Wellness Day Reflection

Wellness Day Reflection 

 https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1zQ40pJ2LSs6-f3ZJsG17z72bPv1vbrM2W61ee8Fz040/edit?usp=sharing

We decided to choose this topic because most people chose activities that were related to exercise or movement within the body. But little do we know about the connection between stress and eating. It is surprising that we go on with our everyday lives eating food because we are hungry or bored. But little do we know that our body changes its' preference of food just because we are in a stressful situation. We relate junk food to dopamine in times of stress and that is really shocking how our body makes that connection. So our body keeps expecting us to eat unhealthy foods so that we wouldn't feel as stressed. Also, foods high in sugar also dampen our stress response so it is a never ending cycle between food and stress. A problem with emotional eating is that never ends unless you tackle your emotions and how it triggers your actions to reach for unhealthy options. I have heard of mindful eating before, not the exacts words but what it is. It is so important that we treat our bodies well and eating is just part of it. Being present when eating foods like actually taking time to buy groceries, prep and cook food, sitting down and bringing all the senses to the meal is just part of it. I know that so many people sit down at the table with some sort of technology in front of them and that causes them to eat mindlessly and actually leaves them to overeat. The most important idea to remember is be present with out food. Fast food is becoming more and more popular and so many people are missing out on how food is actually made. Many people mindlessly eat these things without thinking about the consequences and this just causes more trouble. 

This topic is very important for health and wellness because our body will constantly be experiencing throughout our whole life and we need to learn how to treat out bodies well during those moments. Emotional eating during a stressful moment may be a reason that so many Americans can't lose weight. We are so drawn to foods high in carbs, sugars, and fats especially as a reward. But our body basically becomes so accustomed to the junk foods that we keep going back to it whenever we are stressed so we can ignore the stress. There are definitely other ways to tackle stress and it shouldn't be covered by eating foods that make your brain feel good. 

On a scale of 1-10 I think I would grade myself a 9.5 because I am fairly interested into the topic of nutrition and food and this wellness day allowed me to explore more about food. My partner and I did a fair share of work and we were able to discover a lot of new information and inform our classmates about something they probably didn't know before. However, during the actual activity in the presentation we should have went through the motions of mindful eating. I think that would have summed up the whole presentation by showing how it is done and would allow people to experience it. 

After this wellness day, it has allowed me to rethink my eating habits. When I am stressed, I shouldn't just mindlessly snack on something because I want to dampen the stress. But rather I should rethink my strategies as to how I got to being so stressed in the first place. 

Unit 4 Reflection

This unit focused mainly on the Integumentary System and how our body defends itself. It starts off with the skin and goes all the way to tiny microscopic cells. We may just view our skin as the only external factor to defend ourselves but we can't forget about sweat, oil gland, hair and our nails. They all protect our bodies from mechanical, chemical, thermal & bacterial damage. We have three layers in our skin, epidermis, dermis, and hypodermis. The epidermis contains melanin for our skin color continually sheds throughout our lives. The dermis is the deeper layer and contains collagen and elastic fibers. These help keep our skin tough and elastic. Within the dermis, we have two layers, the papillary and reticular. The papillary layer is at the top of the dermal layer and gives us our fingerprints. The reticular layer is the deepest skin layer and contains blood vessels, sweat and oil glands, and deep pressure receptors. The deepest layer is the hypodermis and is also known as the subcutaneous tissue. It is not part of the skin and is made of adipose tissue. It serves as an anchor for our skin and absorbs shock and insulates. 

The appendages of skin include the cutaneous glands, hair & nails. The cutaneous glands include sebaceous, sudoriferous and ceruminous. The sebaceous gland produces sebum that kills bacteria, prevents hair from becoming brittle and keeps skin nice and moist. The sudoriferous gland has two types of sweat glands, eccrine and apocrine. Eccrine produces sweat for thermoregulation and apocrine inhibits bacterial growth. The ceruminous gland is found in our ear and secrets cerumen for protection. Hair helps us by preventing heat loss and is the reason why we get goose bumps. They also help trap foreign particles in our noses, eyes, and ears. Nails are mostly made of keratin and help us grasp items and serve to protect. 

We also learned about damage to our skin like burns and skin cancer. Burns severely damage or tissue and cells and is rather deadly. Skin cancer is when there is an overexposure to UV radiation and could potentially be prevented. 

There are two forms of immune resistance in our body. The non-specific resistance is present at birth and effective against a broad range of pathogens. The mechanical methods include the skin, mucous membranes, epiglottis, urine flow, vomiting, tears, and saliva. The chemical methods include sebum, perspiration, lysozyme, gastric juice and vaginal secretions. There are also anti-microbial substances. Interferons inhibit viral replications and are expensive to make. Complement are a group of proteins found in plasma that attract phagocytes to the site of inflammation. Natural killer cells cause apoptosis and are WBS that can kill viruses and cancer cells. Phagocytes attach to invaders and include macrophages, neutrophils, eosinophils, basophils, and monocytes. The anti-microbial processes include inflammation and fever. Inflammation is triggered by stress due to tissue damage. It helps prevent the spread of pathogens, get rid of them and promotes tissue repair. The three stages of inflammation are vasodilation and increased permeability of blood vessels, phagocyte migration, and repair. Fever inhibits microbial growth by reducing the availability of iron and zinc and stimulates the production of WBC. The specific resistance (adaptive immunity) is effective against a single pathogen. There are four general properties, specific, versatility, memory, and tolerance. Specific only targets a single invader, versatility can be changed to fight almost any invader, memory can remember antigen, and tolerance recognizes our own tissues. There are four types of immunity and they acquired in different ways. Naturally Acquired Active Immunity is our body producing antibodies as we live our everyday lives. Naturally Acquired Passive Immunity is the transfer of antibodies from immunized donor to non-immunized recipient. Artificially Acquired Active Immunity is acquired through vaccination. Artificially Acquire Passive Immunity comes from an injection of antibodies from outside source. Cell-Mediated Immunity is when invaders are attacked directly by cells and are T-cell driven. Antibody-mediated immunity is when invaders are destroyed by antibodies and are B-cell driven. There are three different types of T Cells. The Helper T Cells stimulate other immune cells to fight the invader and is essential for coordinated specific immune response. The cytotoxic T Cells attack the invader directly. The Memory T Cells are swift to respond to a second attack and can remember an antigen. There are five different actions that the antibodies go through, neutralization, immobilization, agglutination, activation of complement, attention of phagocytes and phagocytosis enhancement. 

Leukemia

Cancer is when there is uncontrolled growth of body cells. Tumors are masses of extra tissue and can either be benign or malignant. A biopsy is required to diagnose a tumor. Tumors survive through angiogenesis where new blood vessels form around it. Metastasis is the spread of cancer is the most advanced stage in progression of cancer. Lymphoma is cancer of the lymphatic cells and leukemia is cancer of the blood cells.The treatment of cancer include surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy but it really depends on the person. 

Learning about the different cells within out body and how they provide immunity was pretty hard to understand. That is because it is more detailed but it fascinates me that such microscopic object play such an important role. Without out integumentary system, out body would be weak and could fail us. From the debate, I learned about many ethical issues that is still very controversial in our world. CRISPR is upcoming and could potentially impact the future generations of our world and that comes with pros and cons. 

From the VARK Questionnaire, I got 12 for Visual, 10 for Aural, 9 for Read/Write, and 6 for Kinesthetic. I didn't realize that I am multimodial learner and require many different ways to study. I do know that drawing diagrams does help with my studying. So, for science tests in general, I typically have pictures or draw diagrams. I also like to write facts down, have people explain a concept to me or just say a concept over and over again until it sticks. But, I can also explore different options but it just depends on what subject I am studying for.