THOSE THREE WORDS.

It took me forever to get here - to arrive with the perfect introduction for my new breed of blog - a blog infused with facts. A blog that is teeming with words that can actually be of use.

This is my first attempt. I don't know if this will even qualify as a good introduction.

I always saw blogs as a pool of opinions or information based primarily on personal angles that don't necessarily need to be justified by hard cold facts.

Then baam! We were tasked to write about these three little words.

 Unfortunately, they're not the classic-universally-excessively-everybody-wants-to-talk-about "I LOVE YOU." I could ramble all day if that was the case. And no, its not the heartstopping "WE SHOULD TALK."  But those 3 magical words were:

ENDOCRINOLOGY, TOXICOLOGY and DRUG TESTING.

My initial reaction upon hearing these: Nothing. Complete silence. Crickets.

I like writing but definitely not about these. I know, I know, these are not the most, how should I say this, enticing blog topics, to say the least. But since I'm a Medical Laboratory Science student, I should be able to talk about this in a breeze. I should know this by heart :) Those three words were proofs that I am on the final stage of my clinical chemistry journey. Clearly, I need facts to back me up plus I need rewiring of whatever shred of memory I have supplementary to my task.

And now, the challenge begins. 

So I ask myself, what can I do to sound plausible without sounding like I'm reading straight from a textbook? I feel like that writer, Josie Geller from the 1999 movie "Never Been Kissed". I am under an unexplained pressure to write something not good, but amazing and carry on knowledge especially to those under the medical profession's belt. But just like what she said in the movie, "To write well, you have to write what you know.....

Well, here is what I know..." Nothing fancy, but just the way I know it.

The first word: ENDOCRINOLOGY.

Endocrinology is basically the study of the endocrine system - its development, mechanisms, and diseases or conditions associated to it. This field study of medicine involves the glands of the endocrine system which are the pituitary, hypothalamus, thyroid, parathyroid, pancreas, adrenal glands. The ovaries and testes are also included. These glands produce primary specific secretions - the hormones.

Endocrinology mainly focuses on the hormones, which are the messenger molecules of the body. They specifically stimulate and regulate development and activity of target cells which result in physiological effects on the body. 

Endocrinology is concerned with  how hormones are synthesized, developed, interact with each other, their receptors, the pathways they use, and the diseases that may affect them. Their physiological functions and all processes involving them are also understood.

Diagnosis and proper functioning of the endocrine system are not the only interests of endocrinology, but it also supplies knowledge for care and treatment of the said system. It usually addresses hormonal imbalances, metabolism and growth disorders, etc. 
   

Second, TOXICOLOGY.

Toxicology is the study of the harmful effects of a toxic agent (whether biological, physical or chemical in form) on living organisms, usually on human health.  Basically, it explains what unfavorable outcomes may occur when one living system is subjected to an agent. It provides an assessment of risk, examines why such toxic agent produces adverse effects to the body, its symptoms, treatment  and processes of toxicity in the body. Its goal is to determine the degree of toxicity or exposure of an organism to allow corresponding interventions to be done.

It also takes into consideration factors that may affect or predetermine the adverse effects on the system. These factors may be the dosage, nature of the agent, time, etc.  

Toxicology is not only under the field of medicine. It also encompasses biological and chemical aspects resulting in various subdisciplines within the field such as clinical and forensic toxicology.

and lastly, DRUG TESTING.

Drug Testing is the analysis of a biological specimen to confirm whether a certain parent drug or its metabolites are present in the human body. It detects whether you've taken a certain drug or not. Biological specimens include hair, saliva, blood urine, sweat, or any body fluid.

It determines the type of drug taken illegally or medically and possibly, the circulating amount. Usually, illegal drugs taken by a person are determined. This is very useful for detecting drug abuse, assessing overdose, monitoring of  rehabilitation program and ensures appropriate treatment when the responsible drug is identified.  Cocaine, amphetamine, heroin, morphine, alcohol are some of the most commonly tested drugs.

It is a must for we, future medical technologists to have a strong background on these three words for we perform the methods of analysis to the components of these studies. If we don't, it defeats our purpose.

Those three words. They're black and white.They signify that I have so much to learn about, still. But they also say that I'm almost at the end of the road - the road to becoming a medical technologist :)