Monday Wellness Reflection: Tea

Our Monday Wellness was on tea. The presentation can be found here.

We chose to do my Monday Wellness project on tea because we had heard that teas had a lot of health benefits. However, I did not know why exactly teas had such health benefits. Also, I knew that there are thousands of different blends of tea and had heard that different teas have different health benefits. We had also heard of how antioxidants in tea were good for the body, but we did not know what antioxidants actually were; we also heard that tea was a good substitute for coffee, but beyond "because it is more healthy," we did not know exactly why.

When researching for my Monday Wellness, I found it interesting that all "true" teas (white, green, oolong, black, pu'er) are made from the same plant, Camellia sinesis. I had previously thought that different teas came from different plants (e.g. green tea came from green tea plants, black tea came from black tea plants, etc.). The different teas and their distinct characteristics come from the different ways the plant is processed.

We also finally learned how exactly antioxidants and caffeine affect our bodies. We always hear that antioxidants are good and that caffeine is bad, but many people do not understand why this is so. Antioxidants actually work by keeping harmful particles in our body, called "free radicals," from being harmful. Caffeine is actually a naturally occurring chemical compound in some plants that is a stimulant drug in humans. It was very interesting to find out that caffeine in moderation is actually good for the body, since it increases mental alertness, improves memory, and reduces the risk of certain diseases.

The most important theme of our Monday Wellness was moderation. We also talked about moderation and balance in class during our health unit. Sure, drinking tea is good, but drinking too much for too long may result in side effects. In fact, drinking too much of anything, even water, which is essential for life, is harmful. Furthermore, "too much" is different for everyone depending on their age, gender, body weight, and many, many other factors; it is not a concrete number. We frequently want to hear numbers so that we know what we should or should not do -- I saw this when people started asking me about how many cups of tea they should drink and how many cups was too much -- but we should keep in mind that there are not really any clearly set limits that fit everyone.

On a scale of 1 to 10, I would give us an 8. Since we did not practice our presentation together before actually presenting it in class, our timing was a little off. It took more time than we expected to set up and clean up our activity, so in the end I did most of the presentation while my partner set up and cleaned up the activity, since she brought the supplies for it. We also wanted to do the activity before most of the presentation to wake up the students and get them more involved in the presentation. However (as stated before), it took longer than we expected to set up the activity, so we got through half of our presentation first before we did the activity. As expected, the activity did wake up the students and get them more involved: during the half of the presentation before the activity, I felt like the students were just staring at me talk and not engaging; after the activity, the students seemed much more lively and asked a lot more questions.

2015.10.13 Measuring Blood Pressure and Pulse

Today we learned how to take blood pressure and pulse and practiced doing so on each other.

Blood pressure is the pressure blood exerts on the walls of arteries when the ventricles of the heart contract and send blood into the body. There are two parts of blood pressure, systolic pressure and diastolic pressure. Systolic pressure is the pressure that the blood exerts on the walls of the arteries when the ventricles contract, so it is higher. Diastolic pressure is the pressure that the blood exerts on the walls of the arteries when the ventricles relax, so it is lower.

Blood pressure can be measured using a digital sphygmomanometer (blood pressure cuff), or using a manual one and a stethoscope. In class we learned how to use a manual sphygmomanometer and a stethoscope to measure blood pressure:

1. Put the patient's arm palm up on a flat surface. Make sure the patient's arm is level with his heart.
2. Wrap the blood pressure cuff around the patient's upper arm, at least 1 inch above his elbow.  The tubes that connect the pressure gauge and the pump to the cuff should be pointing down, in line with the patient's arm. Secure the cuff.
3. Put on the stethoscope. Put the flat part of the stethoscope on top of the brachial artery, on the inside of the patient's arm a little above his elbow. You will not be able to hear anything yet.
4. Make sure the valve on the pump is closed. Start pumping air into the cuff until the pressure gauge reaches about 150 mmHg.
5. Slowly release air from the cuff by opening the valve on the pump slowly. The needle on the gauge should fall about 2 mmHg every time you open the valve.
6. Note the number on the gauge when you hear a very faint tapping sound through the stethoscope. This is the systolic pressure.
7. Keep releasing air from the cuff until you stop hearing anything through the stethoscope. The number on the gauge at which this occurs is the diastolic pressure.
8. Blood pressure is written as a fraction, systolic pressure/diastolic pressure.

We tried taking blood pressure using a sphygmomanometer and a stethoscope on each other:

Blood Pressure Results

	Subject 1	Subject 2
Trial 1	90/50	110/80
Trial 2	100/60	105/70

Pulse is the number of times the heart beats over a certain amount of time. It can be measured by using a stethoscope over the heart, or just with 2 fingers (index and middle) over the radial artery (in the wrist) or over the common carotid artery (in the neck). Count the number of times the heart beats for 15 seconds, then multiply that number by 4. We do not use the thumb to measure pulse because there is also a pulse in thumb, which may throw off how many times we count the heartbeat. We tried taking pulses at different locations on each other:

Pulse Results

	Subject 1	Subject 2	Average for All Subjects
Radial	70	70	70
Carotid	68	70	69
Heart (stethoscope)	72	86	79
Average of Individual Subjects	70	76	73

Unit 2 Reflection: Health

Unit 2 was about health. The essential questions of this unit included:

• What is health? What are the five pillars of health?
• How do nutrients in foods affect our physiology?
• What exercise is needed to realize physiological benefits?
• Why is sleep important?
• What are the physiological effects of stress?

Health is not simply one thing or condition, though good or bad health may manifest itself in illnesses or lack thereof. It is a combination many different factors that work together to make a healthy lifestyle and a healthy body that functions optimally. Good health may be distilled into five basic "pillars:" as the questions above hinted, four of the five pillars of health are nutrition, exercise, sleep, and stress; the fifth is social health.

the five pillars of health

I had always thought that I lived a pretty healthy lifestyle, since I try to get enough sleep, eat healthy foods, and not get too stressed because I don't like feeling unwell. After learning about this unit, I found areas in which I could still improve and learned about how to improve in those areas. Normally I sleep for 7 to 8 hours everyday, but in class I learned that most teenagers need 9 to 10 hours of sleep daily. I learned even more about what foods are good for the body, such as in-season produce and ruminant meat (beef, lamb, goat, etc.). I could also exercise more.

my goals to live a healthier life

However, I feel like the students at my school as a whole could be more healthy. I think part of the reason may be because we are such a academically competitive school, so many students try to push themselves to be the best. I frequently hear students say they get 3 to 4 hours of sleep each night because they have such a heavy homework load from all their high-level classes. This puts a lot of stress on them as well. Also because of this, many students do not exercise enough because they "do not have enough time." I also hear many students say that they did not eat breakfast or see people who only eat a slice of pumpkin pie from the cafeteria for lunch, which is not good nutrition. These problems could be remedied if teachers do not give so much homework or try not to give too many exams on the same day (I know a teacher who asks students if they have a lot of exams on a certain day to determine if that day is a good day to give a test). The cafeteria can also provide more healthy, balanced meals rather than just pizza and burritos to help promote proper nutrition.

typical cafeteria pizza: not very healthy (Flickr)

The most important theme of this unit was balance. Balance is extremely important in all aspects of life. This unit applied it especially to nutrition, but it can also apply to daily life, such as work vs. recreation or having a treat vs. gorging oneself. If you apply the simple principal of balance to your life, you will live a healthy, fulfilling life.