Author Archives: dya5181

Is Smoking Hookah Better Than Smoking Cigarettes?

Hookah[1]

Does Wearing Cheap Sunglasses Ruin your Eye Sight?

Does Wearing Cheap SunGlasses Ruin your Eye Sight?
We have all worn either worn someone else’s prescriptions glasses or haven worn fake glasses that be for a Halloween Custom or just for fun. Many of us though have been okay with wearing fake glasses because we have been told that wearing prescription glasses can damage your eye sight so we take precaution and take the other road. But have people ever thought where cheap sunglasses affect you eye vision? When summer is around and the sun is out and hot, people will tend to buy cheap sunglasses because maybe they were left behind and there is nothing else to do. According to doctor Wayne Bizer of the American Academy of Ophthalmology says that sunglasses without a protection are worse than having no sunglasses at all even the simple action of squinting is one better off.
When exposed to light the average human will squint therefore the pupil will get really tiny. Of course, then when you wear sunglasses it’s like one is being placed in a dark room your pupils dilate bigger to let more light in. Sunglasses that have some protection from the UVB may help but there is light still coming in through the lenses.  The damage done to eyes after being exposed from sunlight might hurt initially and then go away but the damage done will stay and it will accumulate. 
According to Chris Worsman, an optometrist at Viewpoint Opticians What ends up happening is that the UVA rays hit the lens which then damages them. The lens is what control the amount of light that is allowed to pass through. They are composed of numerous proteins that arranged in a straight line. This allows for the lens to be clear. Once though the proteins have come into contact with the rays they become knotted and their composition is worn out.
The best thing to do in order to protect your vision during the day is go to a reliable source and buy sunglasses that have a tag that shows protection from the sun’s rays. Many people will assume that just because they have bought expensive sunglasses that they must include protection. However, it is needed to be realized that these might just be more expensive because they fashionable, made by high quality designers. 
Here are some suggestions on what to specifically should be looked at when buy a pair of sunglasses:
1)      Polarized lenses cut out the brightness of the sun but do not have protection
2)      The darker the lenses are doesn’t necessarily mean that it has better sun protection
here is a video: to better explain this topic.
 sunglasses[1]
http://www.alertdriving.com/home/sites/www.alertdriving.com/files/imagecache/display/Fleet%20bosses%20oppose%20weaker%20driver-eyesight%20rules.JPG
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Do Vegetarians Live Longer?

Do Vegetarians Live Longer?
People go vegetarians for various reasons. From people and their point of view on how animals should be treated to having to take extreme measures because they have been diagnosed with a health issue. Whatever the reason might be their has a being the question about whether being a vegetarian can make one live longer. In this process, what is happening is that the person is cutting out the majority of products that are protein such as beef and pork. They focus their diet more on eating vegetables and fruits. In a recent study, it was proven that people who abstain from eating meat have a lower blood pressure which deflects the risk of having any type of blood or heart issue. This can be highly beneficial to people who have been diagnosed with high blood pressure. In 2013, a study looked at about 70,000 people it was shown that vegetarians had twelve percent less chance of dying compared to other diets. Going back to the idea that really nothing fatty is being eaten therefore their arteries are in a much clearer state than someone who consumes meat. Vegetarianism also allow for fewer metabolic rates syndrome which is considered to be a risk fact in the result of type 2 diabetes.
This may sound like a great way to live a lifestyle however, there are some measures that need to be taken when going with this lifestyle. As a result of not consuming meat their has been a concern about the amount of nutrients that the person receives especially young children who grow up in such environment. Vegetarians are deprived of an essential vitamin which in Vitamin B-12. This vitamin helps with the central nervous system as well as it not having enough can cause anemia.
There has been some controversy because different studies have showed different result. But, their have been more studies that show vegetarians live a longer life. According, to two studies people who ate less meat increased their like span by about 3.6 years. The Seventh Day Adventists were a good group of people to study because they live a healthy lifestyle with no meat their average men lived 7.28 years more and women lived 4.42 years more.
It has to be taken into account that even though it may increase the life span of a person the effects of aging will remain visible. These studies show that vegetarian is a correlation between the diet and the age span. I think the important thing here is that whatever you decide to be your health lifestyle one should limit the amounts and try to balance it because our body is all we really have.
 
 

How much Sleep do we really Need?

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There have been many times through the college careers of everyone where there has just been too much homework to do and not enough time so they resort to getting few hours of sleep or just not sleeping at all. Numerous times I have heard people say I got only three hours of sleep or I pull an all-nighter. This has always been a question that has various answers and has changed throughout the years. It was initially thought that human being would be able to function normally with about four to five hours of sleep. They could perform the basic functions it was just the body would get use to the idea that it was fine to only have that sleeping pattern. However, that was proven to be a mistake as the experiment carried faults.
In the year 2003, Enter David Dinges who was known as the head of the Chronobiology Laboratory at the Hospital at University of Pennsylvania, decided to forth with a study to finally find out the answer to the question “How much sleep do we need”? In this study people we given an assignment on how much sleep each participant would get. The following were the categories they were placed in: sleeping for four hours, sleeping for six hours and of course a control group needed to be involved and they slept for eight hours. This was conducted in a specialized labatory. During the day, around every two hours the researcher would test how much attention could be withheld. The conclusion of this experiment was that the worst performance were clearly done by those who would only sleep four hours a day.  People who had six hours of sleep perform much better but eventually began to suffer consequences and their performance levels began to decline. Finally, those who slept the full eight hours we performing at exceptional levels and attention span was consistent throughout the two weeks this experiment took place.
Getting the full hours sleep is difficult because as humans we just have many things going on. Plus, there are many stimulators that affect our sleep schedule such as coffee and even lights. Not getting the enough sleep can obviously lead to health problems just like what we discussed in class about the rats that became depressed because of light. One thing is for sure when talking at sleep is that we cannot rely on the weekend to make up the deprivation of sleep.
What is very interesting is the fact that since we are all made in different ways and respond to things differently some may just need less sleep than other to perform at their best. However, what will eventually and will happen is that there will be a deterioration of psychomotor skills. We can either make our body adjust to a sleep pattern as rigorous as that or six hours or less of sleep. The best thing that can be done in this situation is to try and get as much as sleep possible and whenever given the chance to go to sleep early to take the opportunity to do so. 
 here is a link to a short video on sleep:
 
 

Does Alcohol Kill You Brain Cells?

Does Alcohol Kill You Brain Cells?

Everyone at some point in their lives has heard that drinking alcohol kills your brain cells even if you are not of the legal age yet. In reality this has always been a myth. This came to be a fact after the United States decided to prohibit alcohol and it could be seen that people’s motor skills were slower after a certain time so slurring was common as well as movement was really slow.

The fact is that moderate alcohol consumption does not kill brain cells however a large consumption can create damage to the brain but it is not due to the fact that the cells are dying. What ends up happening to an alcoholic is that the alcohol has damage the dendrites which look like tree branches. They are located specifically towards the end of brain cell. These branches allow for messages to be passed. Once the dendrites have been damage it makes it difficult for the person to remember certain memories. According to studies done by the University of Buffalo the effects the alcohol had on the dendrites is totally reversible. This can be done through the process of quitting the consumption so that the damage is reversed to the dendrites since they have the ability to restore themselves. Even though, it does not kill your brain cells it is important to remember that it still does damage some important organs such as your liver.

Research has been conducted by Washington University in St. Louis in where alcohol was directly applied to a cell. This experiment proved that the cells do not die because of just this substance. What was being affected was just the transition of information from one neuron to the next. Alcohol was then proven to then allow for steroids to be released which hinder how the memory was being formed.

It also known that alcoholics can develop a neurological disorder called Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome. This causes the person to have lost neurons within the brain. As a consequence, amnesia and other memory and motor skills are highly affected to which there is no way of gaining such things back. In some cases this has led to deaths. What needs to be made clear is that alcohol itself is not what causes this disorder. When people get to the stage of alcoholics the only thing they want to do is drink. It has become an addiction. Most alcoholics will then not eat and will just feed their body alcohol. As a result, the body becomes deficient in vitamin B specifically thiamine. Which has led to these deaths. So next time be careful in the amounts of alcohol that you drink and stay safe for we only have one body.

 here is a summary video of this topic: http://www.medicaldaily.com/does-drinking-alcohol-actually-kill-brain-cells-300798

 

Work Cited:

http://www.brainhq.com/brain-resources/brain-facts-myths/brain-mythology/brain-myth-alcohol-kills-brain-cells

http://www.medicaldaily.com/does-drinking-alcohol-actually-kill-brain-cells-300798

http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human-brain/10-brain-myths9.htm

 

 

Does Alcohol Kill You Brain Cells?

Everyone at some point in their lives has heard that drinking alcohol kills your brain cells even if you are not of the legal age yet. In reality this has always been a myth. This came to be a fact after the United States decided to prohibit alcohol and it could be seen that people’s motor skills were slower after a certain time so slurring was common as well as movement was really slow.

The fact is that moderate alcohol consumption does not kill brain cells however a large consumption can create damage to the brain but it is not due to the fact that the cells are dying. What ends up happening to an alcoholic is that the alcohol has damage the dendrites which look like tree branches. They are located specifically towards the end of brain cell. These branches allow for messages to be passed. Once the dendrites have been damage it makes it difficult for the person to remember certain memories. According to studies done by the University of Buffalo the effects the alcohol had on the dendrites is totally reversible. This can be done through the process of quitting the consumption so that the damage is reversed to the dendrites since they have the ability to restore themselves. Even though, it does not kill your brain cells it is important to remember that it still does damage some important organs such as your liver.

Research has been conducted by Washington University in St. Louis in where alcohol was directly applied to a cell. This experiment proved that the cells do not die because of just this substance. What was being affected was just the transition of information from one neuron to the next. Alcohol was then proven to then allow for steroids to be released which hinder how the memory was being formed.

It also known that alcoholics can develop a neurological disorder called Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome. This causes the person to have lost neurons within the brain. As a consequence, amnesia and other memory and motor skills are highly affected to which there is no way of gaining such things back. In some cases this has led to deaths. What needs to be made clear is that alcohol itself is not what causes this disorder. When people get to the stage of alcoholics the only thing they want to do is drink. It has become an addiction. Most alcoholics will then not eat and will just feed their body alcohol. As a result, the body becomes deficient in vitamin B specifically thiamine. Which has led to these deaths. So next time be careful in the amounts of alcohol that you drink and stay safe for we only have one body.

here is a summary about the topic: http://www.medicaldaily.com/does-drinking-alcohol-actually-kill-brain-cells-300798

 

:liquor

Work Cited:

http://www.brainhq.com/brain-resources/brain-facts-myths/brain-mythology/brain-myth-alcohol-kills-brain-cells

http://www.medicaldaily.com/does-drinking-alcohol-actually-kill-brain-cells-300798

http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human-brain/10-brain-myths9.htm

 

 

 

Initial Blog

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Hello everyone my name is Diana Alvarado and I am from Los Angeles,
California. I am currently a junior here at Penn State majoring in the field of
Criminology and minoring in Linguistics. I decided to take this course because
I needed to fulfill my requirement of a general natural science. In addition, I
found this course specifically interesting because it was designed for non-
science majors and focused more on how to teach a day to day person about how
to better understand science. Also, I love the idea of being able to learn
about different areas within the science field and not just focusing on one.  I
am not a science major because my passion has always lied more in the aspects
of why people do the things they do specifically when it comes down to committing a heinous crime. As well as how society, the environment and other components shape the members of its communities. However, I still believe that it is important to have a basic grasp of science because we are surrounded by it daily whether it’s through the action of cooking or how our bodies function daily.  Here is a quick video showing you Los Angeles in a day.