Were you already aware of the potential links
between environmental health exposures and neurodevelopmental disorders? I am
not as aware as I am now when it comes to environmental health exposures and
neurodevelopmental disorders. Watching Dr. Miller’s video made me realize how
this equation works:
Genome + Exposome = your health
The CDC defined “exposome” as “the measure of all
the exposures of an individual in a lifetime and how those exposures relate to
health.” That said, the following is a great tool to further elucidate the
impact of exposome to our everyday lives:
Specific exposures can be problematic to
measure due to the lack of sensitive means in knowing or not knowing that
exposure has even happened. Even when the exposure is identified, measuring
that exposure can be problematic since the indicators of exposure may be
temporary, such as for most chemicals, which are quickly excreted and only a
short time frame occurs to directly measure them. However, if these chemicals
continue to exist; they leave a “legacy biomarkers.”
How will this change your practice? As a
healthcare professional, my assessment often includes the exposome whenever I
ask for triggers of their hospitalization. It extends to the era of their
military service because of actual and presumed disability they incur during
their service. For example, patients who served during the Vietnam war leaned
towards being exposed to “Agent Orange” which the VA offers a longitudinal
study of exposome. The Agent Orange registry not only covers the servicemen but
also their children. The VA website showed that Agent Orange or to other
herbicides may cause amyloidosis, leukemia, DM2, Hodgkin’s disease, prostate
cancer, etc.
Hello Ella, I love how you posted about the VA and exposure to chemical agents. We have recently had three veterans admitted and all have a PMH of Agent Orange. I had to look this up and see what I might look for during my assessment. I found it helpful to have a basic understanding of what this meant to my patients and again what I may need to focus on. As a part of my normal assessment I do not ask about their environment, I don't see how I would this into my assessment as a floor nurse, but look forward to learning more about this as a future provider.
ReplyDeleteYour diagram from CDC helps to explain further the effect of exposure our individual health since we all have unique characteristics. I agree with you that after watching the videos for this sections i have greater knowledge of different magnitude of exposures and potential links between environmental health exposures and neurodevelopmental disorders. Some exposures even last multiple generations.
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