HUMAN HEALTH & DISEASES

INTRODUCTION

Health can be defined as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being.

Factors Affecting Our Health  

1. dietary habits: person eating well balanced diet containing adequate amounts of nutrients required by our body on daily basis is healthier than a person taking nutritionally deficient diet.

Nutritional deficiency diseases- night blindness, beri beri, scurvy, rickets etc.

2.Lifestyle: A person having a sedentary lifestyle is less healthy than a person doing moderate amount of physical activity.

3. social environment: A person living under stressful social environment with lot of antisocial activities are always under stressful mental conditions and more prone to stress related disorders.

Person in relaxed environment- less stress - good mental status.

4.The kind the work that we do to earn our living: People working in the factories or environment with air or noise pollution - respiratory and hearing problems respectively.

Also known as Occupational diseases.

Accidents during work is also included.

 5.State of the mind: Affects the neural system and endocrine system -- affects our immune system. 

State of the immune system has a vital role in our health.

6.Genetic information: Genetic information inherited from parents can be cause of many physical abnormalities.

some genetic diseases can be passed on from parents to the offspring.

Eg. Sickle cell anaemia, colour blindness, hemophilia, down syndrome, Klinefelter syndrome Etc.

7.Our physical environment: People living in clean areas with a proper garbage and sewage disposal system in place and lot of greenery are healthier

 people living under unhygienic conditions and areas lacking greenery- exposed to risk of infectious diseases.

8.Economic conditions of individual: affects the health by affecting the buying capacity and also amount of the money spend by the individuals on health.

It also affects daily habits.

DISEASES

The conditions in which one or more organs of the body are not working properly, characterized by various signs and symptoms are called diseases.

Study of diseases - pathology.

The organisms which cause diseases are called pathogens

Diseases can be broadly classified into two types-

• Infectious diseases : transmitted from an infected person to another healthy person. Eg. Cough and cold.
• Non- infectious diseases : not transmitted from an infected person to another person. Eg. Diabetes.

Infectious diseases includes-

• Bacterial diseases- caused by bacteria.
• Fungal diseases- causes by fungi.
• Viral diseases- caused by virus.
• Protozoan diseases- caused by protozoan.
• Helminth diseases- caused by helminth.