Exam 1: Lessons Learned

We had our first exam this morning: midblock 1 on fundamentals. It was painful. It was a scantron 90 Q multiple choice test. I guessed on most of the answers.

Here is what I learned about exams:
1) When the second years tell you it will be a breeze, that's not true.
2) The questions are much more detailed and specific than the practice exams (um.. how many ATP come out of every single step of any metabolic process?)
3) How to study- review and take notes on the lectures the night of the lecture, then answer any of the objectives related to those lectures so you can just review them before the test. (I learned this a little too late...) ... I really appreciated that Hopkins gave us first semester freshman year to adjust by making everything pass-fail. I am not a huge fan of the rankings and percentage grades on transcripts here...

The test was on anatomy, biochem (metabolism and enzymes- like a semester's worth), homeostasis, and histology. Some interesting knowledge things I learned are as follows (correct me if any of the info is wrong):

WHY HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP IS BAD FOR YOU:
Your body runs on glucose. If you eat sugar, the dissacharide of sucrose dissociates into glucose and fructose and while the liver has to use the fructose immediately, if there is extra glucose, it can be stored away as glycogen. If you have an influx of fructose, it goes straight to your liver which has to metabolize it immediately and that can overwhelm it.

WHY THE ATKINS DIET IS BAD FOR YOU:
1) Too many fats. Ketogenesis happens when there is a high rate of fatty acid oxidation in the liver (this happens when there are a lot of fatty acids around, when there isn't enough glucose, or when your body cannot metabolize/use glucose as an energy source as is the case for insulin-dependent diabetics). Ketone bodies are created and exported by the liver and those ketone bodies lower blood pH. When you have too many of them, it causes ketoacidosis which is too acidic of an internal environment for your body to function optimally.
2) Too much protein. A by-product of the breakdown of amino acids in protein is ammonia which is toxic to the nervous system and if not converted to urea (its detoxified form which can be readily removed from the body in urine), it can cause death. Amino acid skeletons can also be converted to ketone bodies which as written in point #1, can make your system too acidic.


There were some other things too but I should probably pay attention to this lecture on "The Patient." It's very public health and has to do with our healthcare system and how it compares to those of other countries.