JOURNAL ENTRY #6

In such a small amount of time human kind has invented pieces of technology and medicine that is capable of diagnosing your current health problems and potentially curing them.  Even today breakthroughs are being announced that scientists have found a way to see how long you have to live and your chances at acquiring diseases could, this is called telomere testing.  The general idea behind it is they take a sample of your blood and by judging your telomere lengths they are able to give you an approximate biological age.  However you can increase your telomeres length by exercise, eating properly and general healthiness.  The lectures and discussion both had information on telomere testing which sparked my interest because of how it works and the possible ramifications from it such as insurance companies mandating you be tested before they give you insurance.  Because technology constantly being created we are able to understand more and more about what our genetics and health in the future.  As such in this article http://kidshealth.org/parent/system/medical/genetics.html it explains that they are now able to tell what the sex of the child will be an if the fetus has or will inherit any hereditary diseases or problems.  As with the telomere testing this may cause insurance companies and others to mandate these types of tests in the future.  The thing that scares me with these is that possibly in the future everyone will have to be screened for diseases, which on one hand is a good thing but on the other information may be spread and people will know every little bit about you down to your very genes.
One thing that I learned about in this session that I will use in the future is about the new types of medicines and testing that is done.  Two such things are the telomere that was mentioned above previously and "miracle health juices" and how they actually work, because I will most likely be bringing at least one of those topics up in the near future in discussions or debates.  In my opinion the most difficult part of the course was the quizzes because I felt that sometimes some of the questions in the quiz's had two correct answers or had two extremely close answers that could be debated which was more correct. Otherwise I felt that the rest of the course was easily understood on what had to be done and how it was graded.  When looking back and reviewing my discussion grades I would have to give myself a average assessment of it because in the beginning I did not supply resources such as pictures/websites much due to inexperience however it improved towards the middle and end of the semester.

JOURNAL ENTRY #5

Although information is readily available people still neglect informing themselves on certain diseases that pose a high risk of being contracted and at the same time extremely deadly, one of these are cardiovascular diseases.  Cardiovascular diseases account for 30% of  total deaths and anyone can get one.  However they are not unavoidable, there are many ways you can strengthen your body to strengthen your immune system against these types of diseases.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/heart-disease-prevention/WO00041  is a website that I found that helps to provide information on preventing cardiovascular diseases.  Some of the methods that you can use are what some people do everyday, eat moderate amounts of healthy foods and exercise enough.  However some people do not do this and become overweight which puts strain on their body and increases their chances of contracting one of these diseases.
Another subject that we learned this module was about cancer.  Cancer is an extremely serious problem these days because at this current time the methods of removing it is not quite guaranteed and it is also dangerous.  The longer you have cancer the less likely your chances are that it can be cured through methods such as surgery and chemotherapy because as time progresses the larger it becomes.  However in the lectures one thing I found interesting was the video of dogs being trained to smell cancer that is inside of people.  I did not realize that dogs had that good of noses to the point of smelling cancer on someones breath.
One thing that I learned this semester that I will be able to use in the future is how to cite my sources more appropriately because in the beginning of the course I was not linking all the resources that I used from certain websites and it lost me some points in the early modules.  I also lacked in submitting all my discussion questions during the beginning of the semester, however I have made better attempts at correcting this throughout the class.

JOURNAL ENTRY #4

As someone who did a ton of sports during high school I went through at least 100+ hours (no joke) of lectures about how to maintain a healthy body and how to avoid and deal with physical injuries.  Most importantly when people say that they want to get "buff" or want to become an amazing runner you do not simply just go running, your body uses alot more muscles than you might know for just a simply activity.  When I go running I also do various activities to help build my core, it also helps reduce fat in those areas and it also prevents cramps since they are stronger.  As stated in the book on page 174 that if you overuse a part of your body beyond its physical limits it will cause injury, the trick to avoiding injury is to listen to your body, "Pain is a signal to stop!".  If you do get an injury it is best not to do any workouts that involve using that body part, say you injure your leg, you can still do push-ups and pull-ups and possible run on an elliptical because it doesn't put the same stress on your leg as running would.  You should also follow the RICE wellness guide featured on page 175, it is an acronym for Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation,  the basic and in my opinion the best ways to relieve yourself of an injury.
However some people are so determined to train or compete in an event they are willing to use drugs to block the pain to the area so they can perform as if they did not have the injury.  Little do they know the pain is a signal telling them something is wrong, by overusing an injury they will only make it worse and it will take longer to recover, they also run the possibility of it becomes so injured that they may run into a bigger problem such as a stress fracture.   Additionally people also use performance drugs that alter your bodies chemistry to make it perform better in certain areas, yet at the same time it can cause serious side-effects.
Quite possibly the most important part of maintaining a healthy body what goes into your body.  I eat a majority of the food stated in the lectures with an exception to the salmon because I am allergic.  The chilies, beef, black beans and carrots are typically put into my chili and I usually get my whole grain from my cereal in the morning, with an occasional banana tossed in there to spice things up.
Two words that I did not know was 'Metabolic equivalents' (MET's) and 'Physical fitness level' (PAL).  These are standards for how the body uses energy and I found it very useful because you can actually better track the amount of energy that you are burning throughout the entire day throughout all of your exercises if you also add in how much energy your body burns through its normal metabolic activities.
I believe I have improved in this course quite a bit, mostly in the referencing my sources type of way.  In the beginning part of the course I tended to forget to mention the book and get points taken off for it or I forget to reference an internet source. (In this Journal I felt it unnecessary with the amount that I knew about the subject of physical fitness)  However one area that I could/need to improve upon is remembering to finish the participation assignments on time. Besides that I have learned and used much of what i have learned in this course to help better my everyday life.

JOURNAL ENTRY #3

With how widespread and accessible information is these days one should be knowledgeable with how to treat their body, however many people do not realize just how much they are hurting their body when they stop by a fast food restaurant everyday for breakfast on their way to work.  Obesity is becoming a huge problem these days because many people are making it a lifestyle to eat extremely unhealthy foods and not exercising enough.

http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/health_advice/facts/loseweight.htm is a neat website that i found that covers a'lot of material for people that are looking to improve their diet or lose weight.  It gives tips on how to gradually decrease your diet and gives examples of problems that can be caused if you stay overweight.  

In my case I have a body type of a apple and I can change my diet by taking in less calories and doing strength workouts in that area to decrease fat to muscle ratio in the area.

My participation in the discussions has remained roughly the same, though I didn't check it for about a week because I was out on Spring break during the time.  However I put in the same amount of effort that I did during the previous week. I will keep citing sources and referencing the book for help when i run into something that I don't know during the discussions to keep my discussion grades at the level they are currently at.

A storage form of fat in the body is known as Trilyceride (Storage form of fat) and it is an important factor for your heart health and is good to keep your Trilycerides count low.

I always wondered how some packaged foods got certain tastes and distinct colors and it turns out it is due to something called Artificial fats. (chemicals added to packaged foods to provide the taste and texture of fat but few or no calories)

JOURNAL ENTRY #2

Life can be difficult, one of the most difficult points in our lives that can push us to our limits is college.  Many people go into college unprepared for how to deal with a new lifestyle, this can be very overwhelming to some people to the point were they simply drop out of college.  College can create a'lot of stress because of the seemingly overwhelming amount of work and other personal or social problems that may arise.  I cope with the stress mostly through time management and having a clear state of mind,  when I receive work I usually put it on a to-do list,  which I do a bit at a time.  So far it has served me well in college, in addition to that being very optimistic and cheerful helps me keep away from becoming upset when i can't seem to solve a problem with projects or other large assignments.  When I run into a problem i can't solve instead of getting upset I simply set back and take a few minutes to relax and clear my head,  it works almost all the time.  So through this I believe I have a healthy state of mind that is very good at coping with a college lifestyle.
We also discussed in these chapters about mental illnesses, one of the illnesses I was reading about on pg.77 was Bipolar disorder.  I actually found it quite interesting to read about and took a little bit of time to research it myself because my friends mother recently got married to someone and it turns out that he was actually Bipolar, it was actually frightening to see him have an "episode" where he started literally breaking things in the house for no apparent reason. (http://www.webmd.com/bipolar-disorder/default.htm)

I feel that I improved from the last module because of the feedback you were providing us, it gave me insight in how I could improve my responses for the coming module. The only thing I think I can improve upon is citing resources, which I am attempting to improve upon.

JOURNAL ENTRY #1

Being a college student can be very stressful, especially when you add in a job and working on the side to start-up a business.  It can sometimes be overwhelming to the point of where you want to just give up, however stress can be dealt with methods that I have learned over the years and in this class.  One of the best methods that I have found to be useful is meditation, it has worked wonders when you are feeling over-stressed and just have to relax.  By clearing your mind and relaxing your body you get to a point of feeling at peace with the world and it feels like all your problems are gone.  http://tinyurl.com/6nohht8

At times we can be so overwhelmed with work and problems that we just don't have time to eat right, exercise and get a good night sleep.  By not doing all of these we are hurting our bodies and mind more than you might think,  however I try my best to at least run a few miles every other day and to eat appropriately.  I have been slacking though the past few weeks due to time constraints and being so overloaded with work that I couldn't get a good breakfast or run in, but I try to make time. 

Unfortunately I do not think did the best that I could this module, mostly because I have had so much work to do outside of school.  I have started a Computer Engineering business with my friends and having a job in addition to that has been leaving me with very little time for anything else.   However I will be managing my time better and dedicating a period each day to read and review the material for each module.  And yes,  the comments that you provided have helped show me any mistakes that I have made so I can fix and improve upon them for the next module.

Psychosomatic Illnesses, Biofeedback and Somatization Disorder are three vocab words that I did not know prior to completing content in this learning module.  I learned several things from these definitions, they show how the body and mind are both interconnected and if one is influenced by stress or illness then the other is also in danger.  For example someone is under a great deal of stress then the mind will grow weak and because of this they may feel physically fatigued or ill.

http://tinyurl.com/3jyjlqe