Rising Rates - Major Lab Project

Introduction: Welcome to the major lab project for unit two. In this lab, I was to use the scientific method not only to utilize that, but to understand metabolic measurements, rates, and how my body uses oxygen. Following this introduction you will look through my data, analysis, incorrect hypothesis, and some problems occurred. Enjoy!

Rising Rates

Introduction: The purpose of this lab is to determine how metabolic rates are affected after activity. Materials used in this lab were a camera for documentation, my self for the physical activities, and a stop watch to time the duration of each activity as well as take pulse and respirations.

First metabolic rate to be measured is the pulse. I will use the cartoid method, count for fifteen seconds then multiply by four. The average resting heart rate varies but generally is accepted to be between 60 to 80 beats per minute.

Next, respirations will be measured. This I will count a breath in and out as one for thirty seconds, then multiply by two. The average respiration for an adult is about twelve per minute.

Lastly, blood pressure will be taken. If I had the correct tools, I would take it by hand, using the pump and listening with a stethoscope until I could no longer hear the blood rushing. At that point, I would release the pump slowly until I heard a slight pop, which would be the systolic number. Once the last sound was heard, I would record the diastolic number. Instead, I went to Wal-Mart and let the machine do it for me. The average adult numbers are 120/80.

The three activities I have chosen to perform will be: 1. Jumping Jacks, 2. Singing, 3. Kissing.

Hypothesis: I hypothesize that my first and third activity will increase in every metabolic rate. My second activity will increase my respiration rates, but everything else will be close to the resting rate.

	Pulse	Respiration Rate	BP Systolic	BP Diastolic
Activity One: Jumping Jacks	Increase	Increase	Increase	Increase
Activity Two: Singing	Same	Increase	Same	Same
Activity Three: Kissing	Increase	Increase	Increase	Increase

Materials and Methods: The following is a pictorial description of materials and methods I used.

First, I took all of my resting measurements except blood pressure. To do this, I laid on the floor and rested for about five minutes. Then, I watched my clock on my computer because it had a second hand. I took my pulse for fifteen seconds then multiplied by four. While I was taking my pulse, I had my assistant, Michael, count my respirations for thirty seconds, with me watching the time. We multiplied that number by two to get beats and breaths per minute. We then proceeded to do each activity for thirty seconds. Immediately after the activity, I took pulse and Michael took respirations. Then we went to Wal-Mart.

At Wal-Mart, I began by taking my resting blood pressure. A bruise was visible by the third round (I easily bruise). Then I did each activity three times, every time followed by a measure.

I chose jumping jacks for my first activity because I wanted something that I knew was really going to get my heart going and the blood circulating. I knew, positively, that my rate was going to increase as well as blood pressure because my blood needed to be moving faster. After the three repetitions were over and measurements taken, my assistant and I took a five minute break to get everything back to normal.

Next, I serenaded my assistant three times and took measurements. I sang the same song, a Gerber Baby commercial song I have known since I was a child, three times, taking my blood pressure after each song. Again, I took a five minute rest and came back for the last part.

This picture is posted with permission from my assistant. He partook in the last activity, kissing. This one would be appropriately described as laughing, but for the sake of the experiment, we will go with what the activity called for. I chose kissing because I had previously taking a test that measured body temperature after certain activities and kissing was one of them. I wanted to learn how else it effects the body as well.

Data: Below is a table I used to record all of my data. The left hand row represents which metabolic rate I was measuring and the top columns depict which repetition I was doing and then the average of those reps.

	Rep 1	Rep 2	Rep 3	Rep 4	Rep 5	Mean
Baseline
Pulse	68	72	68	64	72	69
Respiration	16	12	14	14	16	14
Systolic	125	120	118	121	120	119
Diastolic	73	65	68	67	71	65
Activity One: Jumping Jacks
Pulse	94	126	132			117
Respiration	18	18	22			19
Systolic	144	149	150			148
Diastolic	74	76	75			75
Activity Two: Singing
Pulse	78	82	76			79
Respiration	16	18	20			18
Systolic	134	132	138			135
Diastolic	72	70	74			72
Activity Three: Kissing
Pulse	100	90	72			87
Respiration	20	22	18			20
Systolic	123	120	123			122
Diastolic	71	62	68			67

Here is the beginning of a series of graphs depicting my data. This graph and the following three show strictly a specific activity as labeled at the top of each. The graph above shows only resting rates. The green, purple, orange, red, and blue bars represent each repetition going from one to five. The last olive colored bar represents the average of those.




The graph above represents jumping jacks only. Please refer to the singing graph below this for what each color of bar means.

This graph represents only singing. The green bar is repetition one, purple is repetition two, orange is repetition three, and red is the average of the three repetitions.

The above graph is strictly the measurements of kissing. These bars represent each repetition
with the mean as well. I chose to include all of the graphs separately so one could see how my rates changed with each measurement. Below, is the final graph, with all averages put together to show that each activity increased my rates.

This last graph is representative of all of the means for each group, as listed on the right side of the graph. This graph shows that every metabolic rate increased in comparison to the resting rate. The closest to resting rate was often kissing, but singing respirations were close to the resting rate as well.

Analysis of Data: After carefully observing the data, my hypothesis was not entirely correct. After performing all activities, each metabolic rate increased. Often, it increased in considerable amounts. For example, comparing base rate pulse to the jumping jacks pulse, my rate jumped up about forty-eight beats per minute. My respiration rates increased from the resting rate, but from each respiration rate involving the activity, it remained fairly steady.

Problems with Data or Technique: Here are some problems that occurred. The blood pressure machine at Wal-Mart, as I was told by the pharmacist, varies its readings depending on how many times it is used. A doctor from Yavapai Regional Medical Center confirmed this information when asked,(yes, I actually went and asked.) Next, there were many times when kissing could probably be described as laughing. During all three activities, I was laughing through some parts, which could greatly skew my data. Another factor that could have influenced the data was I performed five repetitions of my baseline rate and only three for the activities. I limited the amount of times of doing each activity for two reasons: 1. The blood pressure machine had giving me a bruise after doing the resting rates, 2. It was time consuming and awkward in the Wal-Mart. The data provided did match my thoughts on what was going to happen to my metabolic rate, but I was pleasantly surprised to see how much singing affected it.

Conclusion: In general, the effects of different types of activities on metabolic rates generally increase the rates. This is because as the body is pushed to work harder, it expends more energy. One has to breathe harder and faster to get the proper amount of oxygen in, in order for the cells to perform their functions. The oxygen will go to the blood cells, which, in turn, diffuse the oxygen to other cells that need it through exchanges in the capillaries.

Conclusion: Overall, this experiment was joyful and made me laugh often. It also allowed me to exercise my knowledge of the body’s need for oxygen and how it was circulating throughout my body during each activity.

"Lay Off Me, I'm Starving! (Remember Food)

Introduction: In the event that quote is unfamiliar, it is from a Saturday Night Live skit with Adam Sandler, Chris Farley, and David Spade. They are sitting around as women out to lunch and Chris Farley starts stuffing his face with french fries. David Spade asks if he is still on his diet and the above quote is Chris Farley's response. I found the quote appropriate for this section as we will be talking about where food comes from, The Food Satisfaction Triangle, and diets.

Where Does Your Food Come From

I think we know where our food comes from, but we choose not to acknowledge such a thing. Granted we don't know from where, geographically wise, but we have a general idea. Most of the foods consumed today are coming from factory farms and genetically modified fields. The bigger the better...right?From http://www.cowsarecool.com, here is a picture of pigs in a factory farm. Remember, they never see the sun or eat grass. What is even worse, they eat genetically modified food as well, which ultimately ends up in us. How true is this cartoon from http://www.cartoonstock.com? "Fresh Farm Product." Nothing from the vegetable and fruit isle in any grocery store is organic or "Fresh." In fact, more stuff is put into those items to help it last longer...but actual fresh food naturally lasts longer.

Lastly, I found this picture from http://www.inthesetimes.com. Sometimes I feel like this when the news is smeared with a new gigantic potato or this fruit is better than others because we managed to pump it full of something your body is eventually going to build a resistance to later in life.

I could go on and on as to how horrible the food is for us now. Growing up in Iowa, I had the chance to grow all of my own foods, or drive down the road to get a needed food that a neighbor grows. Here in Arizona, I don't even know if Natural Frontiers really is all organic food because they could be spraying pesticides on it, they could have gotten the seeds from a non-organic plant. All things to take into consideration.

Satisfaction

Since we have all of this horrible food out there, how can we be satisfied? The book says to eat the right servings, exercise, and take in minimal amounts of the bad stuff.

That is one way to look at it...OR one could take The Food Satisfaction Triangle into mind.

There is an image in the Nutrition Power Point, slide number 27. This shows, in order for one to be satisfied and have a healthy diet, these three things should be taken into consideration. They are:

Locally and Sustainably Grown Foods (this comes from small farmers)

Healthy, Satisfied, Longer Lives (minimal lifestyle disease)

Spiritual and Cultural Base for Diet (home-cooked)

A great database for finding small farmers would be at http://www.localharvet.org/organic-farmer.

Another, would be to go to surrounding small towns and their local food marts. Most of those are locally owned and operated. Sometimes that means they do not have the funds for fancy genetically modified fruits and vegetables, so they support their local economy and get those items from local farmers.

As for having a healthy, satisfied, longer life, I think that works, but one also has to take in portion control to an extent.

Lastly, the spiritual and cultural base. These are things where I think about my home-cooked meal. It was, literally, steak and potatoes. We would throw in a salad, or some fruit or vegetable, but every night, a type of steak with a type of potato. Never red steak, it always had to be cooked through. I also think of going outside to our garden and picking what I wanted for a snack, taking the time to wash and prepare it. I also think of going to the farmer's market in Des Moines and buying items we did not grow ourselves, but others had that was not processed.

The triangle works well, but sometimes the cultural based meals are not always the most healthy.

Diets

Here is the frowny face from http://www.amihungry.com.
I really like the "frowny face" because it is true. Foreign foods sometimes can be added into smelly foods. Many associate bad smells with bad tastes, so it is hard to eat those foods. What I do not understand is there are people who hate the smell of alcohol...yet drink it just fine...

Most of the fad diets, or books about diets tend to not be healthy. They usually take out something that is important that YES the body does need...like carbohydrates, for an example. Sure, it makes you lose weight, because your body has to use other energy and nutrient sources to do its job. Meanwhile, your body is probably giving you the frowning of a lifetime.

Some tips to remember for a healthy diet:

The Food Satisfaction Triangle

Avoid processed, packaged foods

Find local farmers that sell their goods

Stay out of the drive through!

Conclusion: This section was so easy to get off topic on and go on rants. We managed to make our way through where food comes from, which most don't want to know anyway, The Food Satisfaction Triangle, and a little blurb about diets. That concludes the second part of Unit Two. I hope you enjoyed!

Nutrition

Introduction: This section is a brief overview of nutrition that will be concluded with the nutrition lab provided for this topic. We'll start by sorting out some definitions, talking about the different classes of nutrients, and then planning out nutritious meals.

Definitions

*All definitions are from the Mader textbook either taken from chapter eight or the glossary.

Nutrient: A component of food that performs a physiological function in the body.

Glycemic Index (GI): Blood glucose response of a given food.

Essential Amino Acids: Amino acids required in the human diet because the body can't make them.

Essential Fatty Acids: Fatty acids required in the human diet because the body can't make them.

Vitamins: Organic compounds that the body uses for metabolic purposes but is unable to produce in adequate quantity.

Class Time

Nutrients are broken up into five different classes.

1. Carbohydrates: simple or complex sugars used in the body for energy.

2. Proteins: already talked a lot about what proteins can do, in nutrition there are so many essential amino acids that one must get from food.

3. Lipids: also known as fats, there are two types of fatty acids the body cannot make.

4. Minerals: such as calcium and sodium play major roles in bone construction and regulating body water balance

5. Vitamins: used a lot for metabolic processes.

Put Into Motion

Many know of the food pyramid. It has changed from what I remember, but still has the main idea of this is a healthy diet. The book suggests a way of making ourselves more nutritious which include:

~Eating a variety
~Eating more fruits and veggies, whole grains, fat free or low fat products.
~Eat less foods high in saturated, trans fat, or cholesterol.
~Be physically active

Frolich gives a different suggestion known as "The Food Satisfaction Triangle" which will be discussed a little later.

Lab:

To get started with this lab, here is a screen shot of the foods I ate in one day:


This was a little challenging because this program did not have the specific foods I eat. I was horribly frustrated because I could not get just a regular, small sized, raw apple from this. Here is a list of what I ate that particular day.

*2 Over Hard Eggs
*1 Breakfast Ham Steak
*1 Small, Raw Apple
*2 Cups Macaroni and Cheese with Canned Tuna mixed in
*2 Slices of Cheese Pizza
*4 Breadsticks

I only drink water, hence why no liquids were added.

Now it is time to answer some questions.

1. How healthy a daily diet do you think this is? Why?

Thankfully, I happen to be taking nutrition as a class this semester. Our first project was to map out what we ate for three days, then figure out the total amount of calories we eat a day, how much fiber we are getting and the servings from each food group we get.

After doing this, I have learned that I do not have a healthy daily diet at all. I do not eat nearly enough calories for as active as I am, nor do I chose foods that give me the fiber I need and I also almost never meet any serving requirements.

2. -What would you change about this day's eating, if anything?

First, I would up my intake of calories by eating more, but still in healthy portion sizes. Secondly, I would start eating fruits and vegetables as snacks throughout the day to help me get those serving sizes. Thirdly, it would not be a bad idea to eat cereals that are high in fiber and whole to increase fiber amounts. Lastly, I would have to figure out my lactose intolerance problem that I newly learned I have and work that into my diet, ensuring I get what dairy products provide for my body.

3. -Do you find this kind of nutritional tracking helpful? Why or why not?

I do find this nutritional tracking very helpful. I think it would work best for those who are overweight though. Being someone who does not eat a lot, I found it very overwhelming to try to figure out more foods I could eat, and then listing them out in meals made me feel like I could never truly eat that much. It seems like it would work the opposite for an overweight person. They would see the large amounts being eaten (if they were honest about their portion sizes) and maybe start thinking about cutting them back.

Conclusion: That concludes this section! We looked at some commonly seen words in nutrition, very briefly took a glance at the different nutrient classes, saw the book's way of putting nutrition in ones own life, and lastly had a lab of how awful an eater I am. Now, for the last section of Unit Two, which includes Frolich's method of incorporating a healthy diet.

Digestive System

Introduction: Now we are on to the part that every one of us uses on a daily basis, our digestive systems! This section will address different parts, mechanical and chemical digestion, and a brief touch on Diabetes.

Parts

Here is a diagram of the digestive system from http://www.medicalook.com. This diagram shows every part in great detail. A brief overview of digestion would be something like this:

First a person takes a bite of food and chews it up. As they are chewing, saliva is secreted from the various glands shown at the top. The food, once mixed with saliva, is then called a bolus. It is then swallowed. It is pushed down the esophagus by means of peristalsis. Peristalsis is the squeezing movement of the esophagus that is so strong, one can drink water standing on their head. It then passes through the esophageal sphincter in the stomach. The top part of the stomach is called the fundus, the middle part is the body, and the last part is the pylorus. While in the stomach, secretions happen that are enzymes to break down the food. The bolus then is called chyme. The chyme move through the pyloric sphincter into the duodenum, or first part of the intestine. More enzymes and bile are secreted to further break down the chyme. Also, in the small intestine, nutrients and other such things are being absorbed at this time. It goes further through, passing through the jejunum and ileum, finally reaching the large intestine. It continues to move through, the rest of what can be absorbed is and the rest is secreted.

Mechanical Digestion

Mechanical digestion is anything that does NOT have to do with chemicals. These processes are basically chewing the food. This image, from http://images.encarta.msn.com shows mechanical digestion, but once the glands secrete anything, it becomes chemical digestion.

Chemical Digestion

As mentioned before, chemical digestion is where any chemical actions are taking place. Such as salvation breaking down food, gastric juices in the stomach, and any of the secretions from the pancreas and other organs that involve enzymes or food break down is chemical digestion. Unfortunately, I did not find an images that really brought to light what chemical digestion is.

Diabetes

Lastly, let's take a brief look at Diabetes. Heredity and Obesity are the two leading causes of Type II diabetes. Type II is the most common and it is an insulin resistance problem. The pancreas is making and releasing insulin, but the body is either not using it or it is ineffective.

Here is a picture from http://www.dva.gov.au depicting some of the problems Diabetes may cause. Diabetes is a huge epidemic in the world and is only increasing. A lot of what comes into play is a person's personal habits, such as eating healthy, taking in less calories and exercising more.

A great database to learn more about diabetes is at http://www.diabetes.org.

Conclusion: That brings this section to a close. We took a look at the digestive process, the different types of digestion, and a brief look at diabetes. Next up is basic nutrition.

What A Cell Needs

Introduction: Welcome to the second part of unit two! This part involves nutrition! In this particular section, we are going to reverse some and look at what a cell needs, such as energy, and the cycles it goes through. We are also going to look at how glucose enters the cell.

ATP

First off, cells need oxygen for respiration. As a reminder, respirations are the metabolic reactions that use energy. Here is a picture of ADP gaining energy and being turned into ATP to be used in the cell from http://ghs.gresham.k12.or.us.

Glycolosis & Kreb's Cycle

Glycolosis & Kreb's are the main way that cells make ATP. I remember in high school I had to memorize each of these cycles, be able to diagram them, and then explain them. Unfortunately, I can look at the cycle and have a general idea as to what is going on, but nothing like I used to know.

Here is an image of the Glycolosis process also obtained from http://ghs.gresham.k12.or.us.
Then there is Kreb's cycle. Again, I used to know much more about it than I do now. Here is an image depicting the Kreb's cycle from http://www.uic.edu.
This is a simple diagram showing that the cell takes two Acetyl-CoA and eventually turns it into ATP by multiplying it and taking out certain elements.

Welcome Glucose

A good question is How does glucose enter the cell? Glucose is energy and enters the cell through controlled diffusion. This means it goes through the cell membrane by way of a special protein spore. Insulin, the protein secreted in response to glucose, stimulates cells to either take the glucose, store it, or use it in cellular metabolism. This is a very complex process, that I have just made sound very simple. Unfortunately, I did not have any success in locating images of controlled diffusion.

Conclusion: That wraps up our rewind to cells. This section informed, in a very simple manner, as to how glucose enters the cell. It also showed images of glycolosis and Kreb's as well as a little information on ATP. Next up is the digestive system!

Table of Contents: Part Two

Unit Two-Topic Two: Nutrition

What A Cell Needs
~ATP
~Glycolosis & Kreb's Cycle
~Welcome Glucose

Digestive System
~Parts
~Mechanical
~Chemical
~Diabetes

Nutrition
~Definitions
~Class Time
~Put Into Motion
~Nutrition Lab

"Lay off me, I'm starving!" (Remember Food)
~Where Does Your Food Come From
~Satisfaction
~Diets

Circulatory System

Introduction: Welcome to Unit Two, Major Topic One! This section is going to begin by exploring the circulatory system. In this section, you will find the different parts of the circular system, functions, and a little mention to the lymphatic system.

Parts:

The main part of the circulatory system is, of course, the heart. The heart is what pumps the blood throughout the system. Some fun facts about the heart-->

*Your heart is about the size of one fist grasped by the other hand.
*"The heart can create enough pressure that it could squirt blood at a distance of thirty feet."
*"The human heart weighs less than a pound."

*(The credibility of these "fun facts" is questionable but may be found at www.funshun.com)*

Found at http://www.coral-lab.org, here is a picture of a real human heart that has been preserved.

The next part of the circulatory system is the blood. The average adult carries about 5 quarts of blood. Luckily, it is created so quickly in the body, that giving blood is safe. I will never forget the first time I gave blood and the only thing I kept thinking was, "Wow...are they going to leave me any?!"

Below is a picture of red blood cells from http://science.uwe.ac.uk
There will be more about blood in the next section.

Last but not least are the blood vessels that travel all throughout the body. Again, more of this will be in the next section.

Here is a nice picture depicting blood vessels from http://www.accessexcellence.org.
Functions:
The circulatory is obviously very important. The book describes different functions of the Cardiovascular System. They are as follows:

1. When the heart pumps, it creates blood pressure, which moves the blood through blood vessels.

2. Blood vessels transport the blood

3. Many exchanges occur at the capillaries, refreshes blood and then tissue fluid.

4. Heart and blood vessels regulate blood flow according to needs of the body.

(Pg. 86)

Personal Assistant:

I am sure many of us would not mind having a personal assistant to do our chores and errands. We do have a personal assistant, but it assists our circulatory system. This is called the lymphatic system. (http://www.nlm.nih.gov)

The lymphatic system is there to collect excess tissue fluid, and then return it to the circulatory system. This is the main purpose. It also absorbs fat and fat-soluable vitamins from the digestive system. Lastly, and probably the most well known, is that the lymphatic system is the defense against invading microorganisms and disease.

Conclusion: We have just taken a very brief look at the circulatory system, its parts, functions, and assistance system. Not it is time to go a little bit more into detail. The next section is dealing with different blood vessels involved in the body. We will look at a few dfinitions, and some of the exchanges that occur at the capillary level.

Table of Contents

Unit Two: Topic One - Oxygen/Microbes/Immunity

Circulatory System
~Parts
~Functions
~Personal Assistant


Blue, Red, and Microscopic Tube
~Definitions
~Great Exchange

Pump, Pump, Pump It Up!
~Parts of the Heart (Definitions)
~Control Freak
~Pulse
~Being Regular

Lab One

Bleeding!
~Functions
~Definitions
~Types
~I Need Air!

Being Immune
~Definitions
~Invasion!
~Defend the Body!
~Antibody!

HIV/AIDS

Introduction: Now is the time to move onto a very serious disease. This section is going to give a brief history, the difference between HIV and AIDS, how it is transmitted, and how Helper T-Cells are effected.

A Brief History

Generally, it has been accepted that HIV started in Africa and moved from there. It is now found in every corner of the world. Scientists believe that HIV may have evolved from an immunodeficiency virus during the late 1950's. Some scientists identified an ape in West Africa as the source, which contributes the "Green Monkey" theory. In school, I once watched a video about how HIV was spread. It was absolutely ridiculous because it blamed one guy from Europe who was a stewardess and slept with many men and women, of whom he often met in bath houses.

Here is a website that has some background on HIV and much more: http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/basic/index.htm#origin.

HIV/AIDS Difference

Many people put HIV and AIDS hand in hand. Yes, AIDS is caused by the HIV virus, but they are not the same thing. HIV infects and destroys cells of the immune system; AIDS is the advanced stage when a person gets "opportunistic infections." An opportunistic infection is one that has the chance to occur because of the severely weakened immune system (Pg 344).

Transmission

HIV is transmitted through blood and fluid contact, sexual intercourse, saliva, sharing needles with an infected person, a mother passing it to her baby during pregnancy.

Viruses attack cells. It gets inside the cell, takes part in reverse transcriptase (reverse transcription) which makes viral RNA to viral DNA. Then it replicates and begins the RNA process, eventually leaving the cell to infect other cells. It is the same process to an extent.


Not So Helpful Helper T-Cells

When HIV infects the Helper T-Cells, it makes the cell present itself as an antigen. Then, T-Cells and B-Cells come in and eliminate it. Eventually, this highly impairs the immune system, moving HIV into AIDS, so on and so forth until the immune system is so incapable an opportunistic disease takes over.

Here are some websites I got hung up on reading about HIV/AIDS:

http://www.avert.org

http://www.who.int/en/

http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/basic/index.htm#origin

Conclusion: That wraps up all of Unit Two - Topic One information. This section included information about HIV/AIDS and previously sections discussed the circulatory system, the heart, blood vessels, blood, and more of the immune system. Unit Two - Topic Two is going to address nutrition.

Being Immune

Introduction: Welcome to the next section of Unit II - Topic One. This section is going to deal with some definitions of terms involved with immunity, recognizing foreign invaders, how the body defends itself, and a quick look at antibodies.

Definitions:

*Definitions are from Mader textbook, chapter seven.

Immunity: "Ability to combat diseases and cancer, includes lines of defense" (pg 128).

Bacteria: Single-celled prokaryotes without a nucleus.

Virus: Not composed of cells and are obligate parasites. Viruses don't live without a host.

Antigens: Foreign molecules to the immune system.

B cells and T cells: lymphocytes that are capable of recognizing antigens.

Lymphocytes: Specialized white blood cells that function in specific defense (Pg G-11).

Helper T-Cells: T-cell that secretes cytokines that stimulate all kinds of immune system cells (Pg G-9)

There are many more vocabulary involved in immunity system actions, but these are a few commons one that will be used during the rest of this section.

Invasion!

There are two main classes of foreign invaders. There is bacteria first. Here is a picture from http://www.researchmagazine.uga.edu entitled "Bacteria Gone Bad."

I found this to be an appropriate picture because most bacteria are not disease causing; bacteria can go bad. Here is a more traditional view of bacteria from http://www.ou.edu.

The other class are viruses. According to Frolich, slide 19 of 'Blood, Oxygen, and Immunity,' "Viruses are escaped parts of genome or DNA." Viruses rely on a host to live. Here is a common depiction of a virus from http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu.
Here is a picture of the influenza virus I found at http://www.rkm.com.auI really like this picture of the flu virus. It looks like a very colorful other part of some system that actually would of some assistance, but in actuality, it makes one feel pretty awful.

Viruses and bacteria are are considered to be "invaders." What happens in the body is very neat. During development, the body is exposed to its own cells and the proteins. The immune cells that begin to attack our own cells are eliminated and the remainders are what become the T- and B-Cells. This process is known as "clonal selection." Once developed, the T- and B-Cells recognize invaders and kill them, but won't kill the bodies own cells.

Defend the Body!

There are two types of defenses: Nonspecific and Specific. Nonspecific is further broken down into two lines of defense which are: barriers to entry and inflammatory response.

Barriers to entry has a first line of defense which is the bodies built-in barriers, such as skin and mucous membranes. It also has some chemical barriers, such as secretions of oil glands, perspiration, saliva, tears, and acid pH of the stomach.

Inflammatory response is like the second line of defense. It is characterized by four symptoms: redness, heat, swelling, and pain. The body then sends out all of its signals to get white blood cells, platelets (if needed), and any other things needed.

The whole idea of inflammatory response reminds of a hospital emergency situation. For example, an alarm goes off. Everyone has their specific duties. At least two doctors closest to the emergency are to respond. Nurses come with crash carts and defibrilators. Then come nursing aides or patient care technicians as more support staff. It seems like the inflammatory response does the same thing. It sends out the alarm to the brain saying there is something going on here, usually characterized by pain. Excess blood flow occurs, which is like getting everyone to the scene. Then the white blood cells come, which is like the doctors who determine what action needs to be taken.

Antibody

On page 132 of the Mader textbook there is table 7.2 at the bottom of the page. It explains the class, presence, and function of certain antibodies.

An antibody is protein produced in response to the presence of an antigen; each antibody combines with a specific antigen (Pg G-2). Here is a picture of antibodies attaching to a virus to prevent it from reproducing or being transported further throughout the body. This picture was found at http://images.healthcarecentersonline.com.Antibodies float freely in the blood stream but are considered T- and B-Cell receptors when attached to one or the other. Susumu Tonegawa was recognized with the Nobel Prize for his discovery of antibody diversity. Here is a picture of an antibody from http://www.biology.arizona.edu that depicts the binding sites, variable, constant, and light and heavy chain.


Conclusion: There you have it! We just went over major information about what all helps one out to be immune. Next up, we are going to take a very brief look at HIV/AIDS. The next section is going to give a a few websites that give great information.