Disease Prompt #1

Today in our society many people talk of having diseases and how they try to avoid these

diseases; when people mention diseases the first thing that tends to come into our mind are images of

cancer or the flu. A group of authors of the article What is a disease? Perspectives of the public, health

professionals and legislators believe that a diseases are abnormalities in the function or structure of

body systems and refer to a combination of signs and symptoms (1). This definition that they give is

actually spot on in my opinion but if I were to add anything I would state how diseases are harmful to the

body; this is common knowledge, but there is no harm in mentioning it. Some diseases such as

cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and obesity are considered to be preventable in our society and yet

many people seem to have it.

The Mayo Clinic refers to cardiovascular diseases as conditions that involve narrowed or blocked

blood vessels that can lead to a heart attack, chest pain, or stroke (2) and the CDC reports that about

610,000 people die of cardiovascular disease in the United States every year (3); thats 1 in every 4

deaths. Cardiovascular diseases can be very serious because a majority of them can lead to death or at

best hospitalization and about 47% of Americans have at least one of the risk factors that can lead to

heart diseases (3). Mental health is a state of well-being in which the individual...can work productively

and fruitfully(4); however when you have some sort of cardiovascular disease this is not possible. By

having any sort of cardiovascular disease the individual in question cannot work as productively due to

the fact that their heart isnt working at 100% thus causing them to tire out more quickly and not do as

much work. Cardiovascular diseases can also affect spiritual health, which refers to emotional state of the

individual, because if they arent working at the capacity they want to and if they are always feeling lousy

then they will never be happy. People with cardiovascular diseases feel as though they cannot get

enough done throughout the day and are in turn disappointed with themselves for not preventing these

diseases from affecting them in the first place. The cardiovascular system is one of the main systems that

are affected by cardiovascular diseases because this system is mainly comprised of heart muscle and

blood vessels. Cardiovascular diseases affect the cardiovascular system because they can cause the
heart to stop working (heart attacks), they can cause a blood vessel to burst or get blocked (stroke), or

they can cause an irregular heartbeat and valve problems (arrhythmia). All of these diseases stop blood

from getting to the heart or from moving throughout the body. Blood is an essential piece of our existence

because it contains the oxygen that allows us to work and do everything we need to do. Cardiovascular

diseases affect one of the most important organ systems in our bodies and individuals that have these

diseases have a very high chance of death.

Another disease that is plaguing our society is diabetes; diabetes, as described by doctor Melissa

Conrad Stppler, is a chronic condition associated with abnormally high levels of sugar in the blood(5)

and this is caused by the body not being able to produce enough insulin. One must note that insulin is an

essential hormone produced by the pancreas that allows the body to use sugar from food for energy or to

store glucose (6). Some symptoms of diabetes include extreme thirst and hunger, blurry vision, pain or

numbness in hands and feet, and extreme fatigue. Diabetes affects 29.1 million people (9.3% of the

population) in the United States and an additional 86 million people have prediabetes and sadly do not

even know it. These very harmful disease affects the mental and physical aspect of the individual

because first of all they are never satisfied with what they eat and drink; this is caused by a thirst and

hunger that can never be quenched. They have such hunger because their body cannot convert the food

they eat into energy (7). Patients with diabetes are not getting the energy they need to get through the

day causing them to feel down and sad. An additional factor is the fact that these patients get blurry vision

and cuts and bruises that are slow to heal; this symptom causes the patient to always be in pain with

wounds that seemingly take forever to heal and now they cannot even see clearly. They feel only pain

and and hunger and thirst which causes their mental and spiritual health to deteriorate. While

cardiovascular diseases only affect the cardiovascular system, diabetes affects many more systems.

Diabetes can affect the cardiovascular system, the visual system, the nervous system, and the urinary

system (8). Diabetes affects the cardiovascular system because there is too much sugar and fat in the

blood which leads to fatty deposits called plaques in the blood vessels which causes decreased blood

flow. Then the nervous system is affected because many patients with diabetes experience diabetic nerve

damage in the legs and feet which causes the loss of pain and heat and cold perception. This is a very
dangerous condition because now the patient cannot sense an injury all that quickly. The nervous system

is damaged due to diabetes because if blood glucose levels are high for extended periods of time then

the blood vessels that feeds these nerves can become damaged leading to the nerves themselves to be

damaged (9). Since high blood glucose levels negatively affects all the blood vessels throughout the body

this can also cause the blood vessels in the eyes to fail causing blurry vision, also the blood vessels in

the kidneys are damaged causing the kidneys to fail and when the kidneys are damaged they cannot filter

the blood properly into urine. Diabetes is a very serious condition that affects many people in a horrible

way.

The final prevalent and yet preventable disease I shall be discussing is obesity. When people

hear obesity they think of someone that ways too much, but in the reality obesity means having too much

body fat. Obesity is a condition that occurs over time when an individual consumes too many calories

than normal and being obese increases the risk of contracting diabetes, heart disease, stroke, arthritis,

and even some cancers. The CDC reports that at least 36.5% of adults in the United States have

diabetes (10) while 17% of children in the United States have diabetes (11); that is 53.5% of the entire

population of the United States! When an individual is obese they tend to have this lethargic feeling which

comes from their increased blood pressure and this can severely affect their mental wellness because

now they will never want to do anything productive. The spiritual wellness of an individual with obesity is

also affected because now in the eyes of society their body is not good enough; people with diabetes

tend to feel very sad and long to accept their body. Obesity can affect the cardiovascular system, the

respiratory system, and the skeletal system (12). The cardiovascular system is affected because people

with obesity tend to eat a lot more fats than needed which causes plaques to block up blood vessels

leading to high blood pressure, chest pain, and there is a risk of having a heart attack. Then the

respiratory system is affected because the added weight of the chest wall can squeeze the lungs and

causes restricted breathing; this can lead to sleep apnea which people causes people to stop breathing

for brief periods while they sleep causing sleepiness during the day because their sleep is constantly

interrupted. Finally the skeletal system is affected because of the stress placed on the joints such as the

hips and knees from the extra weight (12).

 These diseases have not always been so prevalent in our society. This has been a very recent

phenomenon that is affecting a vast majority of our population. There have been many things that have

been changing in our society that is causing these diseases to appear more frequently in our population.

Some factors that are causing more and more people to contract these diseases is the fact that the media

is convincing the population to consume more and more foods that cause these harmful diseases to

occur. All three of these diseases can be prevented with good nutrition and exercise. If people would

exercise more and eat more healthy then these diseases would not be a huge problem within our society

There is also a much a bigger problem, these diseases are not only affecting the United States, but

instead the entire world is being heavily affected by these diseases. People of all ages contracting these

harmful diseases from adults to the elderly to even children.

I believe that I may be susceptible to these diseases because my diet is not always that great. I

constantly consume foods that are not good for my body and only give me fats instead of the nutrients

that I need in order to live a healthy life. I am always eating chips or drinking sodas and by consuming

these foods I am not helping my body in any way. By eating all of these fats I can cause my blood vessels

to clot up and cause any one of the three diseases that I discussed above. There are many

socio-economic and cultural issues that are causing many individual dna families to follow a preventative

lifestyle and the main culprit of this is the media; the media shows people who eat junk food are

seemingly more such as the Snickers Youre Not You When Youre Hungry commercials which states

how the consumer cannot be without without a Snickers. Another factor that stops people from following a

preventative lifestyle is the prices of junk food compared to healthy foods. When an individual goes to a

store their eyes are instantly drawn to the price of what they are buying and people would rather much

pay $1 for a sweet chocolate bar than pay $8 for a chicken salad that does not give you the same sweet

taste as a chocolate bar. These are only two factors that may not seem all that convincing, however these

are the factors that are causing people to consume more and more junk food and less healthy food thus

not letting them follow a preventative lifestyle.

 Bibliography

1. Tikkinen, Kari A O, Janne S. Leinonen, Gordon H. Guyatt, Shanil Ebrahim, and Teppo L N

Jrvinen. "What is a disease? Perspectives of the public, health professionals and

legislators." BMJ Open. British Medical Journal Publishing Group, 01 Jan. 2012. Web. 18

Mar. 2017.

2. "Heart disease." Mayo Clinic. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Mar. 2017.

3. "Heart Disease Facts." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention, 10 Aug. 2015. Web. 18 Mar. 2017.

4. "Mental Wellness." Mental Wellness | Your Health | UNC Charlotte. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Mar.

2017.

5. Stppler, MD Melissa Conrad. "9 Symptoms of Type 1 & Type 2 Diabetes: Causes, Diet,

Treatment." MedicineNet. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Mar. 2017.

6. "What is Insulin?" EndocrineWeb. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Mar. 2017.

7. "Polyphagia - Increased Appetite." Diabetes.co.uk. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Mar. 2017.

8. Mikesh, Ph.D. Leann. "Which Systems of the Body Are Affected by Diabetes?"

LIVESTRONG.COM. Leaf Group, 22 Apr. 2016. Web. 18 Mar. 2017.

9. "Nervous System." Diabetes.co.uk. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Mar. 2017.

10. "Adult Obesity Facts." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention, 01 Sept. 2016. Web. 18 Mar. 2017.

11. "Childhood Obesity Facts." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention, 22 Dec. 2016. Web. 18 Mar. 2017.

12. "Obesity." Stanford Health Care (SHC) - Stanford Medical Center. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Mar.

2017.