Brain Health Project: Stress

Website:http://www.edudemic.com/stress-affects-brain-learning/Author:Leah Levy

Website:www.helpguide.org/articles/stress/stress-symptoms-causes-and-effects.htmAuthors: Jeanne Segal, Ph.D., Melinda Smith, M.A., Robert Segal, M.A., and Lawrence Robinson.

Website:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23123920Author: Eliand .L Romeo

STRESSWhat is stess?Stress is a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or very demanding circumstances.

Positive and Negative effects of stress:Positive: There isnt really a positive effect of stress but stress does fit in the developing of a child to adult brain(adolescence)Negative: There are many negative effects from stress some like anxiety and alertness in the amygdala.

http://www.slideshare.net/anoonen/brain-matters-march-5-inservice

Research shows that stress is not healthy for the brain or body.What does stress do to the brain and body?- Stress can kill brain cells mostly in the areas associated with memory and learning.-Stress increases the brains alertness and also can cause a feeling of anxiety.-Chronic stress can damage brain structure and connectivity.What is cortisol and what does it do?-Cortisol is another term for hydrocortisone.-Cortisol is a steroid hormone that is produced from cholesterol in the two adrenal glands.-Cortisol maintains homeostasis which is also known as the stress hormone.

PROBLEMCan I improve my brain health if I do different activities every day to lower my stress level to a 1?RESEARCHWhat i need to know to investigate this problem1. Stress can cause feeling of anxiety and alertness so by doing yoga,breathing patterns, and other things I like to do I can to relax and take some of the stress off of me.2.Some stressful problems can cause un-healthy weight loss, depression and raise blood pressures.HYPOTHESISIf I do different activities to lower my stress level to a 1 then my brain health will increase.EXPERIMENTMaterial list:~Yoga mat~Music~Device to listen to music on.Procedure:(steps)1. Buy the materials i need for this project2. Complete 10 minutes more or less of yoga.3. Complete 10 minutes more or less of deep breathing.4. Complete 10 minutes more or less of other things that will calm me down when stressed.5. Repeat daily for 13 days.

STRESS MANAGEMENT

AND THE

ADOLESCENT BRAIN

ANALYSIS Notices: I noticed that in my case study data I met my goal 10 out of 13 days. I changed up my activities everyday and I completed them for more than 2 minutes. I also noticed that 4 was my highest stress level out of 5 and I always calmed my stress level to a 2,1, or 1.5. My avergage stress level over 13 days was a 2.In my testing data I noticed that my mad minute scores increased for test 1,2, and 3 then began to decrease for test 4 and 5.For my memory game data I noticed that my score kept increasing and decreasing in a random way. There was no pattern that I noticed. The highest level I reached was level 11.Trends:On my mad minute test I noticed that in my data that my score increased up 2 and down 2. Other than that there were no other patterns I saw.I believe the reason why my mad minute scores had a patern because my of my stress levels.CONCLUSIONThe hypothesis for my case study was, if I do different activities to lower my stress level to a 1 then my brain health will increase.The hypothesis was supported because my memory scores increased from the begining of the test to the end.My fact recall scores also increased. The problem for my case study was, can I improve my brain health if i do different activities every day to lower my stress level to a 1?Yes, I could improve my brain health by doing different activities everyday to lower my stress levels.During the test I had 1 error because I didnt complete the activities at the same amount of time. Although I did not skip any days and I completed all of my data. Next time I could set a goal for how many minutes I do each activity. In the future I would like to explore/ research other ways to manage stress than just activities (Ex: like different foods, and the amount of sleep I get).

FUN FACTS

CASE STUDY

DAILY DATA

BRAIN HEALTH GRAPH

TESTING DATA