The human body is simply amazing! However, certain factors or actions can positively or negatively impact our health and well-being. Think of how genetics, diet, exercise, tobacco, alcohol, sleep, sanitation and safety measures, condoms, and stress influence our overall health.
Based on your knowledge and experience, evaluate two factors or actions that promote our health status as well as two factors or actions that can cause dysfunction and result in disease.
Identify two diseases that could result from factors or actions you examined above. Which body system(s) will be impacted by the diseases?
Briefly analyze two effects human activity and lifestyle habits have on our environment (air quality, food and water quality, waste, recycling, etcetera).
Use medical terminology and two scholarly sources to support your research and findings (one may be your course text). All sources must be referenced and cited according to APA guidelines as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center. Your initial post should be at least 250 words in length.
Guided Response: Read several of your classmates’ posts and respond to at least two of your peers. In your responses, identify measures on how to prevent the diseases identified by your classmates. What did you learn from your peers’ posts, and how will you apply your newly gained knowledge in the future? Each peer response should be at least 100 words in length.
Dakota James
Aug 5, 2020 at 6:17 PM
Based upon my knowledge and experience, two factors (or actions) that promote our health status include dieting and regular exercise. Your diet is important because your body needs quality fuel to keep your system running. A quality diet provides the complex chemical reactions and nutrients needed by your body to drive your metabolism (Colbert et al., 2013). Another critical factor that promotes our health is the employment of regular exercise. By exercising frequently, you are strengthening your muscular and cardiovascular systems. Your muscles are critical in maintaining good skeletal posture and focusing on certain muscle groups can alleviate joint pain. For example, a member with knee pain may want to focus on developing the muscles in that area to help support the joint more efficiently.
Inversely, two factors (or actions) that can cause dysfunction and result in disease include tobacco and alcohol use. Substance abuse is a large problem for many people and the excess consumption of alcohol has severe consequences. “Alcohol accounts for 1.8 million deaths, nearly 500,000 cases of cirrhosis, and 14.5 million disability adjusted life years lost from alcohol related cirrhosis annually” (Neuberger and DiMartini, 2015). Cirrhosis is a dysfunction that causes your liver to malfunction and excess alcohol use is a direct factor in this problem. The second action humans participate in that causes dysfunction is the use of tobacco products. Smokers that regularly use tobacco suffer from a symptom known as tobacco use disorder (TUD) and is associated with a higher risk of lung cancer (Paik et al., 2019). Smoking causes the cells in your lungs that produce mucus to grow and multiply which increase the overall amount of mucus within your airways. This excess mucus cannot be cleaned out efficiently by your body which leaves you more prone to infections.
Two diseases that could occur due to these factors (or action) include liver cirrhosis and failure from abusing alcohol, and lung cancer and failure from inhaling tobacco products.
The body systems that would be impacted by disease are the digestive, central nervous, cardiovascular, respiratory and endocrine systems.
A brief analysis of two effects from human activity and/or lifestyle habits that impact our environment:
Using fossil fuels. Many of us today drive our own automobiles to work. These modes of transportation put harmful pollutants in the air that cause lung issues. People with sensitivities to these pollutants are at even higher risks of contracting infections.
Water pollution is caused from chemicals or debris being dumped into water sources such as oceans, lakes, and rivers. This reduces the quality of our water and impacts local wildlife. Absorption of chemicals and diseases are easily spread through water sources.
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