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Running Start/HEA150 - Health/Week 3/Discussion Replies Week 3.md

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+### Replying to Suri
+Hi Suri,
+I have definitely also experienced having trouble focusing during on a day where I don't get much sleep the night before. It is interesting how lack of sleep can cause both short-term and long-term memory problems, I wonder how similar the short-term memory effects are to conditions like Alzheimers. The findings from your study on the effect of sleep on stress, inflammation and blood pressure is also interesting, it is crazy how many conditions and parts of our bodies are affected by the amount and quality of sleep we get.
+
+### Replying to Hassen
+Hi Hassen,
+I also try to get more sleep whenever I have something important the next day like a big test or presentation. It is usually better to prioritize sleep the night before something important rather than trying to study for it more, and I try to do this whenever I can. The article on people with lactose intolerance is interesting, I didn't know that consuming dairy would have an effect on their dreams. I wonder if maybe the nightmares are partially caused by the disrupted sleep, or if there is some other cause.
+
+### Replying to Hollyanne
+Hi Hollyanne,
+I agree that getting 30 minutes of sunlight a day can be very beneficial for my mood, and this tip reminds me of seasonal affective disorder. One of the symptoms of this is sleep difficulties which seems to line up well with the recommendation to get 30 minutes of sunlight a day to improve sleep quality. The connection between sleep and anxiety is also interesting, since it seems like it would cause a feedback loop of anxiety causing a decrease in sleep quality which in turn would cause an increase in anxiety.
+
+### Replying to Alan
+Hi Alan,
+It is interesting in your study that sleep quality seems to matter more for cancer risk than the duration. Since the impact of sleep duration on cancer depends on the tissues affected, I wonder which types of cancer are better treated or mitigated by more sleep. Treating sleep disorders to improve the outcome of cancer treatment is also interesting to me, especially with the added stress of these treatments often contributing to poor sleep as you mentioned.

Running Start/HEA150 - Health/Week 3/Discussion Response Week 3.md

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+1. On average, I get about 9 hours of sleep per day. Based on the NHLBI's website, they recommend that I get 8-10 hours of sleep per day so I am getting a good amount of sleep each night. Getting enough sleep helps with growth an development especially with children and teens, and also helps to form long-term memories. By getting enough sleep, my body is better able to recover each day and I have more energy in the morning. Not getting enough sleep can lead to decreased immune system effectiveness as well as increasing the risk of chronic disease.
+2. After taking the Epworth Sleepiness Scale quiz, I got a score of 1 and a category of "Normal Sleepiness." I think that this aligns pretty well with how I feel throughout the week, since I don't have many problems with feeling tired throughout the day. For me, I think that the sleep tip of waking up at the same time each day would be helpful since although I wake up at the same time on weekdays, I usually sleep in on the weekends. This is likely harming my body's ability to get used to a consistent sleep schedule, and it is something that I will look into changing going forward. Some of the tips that are not a helpful for me are the ones about limiting alcohol and caffeine consumption since I don't drink either of those and don't have to worry about them effecting the quality of my sleep.
+3. I looked into the effect of a healthy sleep schedule on the risk of getting dementia. The resource that I found is a paper from 2025 titled "Associations of adherence to a healthy sleep pattern with the dementia risk in the UK biobank" from the journal "Alzheimer's Research & Therapy." This paper explored data from the UK Biobank which included about half a million participants who filled out a survey and later, 40,000 of which underwent MRI scans. The study took the data from a survey given to all of the participants and grouped sleep habits into 5 categories of healthy sleep. These categories included sleeping 7-8 hours a day, being a morning person, not having frequent insomnia, no snoring and no frequent daytime sleepiness. For each of these traits that a participant demonstrated, a point was given on a five point scale. The study found that for each increase of one point on this scale, there was a 7% decrease in the risk of dementia. This is likely because healthier sleeping habits help to maintain brain structure leading to less of a risk of dementia. This shows the importance of maintaining healthy sleeping habits to reduce the risk of diseases later in life. 

Running Start/HEA150 - Health/Week 3/Search and Report Week 3.md

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+#rs/assignment #rs/class/hea150 
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+1. For the family history of cardiovascular problems, I answered that no one had problems before the age of 55, which raised my estimated age from 75 to 77. For the next question about blood pressure, I answered that I do not know my blood pressure, since it is something that I get checked at doctors appointments, but I don't check regularly on my own. This lowered the estimated age by two years. For the question about stress, I answered that Stress is a positive influence for me, which increased the expected age to 76. I also answered that I get 30 minutes of walking 4 days a week for exercise which increased it to 78 and that I eat more than 5 portions of fruits and vegetables which increased it to 81. I also wear a seatbelt which increased it to 82 and I haven't had any accidents which increased it to 83. I also don't drink, smoke or use drugs for recreation which increased the estimated age to 87. Finally, I regularly schedule doctors visits, which raised the estimated age to 88 years.
+2. High blood pressure, smoking, physical activity, obesity, stress, substance use, genetics, age and sex are all mentioned in the survey. Out of these, all but genetics, age and sex are controllable.
+3. Overall, I wasn't very surprised by the results of this survey, since I do many things that lower my risk of cardiovascular disease such as exercising and eating healthy. There are many limitations to this website, such as that it mostly focuses on the risk of cardiovascular disease and doesn't have many questions on something else. Even though heart disease is the top cause of death in the United States, there are still many other conditions and scenarios that this survey does not address. There isn't much about cancer risk which is the second highest cause of death, and there are only one or two questions about car accidents which fall into the third highest category. Although this test can give a general risk assessment for cardiovascular disease, there are many other things that impact life expectancy including profession, living conditions, hobbies and much more.