Foundations for Future Health Care Providers: Pharmacology

Have you always dreamed about being a doctor? Maybe you find the way the body works really fascinating or you feel compelled to help others.

Well, we’ve got a series for you! Take a look at the new series, Foundations for Future Health Care Providers.

Medical school can be tough, but you can get ahead of the curve with these programs designed to teach you the fundamental concepts of medicine.

UCSD-TV gives you a sneak peek of your first year at medical school with these videos from faculty at UCSF. Learn the basics of Anatomy, Physiology, and Pathology in the Foundations for Future Health Care Providers series.

Check out this program from the series all about pharmacology.

Antibiotics are a common type of prescription drug used to combat bacterial infections in the body. However, the effectiveness of these drugs is diminishing as more and more of these infectious bacteria are becoming resistant to antibiotics.

In “Pharmacology: Bugs and Drugs, Part 1,” Marieke Kruidering Hall, Associate Professor in the Department of Cellular & Molecular Pharmacology at UCSF, explains that this can be related to incidents when people are prescribed antibiotics, but don’t finish taking all of the prescribed drug.

People will feel better and think they don’t need to keep taking the antibiotic. Although the symptoms of the infection are gone, some bacteria remain and by not completing that antibiotic, people allow those remaining bacteria to survive the antibiotic. Those remaining bacteria multiply, therefore creating a strain of bacteria that is able to survive the treatment of antibiotics.

See what else Kruidering Hall has to say about the way antiviral, antimicrobial, and antifungal drugs work differently within the body, in “Pharmacology: Bugs and Drugs, Part 1.”

Explore other videos in the Foundations for Future Health Care Providers series!

Beyond Food and Exercise: the Other Factors in the Obesity Epidemic

Everything you come in contact with, every second of every day, makes an impact on your health. It’s known as the exposome. It’s a relatively new concept, first defined in 2005. The exposome includes the food you eat, the beauty products you use, the air you breathe, your friends and family, and everything in between. Studying it, could be the key to understanding the obesity epidemic.

That was the focus of the 12th Annual Sugar, Stress, Environment & Weight Symposium put on by The Consortium for Obesity Assessment, Study, and Treatment at UCSF. Popular opinion would have you believe that obesity is a simple equation of too much food and not enough exercise. But, researchers say the problem is far more complex. In this eye-opening lecture series, you will hear how polluted air has been linked to obesity in children living in California’s Central Valley. You will learn about obesogens – chemicals that disrupt the endocrine system. And, you will understand how stress can create a vicious cycle of weight gain.

The final talk focuses on how you can remove toxins from your personal exposome and the progress being made around the world. New labeling in the food and beauty industries allows you to make smarter decisions. LEED buildings are becoming more common in the United States. And, monitoring systems for exposome pollutants are getting better. There is plenty being done, and plenty you can do, to make an impact.

Browse more programs in UCSF Consortium for Obesity Assessment, Study and Treatment

Inspiration and Expertise – Conversations with UCSF Authors

8232What makes a world-class physician or scientist decide to write a book for the wide world of readers? Where do they find the inspiration and the time? What do they hope to accomplish? How do the satisfactions of writing compare to practicing medicine or writing scholarly articles?

Six recently published UCSF authors tackle these questions and more in these fascinating interviews:

Life After the Diagnosis: Expert Advice on Living Well with Serious Illness for Patients and Caregivers

Patients and caregivers living well with serious illness

Ordinary Medicine: Extraordinary Treatments, Longer Lives and Where to Draw the Line
The potential overuse of medical care and when to say “enough”

The Digital Doctor: Hope, Hype and Harm at the Dawn of Medicine’s Computer Age
The impact of technology and the digital revolution on health and health care

Sensing Light
The impact of AIDS in San Francisco through the eyes of three fictional doctors

Fake Silk: The Lethal History of Viscose Rayon
The consequences of hazardous manufacturing and poisonous materials on public health

Heightened Expectations: The Rise of the Human Growth Hormone Industry in America
The role of the pharmaceutical industry in creating a new disease, short stature, to sell new a medication.

Oncology from Top to Bottom

If you are looking to work in the medical field, cancer is something you will be forced to face on a regular basis — especially considering that the incidences of cancer are rising, and currently the likelihood of contracting cancer in your lifetime is 1 in 2.

The latest video from the Foundations for Future Healthcare Providers series takes a look at oncology, specifically cancers within the gastrointestinal tract.

Dr. Andrew Ko, from the UCSF Comprehensive Cancer Center, specializes in gastrointestinal cancers and says that there are many different types, just about as many different types of gastrointestinal cancers as there are different gastrointestinal organs. The most dangerous and most prevalent of these gastrointestinal cancers is colorectal cancer, which is ranked #3 in incidence and in cancer-related mortality amongst all cancers in general.

Find out more about just how different and deadly these types of cancers are in “Oncology from Top to Bottom: A Survey of Cancers through the Gastrointestinal Tract

See what else you can learn from the Foundations for Future Healthcare Providers series!

More from Medicine of Cycling!

Meet Dr. Prentice Steffan, chief medical officer for Slipstream Sports, which owns Garmin-Sharp Professional cycling team. He was the first American physician to care for a team of cyclists in the Tour de France.

The Medicine of Cycling series gives an inside look at a day in the life of a world tour cycling team doctor, through Steffan’s experience being the team doctor during the week-long bike race, Paris Nice.

Learn more about how he keeps his pro-team safe, in “A Day in the Life of a World Tour Cycling Team Doctor.”

A common injury among many cyclists, and athletes in general, is the concussion. The Medicine of Cycling series hears from Eric Freitag, a licensed psychologist and board certified clinical neuropsychologist about the risks and ramifications of concussions.

Freitag co-founded the California Concussion Coalition with the hope of spreading awareness and education about concussions and their proper treatment.

Watch “Concussions and Sports” for Freitag’s expert advice on how to recognize, treat, and understand concussions and the way they affect the brain.

Check out other videos in the the Medicine of Cycling series.

Want more on the Medicine of Cycling? Visit their website!