Blood

Blood is one of the easiest parts of the body to donate. Blood transports oxygen, carbon dioxide, nutrients, and waste through the body. Blood also regulates your body temperature and is important in blood clotting. The process of blood clotting is also called hemostasis. This starts with vasocontriction of the damaged blood vessels. Then the platelets form a "plug" over the wound. This is activated by fibrin prothrombinase. This changes into thronbin which forms the blood clot.

This blood clotting process is important to all of us. If anyone loses too much blood, they can eventually die. If you have ever had a large cut, you know the blood will clot and dry up. This is what is supposed to happen. Without this process we would lose to much blood.

Week 9

There are four blood types: A, B, AB, and type O. Type A blood has A antigens on the surface of the red blood cells and has an anti-B antibody in the plasma. Type B blood is just the opposite with B-antigens on the surface and anti-A antibody in the plasma. Type AB blood has both A and B antigens on the surface and no antibodies in the plasma. Type O blood has no antigens but have both anti A and anti B antibodies. There are also Rh antigens, if someone has these they are Rh positive and if they do not they are Rh-. Knowing these blood types are important for donating and receiving blood.

A women who is Rh negative and is with a male who is Rh positive and is thinking about a child, they want to take precautions. During birth the blood will mix from the baby and the mother, this will cause the mother to develop Rh antibodies. If she does not have a Rhogan shot within 48 hours after the first child, she will develop these antibodies. When she is pregnant with the second child, this will cause clumping of the blood cells and the newborn will be oxygen deprived. This is know as hemolytic disease of the newborn.

Week 8

This week we learned about the second messenger system and its two pathways. There is the cAMP pathway and the PKC pathway. These pathways are much easier to understand through diagrams instead of words. We also went over protein and steroid hormones. There are many differences between the two. The role of the steroid hormone is to make new protein hormones where as the protein hormone causes the hormones to deactivate and activate their activities. Steroid hormones when traveling through the blood have to be connected with a transport protein. This is the case because a steroid hormone is non-polar. This process takes longer than a protein hormone but has a longer half-life. Protein hormones travel through blood. Protein hormones might travel faster but they also have a shorter half-life and degrade fast.

There is a disorder know as the hypersecretion disorder. This is when there is more of a hormone being secreted than necessary in the gland. This is caused by the tropic hormone. There is also hyposecretion where not enough hormone is being produced to function properly. These disorders can be caused by genetics, our diets, or infections. So take care of your body and eat healthy.

Week 7

This week we started to learn about the endocrine system. What an interesting topic to go over. It effects our bodies in many ways. Adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) is produced in the anterior pituitary, by the adrenal cortex. The function on ACTH is to regulate cortizine levels in your body. Antidiuretic hormione (ADH) is produced in the hypothalamus, by the kidney tubules. ADH retains urine and lowers the frequency volume so you stay hydrated. Some other hormones include thyroxine, aldosterone and growth hormones. We also went over steroidal hormones and how they get into the blood. Next week we will go more in depth on this.

Have you ever had any type of shot involving cortizone? This will regulate your levels if you are not producing enough on your own. Have you heard the saying " too much of a good thing is actually a bad thing"? Having too much cortizone is also a bad thing. This will depress your immune system.This will make you more prone to bacteria and germs that cause you to become sick.

Week 6

This week we finished talking about the Autonomic nervous system or ANS and then went into our special senses. As you may know our special senses includes: taste, smell, sight, and hearing. We focused on learning the eye this week. The eye is an amazing sense, without it we would not be able to see all the wonderful things around us. The eye consist of the eyelashes, pupil, iris, lateral and medial commissure. Let's break this down a little. The eyelashes have glands that coats the lashes to keep the eyelashes from sticking and keeping dirt from coming into the eye. The pupil looks black but it is actually a hole. When your pupils constrict, this allows less light to enter the eye and when your pupils dilate, more light enters. There are three layers to the eye, including: the retina (inner layer), choroid, and the sclera (outer layer).

Cataracts is a problem people tend to have as they get older. Cataracts is caused when the fibers in the eye start to harden and the protein that usually helps to repair the eye has a hard time getting in the eye to do this. This results in a lens that becomes cloudy and hard to see through.

Week 5

This week we went over the cranial nerves and how the autonomic nervous system is broken down into the parasympathetic and the sympathetic. There are 12 cranial nerves and each have its own function.

Cranial Nerves:

1. Olfactory is for smell and is a sensory nerve

2. Optic is for vision and is also a sensory nerve

3. Ocukomotor controls eye movement and pupil constriction. This is a mixed nerve.

4. Trochlear also controls eye movement

5. Trigeminal controls the face, teeth, and chewing

6. abducens controls eye movement and is a motor nerve.

7. facial nerve controls pressure and facial expression.

8. Vestubulo-cochlear controls hearing and balence

9. Glosso=pharyngeal, containing swallowing muscles

10. Vagus controls sensation from ear canal, diaphargm, and chest

11. axxessory contains muscles of palate, neck, and some shoulder muscles

12. Hypoglossal controls tongue movement.



Next week we have break. I will take this time and start preparing for our next class.

Week 4

This week we reviewed mostly on the first meeting over the circle of Willis and CSF circulation. Then the next class we had a different professor. It's funny how you get so used to one professor all the time, when another one comes along, how different they teach. Anyway, we covered the peripheral nervous system. This is divided into somatic and autonomic divisions. The somatic division regulates voluntary skeletal muscle. The autonomic division deals with the glands and smooth muscle. Then we went over the cranial nerves There are twelve pairs of nerves: olfactory, optic, oculomotor, trochlear, trigeminal, abducens, facial, vestibulo-cochlear, glosso-pharyngeal, vagus, accessory, and hypoglossal. They each have there own functions.

This relates to everyday living for people who have a disorder or disease relating to the nervous system. For example, someone who has Parkinson's disease or Paralysis.