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Implementing Raised Bed Gardens as a Form of a Health Intervention, Specifically in Habitat for Humanity Homes

Description
The rise of the average life span in developed countries in the past couple of centuries can be traced back to implementation of relatively simple health interventions. Also, accompanying the rise in the average life span is the rise in chronic disease. Current treatments for chronic disease is often very…

The rise of the average life span in developed countries in the past couple of centuries can be traced back to implementation of relatively simple health interventions. Also, accompanying the rise in the average life span is the rise in chronic disease. Current treatments for chronic disease is often very costly and only offers partial alleviation to the problem. Preventing the chronic disease upstream of the problem happening in the first place is both significantly more effective and cheaper. Raised bed gardening helps prevent chronic disease processes from happening through mental, physical, and nutritional health benefits. A subset of people that would particularly benefit from raised bed gardening would be families receiving homes from Habitat from Humanity for many different reasons including susceptibility to a gardening intervention, availability of materials, and location of the homes. A guide to implement these gardens is provided which is supplemented with a combination of research and personal experience.
ContributorsBarker, Kenneth Holland (Author) / Collins, Michael (Thesis director) / Kizer, Elizabeth (Committee member) / School of Molecular Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
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Oral Microbiome Analysis Reveals Potential for Streamlining Diagnosis of Rheumatoid Arthritis

Description
Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disorder where the body mistakenly attacks healthy joints. This in turn causes inflammation resulting in pain and swelling. It is very important to get RA accurately diagnosed and treated as early as possible. Similarly, with any disease: the longer it is left untreated, the…

Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disorder where the body mistakenly attacks healthy joints. This in turn causes inflammation resulting in pain and swelling. It is very important to get RA accurately diagnosed and treated as early as possible. Similarly, with any disease: the longer it is left untreated, the more damage it can cause. RA can cause irreversible joint damage leading to disability. The purpose of this study is to determine if oral microbiome can be used as an additional criterion to aid in diagnosing RA. Several oral microbes have already been identified as biomarkers for RA in saliva. In this study, 10 participants were recruited: 6 diagnosed with RA and 4 Healthy as a control. Two subgroups of RA were done within this study; those diagnose with a positive Rheumatoid Factor (RF) and those diagnose with a negative RF. These subgroups were then compared in order to determine the validity of using certain microbes as biomarkers for RA even when different diagnostic criteria were met. The microbe Parahaemolyticus had the largest measure of effect, showing the greatest potential for statistically significant results with a larger sample size. If we can work narrow to down specific microbes to be undoubtedly higher in abundance with already diagnosed RA patients when comparing to healthy participants, this will be a gamechanger. Not only could we give a higher sense of confidence with the diagnosis of RA, but this could streamline RA diagnosis.
ContributorsNunez, Celeste (Author) / Marshall, Pamela (Thesis director) / Hackney Price, Jennifer (Committee member) / Kizer, Elizabeth (Committee member) / College of Health Solutions (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-12