Health
According to the definition of the World
Health Organization, health is a state of complete physical, mental and social
well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. There are indeed
many factors to which a good health is attributed such as diet, exercise and
rest
Diet
A balanced diet is
very important to us. As heterotrophs we depend on
the food we take in as the source of the chemical constituents required for the
normal growth and functioning of the body. Deficiency in particular constituent
will upset the normal functioning or growth of the body. Also, taking too much
energy-rich food will result in problems like overweight or obesity because
excess carbohydrates and fats taken in will be stored inside our body as fats.
Exercise
Exercise helps people stay healthy. 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 trained to be more efficient in
obtaining oxygen and delivering it to the muscles, people who exercise
regularly are able to accomplish regular activities casier
and respond more readily to sudden demand on physical activities.
The skeletal muscles increase in size, strength
and capacity for work with regular and moderate exercise. The muscles involved
in ventilation become stringer and thus the vital capacity of the individual is
increased. The heart muscle increases in size in response to training. The
heart can beat stronger to increase the cardiac output. With an efficient
supply of oxygen, the high energy yields from aerobic
respiration fuel the muscles to do work.
Rest
Continual activity for a sustained period
leads to accumulation of toxic wastes and depletion of food reserve. Therefore,
having enough rest is very important to us that allows exhausted cells to
undergo a period of inactivity or low activity for moving toxic wastes and
replenished the food reserve in the cells.
Rest
Continual activity for a sustained period
leads to accumulation of toxic wastes and depletion of food reserve. Therefore,
having enough rest is very important to us that allows exhausted cells to
undergo a period of inactivity or low activity for moving toxic wastes and
replenished the food reserve in the cells.
Similarly, there
are also many reasons for people’s health turn bad. For example, they suffer
from alcohol abuse, non-infectious diseases or those who have smoking habit.
Alcohol
abuse
Alcohol is a depressant which slows down the
activities of the central nervous system. Alcohol slows down the speed at which
nerve impulses are transmitted. This lengthens the reaction time of the
effected person making him slow to respond. The ability of an individual to
reason, to make judgment, and to co-ordinate is reduced as alcohol depresses
the activity of the parts of the cerebrum controlling these functions.
Drinking large amounts of alcohol over a long
period of time can cause health problems such as malnutrition and hardening of
the liver. Malnutrition may result in long-lasting alcoholism because alcoholic
beverages are high in caloric content but low in nutritive value. Hardening of
the liver is associated with alcohol abuse. Alcohol is mainly metabolized in
the lover. The mechanism by which the hardening develops is still unclear, but
it appears to involve the consequences of the metabolism of excessive amounts
of alcohol.
The
non-infectious diseases
Unlike the transmissible diseases, some
diseases cannot be spread from one person to another. The non-infectious
diseases include cancers, heart disease and diabetes.
Cancer develops
from a single cell that has undergone mutations in its DNA (deoxyribonucleic
acid), the genetic material which carries the body's hereditary instructions.
Instead of maturing normally and dying, cancerous cells reproduce without
restraint. It's not that they divide faster, but that they never stop dividing,
and they fail to mature. When removed from the body and placed in a laboratory
dish with nutrients, they actually seem to be immortal.
Heart disease is any disorder that affects the heart's ability to function normally.
The most common cause of heart disease is narrowing or blockage of the coronary
arteries, which supply blood to the heart itself. This happens slowly over
time. Some heart diseases can be present at birth (congenital heart diseases).
Other causes include the following:
Diabetes is a result of the failure in the
regulation of blood glucose level, it is a chronic disease. When a person is
deficient in insulin or when the target cells fail to respond to insulin, the
regulation of blood glucose level is upset. It is believed that both genetic
and environmental factors such as obesity and lack of exercise are involved.