Measuring Blood Pressure and Pulse

Blood pressure us a measure of the force exerted by the blood on the wall of the arteries. Systolic pressure is the result of the contraction of the ventricles (normal 110-140). Diastolic pressure is measured during the ventricle relaxation period (normal 70-90). My average systolic pressure is 110 and my average diastolic pressure is 75, so my blood pressure is 110/75. The equipment we used to measure blood pressure was a sphygmonometer and a stethoscope. The equipment I used to measure pulse (heart rate) was my hand to measure the radial(wrist) and carotid(neck) pulse rate and the stethoscope to measure the the heart pulse on the chest. We cannot use the the thumb pulse because the thumb has its own pulse that can disturb the regular heart pulse.   A sphygmonometer can be used by tying the cuff around the upper arm and then pump the air bulb until you see on the gauge reads 150. Slowly let go of the air until it you can hear a swooch, that is your systolic pressure and then when you can hear nothing that is your diastolic pressure.

Unit 2 Health Reflection

What is health? There are five pillars of health; they are nutrition, the nutrients needed to support growth and energy needs: exercise, using body to give energy and stave off disease: sleep, rest and restore body: stress, managing constant changes to body and mind: and social, the way we interact within our environment. On a scale of one to ten, one being the worst and ten being the best, I would rate myself a seven and the rest of SHS the same, a seven. Yes, we are able to wake up each morning and carry on with school and turn in our assignments but most of us are unable to fully concentrate during class, and that is because most of us don't get enough sleep (one of the pillars of health), a common problem among teenagers. One way to promote greater health and wellness on campus would be to encourage students to get more sleep. Students should not be awake at three in the night and they should get to sleep by twelve the latest. But unfortunately this is easier said then done because of the large workload many students at SHS have.
One of the major essential understandings of this unit is that hormones like insulin, leptin, glucagon, and cortisol are chemicals messengers that help regulate body mechanisms, maintain homeostasis and thus keeping one healthy. The six classes of nutrients include carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, vitamins, minerals, and water. The amount of nutrients we need varies based on age, sex, body type, activity level, and health status. Regular physical activity reduces risks of many adverse health outcomes and that if you do opt for a greater intensity workout, you can do less of it to gain the benefits. Sleep is a sensory shutdown and is immediately reversible. During sleep your body releases hormones essential for growth and development, that is why kids need more sleep, and sleep is also necessary to cope with the day's stresses. There are three stages of stress, alarm phase, resistance phase, and exhaustion phase.
Through this unit, I have learned that there are so many things I can do keep up health. For example I could choose foods rich in fiber, high in Omega-3, and much more proteins than what I am eating now. Before this unit, I hadn't known that Omega-3 is important for brain and heart health. The only type of exercise I get is Bollywood dancing that I do for only about three to four hours a week. Bollywood dancing is a form of aerobic exercise and I need to do more yoga anaerobic exercise and more muscle-strengthening workouts. Also I wouldn't hurt for me to sleep in an extra hour or two over the weekends to make up my sleep debt over the week.
I still don't understand that if the body secretion of oxytocin helps the body reduce stress, why do women release oxytocin, the adrenalin needed to push, when giving birth? Doesn't that add to the stress of physical labor?
For the next unit I will ask more questions during the lecture to build upon the information released and help me relate it to real life issues.
In the article, " A Long Night's Journey into the Day," the author describes sleep as something that is like a switch and that once you are asleep and dreaming you won't be able to realize that you are dreaming. I, along with some of my friends, have experienced lucid dreaming; we are able to realize that we are dreaming, we are sleeping and so this contradicts what the article said.

My health goals are to get more sleep and eat more protein and dairy.
Actions I will take to achieve my goals is to sleep more on the weekends and drink milk and  add beans and tofu to my diet.
My healthy life is important to me because I wish to have good health far onto my 30s and 40s. Good health means more happiness.
I will know when I reached my goals when I start gaining muscle mass and not abdominal fat and feel more alert and awake during the day.

Monday Wellness Reflection

I thought having a Monday wellness about probiotics would be something interesting and new for the class students because we would have them taste homemade yogurt. I was inspired to do this idea because ever since I was young my mom used to make homemade yogurt and I found it really interesting how milk could become a solid from a liquid just by heating it. The process of heating the milk is necessary to change the protein structure in milk so it sets as a solid instead of separating. This process of heating and then gives the chance for the milk to ferment and by adding a live culture, from a previous yogurt sample, the milk will transform into yogurt, The yogurt now has new properties that include taste, texture, and scientific benefits.  I also find it fascinating that my family has been using the same ongoing culture for decades, from great-grandparents to me. We got it from India in 1998, when I was born, and that's when the India culture mixed with American milk. Because of this I feel like the culture has brought this kind of unity among my extended family, who also use the same culture. By using a small spoonful of the previous batch of yogurt and mixing it into the heated milk before it solidifies you are preserving the culture, a piece of your past.
While I was researching the probiotics, the most interesting thing I found was the some of the indirect benefits of it. I hadn't known yogurt could help in allergies and asthma. I found it cool and ironic that yogurt helps with lactose intolerance and then I found out that it helps build immunity to lactose if taken in small doses.  Learning about the benefits of yogurt is really beneficial for our class in terms of health and wellness because most students don't acknowledge probiotics as part their diet, when it is really essential to keep your digestive and excretory systems clean and healthy. A lot of students also eat junk foods, like fatty foods or preservatives, and yogurt can help cleanse all the toxins from the stomach from the bad ones. The "good" bacteria will help fight off the "bad" bacteria. I also found it interesting that most store bought yogurts do not in fact contain the active cultures homemade yogurts and even if they do they contain so many preservatives and artificial colors and sugars that it kills culture thus negating its benefits.
On the scale of 1-10, I would rate myself a 7 because our presentation did not go as I hoped. I hadn't known how hard it would be to make yogurt in class; it a difficult process that requires a lot of home utensils and things that a laboratory class does not have. Plus the making of yogurt is not specially an interactive one, a lot of it is just waiting around. It was hard to come up with other ideas for in class discussion and activities relating to probiotics. I fell like as presenters we ran out of ideas to engage the audience, but I genuinely was interested about the topic.
Through my research I also figured out that there are other types of probiotics like sauerkraut, miso soup, and even some cheeses that provide the same benefits as yogurt. I wish to try them in the future and be aware of its benefits.

I've been tracking my Calories!- My Nutrition Analysis

From September 15-17, I have started to track my food intake to see if I reach my target intake (2200 calories) of carbohydrates, vegetables, fruits, dairy, and protein with 30-60 minutes of physical exercise. To my surprise I did not meet my target from most of the food groups on any day. For Day 1, the only one that I am not under is fruits and that’s only because I had fruits for breakfast. For Day 2, I was under for each category, even though my intake was the most balanced of all the days, with an average of 50% intake for each intake. For Day 3, however I was “OK” for grains and vegetables and under 10% for the other three categories I was 37% for dairy, and under 5% for fruits and protein. Because I am a vegetarian, it was hard to keep up my protein and on Day 3 the only form of protein I had was from the hazelnuts from the Nutella I had on my bread- and we all know that nutella doesn’t really have hazelnuts. On Day 2, I had specifically go search for protein to increase my protein intake, so I digged up some old Macadamia nuts I had in the back of my pantry and even that wasn’t enough. And because I dislike regular milk and I drink almond milk instead, my dairy intake was low too - but the almond milk did increase my protein intake. To get the right amount of fruits without increasing any other category, I had to substitute a grainy snack for plain fruits.

There are multiple ways that I can improve my died. I could eat a more mixed arrangement of nuts to increase my protein intake and eat a cup of yogurt each day or add cheese to my diet - but those would have to be an extra item instead of substituting it for something else. And maybe I could pack a box of fruits for snack to school, again another extra item instead of substituting. I think my vegetables and grains are on the right track and I get enough of those because I eat a lot of those for dinner, as I mentioned in my previous blog post about health.

I think I made smart decisions at the Falcon Market activity for example I choose to drink tea instead of coffee which significantly reduces my fat and sugar calories. Since I don’t actually eat too much frozen foods, I need not be worried about all the consequences of frozen food because fresh food is much healthier. My mom shops at the local farmer’s market every Saturday so half of our vegetable and fruit produce at home is organic and seasonal. My glycemic index is intermediate, which is good because a high GI meal will increase blood sugar.  My BMI of 18.88 is also in the normal percentile, but what BMI neglects is the amount of muscle fat a person has. I also don’t consume too much of preserved snacks and if it all I do, my mom makes sure to get whatever is organic. The only major thing I have to worry about is that I have not been prioritizing protein, which I’ll try to do in the future by buying more proteins, I also don’t eat fast food other than Chipotle, which is a pretty healthy option if eaten in moderate (once a week for me).

If I had the chance to coach someone on proper health and nutrition I would not because I don’t think I hold a good example, but if I had the opportunity I would warn them to be aware of keeping up their protein, dairy, and fruit intake just like I have to. I would tell tell to reduce their intake of sugary foods, like cookies and cake and instead eat fresh seasonal foods instead.

Day 1 09/15/15-

Day 2 09/16/15-

Day 3 09/17/15-

Why is Health important to me?

Maintaining my health has probably been one of my constant battles especially within the past two years. I can attribute that to stress, one of the pillars of health. I define health as combination of mental, physical, and social well-being as well as being free of illness and disorder. Health is a dynamic condition resulting from a body's constant adjustment and adaptation in response to stresses and changes in the environment for maintaining an inner equilibrium called homeostasis. The five pillars of health are nutrition, exercise, sleep, stress, and social happiness. The hardest pillar to uphold for me would be nutrition because I tend to down carbohydrates in response to the excess stress and lack of sleep especially in junior year. Because of I have severe and immediate allergies to heat, pollen, and dust and must take a lot of medication for it, my body feels constantly exhausted. This has taken a negative effect on my exercise regiment. I have been Bollywood dancing since elementary but had to quit last year because I was so fatigued from dancing and allergies that I couldn't focus on school work. But despite all the setbacks, this year I have started dancing again and I hope that will keep my fitness high because it is a very cardio active sport. Because of my mom and all the well balanced meals she cooks for me, my nutrition is also not that great of a problem. Even though I do eat a lot of carbohydrates my dance will allow me to burn them.

The Five Pillars of Health

 

Types of Tissue- Under the Microscope

Histology is the study of tissues and to learn more about the subject in class we did a exploratory lab, by examining various tissue types under a microscope. The four types of tissues are epithelial, connective, muscle, and nervous. We studies three types of epithelial tissues, tissues that cover a body surface or lines a body cavity  (organs). Some characteristics that help define epithelial tissues are continuous sheets, avascular, basal lamina and be classified by their shape and layers; simple, stratified, pseudostratified, squamous, cubodial, and columnar. Connective tissue, cells that fill the spaces between organs and tissues, and provides structural and metabolic support for other tissues and organs, can be broken down into two branches; proper and specialized. Under the microscope, it was easy to determine dense regular/irregular, loose adipose, bone, blood, and cartilage knowing the characteristics of each type of connective cells, like for example adipose cells are big and white because of their large vacuoles used to store fat. There are types of muscle tissue, skeletal, cardiac, and smooth and each was easy to determine because of their characteristics, like for example smooth cells are elliptical in shape and non-striated. Because of their dendrites, axons, and large nuclei, nervous tissue is also easy to determine.

Unit 1 Reflection

This unit was mainly about histology,the study of tissues, and an overall general introduction into anatomy and physiology. This included topics such as how to use to use anatomical terms to precisely describe the location of features in an organism, an introduction to homeostasis and the systems of the human body,the hierarchy from atom to biosphere, the four biological macromolecules, and a breif overview of the structure and functions of the organelles in a cell.
One essential question of this unit was how does the structure of a tissue- or anything- relate to it's physiology. There are different ways to classify epithelial cells depending on their structure (simple/ stratified/ squamous/ cubodial/ columnar) they have different structures. For example pseudostratified columnar cells are good at maximizing diffusion.
In general one can say form fits function when relating anatomy to physiology.
I had known that cells make up tissues and that there are different types of tissue ( I recall that from freshman biology and APBiology) but through this unit I learned that there are four types of tissues epithelial, connective, muscle, and nervous. I hadn't even know about the various classifications of epithelial tissues until this unit.
But I still don't full understand how I can determine what type of epithelial tissue it is given a microscope sample. I hard to differentiate between cubodial and squamous and when it is stratified or pseudostratified. It seems simple in drawings but once you look at the real thing it is kind of confusing. The Quizlet terms were hard to differentiate and I was only able to figure out my memorizing the color of the dyes. For the next unit I will ask the teacher if I am confused about an issue before the test.
In a real world application I think knowing the anatomical terms would be beneficial to become a surgeon (the type of doctor I want to be). As a surgeon, one would need to know how to cut a human body using terms like midsagital, transverse, frontal, and/or oblique. I have heard surgeons in the show "Grey's Anatomy" use terms like that.