BMI and BMR

BMI stands for body mass index and BMR stands for basal metabolic rate. While both sound similar, they are different. Both are used to calculate the fitness of one's body. However, the BMI is a measure of a person's body composition and is calculated using a person's weight and height. It is used to determine if a person is obese, normal, or underweight. The BMR is the number of calories a person's body burns at rest such as breathing and heart beating. My BMI is 21.92 and my BMR is 1499. My BMI is in the average range while my BMR is at a slightly higher rate than the average woman which is 1493. While my BMI and BMR are normal, I would still like to exercise some more to improve them.

Muscle Disease

One type of muscle disease is Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis or ALS. It is also known as Lou Gehrig's disease in the United States. ALS affects part of the nervous system that controls voluntary muscle movement. Motor neurons are lost over time and they muscle the neurons control become weak and eventually nonfunctional. There is no known cause for most cases of ALS but some believe it is due to genetics. Some symptoms of this disease are muscle twitches and cramps, along with weak and soft muscles. It can be tight and spastic as well. Symptoms become worse as the disease progresses. Once in the late-stage, most voluntary muscles are paralyzed. Life for those with ALS have improved because of the medical and technological advances. While researchers do not know a definite cause for this disease, they are currently researching it and found many significant breakthroughs. One important discovery would be that they isolated the genes responsible for causing majority of the familial forms.

Sources:https://www.mda.org/disease/amyotrophic-lateral-sclerosis

Muscle Related Career

A muscle related career I am interested in is becoming a physical therapist. A physical therapist's job includes diagnosing patients' functions and movements by observing their movements, develop individualized plans of care for patients, and evaluating and recording the patient's progress. To become a physical therapist, a person would have to take courses such as anatomy, physiology, biology, chemistry, and physics. A person would have to enter a Doctor of Physical Therapy degree which includes courses such as biomechanics, neuroscience, and pharmacology. They also have to complete at least 30 weeks of clinical work. It is a requirement that in all states physical therapists have to be licensed by passing the National Physical Therapy Examination, which is administered by the Federation of State Boards of Physical Therapy. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median annual wage for physical therapists is $84,020. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $57,060 and the highest 10 percent earned more than $119,790.



Sources:
Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2016-17 Edition, Physical Therapists, 
on the Internet at https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/physical-therapists.htm (visited January 30, 2017).

Post 13 Bone Career

Forensic Anthropologist 


Description
A forensic anthropologist works with law enforcement agencies to process evidence relating to skeletal bones. They study human remains for legal purposes such as police investigations. They analyze these remains to draw conclusions about the life of the deceased such as their identity. They can conclude how old they were, what gender, and pinpoint the condition which death occur. They may be called on to testify in court as their expertise is often used as the basis for legal rulings in criminal cases.

Education
To become a forensic anthropologist, a person must have a master's degree, although a Ph.D. may be preferred. Some courses that one should take are biology, chemistry, anatomy, physiology, and genetics. After completing a bachelor's degree, then they should go on to pursue a master's degree or Ph.D. at a graduate program.

Salary
According to BLS, the average annual salary for a forensic anthropologist was $64,290. The bottom ten percent averaged $35,440 a year, while the top ten percent averaged $97,040 a year.

Sources: http://study.com/articles/Forensic_Anthropologist_Job_Description_Outlook_and_Salary.html

Post 12 Bone Disease

Osteoporosis

One type of bone disease is osteoporosis. It is the thinning of bones that causes the tendency to sustain fractures from minor stresses. It is usually from hormonal changes or deficiency of calcium or vitamin D that causes the bones to become brittle and fragile. Osteoporosis is most common in postmenopausal women over the age of 50. It is estimated that one-fourth the the world's population of women over 60 have this disease to some degree. Many have no symptoms until they have a bone fracture, but some do experience loss of height. Treatments of osteoporosis includes medications, healthy diet, and weight-bearing exercises. The exercises are used to prevent bone loss or strengthen bones that are already weak.

Source: https://www.britannica.com/science/osteoporosis

Post 11 What is Bertillonage? Should it be used today? Why or why not?

Bertillonage is a system for the identification of criminals by using anthropometric measurements like head size and arm span. It was invented by Alphonse Bertillon, who was a French officer and biometrics researcher. Although it was used it solve crimes, the system was inaccurate and time consuming because it needed 14 body measurements. Another flaw is that with so many people in the world, there are bound to be people with similar facial structure and measurements. It should not be used today because it takes too long and is not very accurate. Instead, we have a more advanced system today. We use mugshots and fingerprint analysis to differentiate criminals from each other.

Post 10 What is life? Should we support HEs? Why or why not?

Out of all the perspectives, I believe life begins at fertilization. I believe in this because a genome is created from the union of genes from two parents. A genetic blueprint for a human is created and,  thus, life begins at conception or when the egg is fertilized. My belief is that life starts once the egg is fertilized from the sperm because that is where the blueprint to create a baby is formed so life begins there.

I believe that we should support the Human Stem Cell research. The Human Stem Cell research provides possibilities for creating different treatments that can get rid of diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. These stem cells are our opportunities to save thousands of people suffering from these diseases and more in the future, and not taking advantage of it would be wasting the chance to save lives. I believe we should support the Human Stem Cell research because we can potentially save many lives if we find cures for the many diseases people are suffering and dying from. We can only do this if we take advantage of researching with the stem cells.