I thought this article was very easy to understand and it was well written. However, I felt that is did not fully explain the experiment that was conducted for these results and that it should have been a bit longer and detailed.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Glucosamine Causes The Death Of Pancreatic Cells
An experiment, conducted by a team of researchers at Université Laval's Faculty of Pharmacy, tested that high doses or overuse of glucosamine can result in death of pancreatic cells as well as raise one’s chances of developing diabetes. Glucosamine, which is produced naturally in the body, plays an important role in building cartilage, the tough connective tissue that cushions the joints. Glucosamine is used in supplements and medicines for people with bone related injuries. Osteoarthritis is a type of arthritis that occurs when cartilage breaks down and is lost, either due to injury or to normal wear and tear. It commonly occurs as people age. In some studies, glucosamine supplements have decreased the joint pain of Osteoarthritis. Studies suggest that glucosamine reduces Osteoarthritis pain, improves function in people with hip or knee Osteoarthritis, reduces joint swelling and stiffness, and provides relief from Osteoarthritis symptoms for up to three months after treatment is stopped. However the dangers of this supplement may weigh out its benefits. Professor Frederic Picard and his team used doses five to ten times higher than recommended by manufacturers on the cells in the experiment. Demonstrated by Picard and his team, glucosamine triggers a mechanism, which lowered very high blood sugar levels. Nevertheless, this reaction damages SIRT1, a protein that is “critical to cell survival.” This large concentration of glucosamine lessens the amount of SIRT1, resulting in the cell’s death in tissues where protein is necessary, for example the pancreas. Thus, people with these large levels of glucosamine and with little SIRT1 are believed to be at a greater risk for diabetes. And age is a factor as well, the elderly are more likely to use this supplement and they are more vulnerable to its effects. Professor Picard concluded, “The key point of our work is that glucosamine can have effects that are far from harmless and should be used with great caution.”
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Overall, Paige did a very nice assessment of this article. One of the best aspect’s to Paige’s review was her background on glucosamine. As I was unfamiliar with the function of the amino sugar prior to the review, the additional information, especially relating it to well-known issues, was very helpful. It is clear that she did some additional research, to benefit her reader, as this information was not present in the original article. Additionally, she gave a very nice summary of the article. Though the article itself was short, she kept her summary concise and made it easy for anyone to understand, while still going into details on subjects that are lesser known. Finally, I enjoyed the fact that she extracted quotes and specific evidence from the text to solidify the review; it added depth to her summary.
ReplyDeleteThere were a couple of things that Paige could have done to enhance her review, however. For instance, next time, she could elaborate more on her reaction. While her points were good, she did not really back them up as well as she could have. Additionally, she could have elaborated a little more on what experiments the doctors did or the reasons behind their conclusions.
One thing I enjoyed while reading of this review was learning how something I did not even know existed affects everyday issues like arthritis. It was nice to get a background on something foreign to me.
Paige did a very thorough job in explaining the implied details of her article. It was helpful to define glucosamine and other scientific terms that otherwise would not be familiar to a reader. I liked how she explained the results of the experiment, connecting its importance to everyday life. By stating the connection between glucosamine, osteoarthritis, and the death of pancreatic cells, it really brought the review full circle.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Paige was very detailed in her description of the experiment there are a few aspects of her review that could be improved upon. I would have liked to know why this experiment was being carried out. I know what it was meant to test, but for what reason was it being tested. I also think Paige could have included the next step of the experiment. What does this data mean for us now? Are we likely to change the composition of medication in order to decrease the depletion to pancreatic cells?
Overall, Paige did a good job and her review presented a great deal of information. I learned that glucosamine helps build connective tissue that cushions the joints. Although glucosamine does a lot of good I also learned it can be harmful, damaging SIRT1 proteins leading to the death of pancreatic cells.
Paige wrote a very thorough review of this article on the effects of glucosamine. What I liked the most about her review is the holistic explanation which explores all the aspects of glucosamine in order to help the reader reach a better understanding of the article. She first talked about what role it plays in the human body, and then went on to discuss its presence in medicine. Finally, she got into the effects of glucosamine. I also like the way she took the time to explain certain background facts for those who are not as familiar with this topic. For example, she clarified the meaning of osteoarthritis before explaining how it connects to glucosamine. Many reviews assume that the reader already knows about different types of medicines and medical conditions and doesn’t define them before discussing them. I also like the fact that she fully explored both the risks and benefits of glucosamine on the human body. While she explained the way glucosamine supplements help those with osteoporosis, she also managed to explain the health complications that come with glucosamine.
ReplyDeleteI think Paige could have improved this article by adding the specifics of the way glucosamine works in the body. While she gave a great overview of glucosamine, it would have been more interesting if she added some more specific facts on how it carries out its role. Also, while I like how she included quotes and specific names of researchers, I think it would also have proved her point better if she included percentages of statistics that help back up the effects of glucosamine.
I liked this review because I learned about a new aspect of a biological process in the human body that I didn’t know about before. It is always interesting to learn about the effects of different biological compounds in the human body. It is important to see how medicine and supplements can have both healing effects as well as harmful consequences.
Paige did a wonderful job explaining the hard concepts of this article. For example, she clarified what osteoarthritis was and how the drug affected the patient. I was really excited that Paige compared the benefits of the glucosamine and the negative affects. The supplements reduce joint swelling and pain, however it may result in the death of cells in tissues like the pancreas. Paige did a good job summarizing this article and making it comprehendible.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Paige in that there was little explanation about the experiment. I think that Paige should have done more research, which would have greatly improved her review. Although she did a good job, I don’t believe she explained the SIRT1 and how that ties into the article and or the experiment.
I believe that Paige choose an interesting topic to write about. The glucosamine’s affects on the body were shocking. It can kill pancreatic cells but can build cartilage.
Katherine Bopp
ReplyDeleteGlucosamine Causes The Death Of Pancreatic Cells
Paige did a very good job at explaining what glucosamine is and characteristics about it. She explained how its produced and the role it plays in building cartilage. She also linked the condition osteoarthritis to glucosamine. How glucosamine when give helps decrease the joint pain of a person with osteoarthritis. Paige also was very detailed in the experiment done by Professor Frederic Picard, and I understood what was being done. She helped me understand the steps of the experiment, which helped me comprehend what was going on. Paige did a very good job at describing things in great detail.
Where Paige could have done a better job was with her order of information. She could have given more general information about glucosamine and then gone into the details of the studies being done to it. She could have also given more benefits about how glucosamine helps with osteoarthritis. Paige overall did a very good job in her article. From this article I learned the symptoms of osteoarthritis. I learned that it causes pain, hurts the function of a person’s hip or knee, and that there is much joint swelling and stiffness. I also learned that it glucosamine cannot truly help the elderly, who are more prone to getting osteoarthritis. So in the end glucosamine does not really help that many people.
John Gray
ReplyDeletePaige did a very good job of reiterating the points brought up in her article and critiquing it. The first thing she did well, that I thought she was going to mess up, was she explained not only what glucosamine was, but also where it comes from. It’s useless to know that something is harmful in large amounts if one does not know how it is obtained. Another thing she did well was she explained an experiment that was carried out by the people who are researching glucosamine, to show how they had come to their conclusions. Lastly, she assessed a problem with the article that I came to as well. The article does not fully explain the experiment that the scientists conducted. Paige recognized that the reader is left with unanswered important questions after the article is read through and pinged the article for it.
A few things that Ms. Gordon could have done better were that she could have given her review the once over to make sure that all of the grammar was correct. There was a smattering of grammatical errors within the review, nothing heinous, but the errors were still there. Lastly, she could have made her review all in the same font. I was a bit confused as to why the font was changing within the review and it made it a little hard to read. These errors are technical because Paige really put together an excellent review.
I liked this review because it taught me something about my body that I didn’t know before. I’ll carry this information with me until I’m older and if I get bone-loss (hopefully I wont) I’ll be wary of the effects of too much glucosamine.
Paige’s review of this article was very thorough, and did a good job of providing one who did not read the actual article with the main points. She summarized completely the effect that overuse of glucosamine has on pancreatic cells, and the impact that the effect in turn has on one’s body and life. The review went into detail on the protein SIRT1, saying that it is “critical to cell survival”, and it utilizes references to specific scientists who have done experiments relating to the topic well. Another successful aspect of Paige’s review was her use of outside information. While the article is clearly written, it is hard to fully grasp the idea without having a previous understanding of what glucosamine and osteoarthritis are, and how the glucosamine supplement can help reduce pain. Paige did outside research and explained to the reader that osteoarthritis occurs when breaks down and is lost, and is common when people age. Paige’s writing was well-structured and comprehensible, allowing the reader to easily perceive the ideas presented in the article.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the review could have been improved by more input of Paige’s opinion on the article. As it is a review, an important part it is the reviewer’s assessment of what was done well, and what was not done well in the article. Paige spent most of her review summarizing the article, and only devoted a short paragraph to her own thoughts. If more of her writing had been focused on this ladder part, the review could have overall been more interesting. I very much enjoyed, however, reading the article and Paige’s review. I learned about the supplement glucosamine and its relation to the death of cells in the body, and consequently its impact on the disease diabetes.
Paige did a great job reviewing this article. First of all I think that she made the article easy to understand. I had never heard about glucosamine and how it can be used as medicine for patient suffering from arthritis. Paige did a very good job of explaining what it was used for and how it affects the people that use it. I could tell that she did some outside research on it, which is very important. Additionally, She did a great job of explaining what osteoarthritis is. I had always heard about it, but I never knew what it specifically was. I now know that its a type of arthritis that occurs when cartilage breaks down and is lost, either due to injury or to normal wear and tear. Finally, I think. That Paige did a good job explaining the experiment that Professor Frederic Picard and his team preformed.
ReplyDeleteAlthough she Did a good job of summarizing the article, there were a few aspects she could have improved on. First of all, I thought that she explained the experiment that Picard designed well, but I was hoping that she could have added more to it. It wolf be interesting to learn more about it. Also, I think that it was interesting to read her thoughts on the original article, but I would have liked to see her reasons behind her thoughts.
I learned a lot from this article and it's review. The most interesting thing I learned was that glucosamine, while in small doses is helpful to patients the reaction damages SIRT1, a protein that is critical to cell survival.
Overall I believe that paige did a very nice job of summarizing and discussing this article. For the most part I think that she really put the article in laments term for those of us that are not so much aware of the whole glucosamine thing. To be quite frank I had never even heard about glucosamine and furthermore about how it could be used as medicine for patients suffering from arthritis. Paige did a very good of not only explaining what it is used for but also how it affects the people that use it. It is also evident that she went further to research this topic a bit more as to be able to fully convey information within this article, which I believe is very beneficial and important. Additionally she managed to help me understand what osteoarthritis was.I had come across the term before but had never come to fully comprehend or be aware of what it was. From this article I have learned that it is a type of arthritis that occurs when cartilage breaks down and is lost, either due to injury or to normal wear and tear. Overall Paige did a good job explaining the experiment that Professor Frederic Picard and his team preformed also. Although she Did a good job of summarizing the article, there are always a nocks and crannies that can be improved on. While for the most part she did a good job of explaining the experiment that Picard designed well, but I was hoping that she could have added more to it. It would have been interesting to learn more about it. You might say reading only a snippet of the information caught my attention and left me wanting more. What I found very interesting were her opinions about the original article. But naturally it would have been nice to see the reasoning and maybe her further thoughts about the article and what her point of view was. I learned a lot from this article and it's review. It seems that glucosamine is a very interesting and very unique biological aspect of the scientific world. While in small doses is helpful to patients the reaction damages SIRT1, a protein that is critical to cell survival. Overall it was a great review.
ReplyDeletePaige wrote an article about how glucosamine causes the death of pancreatic cells. She was successful when she told the reader where the experiment was conducted. Without this information, it could make the situation unclear. She also told the reader what exactly glucosamine is. She explained the situation and summarized the article rather well.
ReplyDeleteTo make the review more successful, she could have added more background information. She also could have shared a personal connection she had with the article or a specific reason why she chose the article.
I was impressed with her use of vocabulary in explaining the article. If someone were to read the article off the street and had no idea what was going on, this review could have clarified their confusion.