Unit 3 Reflection

This unit was all about the cardiovascular system, which involves the numerous information regarding the heart and the blood vessels which essentially give us life. In the beginning, we learned about blood pressure and heart rate, while learning the inside of the heart muscle. We also learned where blood went to and from the heart and the rest of the body. Atherosclerosis and aneurysms are examples of unhealthy blood vessels primarily based on the diet of the individual. Less unsaturated fats, less overcarbsumption, less sodium, and more exercise are difficult but healthy options to maintain a healthy cardiovascular system. I was really fascinated and frankly scared about the risks of heart disease and type 2 diabetes, and the causes seemed so difficult to avoid. I have maintained my stress levels, but my sleeping habits are difficult to amend as college apps and numerous homework assignments, tests, and other activities take up the majority of my time awake during the day. I have been eating less, as I recognized that my old habits of diet were excessive in calories and carbs. Snacks for me are mostly fruits now. My cortisol levels may be unhealthy because of my sleep debt, but I will hopefully be able to shake off my workload soon to sleep more. This unit has taught me a lot about arteries and veins, and although I seemed to have grasped their concepts, I think, if I remember correctly, I had difficulty with different functions of specifics like the separation of oxygen rich and oxygen poor blood. I probably need to test myself more, as my studying habits occasionally drift to just going over notes. Self testing is really important, as I remember from one of the do-nows in, I believe, this unit. I will do more of it to score higher on tests and overall retain all the information, as it is actually invaluable knowledge that directly applies to me and my lifestyle. I can become a healthier person and help others to become healthier with this wisdom of cardiovascular health. Type 2 diabetes and obesity are real problems these days, and I want to make an impact on this common unhealthy occurrence. 

Snack Time~

1) Snack time can be every day as long you keep it under 200 calories and it isn't composed of unhealthy and non-nutritious foods.
2) Healthy snacks- nutrients, unsaturated fats, proteins, low amount of carbs and sugars
3) Stay away from foods high in added sugars, preservatives, carbs, and processed foods. Keep it under 200 calories, avoid food with high sodium.
Apples-vitamins, heart, nutritious
Peanut butter-vitamins, heart, protein
Almonds-lower risk of cancer, heart disease, protein
Liked that we made food! Big fan of peanut butter, and the one we used wasn't too sweet, but it also wasn't salted or anything.
Good job Alexandria and Simrun!

Blood Pressure Lab

Analysis Questions
1) Compare the systole to diastole.
Systolic pressure is the pressure when the heart contracts. Diastolic pressure is the pressure when the heart relaxes.
2) What equipment is used to measure heart rate? To measure blood pressure?
To measure heart rate, all you have to do is use your fingers. There are seven pulse points that you can use to measure heart rate, but carotid arteries and radial arteries are the easiest places to measure it. Blood pressure can be measured with a sphygmomanometer.
3) Why is using your thumb to measure pulse not ideal?
The thumb also has its own pulse, so using it to measure heart rate in one of the seven pulse points could be confusing.

4) In your own words, describe how to use a blood pressure cuff (sphygomomanometer).
Place cuff on arm, put head of stethoscope above the crease of the elbow, inflate cuff to around 150 mmHg, then open the valve slightly to let air out. When you hear sounds from the stethoscope, the value on the gauge is the systolic blood pressure. When the sounds stop, the gauge reading is the diastolic blood pressure.

In my first test, I had 115 systole to 80 diastole.
In my second test, I had 120 systole to 75 diastole.

Unit 2 Reflection

I really liked what our group came up with in the very beginning when we were asked about the definition of health. It's quite simply, if you keep it simple. Health has many subcategories to be filled to be "sufficient" and "healthy," but I think if you can't find happiness in the things you do, in every aspect of your life, it's going to be really hard to be healthy, physically or mentally. In this retrospect, I'm super healthy. I'm quite the happy person. To me, there is really nothing to be sad about. Nothing can drag me down. Life is too short to care enough to get hurt. But I digress. Not only our school, but according to our psychology class, the majority of teenagers living in the United States aren't the healthiest. Whether it's diet, exercise, sleep, or all of the above, many adolescents aren't doing enough to maintain their health. There are many factors to this, one huge component being school, but in reality, it's procrastination that pulls us down in the dumps regarding our physical health. 

Themes from this unit include the pillars of health: nutrition, exercise, sleep, stress, and social life. I learned a lot from every section, but what I found interesting as I looked back to my previous biology classes were how little they talked about sleep. Of course I knew about how bad it was to get little of it, but learning about the hormones that affected my weight and other detrimental effects of racking up a sleep debt was really eye opening. There was actually one period I missed because I had so little sleep that I overslept a little too much, which caused a huge ripple effect. I ended up missing a class in which we did labs that would fit together with the nutritional analysis, which I could only partially complete because of many difficulties. I really liked the sleep diary, and I actually think I will probably continue to use one to see if my averages per week can go up to seriously get more sleep and stay awake during the day. I don't have a link, but I watched a video in psychology that was called Inside the Teenager Brain or something similar. It talked about the different mood swings, but it also talked about sleep deprivation. Kids are really struggling with getting their work done in time to sleep earlier, and it is something that is definitely difficult to address, as kids really need to grow up themselves to get their work done and stay healthy at the same time. This time of our life has huge impact in our future years, and it's a shame how hard it is to stay healthy now. 

Health Collage

When our group was asked to define health, we had several answers that we individually came up with. However, when we came together to decide on one definition, we settled with a single word: happiness. I really enjoyed this particular thinking, right or wrong as it may be. Mental health really affects overall health, I believe. There is no point in exercising and forcing yourself on a diet if you cannot be happy with your life. Everybody is unique, and it's a shame that some don't realize that and take advantage of the fact that they're alive. Along this note, I'm a rather positive person, so I would say that my strongest pillar for my health is the fact that I worry so little. My stress levels are relatively controlled, and I never, ever let my anxiety control me. I can be emotional, but that does not change my positive outlook on life and my mental state. Unfortunately, this really affects one of my other pillars. Not worrying sometimes makes me a little slow regarding my efficiency with work, and I end up sleeping very late. My sleep schedule is not healthy, and I have had many many microsleeps during school, and sadly behind the wheel in the past. I definitely need to work on that. I have learned a lot about health, especially regarding nutrition and functions of certain nutrients, but I'd think it be nice to learn more about exercise, and the different types of exercise.

Unit 1 Reflection

This unit was all about introducing us to anatomy and physiology, as well as giving us some basic information on cells and histology. Some essential themes were:
Form fits function.
Anatomical Directional Terms help locate a specific place on the body.
Four macromolecules: carbohydrates, proteins, nucleic acids, lipids
Four tissues- epithelial, connective, muscle, nervous
Extracellular matrix- Fibroblasts, Macrophages, Adipocytes, Mast cells
Inflammation- neural response to damage, allergies
I had a lot of prior background knowledge, having taken freshman biology and AP biology, but the specificity on the tissues is a new page I have turned. I took in everything rather smoothly, and I can safely say I understand everything well. In the tissue lab, I was able to take a closer look at a lot of cells from all the types of tissues, and I got a tidbit of an experience of what it's like for a scientist who works with human biological cells and tissues. This can easily be applied to medical research and developing cures. It's obvious that it can be used for diagnoses, and being able to identify harmful things will definitely be something interesting if we were to go into that in the future. The preface is really nice though. A histologist is actually rather important in the medical field, and along with some computer work, there's also a lot of hands on stuff going on. It's awesome that we could get a taste of what it's like at such a young age. This unit has been a great start to a year that I am looking forward to!
http://learningpath.org/articles/Histologist_Career_Info.html

Tissue Lab Relate and Review

The tissue lab was all about exploring different types of cells and tissues through microscopes. After spending a few days learning about histology, it was great to see what we learned about in real life (aside from the skin we see everyday). Using optical microscopes, we took a look at all four types of tissues. They really reflected what we learned what we learned about in class, especially for the slide labeled "nerve human c.s. and l.s" and "skeletal muscle." For the nervous tissue one, the axons were clearly seen in the picture, and the fibers were also very visible. It was easy to tell that it was a nervous cell because only those have axons to receive and send signals. Additionally, the skeletal muscle slide had dots that stuck out from the picture which can be easily identified as nuclei. It also had the striations which made it very obvious that it was a skeletal muscle. Every slide that we looked at was different than the others just because of how specific the shapes were to their specific tissue type. The axons were an excellent example, because they have a specific function, and they could be identified in the lenses to indicate that what we were looking at was a nervous tissue cell. The skeletal muscle was also good because of the striations that were evident, and could be related to the voluntary movements that we can control.