Weekly Assignment 1

Today's class discussion was focused on Alzheimers disease. I am going to relate this to my grandfather you died of Alzheimers. It is very difficult to see somebody starting to lose all their memories. I can't even imagine how my grandmother dealt with it. He always thought that she was a stanger in his house and would just scream at her. It was hard for myself and the rest of my family to see him in the nursing home, fighting with the nurses because it wasn't the right medication (it really was though). I know I look like my mom but im never called "Sherry"; that is what my grandfather called me his last couple months. He was just so out of it. It didnt really mean anything to me when I was younger but now that I am starting to learn about Alzheimers, I realize that I can be at a high risk of having the disease. Dreier was talking about how we should, as we age, start exercising our brain by reading and other ways. I know I will be reading more when I am at the age of being at risk of Alzheimers.

MDMA (Ecstasy)

The drug MDMA is a potent indirect monoaminergic agonist.

What it does to the brain:

MDMA exerts its primary effects in the brain on neurons that use the chemical serotonin to communicate with other neurons. The serotonin system plays an important role in regulating mood, aggression, sexual activity, sleep, and sensitivity to pain. MDMA also causes excessive release of serotonin from its neurons. MDMA can produce confusion, depression, sleep problems, drug craving, and severe anxiety. These problems can occur soon after taking the drug or, sometimes, even days or weeks after. In addition, chronic users of MDMA perform more poorly than nonusers on certain types of cognitive or memory tasks. Research in animals indicates that MDMA can be harmful to the brain.

What are the long term effects?

MDMA produces feelings of increased energy euphoria, emotional warmth, and distortions in time perception and tactile experiences.

What happens if MDMA is abused?

MDMA can be dangerous to everybody's overall health and it can even be lethal. MDMA can have many of the same effects as other stimulants (increase in heart rate and blood pressure) such as cocaine and amphetamines; other symptoms include muscle tension, involuntary teeth clenching, nausea, blurred vision, faintness, and chills or sweating. In high doses, MDMA can interfere with the body’s ability to regulate temperature. On rare but unpredictable occasions, this can lead to a huge increase in body temperature which can result in liver, kidney, and cardiovascular system failure, and even death.

http://www.drugabuse.gov/Infofacts/ecstasy.html

Unit One Test

So, I think that the next test that we have, I need to study harder. I honestly was expecting it to be a lot harder because it is an AP class. I am just glad that I got some of the answers correct. Also, I am very happy that we got to correct some of our answers that we got wrong.

Youtube

I thought this was a cool way to do our homework. It took alot of time for my group to complete but it was worth it. I think that i am diversified enough to do alot more homework on the internet. It was fun to see ourself and the finished product in class.