Monday Wellness Reflection: Meditation

Initially, my partner, Kailas, and I had planned to do our Monday Wellness presentation on running as it is something that we can both relate to. We had to decide between doing running, meditation, and yoga, but we decided to go with running as it seemed like more people would relate with it. After hearing another group was doing running, we decided to switch to meditation as it was something that we could both relate more to. I have an interest in meditation because my grandfather always used to teach me different meditation techniques. We would always practice pranayama, especially nadi shodhana pranayama. When I was younger, these breathing exercises wouldn't mean much to me, but as I grew older, I would catch myself unintentionally practicing these breathing exercises when I felt stressed. We wanted to share with the class this technique of relaxation that could come in handy in stressful environments like Saratoga High School. Before preparing for this presentation, I only knew that meditation had positive effects on our bodies and reduced stress levels. I didn't know what effects it had on our bodies specifically in relation to specific bodily systems. While we were creating this presentation, I learned specifically how meditation can improve the nervous system and the immune system. It increases connections in the brain as well as stopping the decline of CD4 T-cells (which is what occurs in HIV). The thing that I found coolest was that even though many say that there is no cure for HIV/AIDS, mindfulness meditation can be seen as something that slows down the progression of this terrible disease that affects millions worldwide. Our topic relates to health and wellness because meditation has many important effects on our everyday lives. Not only does it reduce stress and cortisol levels in our brains, but it also increases connections between different parts of the brain. Meditation also changes density of grey matter in our brain: decreasing the amount of it in our amygdala (the region which controls fear, negative emotions, and sadness), and increasing in areas that correlate with learning and memory. Meditation also increases the number of antibodies in our body. Antibodies are essential to our health as they help us fight pathogens which enter our body. Meditation not only helps the different systems in our bodies, but it also helps our overall physical well-being. Meditation stimulates our parasympathetic nervous system, which helps our body return to a calm and normal state after a certain stressor has passed. Meditation can also clear your mind so you can sleep better and it slows your respiration for longer and deeper breaths. It also improves your athletic abilities. On a scale of 1-10, I would give myself a 9 because I put in a lot of effort to make this project work. Kailas and I both worked equally on the slides, and we both did as much research as we could on the topic. Overall, I believe that our project turned out extremely well, and although we could have made it longer, I believe that we have covered all of the necessary information to teach the class about the benefits of meditation.

Hypertension Lab Relate and Review

1. What factors are known to cause increases in blood pressure?

Age, lack of exercise, smoking and drinking habits increases blood pressure.

2. Use your knowledge about the heart and the circulatory system to make a

hypothesis about how the average blood pressure for a group of people would

be affected by manipulating the age and gender of the group members.

As age increases, blood pressure would increase as well. Males also seem to have higher blood pressure than females.

3. What sorts of problems might a person develop who has chronic

hypertension?

Having chronic hypertension,  can lead to heart attack, stroke, or kidney failure.

4. Analyze the result of your experiment. Explain any patterns you observed.

5. Did the result of your experiment support your hypothesis? Why or why not?

Based on your experiment what conclusion can you draw about the

relationship of age and gender to group blood pressure averages?

6. During the course of your experiment, did you obtain any blood pressure

reading that were outside of the normal range for the group being tested?

What did you notice on the medical charts for these individuals that might

explain their high reading?

7. List risk factors associated with the hypertension. Based on your observation,

which risk factor do you think is most closely associated with hypertension?

8. What effect might obesity have on blood pressure? Does obesity alone cause a

person to be at risk for high blood pressure? What other factors, in

combination with obesity, might increase a person's risk for high blood

pressure?

Sheep Heart Dissection Lab Questions

1. What is the purpose of the pericardium?
   It is the thin layer of skin which encloses the heart. It protects the heart.
2. How do arteries differ from veins in their structure?
   Arteries have thicker walls than veins.
3. What function do you think the auricle serves?
   They increase blood capacity and volume of the blood in the atrium.
4. What differences do you observe between atria and ventricles?
   Ventricles have thicker walls and take up a larger space in the heart than the atria.
5. Why is the “anchoring” of the heart valves by the chordae tendineae and the papillary muscle important to heart function?
   It makes sure there is no inversion of blood and prolapse of these valves on systole.
6. Using pictures describe what you see (chordae tendineae and papillary muscle)
   
7. What is the function of the semilunar valve?
   It stops any arterial blood from re-entering the heart.
8. a)If the valve disease occurs on the right side of the heart, it results in swelling in the feet and ankles. Why might this happen?
   The ventricles are not strong enough to pump blood back against gravity from your feet to the rest of your body.
   b) If the valve disease occurs on the left side of the heart, what complications would you expect to see?
   Not enough blood being pumped throughout the rest of the body.
9. Using pictures describe what you see.
   
10. Describe how the left and right sides of the heart differ from each other.
    The right side of the heart is deoxygenated blood while the left side has oxygenated blood.
11. Draw and label all structure visible in the interior of the cross-section.

Unit 3 Reflection

This unit was about the cardiovascular and respiratory systems. The cardiovascular system works to pump blood and nutrients throughout our body. The blood's main organs and accessory organs include the heart, the lungs, the kidneys, the small intestine, and the large intestine. The heart is the main organ which pumps blood through the rest of the body through the use of vessels (veins, arteries, and capillaries). Cardiovascular health is avoiding heart attacks, strokes, or other heart diseases. Heart disease and stroke can be caused by high blood pressure, high cholesterol, smoking, unhealthy diet, alcohol consumption, diabetes, obesity, lack of exercise, stress, or genetic history, among other factors. Heart disease and stroke can be prevented by controlling blood pressure, controlling cholesterol, stopping smoking (or not smoking in the first place), eating a healthy diet, moderating alcohol consumption, controlling diabetes, controlling weight, exercising, and managing stress. I would like to learn more about strokes as my grandaunt just experienced one this weekend. I would like to know how to take care of those who go through this experience and I would like to learn of more warning signs for it. I think my strengths were understanding the functions of different parts of the circulatory and respiratory systems. One of my weaknesses was not being able to remember the different veins and arteries which entered and exited the heart. I'm slightly following my Unit 2 health goals as I'm eating better but I'm not following my goals as I'm not sleeping as much as I should. For the remainder of the semester, I wish to do better on tests, and I wish that I get more sleep.

Pictures from sheep heart dissection:

Blood Pressure Lab

My systole was 110 and my diastole was 60. To measure the heart rate we used a stethoscope (for the heartbeat) and our first and middle fingers (for the radial and carotid pulses). To measure blood pressure, we used a sphygmomanometer (which is just a fancy and official word for a blood pressure cuff). You can't use your thumb to measure your pulse because your thumb has a pulse of it's own and may interfere with your actual pulse readings. 

To use a blood pressure cuff, find the pulse in the brachial artery near your elbow-pit. Put the cuff right above it. Make sure the valve is closed, then inflate the cuff until the pressure reads 150 mm Hg. Then slowly release the valve. Listen with your stethoscope on the brachial artery for a sharp sound (this is the systolic pressure). Then listen for when that sound disappears (the diastolic pressure). 

Data Tables:

Unit 2 Reflection

What is health?

Health is "the measure of our body's efficiency and overall well-being."

     I think that from the nutrition point of view, I am a very healthy person as I eat really healthy food most of the time. (I sneak in a Starbucks frappuccino from time to time). I need to work on the physical exercise component and the sleep component of the pillars of health. Saratoga High School is notoriously known for it's ridiculously high amounts of homework, which lead to sleep loss and students stressing out way too much. Even though I do get a lot of homework and hard tests, I try not to stress out too much. By decreasing the amount of homework that teachers give, students will be able to relax more; they will also be able to sleep more since they won't have as much work to do.
     Some essential themes from this unit included: making sure you take care of your body, understanding how hormones affect your health, and making sure that you get enough sleep and nutrients. I learned from this unit that I should be way more careful about the food that I put into my body as it is not always as healthy as it seems (Poptarts are not healthy AT ALL). Something that I did not understand was how hormones can have such a large effect on our bodies' mental and physical health. To improve for the next unit, I will begin to make flashcards for the essential vocabulary as we go through each section.

     Since approximately 40% of America suffers from mental disorders, I have attached a link to how to get over emotional pain.Click Here! This article relates to this unit because it shows us how we can achieve a more stress-free environment by dealing with our "emotional pain."
My health goals are:

1. To sleep more
2. To exercise more

Actions I will take to achieve these goals:

1. Try not to procrastinate
2. Take my dog for runs instead of walks

A healthy lifestyle is important to me because I want to be healthy when I grow older.

I will know I have reached my goals when I go running everyday and I am able to get about 8 hours of sleep every night.

What is Health?

     To me, being healthy implies being fit physically and mentally. I think I am good at maintaining a nutritional and social wellbeing, but I think I should work on exercising more, and stressing out less (which leads to sleeping more). If I can manage to fix my stress levels and exercising habits, I will greatly improve my health! I would like to learn some quick exercises that can keep my body fit, while not wasting time. This way, I will have more time to do my work (and reduce stress). Hitting two birds with one stone!

Unit 1 Reflection

Unit 1 Reflection

     Unit 1 was about the introduction to Anatomy and Physiology and histology (which is the study of tissues). We learned about the different kinds of anatomical terms used to identify locations of various parts of the body in relation to each other. The main theme of this year was that form fits function. We also learned about the form and function of four different kinds of tissues: epithelial, connective, muscle, and nervous. Epithelial tissue covers a body surface or lines body cavities. Connective tissue fills space between organs and tissues and provides structural and metabolic support for other tissues and organs. Muscle tissue is composed of myosin and actin and exists in three forms: skeletal, cardiac, and smooth muscle tissue. Nervous tissue transmit electrical signals from sensory receptors to effectors. We learned about how the different structures of tissues affected the specialization of each type of cell.
     We did a lab in which we were given the opportunity to look at different types of tissues under the microscope. This is a cross-section of a peripheral neuron.
     We also did a lab in which we learned about the different kinds of carbohydrates and how their structure affects their sweetness level. We tasted sucrose, glucose, fructose, galactose, maltose, lactose, starch, and cellulose.

     Something that I think I could work on becoming better at is recognizing different types of tissues on images from microscopes. Through practice, I think I will be able to become more efficient in recognizing them. For the next unit, I will complete the tests at the end of each chapter so I can make sure that I know all of the material.

     I want to become a neurosurgeon, so learning about these different kinds of tissue can make it easier to understand concepts in a college-level class, as I will know the fundamentals because of this class. 

Tissue Lab Relate and Review

9/3/15

Relate and Review

     Even though there are only 4 main different kinds of tissues, epithelial, connective, muscle, and nervous, there are many subcategories. Today we looked at different types of tissues in each category. The tissue slide that stood out to me was the peripheral nerve cell. This stood out to me because over the summer I took a course in cognitive neuroscience at Berkeley. We looked at samples of nerve cells there as well. The difference was that these two slides of nerve cells looked completely different. This made me understand the diversity that can exist in the different categories of tissues. Another tissue slide that was interesting was the human cardiac muscle. The branching of the cells is unique to only the cardiac muscle cells as it is used to increase the efficiency of pumping blood throughout our bodies.

Neuron

Cell Specialization: Neurons

NERVE CELLS:

• https://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/cells.html
• http://www.brainfacts.org/~/media/Brainfacts/Article%20Multimedia/About%20Neuroscience/Brain%20Facts%20book.ashx
• http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2011/10/07/the-amazing-neuron-facts-about-neurons/

     Neurons are used to transmit nerve impulses throughout the body. A neuron contains a cell body, dendrites, an axon, axon terminals, and synapses. This type of cell has the same organelles as regular eukaryotic cells. As shown in the diagram above, it has an endoplasmic reticulum, a Golgi apparatus, mitochondrion, and a nucleus. Neurons communicate through electrochemical signaling to send speedy responses to stimuli to the central nervous system so the body can elicit a response. Neurons are classified as nervous tissue. I think that neurons are the most important kind of cell in our body because they make us aware of stimuli and our surroundings. Works Cited Here

Works Cited

Cell Specialization

• "Neuroscience For Kids." Cells of the Nervous System. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Aug. 2015.

Sweetness Lab

     Today, in my Anatomy and Physiology class, I got the chance to taste eight different kinds of sugar: sucrose, glucose, fructose, galactose, maltose, lactose, starch, and cellulose. We had to rate the different sugars on a scale of 0-200 with the sucrose being used as the control baseline for rating the sweetness. The sweetest carbohydrate was glucose. It had the least amount of rings, and it had a relative sweetness of 100. Because it had the smallest number or rings (it was a monosaccharide), it had a higher sweetness. I noticed that as the number of sugar rings increases, then the sweetness level will go down. They are inversely related.
     All of the people in my group gave mostly the same ratings, but there were a couple that we had disagreed on. For monosaccharides, it is easier to taste the sweetness from it because it is easier for the taste buds to recognize the sugar. The simpler the carbohydrate structure is, the easier it would be for cells and organisms to use it.
      I had thought that the sucrose, glucose, fructose, and maltose would be sweet, while the lactose, starch, cellulose, and galactose would not be sweet. After conducting the experiment, I found that the carbohydrates with the highest sweetness was sucrose, glucose, fructose, and maltose. My hypothesis was proved correct because these four carbohydrates were all monosaccharides, meaning it would be easier to taste the sweetness.