Describe whether health is more than simply the absence of a disease
- complete physical, mental and social being
- linked to happiness/fulfilling life
- having a positive outlook in life
- socially well adjusted
- ability to undertake physical/mental tasks without too much difficulty
- feeling good physically/physical fitness
- need for a balanced diet
- need of regular exercises/lack of exercises likely to suffer certain diseases
- both diet and exercise prevent obesity – access to medical care
Outline the aspects that contribute towards good health
- good health is complete physical, mental and social well being
- to balanced diet
- regular exercise/regular physical activity
- which ensure body is in best condition
- to combat disease
- limit drug intake/alcohol intake/smoking
- improving ability to cope with stress/other benefits of exercise – regular sleep/rest + reasons.
Disease #
- is a disorder or malfunction of the body leading to departure from good health.
- it is usually a disorder of a specific tissue or organ due to a single cause
- diseases are characterized by signs and symptoms that are physical, mental or both
- symptoms give an indication of the nature of the disease
- some diseases are acute and they last for a short time
- some are chronic and the effects continue for months or years
- many chronic diseases are extremely debilitating
Categories of diseases #
- there are different ways of classifying diseases
- there are nine broad categories though some disease are classified into more than one category
Question: using named examples for each, explain what is meant by degenerative and inherited disease.
Degenerative
- gradual decline in body functions
- associated with characteristics of ageing
- caused by deficiencies of nutrients during childhood
- g. skeletal diseases/cardiovascular/cancers/Huntington‘s disease inherited
- an inherited genetic fault
- mutation
- ref to mechanism of mutation
- pattern of inheritance
- g. cancer, PKU, cystic fibrosis physical
- permanent or temporary damage to body parts
- body parts damages
- e.g. leprosy, multiple sclerosis, stroke
Mental
- disorder occurring in brain cells
- no/a sign of physical damage may appear to the brain
- g. schizophrenia, claustrophobia, anxiety infectious
- caused by pathogens which invade the body such as viruses, bacteria, fungi, worms, protoctists and insects (e.g. lice)
- are also called communicable diseases because the pathogens can be transferred from person to person
- g. TB, HIV, cholera, STIs deficiency
- nutritional diseases
- due to poor nutrition/inadequate diet
- not passed to offspring
- scurvy, kwashiorkor, obesity
self-inflicted
- people‘s health is put at risk by their own decisions regarding their behaviour
- due to actions of an individual
- g. lung cancer/CHD/liver cirrhosis/anorexia nervosa, attempted suicide social
- due to social behaviour and living conditions
- g. TB/cholera/infectious diseases , smoking related diseases
non-infectious
- all diseases not caused by pathogens
- no organism invasion
- not transmitted from one person to another
- g. deficiency disease, mental disease, night blindness
Epidemiology and patterns of diseases #
Epidemic
- a disease that suddenly spreads to affect many people e.g. cholera
- an outbreak of disease in a population
Endemic
- an infectious disease which is always present in a population e.g. TB – this describes diseases that are always in a population
Pandemic
- a disease that spreads over a large area e.g. continent/worldwide
- an outbreak of disease that occurs across the world or across continents.
Prevalence
- the number of people in a population with a disease within any given time
Incidence
- number of new cases within a population occurring for a given time e.g. week/month/year
Epidemiology
- the study of patterns of disease and the various factors that affect the spread/distribution of the disease
