Skeletal Diseases

iSearch Paper

Ben Johnson

Skeletal diseases aren’t really a common topic of chatter. Many people are not well educated on the subject, including myself. I have heard of a couple of diseases like osteoporosis, bone cancer, and arthritis. I don’t have much depth into these disorders or the others. I would like to know what exactly they do in the body, what parts of the body they target, and how they are caused. I would also like to know the known variety of treatments for each disease. The disease that I am going to dive into is Leukemia because I knew it had to do with blood, but I had absolutely no idea that it was inside the bone as well. Leukemia is a tragic form of cancer that is very common in younger people.

I chose leukemia because I have had three very close family members lose their lives because of this disease. Two were my little cousins, one was nine and the other four. My cousins were some of my best friends and they were so much fun to be around. I’m not sure if leukemia is somewhat genetic, but they were brother and sister. I know that our great grandmother died because of leukemia as well. My family seems to have leukemia running through the ranches of our tree. I know a little bit about leukemia due to these circumstances, but what I do know doesn’t even scratch the surface.

To start my search, I Googled leukemia. I knew I was a broad term to search, but I just needed general information for me to grasp the basics. After I learn this basic information, I then search the more specific types of the cancer, finding more and more results. I tried to find credible sources like college research sites, or encyclopedia sites. The internet is a vast sea of opinions, facts, and false information, so I tried to pick my sites very carefully. If I found good information, I went to other websites to check to see if it was true or false. Leukemia being a very popular research subject among many people, including doctors, there were many sites to sift...