health and disease

• Health is a state of physical and mental well-being.
• The main factors for good health are:

  • A balanced diet.
  • Exercise and sleep.
  • Access to medical care (in particular, vaccines).
• If we do not have a balanced diet, exercise and sleep, access to medical care, or too much stress:

  • We may become less healthy or ill.
• Diseases are conditions that can cause ill health.
• Diseases can be caused by lifestyle factors:

  • An unbalanced diet / unhealthy diet could lead to diabetes.
• Diseases such as chicken pox or asthma might be completely unrelated to our lifestyle.
• Communicable diseases are those that can spread from person to person or between animals and people.

  • These are often called infectious diseases.
• Communicable diseases can be caused by things like:

  • Viruses, bacteria, parasites, and fungi.
• Examples of communicable diseases include the common cold, malaria, and meningitis.
• Non-communicable diseases can't be spread by other people.
• Examples of non-communicable diseases include asthma, coronary heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.

  • These generally start more slowly and last a long time, with some of them never going away.
• Different types of diseases may interact:

  • Defects in the immune system may mean that an individual is more likely to suffer from infectious diseases.
  • Viruses in living cells can be the trigger for cancers.
• The human body itself can sometimes be at fault, for example, skin rashes and asthma are often due to the body's own immune system overreacting to a pathogen.

  • Our body tries so hard to get rid of the pathogen, it ends up damaging our own tissues in the process.
• One of the most important links is between people's physical health and their mental health.

  • For example, suffering from severe physical health problems could have a big impact on people's mental health.
  • Sometimes, it can get so bad that it causes problems like depression or chronic anxiety.