So far my classes have been what I would expect to find in any medical school. This summer I started my education with lectures in histology (the study of cells), biochemistry and embryology. I’m loving every moment of it. I don’t feel like I’m learning the material just for the test, but because it’s the first step to understanding how the human body functions and I hope that one day I can use the knowledge to help patients.
Histology has been the subject that has really started to transform my way of thinking about the human body. It is unlike any class I have had before. Looking under the microscope the first day of lab, all I saw were designs of varying shades of blue and pink (1). But by the end of the eight week term we could differentiate between cells of the intestine or the bladder, between tendons, skeletal, cardiac or smooth muscle, and between bone or cartilage. We observed how different stains transform what we see. With the addition of a special stain, new fibers appeared, as if by magic. It made me wonder how much we miss of what exists in the world because of the limits of the detail our eyes can make out, the wavelengths of light we perceive and the sound frequencies our ears can detect.
After biochemistry, I know what nutritionists mean when they talk about an omega-3 vs an omega-6 fatty acid, what the EPA and DHA mean on my fish oil supplement and what it means for a fat to be ‘trans’. I’ve been introduced to bits of relevant information about diseases and pharmacology. I now have a basic understanding of why some red blood cells of people with sickle cell anemia take on the sickle shape and a basic concept of how warfarin/coumadin (a common blood thinner) works.
Embryology continues to baffle me a bit. It is hard to wrap my head around the fact that we started out as a single cell, that turned to a special arrangement of cells within a larger sphere, and eventually something like Littlefoot from The Land Before Time, before actually looking like a baby. But it helps us understand how the tissues in our body are related and hopefully will aid us as we start to study anatomy. I’ve certainly developed an appreciation for the complex signaling that is particularly crucial as our bodies start to take shape. It’s phenomenal that the DNA in a single cell provides the blueprint to put five toes on each foot, the nose above the mouth and on the side of the head that we expect it to be.
In these science heavy classes it’s easy to get caught up in the textbooks, note taking and studying, and forget the eventual goal of working with patients. While we certainly need to learn this material to practice as doctors, I can’t help but wonder how much our performance on exams correlates with our future competence as healthcare providers. Even if we know the material down cold, how much will we connect with our patients? Will we be able to apply our classroom learning in patient care settings? Will our patients start to feel better? I’m looking forward to the courses that will introduce us to the principles behind the type of medicine my classmates and I hope to practice. Some of our classes this fall are Constitutional Assessment, Naturopathic Theory and Practice and Therapeutic Alliance.
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