games or taking care of family members had fewer symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder after the war than those who constantly sought information about what was happening.
  
  "In general, Dr. Bruce E. Compas, a psychologist at the University of Vermont who has studied Bosnian adolescents, the best strategy for coping with events beyond one's control is to do what one can, and then calm down and accept the situation."
10. Anthrax and evolution in the news: According to a story in The New York Times Science Section yesterday (10/30), many of the people who have been prescribed Cipro (an antibiotic, or chemical that kills single-celled organisms), are having trouble with its side effects and have stopped taking it, or are thinking of stopping. Here are some points following from this:
  1. Chemicals that are powerful enough to have actual medical benefits also are powerful enough to have side effects and interactions with other medications, whether or not they are "organic" or or do not require prescriptions. Let your doctor know about everything you are using that might be relevant.
  2. Let your doctor know about side effects that you are experiencing, particularly if you are thinking about stopping a drug. There are usually alternatives. And in most cases, you would much rather have the side effects than the condition for which the drug was prescribed, really!
  3. People who stop taking antibiotics before the prescribed course of treatment is over (for example, as soon as they start feeling better) are one of the primary causes of the rise in antibiotic resistance. Antibiotics are really wonderful drugs, but due to overprescription (for example, flu or influenza is a virus, so not affected by antibiotics) and people not finishing the course of treatment, bacteria are able to evolve to develop resistance. The medical community is very worried by the rise of antibiotic resistance - the bacteria "learn" (in quotes because bacteria don't have brains) how to survive in the presence of antibiotics. Without antibiotics, we would be subject to a lot of serious diseases.
    
    (The same thing happens with pest killers - the bugs and plant pests that survive the pest killer get to multiply and grow, so pest-killers normally have short useful lives - all the ones that they can kill are dead and gone, and only those that can survive can multiply.)
11. Health Concepts and Strategies in the news: The US government has been testing "nutrition bars" - candy-bar-like snacks sold with a variety of claims such as low calorie, high energy, low-fat, etc. Their findings are that the bars are not consistent from one manufacturing plant to another, and that most do not honestly report their food values. In particular, most advertise significantly lower carbohydrate levels than they actually have. Apparently this is not illegal. (The same is true of nutrition supplements, such as vitamins - they can say absolutely anything). But the leaders in the nutrition -bar industry are saying that they have a reform plan - the Feds are saying "show me."
GST 2020, Changing Life on Earth. We will review Chapters 15 and 16 Cell Biology and Genetics. This ends Unit II on Principles of Inheritance. Next comes the second textbook, Evolution of Life, containing Unit III, Principles of Evolution.
1. Three points from from earlier chapters:
  1. In multicelled organisms, each cell contains all of the DNA for each type of cell. Our skins cells, for example, contain the genes for our liver, and vice versa. Only the genes for that organ are expressed, or else abnormalities come into being. This is the basis for cloning - making a new organism from a single cell. the new organism is genetically identical to the "clonee," but will start out in the infant or single-celled stage and will have to grow normally, and will have a completely different environment.
  2. For each species, the same substance has slightly different forms; human hemoglobin is not exactly the same as chimpanzee hemoglobin, for example. The genes are slightly different.
  3. Some genes can affect the way that other genes work. for example, one gene may promote a reaction, while a second can block it. A mutation in the second gene can result in an excessive rate of the reaction. A reaction with several steps can have separated genes promoting each step, and a deficiency in one of those genes can affect how all of those other genes work. In general, most traits are controlled by enough genes that human variation seems almost continuous. Height, eye color and hair color are examples.
2. Chapter 15 - Controls Over Genes
  1. Cancer is a breakdown of controls over genes resulting in uncontrolled cell division, cells with no recognition proteins, and otherwise malformed cells.
  2. Genes are very specific in what they control - step in a certain reaction, or perhaps even only at certain times or under certain conditions.
  3. Regulatory proteins (gene products) can promote (speed up, positive control) or inhibit (slow down, negative control) a reaction.
  4. Some genes promote or repress the existence of other genes, acting through regulatory proteins that can bind to the repressed gene, or bind to the repressor protein, blocking repression. These genes affect what RNA is transcribed. Sometimes entire chromosomes are turned off; this is the case for one of the two X chromosomes in female mammals, on a random basis that can vary from cell to cell.
  5. Some cells have to react to rapidly changing conditions, like the e.coli in our intestine, which are part of our digestive system, and have to promote or repress digestive enzymes depending on what wee have eaten and how long ago. Prokaryotic cells (no nuclei) live under similar conditions. Other cells live under more constant conditions.
  6. Genes can also act through hormones. Hormone production is regulated by genes, and in turn can promote or inhibit gene expression.
  7. Another layer of controls comes in during translation, and affect what proteins are produced from the RNA.
  8. Vocabulary:
    1. Genetic control
    2. promote
    3. repress
    4. Clone
    5. cancer
3. Chapter 16 - Recombinant DNA and Genetic Engineering
  1. We have developed a toolkit of enzymes from many different species, for modifying DNA by inserting DNA from one organism or even species into the DNA from another. This technique is called "recombinant DNA" and is developing into a major new technology and industry.
    1. Restriction enzymes cut DNA a specific locations, for example after specific sequences of bases.
    2. Reverse transcriptase is an enzyme that constructs DNA from RNA, in cases where we can't get the recombined DNA to work properly.
    3. Primers are synthetic base sequences that pair up to form START tags for protein translation. These can be used to make many copies (amplify) of a given DNA sequence, to produce the proteins rapidly.
      1. This technique is one step in one one method for "DNA fingerprinting." DNA from a crime scene is amplified, then sorted by type. The resulting pattern, matched against a DNA sample from a suspect, conclusively identifies the crime scene DNA as coming from the suspect, or conclusively demonstrates that it came from someone else.
    4. One result is that diabetics, instead of injecting insulin derived from pigs, can now inject human insulin made by e.choli bacteria that have had the gene for human insulin spliced into their bacterial DNA. this is a much better treatment.
  2. Another new technique is automated DNA sequencing, in which the base sequence of DNA is identified. DNA is separated into two strands, and random lengths are copied. By comparing the different lengths, the base sequence for the entire DNA molecule can be known.
    1. The entire human genome was sequenced this summer, in a dramatic race between a private company (Celera Genomics headed by Craig Ventner) and a consortium of government and university laboratories (Human genome Organization or HUGO headed by Francis S. Collins). In the end, it was a virtual tie, with each group making important contributions. We do not yet know the function of each protein resulting from the code, but there is no doubt that this well lead to major advances in diagnosis of genetic disorders, and in new treatments.
    2. One medical technique that is now feasible is screening patients for harmful genes.
  3. Both plants and animals can now have genes transferred across species, which is not possible in nature or with breeding techniques. We now have unprecedented power over the genes of every species, including the human species.
    1. Genetic therapy of various types becomes conceivable. The simplest would be changing genes in just-fertilized ova while they are still in the single-cell stage. The most complicated type would be trying to change all of the DNA is all of the cells of a patient.
    2. Transferring traits from one species to another is being done, but will undoubtedly increase rapidly. "Supermice" have been bred that grow faster than others, and strawberries have been experimentally protected from frost by deleting the gene responsible for ice formation from a bacterium, then spraying the strawberries with the altered bacteria.
    3. Cloning is another use of this - transferring the DNA from one organism into the nucleus of a body cell, and then inducing the new cell to grow. Many attempts are needed, but this can now be done in many species.
    4. Tremendous controversy is swirling around this area. On the one hand are those who promise tremendous benefits, while on the other hand there are those who are concerned about possible mishaps. And all of this is so new and so different that we have little experience upon which to draw.
GST 1990
1. Choices for topics
2. Choices for books / articles

GST 2010, Health Concepts and Strategies. We will review the reading assignment, which is Chapter 13, Exercise for Health and Fitness (FULL).

But first, about diet. Someone's Essay 1 (I am not naming names here) said that the food industry is more or less forcing us to eat unhealthily. That is a common view, and while I disagree, I did not grade down for that view, and certainly it is not inconsistent with the textbook. But here I want to give my view.
1. Who is in charge of your health, anyway, you or them?
2. Exactly how are they forcing us to eat unhealthy food? Simply by selling and advertising it? Almost all of the chains sell and advertise at least some healthy foods.
3. The market system will sell us whatever we actually buy, as much as we want, whether or not it is good for us. Consider two fast-food chains, say "A" and "B". Both originally sold burgers that were pretty much the same, and so had sales and profits that were pretty much the same. But then A started making their burgers with a little less fat. So, given their choice, people buy more of B's burgers (we are programmed, presumably by our evolutionary history to love fat!). B's profits go up, A's go down. Any CEO, or even a wannabee, could tell you the outcome - put that fat back in! So fat content ratchets up, step by step, until the cost of additional fat is not counterbalanced by additional profits, or until some regulation is encountered. Companies that don't operate this way go out of business. This is the way our market system works, and we should never expect companies to behave any differently. If public opinion is strong enough, some companies do figure this out, and then acting in the public interest can become a market advantage.
4. Where the market fails is in not providing enough information about fat and its effects, to enable us to make informed choices in our best interests. Nutrition values for fast foods are available, but not easy to get, and the harmful effects of fat are not known widely enough, and their importance is not appreciated (parents - teach your children!). But it is not in the interests of either A or B to tell us the bad news about their products. Let us suppose again that A was absolutely honest, and B shaded the truth a little - people still buy more of B's burgers, thinking that they aren't quite as bad. Nutrition content information ratchets down, step by step, down to the minimum required by law. So the way to make the market work is through regulation; requiring all sellers to provide accurate and accessible information. That, I think, is the solution to our problem, not blaming companies for doing what they are designed to do, which is to sell us whatever it is that we really want to buy. Heck, they'll even put it in a plain brown wrapper if we are too embarrassed to carry it out of the store!
And, why are we doing this? (trying to be healthy, that is)
1. Preparing for healthy "later years"
2. It also help now. See the figure below. "Performance" can mean many things here, such as the number of degrees you can turn your head or raise your shoulder, or the number of miles that you can walk, or how straight you stand, or (of special importance for women) the amount of calcium remaining in your bones. The normal trend is that everything declines as you get older - "it's normal." But with preparation, you can lose much less of your performance, and be better off in your younger years as well.
  
  (Also, you increase your chances of living until you get "old").

OK, back to business. Men over 40 and women over 50 should consult a doctor before starting an exercise program. But what types of exercise are important, and why?

Type of exercise	Examples	Why?	Dangers
Cardiovascular endurance - stress as many muscles as possible, for a minimum of 10 per session, 3 to 5 times per week, with enough intensity to reach a target heart rate* (needed intensity will increase as you become more fit).	Walking, jogging, swimming, bicycling, basketball, aerobic dancing	Good blood circulation, heart function, lung function; cardiovascular health	Overexercise can cause injury
Strength and endurance - exerting muscle force against resistance, 2 - 3 days per week, long enough to fatigue your muscles.	Exercise machines, weight lifting, isotonics (pushing against a fixed object)	Posture, efficiency of energy use	Unsafe exercise
Flexibility - stretching major joints, 2 to 3 days per week	Stretch and hold 10 - 30 seconds	Maintain range of motion	Bouncing can cause injury
Specific skills, chosen to increase your skill and therefore enjoyment of an active sport. the sport could fit in one of the other categories.	Depends upon sport.	Depends upon sport.	Depends upon type of skill training.

* Target heart rate = 65% to 90% of 220 - age in years (check with doctor if you are unfit and over 40 for men or 50 for women)
Other benefits of exercise:

Feeling trim and looking fit, improved confidence and self-esteem
More positive attitude, less risk of depression
Better able to handle stress reaction without damage to health
Higher basal metabolism rate from increased muscle mass means lower tendency to gain weight

(DB - the best exercise program for you is the one you, because that is the one you will stick with. These days, there are many choices, and more appearing all of the time. You many not enjoy the activity itself, but something that accompanies it - that's fine! For example, team sports are social activities, and so is exercising in a class or at a gym, or you may enjoy the competition in sports [You are more apt to enjoy the competition if you are good at a sport - that is the importance of "specific skills."]. Or reward yourself after exercise with a (healthy) breakfast out. If you lose weight, reward yourself with some new clothes. Whatever it takes. Myself, I listen to audiobooks while on my rowing machine. I am going through all of the books that I always wanted to read but never got around to. One thing that doesn't work, at least for me, is to buy an expensive piece of exercise equipment on the theory that you will kick yourself if you don't use it. But don't underestimate the importance of feeling superior to those who are less fit than you!)

Get good equipment, if equipment is required for your exercise program (clothing, machines, gear). Good equipment is more durable, and generally more enjoyable to use.
Drink enough water, stop if you have pain, consult a doctor if pain or injury continues.