The brain is like a little motor; every once in a while it needs it's
maintenance or check-up. That maintenance basically means to work-out the brain
with activities that required a lot of thinking such as reading and solving puzzle
games which promote a healthy and functioning brain. The reason why brains need
their maintenance or work-out is because you don't want to prevent atrophying or
dementia. Dementia is a disorder of the mental processes caused by brain disease
or injury and marked by memory disorders. As people hit their 50s the risks of
getting dementia increase. The good news is that some types of dementia is
treatable and reversible. This is why good activities that exercise the brain keep it healthy.
Physical activity has also shown to help with more oxygen, blood flow, energy
and helps the brain create new brain cells.

Reference

Wayne M. (2010) Understanding Dementia. Retrieved from http://www.helpguide.org/elder/alzheimers_dementias_types.htm

Millions and millions of water bottles are made every year. There has been a huge controversy between purified water and tap water. While most people agree that a bottle water is more healthier because it's clean, experts actually say that tap water is actually the better one. Every day Americans spend thousands of dollars on water bottles when they can just get free water right from their home. Consumers consume about half a billion of water bottles a week, which can literally wrap around the earth 5 times.

The idea of the water bottle all started when soda was said to be bad for you. Also the water companies said the same thing that their water was bad. People got scared so they started to buy water bottles. Even though that might sound a little silly it is true even until today.  This idea worked and now the water industry is huge. What's even more amazing is that the water that these water bottle companies sell us is our own tap water. Even worse, all the used water bottles are then shipped in boats to India and dump all this plastic. The sad thing is that all the recycled water bottles end up in land fills; some end up being tosses in incinerators then releasing toxic chemicals into the atmosphere. The last thing is that making water bottles is very expensive and uses a lot of resources we could use for more important things.  

Reference 

CBC Report (2011) Water Bottles Are Wasteful. Retrieved from http://thewaterproject.org/bottled_water_wasteful.asp

Many research studies have shown that stress is linked to many illnesses. According
to studies stress is also linked with the health of the immune system. Too much
stress and the immune system will become weak, lowering it's defenses to fight off diseases and illnesses. These are called antigens which are foreign substance that induces an immune response in the body such as bacteria, viruses and cancerous cells. This is mainly true for a person with a serious and continuous chronic stress issue.  This suppresses the immune system slowly wearing it away. A weak immune system is more susceptible to infections, illnesses and diseases. Stress also affects the body indirectly when a person may use unhealthy behavioral coping strategies to reduce stress, such as using drugs. 
 

Reference

Daruna, Jorge Hilarion. The Introduction to Psychoneuroimmunology. Boston: Elsevier Academic Press, 2004. Electronic Resource.

Olegario, Janainna and Marcos Silva. Pulmonary Innate Immune Response and
Melatonin Receptors in the Perinatal Stress. Hindawi Publishing, 2013. Print.

 

For this assignment I decided to watch "The Science of Sex Appeal". It's a documentary that goes in-depth at the scientific side of human sexuality and attraction. Experts look and examine how men and women react and evaluate the opposite sex. It wasn't surprising that most women look for attractiveness, good dad traits, security and overall stability in men. What was interesting in men was men with high testosterone levels usually don't think as clear. What shock me was that men usually find women more attractive when they are the most fertile. In general men are more attractive to more feminine women and women are more attractive to more masculine men. People who have not watch this video series should know that the bottom line is that men and women are looking for attractiveness and with deep pockets.    

Reference
 
Discovery Communications (2011) The Science of Sex Appeal. Retrieved from http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-shows/other-shows/videos/other-shows-science-of-sex-appeal-videos.htm

The movie "Bully" is a documentary about bullying. This
documentary follows several students that are victims of bullying at school.
Some of the victims in the film took it to the point where they ended their
lives because they couldn't take it. This film is moving because it shows how
bullying is a huge issue, specially in schools. This is a great film to show
students that bullying is not right and how they can turn this around by not
doing it or standing up for the victims of bully. You can go watch this film at
Netflix or YouTube. For more information check out the website www.thebullyproject.com 
 
This movie had a huge impact on me because it reminded me when I was bullied
at school and no one did anything to help me. I remember that I was physically
pushed around, teased, and laugh at simply because I was the smallest
one but I never did anything about because I was not life threatening. 

Another things that impacted me was that school is still the same as I
remember, nothing has really change regarding bullying. The principles, teachers
and other staff and the government still haven't done anything to stop it. This
is the reason why maybe bullying still continues today.     

After watching the documentary my only question was why is the staff acting
like bullying is not a big deal when it is? I couldn't believe that teacher when
she told the two boys to shake hands and told the kid that was being bullied
that they could even become best friends with the bully. I mean who says that.
Really?

This documentary made me feel angry to know that there are still kids out there that
are going through this and yet nothing is done to stop it.

"AHA" Moments chapters 1,10,9,11,2,3,7,8,16

Chapter 1
1) Leading cause of death among Americans age 15-24 is automobile accidents.
2) 8% of Americans have diabetes, but about one-fourth of them don't know it.

Chapter 10
1) 15% of tested supplements contained substances that would cause an athlete to fail a drug test.
2) Physical inactivity increases the risk of cardio vascular disease by 50-240%.

Chapter 9
1) 42% of Americans never eat whole grains.
2) Consumption of whole grains has been linked to a reduced risk of heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, and certain forms of cancer.

Chapter 11
!) Americans spend $40 billion annually on weight-loss products and programs.
2) Estimates of genetic contribution to obesity are from 25% to 40% of an individuals body fat.

Chapter 2
1) Two thirds of visits to family practitioners are due to stress-related issues.
2) High levels of chronic stress cause brain cells to shrink in size and die, this impairing learning and memory.

Chapter 3
1) 5.7 million Americans have bipolar disorder.
2) In  2004, the FDA required for antidepressant drugs to have a warning label that it increases suicidal thinking.  

Chapter 7
1) In 2005, 1.4 million emergency room visits were related to drug misuse or abuse.
2) In 2006, injection drug use accounted for about 13% of all new HIV/AIDS cases.

Chapter 8
1) Alcohol and Tobacco are responsible for most illnesses, injuries, and deaths.
2) Alcohol use contributes to over 50% of all murders, assaults, and rapes.

Chapter 16
1) An alcohol related traffic fatality occurs every 31 minutes in the U.S.
2) More than 2.4 million poisonings and over 19,000 poison-related deaths occur every year in the United States.

        For this assignment I decided to watch "Piano Stairs-The Fun Theory". This
video is very interesting because it shows you how most people regardless of age
prefer something fun and pleasant over the boring and unpleasant things of
life. In this video an inspired group by Volkswagen first started-out by setting-up
some cameras inside a subway station by the stairs and escalator. They noticed that most
people take the escalators rather than the stairs. But this changes when this  group
decides to transform a staircase into piano stairs with sound. When people see this 
piano stairs, most decide to take the stairs instead of the escalator. Not only that but
 people's mood and behavior also changes. Some people where jumping, running,
laughing but almost everybody had  a smile on their face for getting on the piano
 stairs. This experiment relates a lot too stress because it gets people to forget a little
 bit about their daily lives and have a little fun. This experiment goes to show you
 how simple fun changes can really put a smile on people's face which is a good
 thing because laughter actually helps relieve stress. Laughter is also said to
 be a very good medicine if not the best to relieve stress. 


Reference

Volkswagen (2009) The Fun Theory. Retrieved from http://www.thefuntheory.com/