Yesterday in the capstone class that I am currently enrolled in we did an exercise called "Speed Dating". In this simulation we were given the opportunity to talk with eleven different people, all in a short period of time of about four minutes, about the project we are most likely going to pursue. I found the activity extremely beneficial because I was able to gain feedback from other people my age about what I should and should not include in my research and final project, but also could hear about what everyone else was planning to do. It was inspiring to hear how passionate each individual was about their project and it made me realize that this isn't just some other school assignment with a guideline and due date, it is so much more. It gives us a change to dig deep into something we care about and educate others about it. It shows us that we have the ability to change how others think about certain topics and potentially make a difference in the world. I heard from many people that the project I am working on related to the negative effects Alopecia can have on an affected individual sounds very interesting and many of them were not familiar with the disease. I think that the point of my project will be to educate the public, starting with my community, about the disease and show others that it can be as devastating as a life threatening disease. I was informed that I should try to raise awareness as well as look into other reasons people experience hair loss, examples being stress, OCD disorders, etc. I also received a question that I found particularly interesting, and it was about the relation between the cause of the onset of Alopecia/hair loss and the severity in a person. I was able to give constructive criticism to each person about their projects to hopefully improve them for their final.
For information about what Alopecia Areata is and the effects that it has on each individual, read my most previous post (Idea #2). Throughout my research I have found many times that stress is believed to be directly related to occurrences of Alopecia and its severity. Regular hair growth happens in a cycle, which starts with the growing phase. The growing phase is what about ninety percent of hairs on a persons head (Usually between 120,000 and 150,000 total per head) are doing at one time. In this phase each hair is growing an average of 1/2 inch each month, and can last from two to three years. After this period of time the hair will go into the resting stage, which lasts for about three to four months, and then the hair will fall out and be replaced with a new growth. Each hair is on the same cycle but at different points in it, which is the reasoning behind being able to lose up to 100 hairs per day and still maintaining a full head of hair. Stress can influence this cycle in a damaging way. If stress is severe enough to change the body's regular physiological functions, the result can cause an unusual amount of hairs to switch into the resting phase at the same time, and at the end of this resting phase they will all fall out at once. For people with alopecia, the hair follicles are being attacked by the immune system already, so hair loss is inevitable, and when physiological stress is added to the situation, which in most cases of the disease it has a large impact, it creates more loss. The problem with alopecia, is that if the follicles become permanently damaged they will not be able to repeat the growing phase after losing the hair. For the majority of people, the follicles do not become permanently damages, but hair growth is not possible until the immune system lets up on attacking, and the stress levels lighten up.
My second idea is to study and research the emotional and mental effects on people with Alopecia Areata. Alopecia is an autoimmune disease where the person's immune system mistakes their hair follicles to be foreign and attacks them, causing the hair on the person's body to fall out. Alopecia is a disease that stays with a person for their whole life, but does not necessarily affect them at all times. The majority of people will have their first flare-up as a child or teenager. The follicles do not lose the ability to grow hair back, so permanent hair loss in not usually the case, but like all things there are severe cases that result in this. There are three types of Alopecia, each being a different form and severity. Alopecia totalis is the form that causes complete hair loss on the head, and is thought to be directly related to stress. The most severe form of Alopecia is called Alopecia Universalis, and it is complete loss of hair on every part of the body and is reported to be rapid loss in most cases. This form of Alopecia is hardest to treat and no specific treatment has been declared a "cure". Many different tactics are used to treat, although success rates differ substantially. Androgenic Alopecia is the most common form, and is responsible for 95 percent of male hair loss before old age. Most people who develop this form of Alopecia loss only hair on their scalp, in small dime shaped patches,that slowly increase in size when not treated. This form can progress into a more severe Alopecia if treatment is rejected. Hair is a vital part of a person's appearance and therefore their identity. The world we live in right now is the type that uses appearance for many things. When somebody starts to lose their hair, especially when it happens at a rapid and unstoppable pace, many emotional impacts come along with it. Some of the psychological effects of Alopecia according to the National Alopecia Areata Foundation are : http://www.naaf.org/site/PageServer?pagename=living_with_alopecia_reactions
Feeling alone, withdrawn, and isolated
Loss and grief
Fear that others may find out you have the diseasse
Fear that others may find out that you wear a wig
Sadness and depression
Hopelessness
Anger
Embarrassment
Guilt or self-blame that you somehow brought the disease on yourself
Guilt related to how the disease is affecting family members and loved ones
Frantic in regard to searching for an answer or cure (going to extremes)
For parents, guilt that they may have genetically contributed to their child’s disease
For parents, helplessness that they cannot stop the disease or help ease their child’s pain
For siblings and other family members, shame and anger because the disease has also affected their lives
The first idea that I am considering for my research STEM capstone project is about the connection between the food that people consume and the levels of serotonin in their blood. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter and works as a mechanism for controlling mood. Ninety five percent of the body's serotonin levels are created in the Gastrointestinal (GI) tract. (Puristat.com) This makes what a person puts in their body critical to regulation of serotonin levels, which helps with prevention of depression and other mental illnesses. The food we eat also influences memory, clarity of the mind, and cravings. Three major food types have the highest effect on the human body and the release of serotonin. Foods that are high in sugar and that have high fructose corn syrup, packed full of gluten, and other processed types are not only bad for proper functioning of the stomach and intestinal tracts, they influence the way the brain works as well. It would be interesting to compare and contrast how different diet choices would affect the level of serotonin present in the bloodstream, therefore how diet would affect the way people feel. Diet is an important part of everyone's everyday life, so this experiment could open many people's eyes to the consequences of the food choices they are making.
The Wikipedia article on Deforestation has a certain flow to it that creates an easy read for the viewer. There are many important facts and statistics in the article that show just how critical having forests in our communities can be. The majority of these have sources to back them up, so overall the article is decently trustworthy, but there are some parts that have no data backing them up, and also parts that seem to have bias, and personal opinion. For example, the author states “The term deforestation is often misused to describe any activity where all trees in an area are removed,” which seems to have a personal opinion embedding within it. The author should have said something along the lines of “The term deforestation is often used to describe any activity where all trees in an area are removed, but the definition states …..” This quote from the article also does not have any resources backing it up, so neutrality is disputed. There are many of these occurrences, bringing the reliability of this article down, but there are also 165 citations that support the majority of the article. The article meets most of the criteria according to wikipedia, but also to the criteria discussed by Middlebury college. There is not much history of changes and edits on the website, although there was an edit on September 2nd, but there are a few comments on the “talk” page, pointing out parts in the article called “nonsense”. I could not locate the author of this article, so no information about their credentials were given, making the article less reliable. Most of the other articles and sources cited are educational websites with few abstract, perionally written articles.