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Sounds like an excellent class. Probably should be a requirement rather than an elective tbh.
Doesn't seem that related to medicine, I could sed it being the topic of two classes at best, but not a whole course. That's why its an elective.
your mental health greatly affects your physical health. It is very much related to medicine
Not just that but "stress" in biochemistry/biomedicine could fill entire semesters full of lectures. On a hormonal, neurological, cellular level - stress is freaking fascinating.
Can you explain the tweet for me? First of all it implies that being poor or minority generates more stress than being rich or part of the majority, but then what about the molecular level?
As an example, being under this kind of chronic stress will very likely raise your cortisol levels, along with other hormones and neurotransmitters. Cortisol is great in the short term, but long term it suppresses the immune system, which means people are more susceptible to infection and diseases. It might even cause cancer defense to go down and make patients more likely to have worse treatment outcomes and be more likely to die from cancer (iirc from a lecture each day on average your body develops 6 new cancer cells. That means each day your body manages to identify and kill 6 cells that, if they don't get detected, would cause cancer. You gotta have a good immune system to catch those cells. But please don't quote me on that number, it was a random thing the prof said.)
Other reasons why being poor or a minority would lead to being sick are ofc food (cheap food is low in quality, for example it is usually low in fiber, which has been shown to reduce the risk of colon cancer or diverticulitis - and, obviously, obesity, diabetes, cholesterol and therelike). Being a minority also means that medication that works well for white males will work differently and therefore possibly worse on you. Most clinical studies in the past have been done on white males, and they have a different expression and/or different "versions" of certain enzymes that activate/deactivate drug compounds. (This problem also hits women who are often avoided in studies because of risk of pregnancy.)
Thanks!
If a poor person came in to the doctors office, they wouldn't be getting adequate care if the doctor didn't understand the impact their conditions have on their physical body.
Stress can exacerbate almost every medical condition. The boat doesn't perform normally when it's under stress. It can affect pregnancy like crazy which affects every single person in the world. Every single person comes from a pregnancy. Stress can affect sleep which also negatively affects like every condition.
Being poor is a chronic condition and the only cure is money.
Being a minority is a genetic condition for which there is no cure.
The funny thing is, neither of these are a problem with the individual, but a problem with society itself. We, collectively, are the disease, and these pre-existing conditions make it much easier to contract.
Medicine needs to be approached holistically. Especially for primary care. Stress is absolutely a factor in holistic care. A collegiate trimester is 12-13 weeks, and a semester is 15-17. I suspect this wasn't the only topic covered in class.
I'm being poor 24/7, doctors should consider that