"A Woman Perpetually Falling..." Relate and Review

In "A Woman Perpetually Falling", we meet Cheryl, a woman who was born without a vestibular system that controls balance. It allows us to have a sense of orientation by taking in sensory information from the eyes, ears and touch. She was unable to stand freely, until a doctor was willing to work with her. Through practice and brain reorganization, Cheryl learned to stand on her own without a vestibular system at all. This chapter describes how powerful and resilient the brain is, despite common belief of permanent disability.

"These electrical patterns are the universal language "spoken" inside the brain--there are no visual images, sounds, smells, or feelings moving inside our neurons" (18).
-We have always associated senses to body parts like hearing to eyes. However, I think it is incredibly interesting that the brain does not recognize these electrical signals as senses, and rather uses the body parts as a vehicle. So hypothetically, if the brain does not receive this information with knowledge of the location, these signals could be sent from any part of the body.

"When Cheryl's brain learned to respond to the artificial receptor that replaced her damaged one, it was not doing anything out of the ordinary," (26).
- The body is incredibly resilient organ, beyond what we may think. It has the ability to adapt to damage, and constantly works to compensate. We take the brain for granted because we cannot see the work that it does. However, like in Cheryl's case, her brain has learned to respond to artificial receptors but no longer recognizes it as artificial.

"But I think part of the problem is that the vestibular sense-- just like hearing, taste, eyesight, and other other senses--starts to weaken as we age," (7).
-I think it's incredibly how modern technological advances allow doctors to help patients compensate for so many defective senses. There are glasses for weak eyesight, hearing aids for impaired hearing, so why shouldn't there be a device that can help the vestibular system, that ages just like the other senses.

Clay Brain Summary

In this Clay Brain project, we used different colors of play dough to model the brain. In the picture, the left and right hemispheres of the brain are separated, one along the sagittal plane and the other along the right hemisphere.

"The Woman With a Hole in Her Head" Relate/Review

In the article, "Woman of 24 Fount to Have No Cerebellum in Her Brain" by Helen Thomson, a woman in China was discovered to miss a vital part of her brain that controls voluntary function like speech and walking. Although having warning signs such as not walking until the age of 7 and speaking was unintelligable until the age of 6, it was never noticed.
The central sulcus is a fold separating the frontal and parietal lobes of the brain. This groove filled with fluid divides the motor skills from the sensory skills making it important to be aware of, especially during epilepsy surgeries. The shape also determines the severity of small subcortical ischemic strokes that occur in mostly younger children. In conclusion, it is unlikely to be functional without a central sulcus because of its importance to separate the motor and sensory output places of the brain.






http://healthylifemed.com/central-sulcus/

First Blog Post: Finding Balance From an Upside Down Perspective

20% Time is a self-motivated project intended to promote effective work habits. It allows students to explore something they are passionate about in depth. The name, "20 Time), describes the format of work time; putting aside 20% of class time to work on these projects. For this class, we will be spending 35-40 minutes per week working. 

As a gymnast, I've always been interested in the human body and how it works. Our physical abilities are incredible; overcoming the fear of flipping, gaining strength while maintaining grace are all ways that gymnasts defy the average human being. I have always wondered how we learn to balance, and upon asking this question I would get the same response every time: "Practice makes perfect". Not many people understand the way we adapt to balancing, we just accept it as a conventional wisdom. I want to explore how our bodies keep us upright, and even more importantly, how we can improve our balance for better well being. 

Guided by this question, I have decided to relearn a straddle press handstand, an elementary yet essential hold for a gymnast. When I quit gymnastics around 5 years ago, I lost a lot of strength from unique muscles used in gymnastics. I always had the muscle memory retained in my mind, but I was not physically capable of performing it. It requires balancing on your hands and lifting your legs into a handstand from a sitting straddle position, using your core and balance to stay controlled. Although not everyone is able to do this move, it is definitely possible to improve your balance. We stay upright through sensory input from our environment. It includes motor coordination and visual input, and the question is, "How can this be improved?" 

I have broken my plan down into three different components that need to be practiced daily-- Strength, balance and coordination. 3-4 days a week I will begin incorporating simple ab exercises that engage the deep core, for example: superman lifts, hanging leg tucks, planks and handstand push ups against a wall. The other half of the week, I will practice balance and hand eye coordination because they go hand in hand. Single leg dead lifts, free standing handstands, standing on one leg with eyes closed and then open are all good ways of improving balance, coordination and strength as well. I will record weekly videos and upload pictures as well to track my progress. My final goal is to be able to consistently do a straddle press handstand. By applying balance improvement to an advanced move, I will be able to have a better idea of how to help others improve their balance as well. 

Unit 5 Reflection

This unit was all about the digestive, endocrine and lymphatic system. These specific systems are important for regulating hormones, absorbing nutrients and protecting the body from pathogens. Maintaining wellness is important because nutrients fuel the entire body, and we depend on everything to be functioning properly.

The digestive system is composed of many different organs that work together to digest food, absorb nutrients and expel waste. This is critical for well-being because food fuels our bodies. Food follows a pathway through the body to be thoroughly digested starting at the mouth, pharynx, esophagus, stomach small intestine, large intestine, anal canal, and finally ending at the anus. As food travels, it changes to a bolus and finally chyme, as physical changes such as shape and enzymes and chemical changes like gastric juices occur. Having an unhealthy diet can slow this process and bring problems. Consuming too many trans fats increases the levels of glucagon, and glucagon is in charge of breaking down nutrients. It is very important to be aware of our nutrition, glucose levels must remain normal and too much of one thing and too little of another will upset the balance. Hydration is also very important for proper digestion.

 The goal of metabolism is to generate ATP, which fuels the working cells in the body. Through three stages, large molecules are broken down into smaller ones, which are turned into Acetyl CoA and finally oxidated to generate ATP. It is very important to keep the body fueled, because after 4-5 days without food, our muscles begin to break down adipose tissue for energy. Once this energy runs out, cells must rely on proteins which will slowly begin to break down muscle.
Disorders that can disrupt this working system include two types of Diabetes. Type 1 Diabetes is wehre an individual does not produce any insulin, forcing them to receive it externally through injections and pumps. Insulin is important for the digestive system because it stimulates glycogen synthesis. Type 2 diabetes means that cells are insulin resistant and cannot receive insulin messages. GLUT-4 transporters are dependent on this to mobilize glucose and travel to plasma membranes. I now understand how important exerciese is, because exercise breaks down glucose and allows GLUT-4 transmitters to spread further. Diabetes can be prevented/put off by eating well and exercising while managing blood glucose levels.

The endocrine system balances our bodies hormones psychologically and physiologically. Steroid hormones are lipid soluble and able to pass through cell membranes which can promote protein synthesis. These are a popular drug for athletes especially because it speeds up their metabolism and allows muscle to grow much faster. Nonsteroid hormones on the other hand can not penetrate cell walls and instead react with specific receptors outside of the cell. There are many different glands that work together to stabilize our bodies.

Finally, the lymphatic system is our immune defense barrier that keeps us healthy. It also helps us recover from injury and sickness by producing lymphocytes, specific white blood cells that attack and neutralize pathogens. These travel through lymphatic capillaries and vessels trapping foreign particles along the way. I have been sick for much of this unit, and when I went to the doctor, she examined my lymph nodes for swelling or abnormality which helped to diagnose my illness. She explained that my body is producing excess mucous and coughing to expel the bacteria that is irritating my immune system.

I have found that the importance of exercise has stood out throughout this unit. Anything and everything helps, from yoga to skiing to weight lifting. It promotes leveled hormones which in turn communicate properly with our digestive system. The key to health is balance, which means that all of our bodies systems must communicate properly.

My new years goals thus far have been to squat at 150 Lbs. So far, I have been working on slowly building up muscle with resistance training, and have achieved a squat of 120 Lbs. This is exciting for me, because it is showing how hard work pays off. Being sick, in the past few weeks, I've had to slow down and rest so that my immune system can recover with little stress. I plan on slowly reintroducing heavier weights in the next few weeks.
The second goal I made was to get 8-9 hours of sleep. Unfortunately, I have really been slacking on this one and am not doing a good job at all. I easily get distracted, and night seems to be a more active time for me, I have a difficult time trying to calm down and get ready for bed. It does not help that I am fairly busy and so some of my responsibilities have to be put off until late to accommodate my work schedules. I need to plan my days better so that I give myself a concrete window of time to wind down before bed and fit in that 8-9 hours.