Biochemistry

A Biochemistry lecturer once told us during the Foundation block that Biochemistry is a 'volatile' subject that requires constant memorizing and understanding and if we don't diligently study and revise the subject we would soon forget it. I couldn't agree more. I find the subject to be challenging but interesting because like Physiology, this subject helps me to make sense of different phenomenon that are happening in our body. The only difference is - in Biochemistry, we learn the chemical aspect of it like studying the chemical structures of carbohydrate, how cholesterols are synthesized and broken down or how organization of amino acids and different forces like Van der Waal's forces and Hydrogen Bond lead to different structures of proteins.

The challenge of studying Biochemistry lies on the fact that there are many reactions and a few reaction cycles that needed to be learned and memorized. For example, in Foundation block, we were expected to learn the Krebs cycle and many more. However, in Cardiovascular System block, things get more interesting as we learn the metabolism of different lipoproteins like high-density lipoprotein (HDL), low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and chylomicron. Understanding the concept, metabolism and the importance of different types of lipoprotein would help you to understand how lipids in general are being transported and utilized in our body and how this could lead to different diseases. For example, a person that has high levels of lipoprotein

(a) is at risk of atherosclerosis and heart failure. However, from further research, I have also learned that diseases related to hypercholesterolemia (abnormally high levels of cholesterol in blood) are not directly linked to levels of cholesterol in blood but are more closely related to the levels of lipoprotein (e.g. LDL) in our blood. This made me realized that the common medical approach of measuring our cholesterol levels instead of the levels of lipoproteins during medical check-up does not exactly reflect our state of health in respect to the risk of developing cholesterol-related diseases.

I find learning Biochemistry also to be really helpful in my understanding of different conditions and diseases like jaundice, atherosclerosis and different types of hyperlipidemia (high levels of lipids in blood) and hypolipidemia (low levels of lipids in blood). Recently, my newborn nephew had a mild jaundice and I was able to help my brother and her wife to understand the cause, symptoms and how we could treat jaundice. I also realized how important that as a medical student, I must learn how to relate different disciplines of medicine to achieve a better understanding of a certain concept. For example, in trying to understand why my nephew had developed jaundice I must be able to relate my embryology knowledge with the concept of how jaundice develops. In the case of my newborn nephew, jaundice can develop in different forms and one of those is due to the failure of the liver to metabolize bilirubin, which leads to high levels of bilirubin in the blood. This makes sense because the liver of a newborn has not properly developed to adequately remove the bilirubins that are formed due to high turnover of red blood cells.