Thursday, June 9, 2011

Shout out to Scientists

Trying to study today, I came across the following tidbit that inspired a bit of appreciation for biochemistry:

Patient discussion about fructose 1,6-bisphosphate aldolase.

Q. what is more healthy, brown sugar or fruit sugar?

A. latest researches indicates that there are no difference between white sugar and brow sugar. they are both contain carbohydrates, which is bad for you.
about fructose - i don't think the difference is too big, one difference is that the intestine absorbs the glucose with other receptor

Q. What difference does fructose makes to a diabetic with respect to glucose? I am diabetic with type 2 NIDDM. My colleague with the same NIDDM type2 has a better glycemic control than me. He follows strict diet. He prefers fructose sugar and avoids other sugar as much as possible. He suggested me the same. What difference does fructose makes to a diabetic with respect to glucose?

A. All carbohydrates—like starch and sugars like dextrose, maltose and glucose must be controlled for high consumption by a diabetic. Whereas fructose sugar had a slight different metabolic route inside the body and it does not requires insulin. Glucose requires insulin. As a diabetic lacks insulin production; the glucose increases the sugar level of the body but fructose is out of this system of functioning by our body and makes a diabetic to control it well. The energy level of glucose and fructose are almost similar.

http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/fructose+1,6-bisphosphate+aldolase



I still don't understand it. But at least I know what it is others understand. I don't have to just trust that they know, but I know what they are looking at and "how they know" what they do about diet and such. It all goes down to the cellular level biochemical reactions, they are not making it up.

Thank you people out there who understand this stuff and who are doing tedious research to figure out biochemistry (how and why things affect our bodies and living organisms). Let me know when you make a conclusion that has practical application and relevance to my life. Oh wait, that happens all the time (medicine, nutrition etc). Sweet.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Biochemistry BARF


phosphatidylethanolamine
phosphatidylglycerol
sphingomyelin
CDP-diacylglycerol
eukaratoic
glycerolphospholipid synthesis
cardiolipin
glyoxylate cycle
Apoliopoproteins
perilipins
methylmalonyl-CoA epimerase
5' -deoxyadenosylcobalamin
Ubiquinone
adenine nucleotide translocase
xenobiotics (compounds synthesized industrially)

"Sucrose is synthesized int he cytosol, begining with dihydroxyacetone phosphate and glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate exported from the chloroplast. After condensation of two triose phosphates to form fructose 1,6-biphosphate (catalyzed by aldolase), hydrolysis by fructose 1,6-biphosphatase yields fructose 6-phosphate." (pg.792, Lehinger Principles of Biochemistry, 5th Edition).

"A cytosolic isozyme of malate dehydrogenase oxidizes malatate to oxaloacetate, a precursor for glucongenesis."

Do you know what this means?
Me either.

Pretty sure I would drop out of school right now if I had more than 7 days left.
Pray I pass.

Biochemistry BARF


phosphatidylethanolamine
phosphatidylglycerol
sphingomyelin
CDP-diacylglycerol
eukaratoic
glycerolphospholipid synthesis
cardiolipin
glyoxylate cycle
Apoliopoproteins
perilipins
methylmalonyl-CoA epimerase
5' -deoxyadenosylcobalamin
Ubiquinone
adenine nucleotide translocase
xenobiotics (compounds synthesized industrially)

"Sucrose is synthesized in the cytosol, begining with dihydroxyacetone phosphate and glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate exported from the chloroplast. After condensation of two triose phosphates to form fructose 1,6-biphosphate (catalyzed by aldolase), hydrolysis by fructose 1,6-biphosphatase yields fructose 6-phosphate." (pg.792, Lehinger Principles of Biochemistry, 5th Edition).

"A cytosolic isozyme of malate dehydrogenase oxidizes malatate to oxaloacetate, a precursor for glucongenesis."

Do you know what this means?
Me either.

Pretty sure I would drop out of school right now if I had more than 7 days left.
Pray I pass.

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Senioritis

I am a senior getting reading to graduate from college, and I'm sick with "senoritis". Not the normal kind where you are so excited to graduate you can't focus on the present, but I am sick with worry and wonderment over my future.

My symptoms include inability to focus and regular mental distraction as my mind is filled with questions I can't answer: What do I want to do not that I am "free?" Where will I be next time this year? What is in my future?

Post-graduation seems both an exciting adventure and a deep dark abyss. I can't help but feeling that leaving college is like jumping (falling or being pushed...) off the edge of a cliff into the unknown. It's a leap of faith and an unpreventable falling forward.

Additional symptoms of my senioritis include increased sentiment. I find myself cutting out newspaper clippings and keeping ticket stubs and such relating to BYU and the experiences I am having at college. I always have my camera handy to take pictures of any good time. I have a list of "fun things to do and places to eat in Provo" that I am working on with my roomates (I can't believe we only have 6 weeks left together!). I try to go to any BYU sporting event or random BYU activity.

Today was the last BYU Basketball game of the season. Soaking in the atmosphere of the student section and letting the memories from this year flood back the reality of graduation hit me. I I don't know where I will be this time next year. But it likely won't be here. This is it. This was not only Fredette and Emery's last game at the Marriott Center, it was mine too. As my roommates embraced me and smiled sentimentally saying "this is the last game" I remembered a similar moment months ago after the last football game. These "last games" are like stepping stones moving me closer to graduation and the time when it will really be my "last" at BYU.

It's been a good four years. And don't get me wrong, I am READY to graduate and I realize graduating isn't dying, and I will probably still be around for lots of BYU games and such in the future... probably, but who knows.

All I know right now is this senior year has been a year that will be difficult to let go, and one that will be forever remembered.

Years ago, President Howard W. Hunter gave a talk at BYU entitled, “What is True Greatness.” He said: “The achievement of true greatness is a long‑term process. . . . It seems it always requires regular, consistent, small, and sometimes ordinary and mundane steps over a long period of time” (See Brigham Young University 1986-87 Devotional and Fireside Speeches, 115).



"A happy life isn't about getting what you want; it's about the attitude you develop toward whatever happens to you, an attitude that lets you grow."