Monday Wellness Reflection

We choose CrossFit as our topic for the Monday Wellness presentation because we both really enjoyed the CrossFit workouts in our P.E. class. While preparing for the project, I was surprised at how many workouts there really are and the health benefits of CrossFit. The topic is important for health and wellness because CrossFit helps to improve on an athlete's intensity, motivation, efficiency, and heart health. In addition, CrossFit helps build relationships and increases joint mobility.

I would probably grade myself a 6 out of 10 because as a group we were really uncoordinated and our activity was poorly planned. We should have a more group dynamic activity in which we would go through at least 2 other workouts and have a more defined tutorial.

I was actually surprised at how CrossFit is incorporated into athletes' workouts and even the US military workout. If I do need to exercise in a short amount of time at high intensity, I would use CrossFit because CrossFit has many more benefits than I thought it would have.

Our link to the presentation on CrossFit is https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1AWfvqZXcCQ4BJcPFZ089AUb5cEwVUycWvtihVHqKJVc/edit?usp=sharing

Sheep Heart Dissection Video Tutorial

Jennifer Poo- Sheep Heart Dissection ft. Simrun Buttar & Kelly Hsu

Jennifer Poo- Sheep Heart Dissection EC ft. Simrun Buttar & Kelly Hsu

Sheep Heart Dissection

1. The purpose of the pericardium fixes the heart to the mediastinum, gives protection against infection, and provides the lubrication for the heart.

2. Veins have thinner walls than arteries and are one way valves. Arteries, on the other hand, are elastic, meaning that they expand when the heart contracts and recoils when the heart relaxes. In addition, arteries are contractile, meaning that the smooth muscle tissues cause vasodilation or vasoconstriction.

3. The function of the auricle resembles an ear that is part of the heart and serves as extra volume for the heart.

4. The walls of the ventricles are thicker than those of the atria. The atria are the upper chambers of the heart and the ventricles are the lower chambers of the heart.

6.
 

7. The ¨anchoring¨ of the heart valves by the chordae tendineae and the papillary muscle is important to heart function because 

8. The chordae tendineae connects the papillary muscles to the tricuspid valve, which is shown in question 6.

9. The function of the semi-lunar valves is to prevent backflow of blood from the arteries to the ventricles during ventricular diastole, and to help maintain pressure on the major arteries.

10a. The valve disease´s occuring on the right side of the heart might result in the swelling of the feet and ankles because blood on the right side of the heart comes from the inferior vena cava, the lower part of the body.

10b. If the valve disease occurs on the left side of the heart, the brain and the upper part of the body might be affected by this disease because blood on the left side of the body comes from the superior vena cava, the upper part of the body.

11.


12. The left and right sides of the heart differ from each other because there are four hollow chambers in the heart. There are two chambers on the left side- the left atria and the left ventricle- and two chambers on the right side- the right atria and the right ventricle. The right atria is upper chamber, receiving oxygen deprived blood. The right ventricle, a lower chamber, discharges blood. The left atria, the upper chamber, receives oxygen rich blood. The left ventricle, the lower chamber, is the thickest wall.

13.

Unit 3 Reflection

• Cardiovascular health is the factors needed to maintain a healthy heart. It includes exercising, maintaining a healthy weight &  diet, controlling blood pressure & cholesterol, preventing atherosclerosis, not smoking, minimizing stress, controlling stress, and laughing.
• Heart disease is caused when the blood supply to the myocardium severely reduced or stopped, resulting in damage to heart cells or death of heart cells. Due to heart disease, one or more coronary arteries is blocked usually from atherosclerosis and detrimental effects ensue. Such effects include myocardial ischemia, fibrillation, cardiac arrest, and the death of the myocardium. 
• Stroke occurs when the blood supply to the heart is interrupted. Stroke is often referred to as the "brain attack" or the CVA (cerebrovascular accident).
• The cardiovascular system delivers nutrients and oxygen to all systems in the body. The arteries carry blood away from the heart; the veins carry blood to the heart. Blood enters the right atrium from the inferior and superior vena cava. It passes through the tricuspid valve and enters the right ventricle. Then, it passes through the semilunar valve to the pulmonary trunk to the pulmonary arteries and out to the lungs. the lungs exchange carbon dioxide for oxygen. After entering the lungs, the pulmonary veins return the blood to the heart through the left atrium. It passes through the biscuspid valve and enters the left ventricle. Then, it passes through the aortic semilunar valve into the aorta and out to the body.

Below is the video of my group's heart chalk walk.

After this unit, I wonder about the life stories of those who had the cardiovascular diseases- their struggles and their recovery from the diseases. Those real life stories would help me better understand the impact these diseases have on people's lives.

My strengths are understanding the cardiovascular diseases, but I still have trouble on understanding the cardiovascular system.

I believe that I am handling my Unit 2 goals quite well. I have an overall healthy diet and exercise vigorously for at least three times a week. My goals for the rest of the semester are to continue achieving these goals.

Healthy Snacking

The apple and almond nut butter combination which I created was enrich in nutrients, such as protein and various of vitamins.

This is an apple and almond butter combination.

1. I snack often during the tennis season, which occurs mostly during the fall. However, in other times during the year, I do not typically snack on foods.
2. Typically, a healthy snack is enriched in nutrients and less than 200 calories.
3. Snacks you should stay away from are foods that are pigmented and have a lot of artificial flavoring.

I liked that this activity focused on the benefits of eating and provided a healthy snack at the end of the lecture. Their presentation was very sharp and created a unique snack that I have never had before.

Blood Pressure Lab

1. Test 1 of my blood pressure was 105/60- the systolic pressure being 105 and the diastolic pressure being 60. Test 2 of my blood pressure was 100/60- the systolic pressure being 100 and the diastolic pressure being 60.
2. To measure the heart rate, a stethoscope is used.
    To measure the blood, a sphygmomanometer  is used.
3. You should not use your thumb to measure your pulse because you might be accidently measuring your thumb's pulse.
4. A sphygmomanometer  is an instrument that measures blood pressure, consisting of an inflatable cuff applied to the arm to measure the systolic and diastolic blood pressure.

This is a diagram showing how to measure the blood pressure.

Unit 2 Reflection

Health is the measure of our body's efficiency and over-all well-being.

Typically, I eat substance from each food category, but I feel that I should focus on eating more fruits & vegetables. At SHS, however, there are many instances in which I see students eating Cup O Noddles and drinking pearl milk tea. There are others who eat salads and fruits during lunch, but the majority of students eat unhealthy foods. The tendency, for the most part, is that students eat only what tastes "good," instead of what the body needs to perform well. At school, the cafeteria should offer more fruits and vegetables rather than cheaper, affordable foods, such as Cup O Noodles and cookies.

From this unit, the essential topics for this unit were health, nutrition, exercise, sleep, and stress. I learned that there were three stages of stress- the alarm phase, the resistance phase, and the exhaustion phase. Although I knew there were different levels of stress, I never knew there was a precise stage for each level of stress.

I still do not understand how the hormones- insulin, leptin, glucagon, and cortisol- play a role in keeping the body healthy. For the next unit, I want to understand difficult topics in class rather than attempting to learn the information the day right before the test.

The foods which students eat in class, Cup O Noodles, reflect the health problems that may arise in the future. Cup O Noodles has high levels of sodium and barely any nutritional value, which increases the blood pressure and can cause cardiovascular disease. Therefore, if there is a possibility not to have salt on your food, do not add salt and add another substitute of salt.

Nutrition Tracker

After monitoring my diet for three days, I learned that, for the most part, I do not eat enough fruits and vegetables. As of now, from two of the days I recorded, the percentage of fruits I ate was 0% and the percentage of vegetables I consumed was less than 50%.

Based off this information, it is imperative that I eat more healthy by adding more food to my diet, especially vegetables and fruits, because I never reached the 100% mark in any of the food groups. In addition, at least for the last two days, I exceeded the limit of consumption of  sodium. Therefore, I need to cut down on my sodium intake by consuming foods with low sodium, such as vegetables and fruits.

Day 1 of using SuperTracker.

Day 2 of using SuperTracker.

Day 3 of using SuperTracker.

If I had the opportunity to coach someone on proper health and nutrition, I would advise that person to balance his or her diet by eating all foods in the five food groups. Carbohydrates and protein are typically common in people's diets, so I would coach him or her to focus eating more foods in the dairy, vegetables, and fruits food groups.

Health

Overall, I believe that I have good nutrition and exercise; however, I lack on sleeping, have a lot of stress, and do not interact well with the environment. I typically sleep 6 hours a day and deal with a lot of stress.

Unit 1 Reflection

This unit was an introduction to anatomy & physiology. The themes and essential understandings were histology, biological molecules, and organs in the human body. In this unit, I learned that tendons are connective tissue and that polysaccharides tasted terrible.

I still did not understand how to differentiate some of the tissues. In the next unit, I will focus on understanding more of the details and diagrams in the passage.

A real world application is working as a doctor. As a doctor, the doctor can identify where the injury is accurately.

The DNA model represents one aspect of
what I learned this unit.
PICTURE TAKEN BY: Kelly Hsu

The skeleton wearing a red baseball cap
is an example of how its anatomy relates to
this unit.
PICTURE TAKEN BY: Kelly Hsu

Josh Billings's quote, "Science is the Literature of Truth," demonstrates the daily quotes that students learn each day.
PICTURE TAKEN BY: Kelly Hsu

Tissue Observations

When people think of the word "tissue," they generally think of the thin, soft paper which people blow or wipe their buggers on. However, that definition of tissue is not the term I want to talk about. Tissues, in the eyes of biologists and the scientific community, are made of many cells and split into four basic types of tissues- epithelial, connective, muscular, and nervous. Each of those tissues has a particular purpose in the human body.

This epithelial tissue has continous sheets, as shown above.
Courtesy of University of Tasmania School of Medicine.

Epithelial tissue covers a body surface or lines a body cavity. I want to focus on one aspect of the epithelial tissue- the continuous sheets. In each sample I have viewed, I have noticed the continuous sheets of the epithelial tissue, which is immensely different from the striations of muscle tissue or the fibers in connective tissue. To the left is an example of the epithelial tissue, courtesy of University of Tasmania School of Medicine.

Connective tissue is the most abundant and diverse abundant tissue, composing of three common properties- cells, extracellular fibers, and fluid. What I found most distinctive after viewing the samples was how many of the cells were represented as round circles when viewed on the microscope. Below is a picture of the connective tissue, courtesy of Kent Simmons.

Muscular tissue are composed of several different types- stratified or skeletal muscles, visceral or smooth muscles, and cardiac muscles. I found the human cardiac muscle the most interesting muscular muscle because they are stratified, extensively branched, and uninucleate. Below is a picture of the human cardiac muscle, courtesy of UC San Diego School of Medicine.

Nervous tissue consists of neurons. These neurons are made of three parts- cell body, one or more dendrites, and a single axon. Below is a picture of nervous tissue, courtesy of Austin CC.

References
"Transitional Cell Carcinoma of the Bladder." School of Medicine Disciplence of Pathology UTAS. Web. 06 September 2015.
Connective Tissue. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Sept. 2015. 
"Slides 43, 44, and 45-Human Cardiac Muscle." Slides 43, 44, and 45-Human Cardiac Muscle. Web. 06 Sept. 2015.
"Nervous Tissue." Nervous Tissue. Web. 06 Sept. 2015.

What are nerve cells?

According to Eric H. Chudler, Ph.D., nerve cells, otherwise known as neurons, carry messages through an electrochemical process. Nerve cells range in size, some of which have cell bodies that are only 4 micorns wide and others which have 100 microns wide! They are generally located in the nerve tissue, which is located in the nervous system.

Nerve cells, according to the National Cancer Institute, consist of three basic parts: cell body, one or more dendrites, and a single axon. The cell body is similar to other cells, in which it has a nucleus with at least one nucleolus and many cytoplasmic organelles. Dendrites, sometimes referred as fibers, increase their surface area to receive signals from other neurons. Axons are surrounded by myelin, which is made of fibers that make gray matter.

visual of nerve cell
picture credits: Wikipedia

There are many different neurotransmitters, according to National Institute on Drug Abuse, each playing a precise role in the function of the brain. Generally, each neurotransmitter can only bind to a very specific matching receptor, fitting in like a key into a lock.


References
"Neuroscience For Kids." - Cells of the Nervous System. Web. 31 Aug. 2015.
"SEER Training Modules." SEER Training:Nerve Tissue. Web. 31 Aug. 2015.
"Nerve Cells and Neurotransmission." NIDA for Teens. Web. 31 Aug. 2015.

Excess Sweetness?

Throughout the lab, my lab partner and I tasted various samples of starches, ranging from sucrose to cellulose. From the various samples, we ranked those by their degree of sweetness and noted their color & texture. After noting all those observations, we observed that the sugars, which were least complex by having only one ring, had the highest degree of sweetness. As the sugars have more rings, the less sweet those sugars are. Also, when my lab partner and I finished tasting the sugars, we noted how some of these sugars reflect how sweet they are in other foods. For example, I remembered how fructose is included in many soft drinks, such as Kool Aid and other drinks, which provided evidence that fructose should be sweet.

One way you can view tasting sweetness is as a key being inserted into a lock. According to NPR, the sugar simulates receptor cells on the outer tips of the taste cells when a person tastes something with a high level of sugar. The receptor cells then send signals to particular centers of the central nervous system that respond to sweet.

The different sugar samples my partner and I used are presented on this paper towel.