Biol 3203 Introduction To Pharmacology Assessment Answers

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Importance of Selecting Question 

1. Brion Whitford has grown up without knowing his culture and heritage. Brion’s mother was forcibly sent to a residential school and became pregnant at an early age of 14. Brion after birth, used to stay with his grandfather without having any clue about his biological father. However, after few years he was forcibly detached from his grandfather and was sent to elementary school. He used to live with his mother, her husband and his half-siblings. At school he was introduced as an Indian (though he was North American). Brion grew up with bereft of his own culture and spiritual health. The importance of question one lies in the fact that it helps in understanding the course of the journey of Brion towards self-discovery. Previously he had no interest in knowing his own culture but gradually as his health deteriorated he gradually became inclined towards his culture. It explains how meeting aboriginal elders helped Brion to attain wisdom. Via knowing his roots and knowing the sufferings of his own aboriginal brothers, Brion was able to come in terms of his great loss or void experienced during his childhood (leaving his maternal grandfather).

2. Taking initiative towards the healing process means observance of the additional healthy regime in order to stay fit and providing a proper medium where the medicines can work accordingly. Research suggests that the acute high intensity physical exercise done at periodic interval helps in the reduction of the postprandial glucose response and thereby reducing the chance of hyperglycemia that is common among the patients of diabetes, especially type 2 diabetes (Gillen et al., 2012). It has been seen in the majority of cases that the individuals lack adequate time to perform exercise (Gillen et al., 2012). Even if the individual have adequate time, lack of support coming from the family or trouble past de-motivates them in abiding by the regime as in case of Brion. The same goes for the diet. The modification in the diet chart has immense potential to reduce the progress of the prediabetes to diabetes. However, people who are under depression have a tendency to take high fat diet and thus endangering in the trap of the prediabetic condition (Mann & Te Morenga, 2013).

Learning Outcome

Brion Whitford has been suffering from the pain of advanced diabetes. By 2011, the complications arising out of diabetes damaged 50% of his renal function. Moreover, high blood sugar level is escalating at an uncountable rate.  Though he has taken numerous medical help for over 7 years but his diabetic condition has down-regulated considerable with no effective recovery.

The learning outcome of this study includes the link towards diabetes and the sedentary life-style and poor food habits. In United States, obesity and diabetes mostly type 2 diabetes have reached in its epidemic states (Mayberry & Osborn, 2012). Though there are certain medications left for the type one diabetes like intra-muscular injection of the artificial insulin but Type 2 Diabetes is insulin resistant and hence there is no significant medication available for its treatment (Inzucchi et al., 2012). According to the American Diabetes Association, family support, medication adherence, physical activity and glycemic control are the only way out to treat diabetes (Mayberry & Osborn, 2012).

Results have been found that the unsupportive behaviour coming from the family are one of the reasons behind negligible adherence to diabetes medication regime. Non supportive family behaviour sabotage the efforts to perform physical activities or to take proper medication (Mayberry & Osborn, 2012). The same has happened in case of the Brion since from his childhood, Brion has left with poor family support, his grandfather has also forcibly detached from him. This poor family support and supportive behaviour has thrashed Brion under utter depression, another cause of diabetes mellitus (Holt, De Groot & Golden, 2014). Further, this unsupportive family structure has prevented him from abiding by the proper diabetic diet and physical exercise regime. This lack of proper interventions has prevented Brion towards proper diabetic recovery.

The study also provides an insight of Whitford's struggle towards regaining his health via learning about The Medicine Wheel. The Medicine Wheel is a holistic tool that is grounded towards the indigenous understandings about the interconnectedness regarding several dimension of life like mental, physical, spiritual and psychological. The documentary film also highlights the trauma of colonization and how it can cast a negative impact over the physical and psychological well-being of indigenous people. It also showed that how eradicating the troubled past via coming in contact with his native people aboriginals) is an excellent way out to move forward towards a better and healthier life. The documentary film gives a moving account of how a man is gradually coming to grips of his own mortality while deliberately trying to re-gain the balance in his life. 

References

Gillen, J. B., Little, J. P., Punthakee, Z., Tarnopolsky, M. A., Riddell, M. C., & Gibala, M. J. (2012). Acute high?intensity interval exercise reduces the postprandial glucose response and prevalence of hyperglycaemia in patients with type 2 diabetes. Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism, 14(6), 575-577.

Holt, R. I., De Groot, M., & Golden, S. H. (2014). Diabetes and depression. Current diabetes reports, 14(6), 491.

Inzucchi, S. E., Bergenstal, R. M., Buse, J. B., Diamant, M., Ferrannini, E., Nauck, M., ... & Matthews, D. R. (2012). Management of hyperglycaemia in type 2 diabetes: a patient-centered approach. Position statement of the American Diabetes Association (ADA) and the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD). Diabetologia, 55(6), 1577-1596.

Mann, J. I., & Te Morenga, L. (2013). Diet and diabetes revisited, yet again. The American journal of clinical nutrition, 97(3), 453-454.

Mayberry, L. S., & Osborn, C. Y. (2012). Family support, medication adherence, and glycemic control among adults with type 2 diabetes. Diabetes care, 35(6), 1239-1245.