Unit 3 Reflection

This unit was about the heart, circulatory system, and our cardiovascular system. Our cardiovascular system delivers oxygen and nutrients to our entire body through a long process. The arteries in oir heart carry the blood to the body while the veins bring the blood back into the heart. Carbon dioxide is everts ally released from the blood. Cardiovascular health include problems that affect your heart and blood vessels. Heart diseases are caused by the buildup of plaque on your artery walls, commonly called atherosclerosis. Similarly, a stroke is caused by a blocked artery. Ways to promote cardiovascular health are dieting, exercising, and keeping your stress level low. I would like to learn more about how other organs in our body work and other uncommon ways to keep our body healthy. Some setbacks in this chapter was the heart process. It was a little confusing and hard to process and memorize.

Hypertension Lab

From http://www.mhhe.com/biosci/genbio/virtual_labs_2K8/labs/BL_14/

Follow the virtual lab procedure, and answer the questions below.  Answer in complete sentences. Please leave spaces between questions and your answers.

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

Increases in blood pressure can be caused by stress, eating and exercise habits, and alcohol consumption.

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.

The majority of the people between the ages of 11-17 have a low or average blood pressure. As they get older, their blood pressure increases significantly. The age range of people 45-54 have a blood pressure that goes beyond then their average. The average blood pressure of women also have significantly lower chances of high blood pressure than males.

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

A person who has chronic hypertension may have obesity and weight problems and does not exercise as much as they should.

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

I noticed that the males generally have a significantly higher blood pressure than the women do. People that are older also have a higher blood pressure than people of the ages 11-17.

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?

This result did support my hypothesis because i knew the older males would have a higher blood pressure than the younger males and females.

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?

I noticed that the people that smoked and do not exercise have a higher blood pressure than those that do. A lot of the patient’s blood pressure was out of range and abnormal compared to the others.

7. List risk factors associated with the hypertension. Based on your observation, which risk factor do you think is most closely associated with hypertension?

Smoking, weight, exercise, diet, daily habits, and stress are risk factors associated with the hypertension. I think stress is the 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?

Obesity can raise your blood pressure and lead to diabetes. Obesity alone can cause a person to be at risk for high blood pressure. Stress can lead to high blood pressure along with exercise.

Monday Wellness: Snacks

The snacks we just ate were healthy because they were high in proteins, vitamins, and fiber. I normally snack twice a day. A healthy snack for me would be considered to be fruits, but other healthy snacks are peanut butter, fish, and avocados. Some snacks to stay away from are chips, or any other snacks that are over 200 calories and are high in fats. I liked the activity because it was very interesting and very fun. Even though the activity was very entertaining, i felt that the presentation setup was a little distracting so i did not catch some of the information. Overall, i thought the presentation and activities were very fun and captivating!

Unit 2 Reflection

Health is your physical and mental well being. I think that i am overall healthy, but the majority of people at Saratoga may not be healthy due to their amount of stress. Stress is really bad for our health because it increases our blood pressure, causes skin problems, headaches, and many other symptoms that are very bad. Stress can lead to a craving for food, which can cause obesity and weight problems. Students can limit their stress by doing their homework earlier or having a good schedule. The essential themes in this unit are the pillars of health which are nutrition, exercise, sleep, stress, and social. All these factors play an important role in our life and in our health. Some things i learned is that sleep is very important. I hear many people complain that they don't get enough sleep due to the stress at school and i now know that this is very unhealthy. I also learned that getting a good and certain amount of exercise every day is very important and it can actually help you remember things and focus better. In the next unit, i will improve by taking more notes and focusing better during the lectures. I will also try to do a little extra research when i get home to learn more about each topic that we learn in class. In my life, i deal with a significant amount of stress, whether it is worrying about my future or just my grades in school. I learned this is very unhealthy and i should do something to fix this.

Nutrition Analysis

I thought the result of my food tracking was overall pretty well. I realized that the amount of calories i ate a day were very little. During the food market activity, i learned that many of the foods were out in servings, so reading the calories straight off the bag was not for the whole bag, but rather just a portion. I also learned that calories are not the only thing you should look at. Just because something is a lot of calories, does not mean it is always unhealthy. You should always look at how much sugar, protein, and fats are in the portion. I could improve my diet by eating more dairy and less fruit. I found out that one day, i went over my fruit portion. I also needed a lot more grains. If i had an opportunity to coach someone on proper health and nutrition, I would tell them that eating a certain amount of food is important and that calories are not always unhealthy. I would also suggest to look at the amount of protein and sugar is on a food before eating it. My advice overall would to always keep track of how much food you are consuming because eating to little is just as unhealthy as eating too much.

Adrienne Nguyen, September 16, 2015

I think health is your physical and mental being, whether it is healthy or unhealthy. Your daily activity, eating habits, and stress amount all contribute to your health. I think the pilar that i am strongest at is my eating habits and my weakest pilar is the sleep portion. In regards to health, i would like to learn more about calories and if all calories are unhealthy to your health.

Unit 1 Reflection

This unit was about different anatomical terms, he difference between anatomy and physiology, biological molecules, and the histology of different muscles and tissues.

Some themes and essential understandings were the presence of the different macromolecules and how their locations affect the way a cell acts and its corresponding tissue. The function of the tissue is directly related to its structure.
I learned about the monomers of each macromolecule. The building block for carbohydrates is sugar, the building blocks for proteins are amino acids, the building blocks for lipids are fatty acids, and the building blocks for nucleic acids are nucleotides. I also learned that the human body is organized on six levels: the chemical level, the cellular level, the tissue level, the organ level, the system level, and the organismal level, which all have a different function.
Something that i do not fully understand are the difference between cuboidal and squamous and how to define which is which when given a picture. I am also not clear on the difference between cardiac and smooth muscle tissues.
Next unit, i am going to try to take more notes and try to understand the concepts that i do not fully comprehend better.
In the future, many of these concepts will be helpful depending on the career you choose. Personal trainers, for example, need to understand the body and how it works, so knowing the different terms to describe the body is very important. Most jobs that involve the anatomy of the body will find this unit very helpful.

Histology Lab

In this lab, we looked at different cells under a microscope and and looked for the tissue types and drew them. There were many cool cells, such as the human lung and the human aorta. Some tissue types were clearer than others and some looked more complex than others. From the posters we looked at, I learned that bone tissues were composed of several osteons surrounded by lameile. In the epithelium slide (picture below), i learned that epithelial tissues cover a body surface or lines a body cavity. I saw in the human nerve that there were many nerve fibers and axons and learned that nervous tissues are composed of a central axon surrounded by wrappings of Schwann cells.

White Blood Cells

White blood cells, also known as leukocytes, help protect your body from diseases, illness, and infections. They constantly roam your body fighting viruses, bacteria, and anything else that can be dangerous to your health. Because most white blood cells have a life span of only one to three days, they are constantly being produced in your bone marrow. There are five types of white blood cells: monocytes, lymphocytes, neutrophils, basophils, and eosinophils. Monocytes help break down bacteria. Lymphocytes create antibodies to fight bacteria and viruses. Neutrophils kill and digest bacteria. Basophils create chemicals that help control your body's immune response. Lastly, eosinophils help with allergic responses, and kills cancer cells. Each type has a different function, but all do what it takes to keep your body healthy. White blood cells are classified as connective tisssues because they have a matrix. They have a nuclei, but does not have hemoglobin.

Work cited: "Healthcare-Online." Low White Blood Cell Count. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Aug. 2015.

Work Cited: "Blood Cells." Blood Cells. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Aug. 2015.

Sweet Lab

During this lab, we tasted eight different carbohydrates and tested the sweetness of each of them. The eight carbohydrates that we tried were sucrose, glucose, fructose, galactose, maltose, lactose, starch, and cellulose.
We concluded that the polysaccharides were the ones that tasted the least sweet, while the disaccharides were the sweetest. According to NPR , we sense sweet when the object, such as sugar, reaches our taste buds, which contains over 100 cells. When the receptor protein and sugar reach each other, it simulates the sweet taste cell that sends signals to the brain and responds to the sweetness, which is the taste.
I thought that the starch, was very bland, which explains why many people don't like vegetables. Because starch is found in many cell walls in plants, it proves that many vegetables are not sweet and are generally bland. In my opinion, i thought the sweetest carbohydrate was fructose. I then realized that many fruits, foods, and drinks have fructose in them. Fructose is commonly added to foods and drinks for patability and taste enhancements, which explains why many people prefer fruits over vegetables.