All About the Immune and Digestive Systems!

Today I will be discussing the relationship between the immune system, which fights infections, and the digestive system, which breaks down food, and the impact this relationship has on athletes.

 

The digestive system is how we get all of our nutrients, however, it is often exposed to many outside substances because we are constantly eating. Often, healthy bacteria and nutrients are absorbed, however, bad bacteria and pathogens are often present. Because of this constant exposure, bacteria and viruses are constantly being absorbed into the digestive system. The immune system consists of cells, organs, proteins and chemicals that kill off bacteria and viruses to prevent infection. The main role of the immune system is to decide whether what is digested is beneficial or hurtful, and if the bacteria is hurtful, the immune system responds. The most common immune response to bacteria that show up in the digestive system is innate, or non-specific responses that simply kill off the bacteria and pathogens, preventing the rest of the body from being exposed to this bacteria. Bacteria is also prevented from spreading throughout the body because of the intestinal lining and other layers of cells. There is also acquired immunity, which is when a pathogen is exposed to the body enough, the immune system builds up an immunity to it and kills off those pathogens. All of these responses and features of the immune system help kill off harmful bacteria and pathogens within the digestive system to prevent harm to the body. (Sources: NutriHealth, IBS Treatment Center, LiveStrong). Now that you know more about the relationship between digestion and immune response, I’m going to talk about how this effects athletes.

Source: Blausen.com staff

As you can see, the relationship between what you eat and getting sick is strong. The saying, “You are what you eat,” really is true and if you eat junk food and food with little to no nutritious value, it will have physical effects, like getting sick more often. Athletes need to become aware of what they are putting in their bodies can affect their performance and how they physically feel. If an athlete consistently eats harmful foods or chemicals, their athletic performance will diminish due to the fact their body is focusing all of its energy on fighting infections away rather than performing to its highest level. All the parts of the body connect in some way or another and athletes who learn more about how systems relate to one another will be aware of how they can improve their performance on the field through health and nutrition.

Bacteria (yellow) being ingested by a cell from the immune system
Source: NIAID

Health and nutrition are very important factors if an athlete wants to perform to their highest level, not only to provide healthy energy, but also to prevent the athlete from getting sick and constantly being exposed to pathogens. Eating healthy, drinking lots of water and being mindful of what athlete’s put in their bodies are all ways in which athletes can stay healthy and support their immune system. Various rest days and breaks should be incorporated into athletes’ schedules so their bodies have time to heal. If an athlete is to become sick, they should also make sure to allot time to recover, so they do not push their bodies too hard and prolong their sickness. All of these solutions revolve around the core value of keeping the needs of your body in mind and feeding it with energy and health, not bringing it down with chemicals and fake food.

Source: Agricultural Research Service

Everybody should be aware of what they’re eating, the impact it has on their body and how eating right can help protect against illness. As always, this is my opinion and I am not a doctor so those with medical issues should seek the help of a professional. I hope you enjoyed this post and make sure to check out some of my other posts!

 

 

 

Nutrition: My Opinion

Nutrition is defined as “the process of obtaining the food necessary for health and growth” (Google). This is a very general definition, however, for me nutrition is not only what we eat, but also how we live and our attitude towards food.

Source: Aria Ziai

Nutrition and diet are a part of my daily life, as I am an athlete, student and person who is very active. I don’t always eat very healthy snacks or meals, but at least one meal a day has vegetables, meat and other foods with nutritious value. My family makes meals daily, however, like every family, we have moderation. I have grown up to believe that diet and nutrition are important, but having an unhealthy snack or meal is not a bad thing and teaches moderation. As a kid, nutrition was an important part of my life as I was growing and I believe this emphasis has helped me try to be healthier in my decisions as a teenager with more choices and freedom with what I eat.

Source: Wikimedia

During high school and college, nutrition and the attention towards diet diminish. Nutrition should not only be something we are conscious of as kids or parents, but as teens and young adults as well. If we eat a generally balanced diet with homemade meals and healthy foods, then we will be more physically fit and it will help us in the long run. Nutrition at a young age is more important than most people think it is and I believe more awareness and efforts need to be made for a healthier lifestyle for all.

Source: User beeki on pixabay

Nutrition, experiences and the decisions to put something in our body are purely personal and unique to every individual. My experiences make me appreciate nutrition and being healthy, so I hope I can continue to make nutrition an important part of my daily life. I’m not qualified to tell somebody what to do, however I believe that eating right can improve not only your physical appearance, but how you feel and your attitude towards situations.

Source: Wikimedia

Here are some links to outside sources that have more information on nutrition in general:

Nutrition.gov

What is nutrition?

 

I hope you enjoyed reading my opinion on nutrition and health, make sure to comment and check out some of my other posts!

Heart Disease in Women: A Healthy Solution

Hello again! Today I will be talking about what other members of my Sports Med and myself did to increase awareness of heart disease and help prevent heart disease!

 

We used the Design Thinking Model to create our product, which is this website. There are five steps: Empathize, Design, Ideate, Prototype and Test. I will describe briefly what we did for each step to create our website to help lower the rate of heart disease in women!

Design Model Thinking Process

We initially began our project learning about heart disease in women, who’s affected, what the causes are, what the symptoms are and other statistics on how many women are killed each year and more. We empathized with those with heart disease, learning what they are going through, why and how there is no real cure to heart disease, only ways to manage it. Women that have heart disease, we realized, are usually older, in less physical form than they should be and often genetics play a role. However, because heart disease is so prevalent and widespread, there is no real definition for women who have heart disease, any women can get it, which is the scary part. Check out this video, a PSA I helped create, for some more quick facts on heart disease.

We learned that heart disease in women is usually caused by other factors in one’s health, which lead us to believe that if the initial health of a women can be kept on track, the number of women with heart disease could be lowered. If a women has previous health issues, her likelihood of developing heart disease increases. Health issues are caused by poor diet, lack of exercise and lack of healthy habits. Overall health, specifically diet and exercise, I believe, is what I defined as the main problem that could, and should, be addressed.

To address this problem, my group members and I brainstormed and came up with various ideas. Because of the limited amount of time we had to work together, we concluded that a virtual product would be best so we could collaborate on our own time and in our own homes. We wanted to make a product that could be seen by many people and could offer a simple solution to a complex problem. We determined that diet and exercise are key, controllable factors that we could inform, give ideas on and motivate people to live healthier lifestyle. We brainstormed solutions that were virtual, and could address health, and we could have done an app, a Facebook group or page, or various other virtual products. However, we decided to create a completely new website.

 

The prototype that we decided to create is a website, helpforhearts.wordpress.com, that gives information on heart disease, as a background, places to donate and volunteer, but mainly it lists healthy recipes and workouts for people to refer to so they can improve on a certain portion of their diet or daily exercise. Many people don’t know that healthy can taste good, and so the goal of the website is to create a location where people at risk or that have heart disease can go on, search a recipe for dinner and have a multitude of healthy options that will help improve their health and heart disease.

The home page of our website

The website is only recently published so we cannot say whether it has made an impact or not yet, however there have been a couple of visitors, which is a positive sign. There are multiple tabs, drop down menus and features that make the website, in my opinion, visually appealing. We have asked some people, and they said that they enjoyed the website, finding it helpful with tips on being healthy for diet and exercise. We hope to gain more feedback on what we should improve and how we can bring even more awareness to this disease and how to prevent it. I cannot determine whether impact on heart disease itself has been made, however, I hope that this website gives people more ideas and creative ways to stay healthy and fit, while enjoying themselves!

 

Researching women and heart disease, coming up with solutions and creating this website was a great experience that I learned a lot from. It is a horrible disease that needs more awareness and solutions and I hope the website and tips help the goal of more awareness and more prevention.

 

I hope you enjoyed reading this blog post and remember to check out our website to see how you can help!

 

 

Sources Used:

Women’s Heart Foundation

CDC

The Heart Foundation

American Heart Association

Mayo Clinic

 

FLOW: Response

Hello again! Today I’m going to be talking about the movie FLOW and the associated problems with water control and distribution in the world.

The film, FLOW: For Love of Water, is a documentary that discussed water, water in poorer countries and areas and the privatization of water in the US and other countries abroad. Water is a precious resource and before watching this film, I had not realized how limited water is to poorer nations and as a resource in general. Nations in Africa, areas in India and other underdeveloped areas must walk miles to get unfiltered, unclean water because they do not want to pay the high prices of tap water set by greedy, multi-national corporations.

 Pictures found here and here

Seeing videos of people walking miles for unclean and unsafe water was a real wake up call to me. I knew not everybody had access to clean water, but I did not think that people would be forced to put their lives on the line because they have no other source or the source is too expensive. Big corporations, like Nestle, try to “donate” and make it seem like they are putting real effort in to making wells and making water cheaper, however, big corporations only care about profit and their stockholders and even these “relief efforts” make profit for the company.

 Picture found here

FLOW opened my eyes to the reality of the water crisis worldwide and I have realized that more action from, people that are more privileged and have the ability to donate, is necessary. I am going to be more aware of the water I use and how to conserve it, as well as participating in any efforts to help those without water through donations and other relief efforts. There is a YouTube video below that briefly addresses the water crisis as a whole, I encourage you to check it out! If you want to get more involved and donate, learn more or help with efforts to improve water distribution worldwide, click here, here or here for more information and places to donate.

Thanks for reading!

 

Disclaimer: FLOW, the pictures and the YouTube video are not created by me.