Neuro-trans-mis-sion break down. Its always the same!

       If you listen to Led Zeppelin and have ever heard the song Communication Break down, that is the tune you would sing the title of this blog too.  Just thought I'd give ya some background on the way my mind wonders.  The way the mind wonders is pretty funny I think we can all agree.  Mine is one that many of the people around me have always wondered where it comes up with some of the things I do.  If you know me, and your reading this, lets be honest.  I am known to do some really dumb, questionable, energetic, funny, or just plain out of the ordinary things through out my life.  Then comes the jokes from people like, "What are you smoking dude?"  Or, "Are you friggin high?"  My replies consist of either "ya, on life", or "hell no man, just motivated."  My behaviors may be different, but are definitely not inspired by drug use.
       Many people though can't say the same.  Our behaviors and energy levels are greatly effected by the action of different neurotransmitters in our brain shooting across synaptic gaps all throughout our brain and body.  When drugs are used/abused by individuals, different neurotransmitters such as dopamine, serotonin, endorphines, and GABA to name a few begin to flow through our system in a very altered way compared to the way the neurotransmitters NATURALLY travel.
       Ok, your probably wondering what each of neurotransmitters do and I'll be getting to that eventually but for now, I'd like to quit rambling and get to my main point.  The drugs of our day to day choice and drugs of bad choice as well and how they effect some of these certain neurotransmitters.  Coffee, tea, and most soda have that ever-so neglected drug of caffeine inside of them.  Then for those of us that are over 18 and making their own choices, Nicotine is another legal drug of choice obtained through cigarettes, dip, and even gum.  Upping the ante after the age of 21 is reached, some like to legally end their hard day at work with some form of Alcohol.  Alcohol, as most of us all know is ok when drank in moderation, and can very easily be abused by those of whom that decide to drink a little too much.
       Lets get down to the science of em now eh?  Caffeine of course is a stimulant and has been known to make people energetic.  The chemical increases heart rate, and stimulates the good-choice-making prefrontal cortex in the brain.  Its not addictive in the reward center of the brain that is activated by the brain though.  With increase of the neurotransmitter Dopamine, it makes the reward and dependency urges in the brain become more attached to certain substances.  With no action on the dopaminergic system, caffeine is mainly just used as a wake up in the morning, or a PM pick-me-up.  Caffeine, though, is also a diuretic meaning it dehydrates the body by making the kidneys work over time and secrete more fluids to be prepared to go to the bathroom a little more than usual.
       On to nicotine now with its well known addictive properties to most all society.  THIS chemical is found in cigarettes, cigars, chewing tobacco, and specially made gum and patches.  What nicotine does is that when it is used by someone in one of those ways, it hits the brain and starts effecting the nervous system within 7-10 seconds of chosen use.  It gets into the "rewarding" center of neurotransmission dealing with the neurotransmitter dopamine.  Dopamine, when shot between the synaptic gap, is a chemical naturally made in the body that deals with anti depression and promotion of happiness and wellbeing.  Nicotine doesn't flow through, but the effects of the nicotine on the system promote the flow of dopamine by a margin that is not normal for the body to do.  Through said studies, nicotines effects on the dopamine flow aren't near as high as the effects of other stronger and very illegal drugs. Over time, nicotine addiction becomes stronger and stronger leading to higher doses and with drawls from the drug. Nicotine use--increase dopamine flow--happy reward system :).
       "Booze it!"  On to alcohol.  GABA, the neurotransmitter that promotes INACTIVITY, I repeat, INACTIVITY in the brain is (you guessed it) greatly increased in flow throughout the nervous system when you "booze it".  That is why driving and operating machinery is greatly discouraged when under the influence of alcohol.  One can't react to daily life process as well as they could while not under the influence.  Alcohols promotion of inactivity would classify it as a depressant or a downer.
       These are just a brief description of three chemicals we put in our bodies from time to time in our lives and their neurotransmission intrusion on our bodies.  There are countless drugs and chemicals in this world that could be put into our bodies in some way shape or form leading to altercation in behavior, and physical well being.  The neurotransmitters naturally produced in our body flow just fine from pre synaptic to post synaptic terminals, and need not to be altered in any way by substances that are known to be illegal, or just bad for you.  Some seldom cases involve doctors advice to alter that flow which is perfectly fine.  But if the doc would say its bad to put in your body, then you pry shouldn't snort, inhale, ingest, or inject it.  That's all I'm saying on that subject.
     

sliding muscle filament

     To break it down:  Muscles composed of muscle fibers---> Each bundle of muscle fiber is separated from each other by connective tissues known as endomysium---> Individual cells are striated in appearance meaning that they group together and function like like this ======== with the top and bottom lines being connected to each other and those filaments sliding against each other as we move our muscles.  This of course is a very rough idea of what I'm trying to get at but bare with me.
     Now, the muscle cell it self (gettin' microscopic here), is composed of different connected subunits called myofibrils.  Myofibrils composed of two myofilaments made up of Actin, and Myosin proteins.  when those combine they look like this(again, bare with me here):  =-=-=-=-=-.  The dash(-) represents the Myosin.  The equals sign(=) represents the Actin.  The Actin protein is very thin and surounds the Myosin protein as is some what connects it self around that Myosin protein.  Now in the process of our daily muscle movements, the interconnected myofilaments slide in and out of each other as we move our muscles.  So, in my make shift example of dashes and equal signs, the dashes (myosin) slide in between the top and bottom lines of the equal signs (actin).  Ok, I'm sorry but just one more division of the muscles is needed for even more understanding of the sliding myofilament.  A sarcomere, being two actin proteins surrounding one of the myosin proteins (=-= sarcomere), is a sort of subunit that connects to other sarcomeres to make up the basics of our muscles.
     The action of the sarcomeres contracting and then relaxing is the actin proteins coming closer to each other and then moving away from each other as the muscles are relaxing and contracting through out our daily processes.  As the actin proteins contract and relax, they slide up against the myosin protein that lies in the middle of them.  Its very much so like a chain.  The links don't ever separate unless extreme conditions lead to one of the links breaking, and when the chain does not have allot of tension on it, it allows the links to move fairly freely within them selves.

The green marker cap would be the Myosin protein.  My nasty fingers, would be the Actin proteins.

Better than dashes and equal signs I guess :)

Not so humerus (eh well it is now)

 This would the left elbow.  Notice anything that may be different about it?  There is a pin in the humerus.  Although you may not be able to see it well in this picture, the humerus was chipped off and what was left connected to the elbow joint was hanging on by the width of a piece of yarn.  How do I know this from this picture?  Truth is, I can't even tell either.  This is my elbow.  I broke it in a wrestling match in eighth grade, and it friggin hurt.  This image is just a good look at the pin.
      But take a look at the picture below, and you'll see a better look at the injury.

     In this x-ray mid way through the pin, you may notice a crack in the bone where that piece of bone had chipped off completely. But, now look at the connection to the joint, and you'll notice a thin piece of the unclipped humerus still connected to the joint.








     

   










      My elbow was a displacement fracture because of the fact that the bone had been completely removed from its' original position, and then chipped as well too add to the damage.  When the end of the bone had been chipped off, the doctor said that hopefully the body will either reattach the chip, or get rid of it.  Instead, that chip floated into my elbow joint and got jammed in there.  This prevented me from getting my elbow to move out all the way.  So off to denver I went, twice before I got surgery done.  They ended up bolting that chip back to the elbow and letting the osteoblasts get to work and glue that chip back on to where it belongs.
      Once that was all said and done, the therapy and healing stages took place.  My elbow was so swollen that my friends would push there fingers into my skin and it would leave a crater.  The swelling occurred because of the torn blood vessels that were in my now newly repaired humerus.  It was swollen because it was providing new ground to now start connecting to its' self.  The swelling then started to go down leading to the new blood vessels to be formed and start getting blood flow to that chip of humerus bone.  Trabeculae (spongy type of bone)  then forms between the chip and the humerus in the second to last step to complete healing.  The newly formed border, is now solid bone and the osteoblast cells go to work and get rid of any excess bone that may have been left.  Now, I wrestle, lift, work laborious jobs, and walk on my hands perfectly normal.

it puts the lotion on its' integumentary system (skin)

prezi on the skin

http://prezi.com/1tkf-lf1w1na/epidermis/

This prezi I made is pretty informative about our skin.

Intro of the body, Our mechanism

     In our bodies, there is lots of different things that make it up.  Cells combining to make tissue.  Tissue being used to make our structures.  Certain structures would include the heart, liver, muscles, tendons connecting our muscle to bone, or bone to bone.  Different studies include cytology (study of cells), embryology (study of body when in the womb) and histology (tissue study).  Our bodies in a sense are mechanisms.  They can communicate, do physical tasks, digest fuel, circulate oxygen through it, and send electric currents through the nerve all at the same time.  Theres many different walks of studying the body.
   
     But in analyzing the body for study, we go into anatomical ways of studying it.  Such terms as anterior. posterior, proximal, distal, superior, and inferior to name a few pop up to show different sides/sections of the body.  When dividing the body into cut up sections, you go into scientific terms to describe simple parts of the body.  Instead of right and left side, you would call it sagittal.  "That part lies in the right sagittal area."  Or Medial, which would be smack dab in the middle of the right and left sagittal sections.  Frontal and coronal division is when the front (anterior) and back (posterior) get separated.
     Then the oblique section, a section of nine important parts divided up like a tic tac tow board.  the top right of the "oblique board" is the right hypochondriac region.  Opposite side of course being the left hypochondriac region.  In between those two, is the epigastric region.  these three regions are right below the chest muscles, and right above midway between the belly button and the chest.  Below that is the right and left lumbar, with the umbilical region inbetween the two.  The umbilical region as you might of guessed, includes the belly button towards the bottom of it.  Finally under that layer, is the right and left iliac with hypogastric between those.  Hypogastric includes the top of the pubic region, and just below the belly button. 
     In cytology, you study how cells are layered in different ways in order to make tissue.  Many, many different types of tissue.  Different tissues make up different organs.  But, back to cells, cells can be arranged in different sizes, shapes, and texture. or other wise known as epithilia.  Squamos, very short and fat shaped cells are similar to a checkers set piece.  Cuboidal would be shaped like an alphebet block that young children play with.  A culumnar type of cell would be similar to an unused pencil that is vertically standing upright.  These cells can combine to each other to make different types of tissue.
     If these epithelia are simply combined the simple squamos would look like train cars going down the track.  Short, fat, one strata'd cells combines to each other.  But if they were stratified, then it would be train cars stacked on top of each other.  Strata meaning layers of course.  Simple cuboidal would be when the baby try's to spell out words with his/her alphabet blocks.  But when the baby try's to build a house or a pyramid with the blocks it becomes a stratified cuboidal cell structure.  In a stratified columnar structure, the pencils I was talking about earlier would be stacked on top of each other and some what inner twined as well.
     That is just a short description of what cell structures tend to look like.  I like using analogies to describe what i'm talking about.  I feel that it gives you a pretty good idea of what the cell structures would look like.  Then when a real picture is seen, it binds the memory that much more.

experimental homeostasis

the ice bath was friggin cold.  I also believe Audie has a high heart beat regularly.  Because often times he'll check it just sitting in class, and it will be abnormally high.  Maybe testing Katrina and Steven would of had turn outs towards the data collection.

Tuned into Homeostasis

Homeostasis in short is just the body in it's self trying to maintain normal balance of weight, hydration, energy (food), oxygen, etc. But this type of regulation if the body is a bit different for each individual person. You see, some people may have more of an active life style leading to more of a need for calories and water, and varying weights because of exhaustion of the body after work outs. Then there are others that may not be as active as most and this leads to less of a need for calories (fuel) and also water for that matter. Ever wonder how you can eat 3 meals a day every day and not be huge? Well homeostasis is the regulation of using up all those colories throughout your day and preparing it's self for some sort of action. Homeostasis, the wonderful action of the body that keeps you finely tuned like one of Eric Claptons guitars. But with different guitars comes individual tuning.