Essay On Shadowing Dr. Holly Lofton

During the spring of 2015 until the summer of 2016, I gained a considerable amount of clinical experience by shadowing Dr. Holly Lofton at NYU Langone Medical Center. Dr. Lofton works in the field of bariatric medicine, where she specializes in medically supervising patients who combat a series of eating disorders. However, obesity being one of the prominent diseases among her patients. Unfortunately, within our society obesity holds a negative connotation, it is simply dismissed as a disease that develops due to an individual’s loss of self-control. On the contrary, obesity should not be dismissed as a self-control issue, it has more complexity to it. I had a memorable first-hand experience with a patient who originally suffered from anorexia

It gave me a stronger sense of how I could contribute to both the medical and nutrition field by investigating how exactly nutrition plays a role in a patient’s diet. I would use these findings to develop a more personalized diet to accommodate every individual’s need regarding their specific disorder. I think the way to attain this type of personalized diet is through the manipulation of biochemical pathways. For instance, while shadowing Dr. Lofton I learned that she developed her own weight management program, which involved the manipulation of a biochemical process known as, ketosis. In which the deficiency of carbohydrates would induce a human’s body to use fat as a substitute for energy, and eventually leading to weight loss. I thoroughly understood the process of ketosis, however Dr. Lofton’s diet plan taught me that I could manipulate biochemical processes to design personalized diet plans that promote safe weight loss. At that moment, I realized that I was not constricted to using one type of method to achieve a patient’s recovery from obesity. I was completely thrilled by the notion that I could apply a biochemical aspect to the nutrition field. By applying a biochemical aspect to nutrition, it would help me develop an in-depth understanding of how exactly nutrition plays a role in a patient’s