Friday, October 21, 2016
Blood Pressure Lab
Systolic blood pressure is the pressure of the blood when the heart contracts and pumps blood out and diastolic pressure measure the pressure when the heart relaxes again. The stethoscope is used to measure the heart rate, while the sphygmomanometer is used to measure blood pressure. Using the thumb to measure pulse is not ideal because the thumb has a pulse in it as well. The sphygomomanometer measures blood pressure by putting pressure on the arm and listening to heart beats when the pressure is released. To take blood pressure of a person, first be sure that all of the air is out of the band. After checking this, double check that the valve is tightly shut. The band attaches to the upper arm and a stethoscope is placed under. Pressure is added to it until the meter reaches 150 mmHg. After reaching this pressure, the valve is opened to allow air to slowly come out. The recorder listens for a heartbeat and marks down when they can heart the first beat. Likewise, when they cannot hear a heartbeat anymore they record that as well. The number that was recorded when the heartbeats went away is the in the denominator of the fraction, while the first number is in the numerator.
Tuesday, October 18, 2016
Heart Chalk Walk Reflection
In the heart, the deoxygenated blood that comes from the body enters through either the superior or inferior vena cava. It then enters the right atrium and goes through the tricuspid valve, where it comes into the right ventricle. When the right ventricle if full, it flows through the pulmonary valve to go to the pulmonary artery, which takes it to the lungs to be oxygenated. After returning from the lungs through the pulmonary veins, the blood enters the left atrium to then be pushed through the bicuspid valve to the left ventricle. Once the left ventricle is full, it gets pushed through the aortic valve to the aorta, where the oxygenated blood is spread throughout the body.
Sunday, October 9, 2016
Unit Two Reflection
Health is the measure of the body's efficiency and overall well-being. Health can be categorized into five main pillars: nutrition, exercise, sleep, stress, and social. Each of these five aspects play a major role in the body's well-being. Four important hormones that control and regulate homeostasis inside of the body are insulin, leptin, glucagon, and cortisol. These hormones work together to maintain healthy glucose levels inside of the body. The four keys to a health diet are adequacy, moderation, variety, and balance. This recommendation basically advises to get a little bit of everything, and not to eat too much of something. Also exercising plays a key role on health. The different types of physical activity are aerobic, muscle-strengthening, bone-strengthening, and flexibility. The amount of time that a person needs to work out for depends on the intensity of which they are performing. The more intense a person is, the less time they need to spend on a certain activity. Sleep is also a critical part of health. Sleep is a time for the body to rest and for the brain to recharge and sort out its thoughts from the day. The two stages of sleep are REM, which is when the body is paralyzed and the brain is very active, and non-REM, where the body is not paralyzed and eyes move more slowly. The next pillar of stress is defined as any event/demand that causes a predictable physiological response. The three main stages of stress are the alarm phase, resistance phase, and exhaustion phase. The alarm phase is the initial "fight or flight" phase where the body reacts to an immediate source of alarm. The resistance phase is more of a long term stress where the body begins to become more impaired. In the exhaustion phase the stress has continued for so long to the point where death can even occur. The social aspect of health focuses on all the benefits of how having a socially active life can lead to many health benefits such as an increased immunity to diseases.
I think that I am somewhat healthy. I wouldn't say I'm perfect, but I think I do think I am healthy overall. I just need to tweak a few things in my lifestyle. For example, in my nutrition analysis I lacked fiber and different vitamins. All I need to do to improve on this is eat more fruits and vegetables in my diet. Also, I want to exercise more often. As of now I am not playing any sports, so I need to run more often on my own. I'd say that I get enough sleep and that I am socially active as well. I would say I am about average on stress, but on the better end of the scale at Saratoga High School. The people at this school are way too stressed and don't get enough sleep. Also, many do not eat a healthy diet since some skip breakfast and eat pizza for lunch everyday. To counteract this school wide problem, teachers should try to communicate on test days or big project due dates. This allows students to not cram multiple subjects in their head the night before the test. It would also help in the sleep category since students would not have to stay up so late just to study. At school, the cafeteria should sell more nutritious foods for lunch instead of the pizza and cup-o-noodles. This would improve health overall around the school.
Some of the key understandings of this unit is what health is and how the 5 pillars of health effect that a person's overall health. Overall, I learned many new things during this unit. I learned the function of the four hormones that effect a person's overall health, and how not eating the right foods can completely destroy the healthy balance of them. From the nutrition section I learned that on average, a person should be drinking half their body weight in ounces of water. In the exercise pillar I learned that one can use the talk test to figure out the intensity of the activity they are doing. I also learned that if you ever feel drowsy during the day that means you have sleep debt. From one of the TED talk videos, I learned that stress is actually good for the body. It means that your body is preparing itself for something and pumping more blood so you are better prepared for it. Lastly, I learned how having a more social life can reduce some cancer developments. One thing that I still do not fully understand is the concept of dreaming. It confuses me on how dreaming occurs in the REM stage, where the body is paralyzed, yet often people twitch when they dream. This counteracts the idea that you don't move when you dream since people do actually move around. One thing that I can improve on next unit is applying what I have learned in this unit to better understand what I am learning next. One job that relates to this unit is the field of neuroscience. In this field, scientists examine the brain and how it functions with the rest of the body. This relates to what we covered this unit since stress and sleep have much to do with the brain. People in neuroscience study and try to understand more and more about the brain. One could look more into the study of concussions, which is very applicable in today's society with many different sports coming up with new rules to protect its athletes. For example, in youth soccer heading the ball has been made illegal to prevent brain trauma at a young age. When a person recovers from a concussion it is important for them not to be under too much stress, since they are prone to headaches. Also sleep is said to be important to recover from a concussion, unlike what the old idea of waking the person up at different times during the night. This shows how the concept of concussions is still unknown, so many take precautions when dealing with it. So much more can still be discovered about concussion and just the brain itself.
https://www.sfn.org/about/about-neuroscience
I think that I am somewhat healthy. I wouldn't say I'm perfect, but I think I do think I am healthy overall. I just need to tweak a few things in my lifestyle. For example, in my nutrition analysis I lacked fiber and different vitamins. All I need to do to improve on this is eat more fruits and vegetables in my diet. Also, I want to exercise more often. As of now I am not playing any sports, so I need to run more often on my own. I'd say that I get enough sleep and that I am socially active as well. I would say I am about average on stress, but on the better end of the scale at Saratoga High School. The people at this school are way too stressed and don't get enough sleep. Also, many do not eat a healthy diet since some skip breakfast and eat pizza for lunch everyday. To counteract this school wide problem, teachers should try to communicate on test days or big project due dates. This allows students to not cram multiple subjects in their head the night before the test. It would also help in the sleep category since students would not have to stay up so late just to study. At school, the cafeteria should sell more nutritious foods for lunch instead of the pizza and cup-o-noodles. This would improve health overall around the school.
Some of the key understandings of this unit is what health is and how the 5 pillars of health effect that a person's overall health. Overall, I learned many new things during this unit. I learned the function of the four hormones that effect a person's overall health, and how not eating the right foods can completely destroy the healthy balance of them. From the nutrition section I learned that on average, a person should be drinking half their body weight in ounces of water. In the exercise pillar I learned that one can use the talk test to figure out the intensity of the activity they are doing. I also learned that if you ever feel drowsy during the day that means you have sleep debt. From one of the TED talk videos, I learned that stress is actually good for the body. It means that your body is preparing itself for something and pumping more blood so you are better prepared for it. Lastly, I learned how having a more social life can reduce some cancer developments. One thing that I still do not fully understand is the concept of dreaming. It confuses me on how dreaming occurs in the REM stage, where the body is paralyzed, yet often people twitch when they dream. This counteracts the idea that you don't move when you dream since people do actually move around. One thing that I can improve on next unit is applying what I have learned in this unit to better understand what I am learning next. One job that relates to this unit is the field of neuroscience. In this field, scientists examine the brain and how it functions with the rest of the body. This relates to what we covered this unit since stress and sleep have much to do with the brain. People in neuroscience study and try to understand more and more about the brain. One could look more into the study of concussions, which is very applicable in today's society with many different sports coming up with new rules to protect its athletes. For example, in youth soccer heading the ball has been made illegal to prevent brain trauma at a young age. When a person recovers from a concussion it is important for them not to be under too much stress, since they are prone to headaches. Also sleep is said to be important to recover from a concussion, unlike what the old idea of waking the person up at different times during the night. This shows how the concept of concussions is still unknown, so many take precautions when dealing with it. So much more can still be discovered about concussion and just the brain itself.
https://www.sfn.org/about/about-neuroscience
Tuesday, October 4, 2016
Sleep Analysis
I monitored my sleep from September 30 to October 4. I think that I could still get more sleep each night. Even though I am pretty alert during the day, an average teenager should be getting at least 9 hours of sleep every night. I currently am getting about eight and a half hours of sleep every night, which is only a half hour below the recommended amount, but I think it would be helpful to still get more. I only drank one caffeinated beverage throughout the whole time of recording my sleep, so that is also good. I was able to stay alert without having to drink any caffeinated things. Overall, I think I get a decent amount of sleep based off of this analysis, and could try to get that half hour more if I wanted to improve on anything.
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Saturday, September 24, 2016
Nutrition Analysis
On the week of September 17th to September 21, I tracked my intake of food. Overall, I noticed that I consumed too little of the majority of the nutrition facts. The only areas that I over ate in were the sections of protein and fat.
The biggest area that I need to look to improve on is the amount of protein that I eat. Over the course of the days, I noticed a trend of eating a certain type of meat everyday. I could cut back on my protein my not eating meat everyday, and have a different option such as salads. Also I would have to make sure that there would be no chicken in these salads to reduce my protein intake.
Another area that need to improve on is my iron intake. I was 73% below my recommended amount. I could improve in this area by eating more iron rich foods such as spinach. I should avoid more red meats since I am already about 91% above my recommend amount. One way I could do this is by making more smoothies. When I make smoothies I add a ton of different fruit and about 2 cups of spinach. If I were to make one of these every other day, my iron intake would greatly increase.
I also need to eat more vitamin A rich foods. I was 64.4% below my recommend daily value. One way to increase this is by eating more fish and vegetables. The vegetables could again come from the smoothie that I would make every other day. Also I could eat more salads as meals, like lunch for example. This would increase my vegetable intake as well, therefore raising the levels of vitamin A also. I could eat more fish by eating foods such as poké, or sushi. These foods contain fish, and are very delicious at the same time.
I also struggled in the vitamin C category. I really under ate in this category, going along with the general trend. One way to improve on this category is by eating more fruits, more specifically citrus fruits. Citrus fruits contain a lot of vitamin C, so if I ate more of these fruits it would increase. As stated before, I could make more smoothies, which include oranges, so that could be one way I would increase my vitamin C intake.
I need to also work on eating more fiber. One way to improve would be to eat more vegetables and beans. I noticed that the on day 4, I ate Chipotle for dinner. That was the highest amount of fiber that I consumed thought the whole process, at 24.8 grams for the whole day. This shows how even though I did eat more fiber, I was still below the recommended value of 32.5 grams. I also just need to eat more vegetables in general. I saw that out of the five days I logged my diet, I had vegetables on only three of those. This is really eye opening to the fact that I do not eat enough vegetables. If I were to increase the amount of vegetables that I eat during each meal, on top of that smoothie I would make every other day, then my fiber intake would definitely increase.
Unlike what I thought, I actually under ate in the sodium value. I ate 40.9% below the recommended value of 3117.6 grams. I guess a way to consume more sodium would be by eating more salty foods or ham. However, I would have to be careful with the amount of ham I eat since I already eat way too much protein.
Another surprising category was my calorie consumption. I actually under ate by 27.8% of the recommended value. One result from this could have been because I did not eat much in a certain day. For example, on day 4, I only ate five different items, one of them being water. A simple solution to this problem is to eat more during the day. I also need to be constantly eating a breakfast. By doing this, I would eat more calories, and have more energy during the day.
The two categories that I did well in were in fat and calcium category. I was near perfect for the fat being at 0.12% in over consumption. In the calcium section I consumed 6.1% under the correct amount. Both of the sections correlate to each other in a way because I drink a lot of milk. Milk is high in calcium, and contains a good amount of fat since I drink 2% milk. A way to consume more calcium is by maybe eating yogurt for breakfast. This would increase my calcium, and at the same time having breakfast, which would increase my calorie intake.
The biggest area that I need to look to improve on is the amount of protein that I eat. Over the course of the days, I noticed a trend of eating a certain type of meat everyday. I could cut back on my protein my not eating meat everyday, and have a different option such as salads. Also I would have to make sure that there would be no chicken in these salads to reduce my protein intake.
Another area that need to improve on is my iron intake. I was 73% below my recommended amount. I could improve in this area by eating more iron rich foods such as spinach. I should avoid more red meats since I am already about 91% above my recommend amount. One way I could do this is by making more smoothies. When I make smoothies I add a ton of different fruit and about 2 cups of spinach. If I were to make one of these every other day, my iron intake would greatly increase.
I also need to eat more vitamin A rich foods. I was 64.4% below my recommend daily value. One way to increase this is by eating more fish and vegetables. The vegetables could again come from the smoothie that I would make every other day. Also I could eat more salads as meals, like lunch for example. This would increase my vegetable intake as well, therefore raising the levels of vitamin A also. I could eat more fish by eating foods such as poké, or sushi. These foods contain fish, and are very delicious at the same time.
I also struggled in the vitamin C category. I really under ate in this category, going along with the general trend. One way to improve on this category is by eating more fruits, more specifically citrus fruits. Citrus fruits contain a lot of vitamin C, so if I ate more of these fruits it would increase. As stated before, I could make more smoothies, which include oranges, so that could be one way I would increase my vitamin C intake.
I need to also work on eating more fiber. One way to improve would be to eat more vegetables and beans. I noticed that the on day 4, I ate Chipotle for dinner. That was the highest amount of fiber that I consumed thought the whole process, at 24.8 grams for the whole day. This shows how even though I did eat more fiber, I was still below the recommended value of 32.5 grams. I also just need to eat more vegetables in general. I saw that out of the five days I logged my diet, I had vegetables on only three of those. This is really eye opening to the fact that I do not eat enough vegetables. If I were to increase the amount of vegetables that I eat during each meal, on top of that smoothie I would make every other day, then my fiber intake would definitely increase.
Unlike what I thought, I actually under ate in the sodium value. I ate 40.9% below the recommended value of 3117.6 grams. I guess a way to consume more sodium would be by eating more salty foods or ham. However, I would have to be careful with the amount of ham I eat since I already eat way too much protein.
Another surprising category was my calorie consumption. I actually under ate by 27.8% of the recommended value. One result from this could have been because I did not eat much in a certain day. For example, on day 4, I only ate five different items, one of them being water. A simple solution to this problem is to eat more during the day. I also need to be constantly eating a breakfast. By doing this, I would eat more calories, and have more energy during the day.
The two categories that I did well in were in fat and calcium category. I was near perfect for the fat being at 0.12% in over consumption. In the calcium section I consumed 6.1% under the correct amount. Both of the sections correlate to each other in a way because I drink a lot of milk. Milk is high in calcium, and contains a good amount of fat since I drink 2% milk. A way to consume more calcium is by maybe eating yogurt for breakfast. This would increase my calcium, and at the same time having breakfast, which would increase my calorie intake.
Friday, September 16, 2016
What is Health?
Tuesday, September 6, 2016
Rods and Cones
Rods and cones are amazing cells that allow the eye to function as it does. They are each a specific type of cell called photoreceptors. Both cells are located in the retina of the eye. These cells both are composed of epithelial tissue. While both structures are very similar, they each have a few distinguishing features. As they sound, the names of the cells describe how they look like. Rods are long and skinny looking, while cones look like an upside down cone with the point sticking up. Both cells contain disk-like disks which contain molecules that allow the light photons to be absorbed. In rods these disks are closed, unlike cones where the disks are partially opened and exposed to the liquid around it. Both contain the typical organelles of an eukaryotic cell such as a nucleus and mitochondria. It also contains an axon, which acts to send signals to neurons that eventually makes its way all the way to the brain to be processed. Also in birds or reptiles, these receptors may have oil droplets, which enhance their color vision.
There are many more rods in the retina than there are cones. The proportion of rods to cones is about 120 million rods to the 6-7 million cones. Rods are more sensitive than cones, but are not sensitive to colors, as cones are. Rods are extremely sensitive to light and are better motion sensors. Rods primarily are used in the peripheral vision, so the eye is more sensitive to light from the sides. Rods take a longer time to adapt to a new environment unlike cones. It takes roughly 30 minutes for the rods to adjust to darkness and function correctly. Cones are used to see the many different colors of the rainbow. They are separated into different types that each sense different colors. For example, there are blue cones, red cones, and green cones. Each of them respectively senses a different color.
There are many more rods in the retina than there are cones. The proportion of rods to cones is about 120 million rods to the 6-7 million cones. Rods are more sensitive than cones, but are not sensitive to colors, as cones are. Rods are extremely sensitive to light and are better motion sensors. Rods primarily are used in the peripheral vision, so the eye is more sensitive to light from the sides. Rods take a longer time to adapt to a new environment unlike cones. It takes roughly 30 minutes for the rods to adjust to darkness and function correctly. Cones are used to see the many different colors of the rainbow. They are separated into different types that each sense different colors. For example, there are blue cones, red cones, and green cones. Each of them respectively senses a different color.
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