Leading Health Indicator - Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity Essay

Leading Health Indicator - Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity - Essay Example The leading health indicators are meant to help people understand the importance of disease prevention through health promotion and encourage broad participation in improving health over the next decade. The development of strategies and action plans in addressing these indicators will serve a significant role in increasing the quality of life and years of healthy life and in eliminating health disparities. Healthy people 2020 outlines specific objectives that are to be used in tracking the progress of each leading health indicator. The development of these indicators provides a snapshot of the state of health in the U.S and acts as a benchmark in future challenges and achievements. Health indicators are, therefore, fundamental building blocks in community health initiatives. This paper will analyze the leading health indicators of nutrition, physical activity, and obesity and provide an intervention strategy that is best suited for addressing this health issues. Glanz, Rimer and Lewis(2002) emphasize that physical activity, good nutrition, and healthy body weight are essential in the overall health and well-being of a person. A majority of people in The United States do not engage in sufficient physical activities. Healthy People 2020 points out that 81.6% of the adults and 81.8% of the adolescents in the U.S do not get the recommended amount of physical activity. Regular exercise is important in maintaining a healthy body, preventing premature deaths, body weight control and enhancing ones psychological well-being. The risk factors in the lack of physical activity include heart diseases, high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity and so forth. Children and adolescents require weight bearing exercises for normal skeletal development and young adults need such exercise in maintaining bone mass. Older adults can also improve their strength and agility through regular exercises. The

The effects of salt solution on frog skin cell Lab Report

The effects of salt solution on frog skin cell - Lab Report Example Next to Stratum corneum layer is the Stratum granulosum, followed by the Stratum spinosum layer. The Stratum germinavium is the innermost layer which lies beside the basal lamina. The cells of the last three layers communicate with each other via gap junctions and are held together by desmosomes, which are structures that join adjacent cells together (Guo et al, 2003). Amphibian skin has heterocellular epithelium i.e. it is made up of two types of cells. The majorities of cells are normal and are known as Principal cells while a minority faction (MR cells) constitutes the cells which are rich in Mitochondria. The MR cells are responsible for a highly specialized mechanism of chloride transport across amphibian skin (Guo et al, 2003). Both the principal and the MR cells possess the ability to actively transport sodium in the presence of ATP (Adenosine TriPhosphate) due to the presence of Na+-K+-ATPase on their basolateral surface. Most amphibian species (toads/frogs) obtain water prim arily by osmotic absorption across their skin and are able to absorb Na+ and Cl- across their skin from very dilute solutions (Guo et al., 2003). Because of these properties, the amphibian skin has long been used as a model tissue for the study of ion transport and osmotic water movement across epithelia (Jorgensen, 1997). The hypothesis for this experiment was that the amount of salt dissolved in water would affect osmosis in model frog skin cells. The prediction for this hypothesis is that the more salt that is dissolved in the water, the smaller the amount of water that will move into the cell. This would naturally result in an imbalance of the natural physiological ionic concentration of the amphibians and dehydrate them. The expected response would be an endeavor on the part of the animal to maintain its hydration which usually takes place through the skin and not through drinking as in vertebrate mammalian species,