Barry _Bio Essay (health)

Today, there are an increasing number of people understanding the importance of health. But what is health actually?? According to the World Health Organization (WHO), health is defined as ‘a state of complete physical, social and mental well-being but not merely the absence of diseases or infirmity’. There are some factors that affect our health. They are mainly divided into 5 parts, e.g. Diet, Exercise, Rest, Some non-infectious diseases among with daily habits.

First and foremost, a balance diet is said to be the source of the chemical constituents required for the normal growth and functioning of the body. However, if our bodies lack in particular constituents like mineral, vitamin and protein, will upset the normal functioning and growth of the body. At the same time, if we take too much energy-rich food will give rise to problems like overweight or obesity due to excess carbohydrates and fats taken in will be stored inside our body as fats. In case of poor diet, is sometime associated with a higher risk of certain non-infectious diseases such as cardiovascular diseases. Something to add, an irregular diet habits may lead to anorexia or bulimia, which are all higher risk of non-infectious diseases too.

For the exercise and rest, the amount of work the muscles can perform is limited by the amount of oxygen obtained during ventilation and the efficiency of the cardiovascular system in supplying oxygen to the muscles. As the body is fully trained to be more efficient in obtaining oxygen to and delivering it to the muscles, people who exercise regularly are able to accomplish regular activities easier and respond more readily to sudden demand on physical activities. As the skeletal muscles and heart muscle increase in size, strength and capacity for work with regular and moderate exercise, the muscles involved in ventilation become stronger and thus the vital capacity of the individual is increased among with the heart can beat stronger to increase the cardiac output. With an efficient supply of oxygen, there are high energy yield from respiration fuel for the muscles to work. However, continual activity, especially muscular activity, for a sustained period leads to accumulation of toxic wastes like lactic acid and depletion of food reserve such as glycogen. As a result, there is a must to allow exhausted cells to undergo a period of inactivity of low activity for removing toxic wastes and replenishing the food reserve in the cells.

In addition to the daily habits, there are mainly two common habits we looking at. They are alcohol abuse as well as smoking. Alcohol can slow down the speed immediately at which nerve impulses are transmitted. Thus, this lengthens the reaction time of the affected person making him slow to respond or even unable to make judgment, and co-ordinate is reduced as alcohol depresses the activity of the parts of cerebrum controlling. For the long term effects of alcohol, malnutrition may result in long-lasting alcoholism because alcoholic beverages are high in caloric content but low in nutritive value. Due to alcohol is mainly metabolized in the liver, sometime hardening of the liver is also associated with alcohol abuse.

Last but not least, some non-infectious diseases may also affect our health. For examples, cancers, coronary heart disease and stroke, diabetes and genetic disease…etc. Cancers involve the uncontrolled growth of cells. The normal control of the mitotic cell cycle is ruined n a cancerous cell. However, Blood is circulated around the body to supply oxygen and nutrients to the various parts. A disruption of the circulation to vital organs like heart and brain, narrowing of the blood vessels results in diseases such as coronary heart disease and stroke. The affects organ will be deprived of oxygen and nutrient supply. And diabetes is a result of the failure in the regulation of blood glucose level. When a person is deficient in insulin or the target cells fail to respond to insulin, the regulation of blood glucose level is upset. Nevertheless, genetic diseases are results of mutation at the gene or chromosome level. Lastly, there are some factors known to associate closely with certain non-infectious diseases, for instance, carcinogens, ionizing radiation, ultra-violet radiations which may cause mutation in the somatic cells or activate genes that are not normally expressed. The control of the normal mitotic cell cycle is ruined and the affected cell becomes cancerous.