Monday Wellness Blog Post

Snacking plays an important part of one's health; however, overeating unhealthy, processed snacks are problematic. One should eat a healthy snack 2-3 times about 2-3 hours before each meal to prevent overeating. Healthy snacks are generally less than 200 calories, have 10 grams of protein, and have at least 5 grams of dietary fiber. Some unhealthy snacks include chips, candy, and soda pop, which generally are deemed "empty calorie foods" because they have little nutritional value and are generally filled with artificial colours, unnatural sugars, and very few vitamins. Overall, this Monday Wellness enabled me to realize that snacking it a healthy part of one's diet; however, one should be careful about what they consume during a snack. 

Heart Rate/Blood Pressure

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JivpT3t9gwK5lB-wJrFd2wnRj15CGl4nQQVS6WHhkag/edit
(Data Table for Heart Rate and Blood Pressure)

In class today, we learned how to measure blood pressure and heart rate. While both require the use of a stethoscope, measuring blood pressure also requires the use of a sphygmomanometer, or blood pressure cuff. To measure blood pressure, one rolls up his or her sleeve past the elbow and extends their arm, palm up. The other person deflates the air bladder of the cuff and wraps it around the first person's arm and places the head of the stethoscope under the edge of the cuff. After, one inflates the cuff until it reaches about 150 mmHg. The measurer should watch the pressure gauge and concentrate on hearing a slight noise that usually appears between 110-140 mmHg, or the the systolic blood pressure. When the noise stops, the number on the pressure gauge is the diastolic blood pressure. While the systolic pressure is the result of the ventricles contracting, diastolic pressure occurs during ventricle relaxation.

On the other hand, measuring heart rate is less complex, where one can measure it by measuring their pulse. However, one should not measure their pulse using his or her thumb because the thumb has its own pulse, so it would be difficult to determine the correct heart rate.

Unit 2 Reflection

Overall, health is attempting to find a balance with mental, social, and physical health, where one must receive enough sleep, incorporate varied types of exercise, have limited amounts of stress, communicate with others, and have a proper diet. These aspects greatly affect our body's efficiency and overall well-being. While our school attempts to incorporate a healthy atmosphere for the students, many are not getting the recommended 9-10 hours of sleep due to the increased amount of stress from homework and tests/quizzes. However, this can easily be changed by altering our schedules and procrastinating less on assignments. 

Some essential themes in this unit include getting adequate nutrition and getting proper sleep. Filling our lives with processed foods and limiting our sleep causes issues, including increase in stress and weight. While the majority of the chapter seemed related and easy to comprehend, I was slightly confused on identifying whether a person is in non-Rem/Rem/awake phases through the varied graphs. To improve this, I would look more closely at the examples in the classwork. 

This unit relates to my intended college major, psychology, where one studies the way people think/behave. Many of the issues covered in the unit, including sleep (Rem/non-Rem sleep, Sleep Stages, Cortisol, Melatonin), social health (communicating with others instead of chatting through social networking websites), and nutrition (limiting processed foods and getting a balanced diet) related to some of the psychology classes I took in the summer, including Social and Abnormal Psychology.