Unit -7

Diet, Drugs and Diseases

Diet: The sum of food consumed by a person.

Balanced diet: A diet that contains an adequate quantity of the nutrients that we require in a day.

A balanced diet includes six main nutrients, i.e. Fats, Protein, Carbohydrates, Fibre, Vitamins, and

Minerals.

Drug: A substance that when taken into the body, alters the way the body works.

Types of Drugs

Medicinal drugs: They are used to prevent ,treat, cure disease and to ease pain.

Non – medicinal drugs: It affects the nervous system and brings about changes in the way the brain

works which may alter a person's behaviour.

EXAMPLES:

Cannabis: Smoked

- Hallucinations, mental illness

Cocaine: Sniffed, smoked, injected

- Over confidence or carelessness, Sleeplessness, Mental illness

Heroin: Smoked or injected

- Can slow down body reactions to the point of death.

- Needle users may catch hepatitis and AIDS if share needle

Ecstasy: Swallowed in tablet form

- Speeds up body reactions, produces confusion and be fatal

Amphetamines: Sniffed in powdered form or swallowed in tablet form

- Increases activity at first, then produces feeling of sadness which may last for 2 days.
 - Can cause heart and brain damage

LSD: Swallowed in tablet or liquid form or even as small pieces of paper

- Hallucinations, which can be terrifying and to which the brain may flash back months or

weeks later.

Performance enhancing drugs: They are used by some people who take part in sport to increase

muscle growth or make their senses more alert

Health: A state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, not merely the absence of

disease or infirmity.

Disease: It is an abnormal condition of the body which affects the health of the body and prevents

it from working efficiently.

Types of diseases:

- Non-transmissible

- Transmissible

NON-TRANSMISSIBLE DISEASES

Hereditary disease: A specific gene from one or both parents leads to an abnormality. These

illnesses are inherited, a direct result from the parents' genetic make-up. Example:Cystic fibrosis,

Haemophilia

Degenerative disease: It is the result of a continuous process based on degenerative cell changes,

affecting tissues or organs, which will increasingly deteriorate over time.

Example:Heart attack,Stroke

Nutritional disease: Nutrient-related diseases and conditions that cause illness in humans. They
may include deficiencies or excesses in the diet.

Example: Beriberi, Scurvy

TREATING MALNUTRITION AND STARVATION

F75 & F100: In areas of famine, malnourished children are fed with F75 and F100 food

supplements.

First F75 is introduced to prepare their body to start digesting food again. Then after a few days

they are fed with F100 which contains more proteins and energy.

PLUMPYNUT: is a substitute for F100. It is made from peanut paste, powdered milk, minerals, oil,

sugar and vitamins.

UNIMIX: It is a flour made from maize, soya beans, powdered milk, minerals, oil, sugar and

vitamins.
OBESITY

Obesity is a condition where a person has accumulated so much body fat that it might have a

negative effect on their health.

If a person's body weight is at least 20% higher than it should be, he or she is considered obese.

If your Body Mass Index (BMI) is between 25 and 29.9 you are considered overweight. If your BMI

is 30 or over you are considered obese .

It leads to low self confidence, depression, insomnia.

DISEASES CAUSED DUE TO HIGH ENERGY DIET:

OBESITY: Obesity is a complex disorder involving an excessive amount of body fat. This is a

condition of the body which develops in children and adults who have a very high energy diet

[carbohydrates, fats].

DIABETES

It is a disease in which blood glucose, or blood sugar, levels are too high.

TYPE 2 DIABETES

Obesity leads to this disease. Obesity interferes with the production of insulin, which controls the

amount of sugar in the blood, but in this disease the body no longer responds to insulin and the

blood with high sugar content flows all over the body.

EFFECT OF TYPE 2 DIABETES ON THE BODY

Blindness, nerve damage, damage to the blood vessels in the feet which can only be treated by

amputation, kidney damage.

Kidney diseases
Kidneys are damaged and can't filter blood the way they should. You are at greater risk for kidney

disease if you have diabetes or high blood pressure.

Effects of Diabetes on Kidney

In later stages, signs and symptoms may include:

● Worsening blood pressure control.

● Protein in the urine.

● Swelling of feet, ankles, hands or eyes.

● Increased need to urinate.

● Reduced need for insulin or diabetes medicine.

● Confusion or difficulty concentrating.

● Shortness of breath.

● Loss of appetite

TRANSMISSIBLE DISEASE

A contagious disease wherein the pathogen is transmissible from one host to another. The disease

may be transmitted

- through direct contact (e.g. blood exchange with an infected host)

- or through a vector (e.g. contaminated surfaces, fomite, air, foods, animals)

Example:Malaria, AIDS
Sexually Transmitted Diseases or STD: STDs are infections that are spread from person to person

through intimate sexual contact.

Effects of STDs

STDs in Females : Blindness, deafness, swollen liver, skin sores in the baby, AIDS in Females, pass

the virus to the baby during pregnancy or at birth , damage the immune system of the baby.

STDs in Males: Reduces the activity of sperms. Sperms are less able to swim, to find an egg. STDs

affect the tubes carrying sperms and block the path of sperm.

Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID): (PID) is an infection of the female reproductive organs. It

usually occurs when sexually transmitted bacteria spread from the vagina to the uterus, fallopian

tubes or ovaries.
Effects of PID

Prevents conception in females.

Affects fallopian tube, ovaries, uterus.

Fallopian tubes are infected and inflamed causing infertility.

AIDS or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome

It is a syndrome caused by the HIV virus. People transmit HIV in bodily fluids, including blood,

semen,vaginal secretions, breast milk.

In this condition, a person’s immune system becomes too weak to fight off any kind of infection or

disease. AIDS is usually the last stage of HIV infection; a stage where the body can no longer defend

itself and thus spawns various diseases.

AIDS, when untreated, leads to death.

OTHER TRANSMISSIBLE DISEASES

Tuberculosis

It is a disease caused by bacteria called Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The bacteria usually attack

the lungs, but they can also damage other parts of the body. TB spreads through the air when a

person with TB of the lungs or throat coughs, sneezes, or talks. It is most often spread through

droplets breathed or coughed into the air. A child can be infected with the TB bacteria and not

have active disease.

The most common symptoms of active TB:

Fever, weight loss,poor growth, cough, swollen glands, chills.

Malaria
It is a life-threatening disease caused by parasites that are transmitted to people through the bites

of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes. Once the parasites are inside your body, they travel to

the liver where they mature. After several days, the mature parasites enter the bloodstream and

begin to infect red blood cells Within 48 to 72 hours, the parasites inside the red blood cells

multiply, causing the infected cells to burst open.

Common symptoms of malaria include: Shaking chills that can range from moderate to severe to

high fever, profuse sweating, headache, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, anemia.

EFFECT OF DIET ON CONCEPTION AND PREGNANCY: Balanced diet produces a large number of

sperm cells in males. Causes regular menstrual cycle in females.

Poverty prevents having a balanced diet. With lack of nutrients, there may be infertility in males

and females.

- If conception occurs the poor diet of the mother slows down the growth of foetus or if the

baby is born it is smaller than normal with poor immunity.

- When there is a greater choice of food for the mother, soft cheese such as camembert

causes ‘listeria’ which may be fatal to the foetus as it contains microorganisms.

- Caffeine in coffee, chocolate and tea slows down the growth of foetus during pregnancy.

EFFECT OF DRUG ON CONCEPTION AND PREGNANCY:

Alcohol: Reduces production of sperms in men.

Smoking: Ovaries work less efficiently in females.

Non-medicinal {cannabis, cocaine, heroin, ecstasy}: Menstrual cycle becomes irregular or stops,

and slows down sperm production also some sperms develop abnormally.

EFFECT OF DRUGS ON FOETUS:

Alcohol: Drinking small amounts can cause nerve damage.

Drinking large amounts causes abnormal development of eyes, nose, lips, head remains small.

Smoking: Slows down the growth, lungs work less efficiently

Non-medicinal {cannabis, cocaine, heroin, ecstasy}: Slows down growth, develops a less efficient

immune system.

Baby can become dependent on the drug the mother was taking.

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