Name: Princess Dianne M. De Roxas.

SR CODE: 22-58037
Section: BSN 1102 Biochemistry Lecture

“Application of Biochemistry in Nursing/Medical Field”

Biochemistry is the application of chemistry to the study of biological processes at the

cellular and molecular level. It emerged as a distinct discipline around the beginning of the 20th
century when scientists combined chemistry, physiology, and biology to investigate the
chemistry of living systems. Biochemistry has become the foundation for understanding all
biological processes. It has provided explanations for the causes of many diseases in humans,
animals, and plants. It can frequently suggest ways by which such diseases may be treated or
cured.

Biochemistry is a valuable subject in medicine; without it, there would have been no such
advancement in the field. It helps those people working in or studying in the medical field
understand the biochemical changes and related physiological alterations in the body during
infection or disease. Based on the symptoms described by the patient, the physician can get a
clue about the biochemical changes and the associated disorders. For example, if a patient
complains about stiffness in small joints, the physician may predict it to be gout and get
confirmation by evaluating uric acid levels in the blood, as uric acid accumulation in the blood
results in gout. There are also many disorders due to hormonal imbalance, especially in women
and children. The role of hormones in normal body function is taught in biochemistry, which
helps the physician understand the concerned problem during treatment. Additionally,
biochemistry is crucial to nurses' understanding of how the human body functions in both normal
and various disease states. The Krebs Cycle, for example, is a multi-step biochemical process by
which the human body (and many other living organisms) produce energy as part of aerobic
metabolism. If BSN programs omitted key fundamentals like this, nurses would have no
understanding of how such common things as acute and critical illness, trauma, surgery, cardiac
arrest, fever, infection, hyperglycemia, or starvation, for example, affected their patients.
Moreover, all diseases have a molecular basis, so biochemistry enables us to understand the
chemical processes involved in conditions as varied as diabetes, hyperammonemia, hypo- and
hyperthyroidism, hypo- and hyperparathyroidism, jaundice, kidney dysfunction,
hypercholesterolemia, phenylketonuria, sickle cell anemia, dental fluorosis, rickets, acidosis and
alkalosis, lysosomal storage diseases, and atherosclerosis.

Hence, with knowledge of biochemistry, nurses will be able to understand that quite a
large proportion of disorders have a biochemical basis. They will also learn about normal and
abnormal biochemical processes and their regulations, the role of various biochemical processes
in the maintenance of health or the causation of illness, good or bad biochemical situations for
the health-illness continuum, biochemical factors that influence an individual's health, and the
biochemical contribution to various diseases and disorders. In addition, it facilitates nurses'
contributions towards health promotion with a biochemical aspect. By having an understanding
of this subject, they would be able to use several biochemical tests that are carried out for
screening purposes or to identify the risk of certain life-threatening illnesses, such as
cardiovascular diseases. For example, if a nurse is aware that an elevated level of serum
cholesterol and lipid profile increases the risk of cardiovascular disorders, she may educate
people on how to keep serum lipid levels within normal limits through dietary changes, regular
exercise, and medications, thereby lowering the risk of coronary artery disease in the future.
Thus, through learning biochemistry, nurses may contribute towards health promotion with a
biochemical aspect. Health education is also one of the important roles of nurses; with
knowledge of biochemistry, nurses will be able to understand the biochemical basis of illness
and offer health education to clients based on biochemical rationalization when and where
required, so that their clients can be more convinced and clearer about their illness, treatment,
and prevention.

Aside from what is mentioned above, biochemistry also plays an important role in the
treatment of disease. Biochemistry incorporates elements of pharmacology, pathology, cell
biology, and physiology to explain both the basis and proposed therapeutic options for the
treatment of disease. Several examples can be drawn upon to show how biochemistry is used to
inform the development and monitoring of disease therapies, and how medications work is
directly related to biochemistry. Antibiotics, for example, have different effects on different
microorganisms. Some antibiotics kill bacteria outright by making holes in their cell walls.
Others keep bacteria from replicating by disrupting intracellular processes.

Many medications given to patients behave differently if blood sugar is grossly elevated
or the patient is septic and dependent on anaerobic metabolism rather than aerobic metabolism.
With information gleaned from the chemical nature of pathologies, biochemists working in
medicine are able to investigate potential treatments for diseases.

Overall, medical science could not exist without biochemistry. Biochemistry is and will
continue to be one of the most significant disciplines of research because it integrates scientific
knowledge with practical tactics to maintain health, comprehend diseases, identify potential
therapies, and improve our understanding of the origins of life on Earth. As the definition says
that biochemistry is the study of chemical processes in the living cell, it is critical that a nurse, as
a healthcare professional, studies and understands biochemistry in order to care for their patients.
For example, throughout his hospitalization, a patient had symptoms such as confusion,
dizziness, a shaky feeling, a pounding heart, a racing pulse, sweating, trembling, and weakness.
The medical history shows that he has diabetes mellitus and was taking insulin. With
biochemistry knowledge, a nurse will be able to recognize right away that the reason for his
symptoms was hypoglycemia, and she will be able to understand the changes that occur in the
body and provide timely treatment. As a result, a detailed awareness of the biochemical
processes occurring in the body will assist the nurse in developing a patient-centered approach to
treatment.
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