Effects of Poor Diet and Obesity on Heart Essay Example for Free

Effects of Poor Diet and Obesity on Heart Essay A good diet consists of consuming a full range of all the various nutrients needed for proper function of the body and bodily systems. When someone consumes the correct nutrients in the correct proportions, they are considered to have a â€Å"Balanced Diet†. However, when someone is not consuming the correct nutrients or not consuming the correct amount of nutrients they are said to have a poor diet or â€Å"malnutrition†. Malnutrition is often misconceived to be just the lack of nutrients in the body causing illness and Anorexia; however this is in fact incorrect as malnutrition can also be defined as the excessive consuming of nutrients which contain more energy than the body uses. This is most commonly known as â€Å"Obesity†. In Britain and most first world countries, obesity is one of the most serious effects of malnutrition. It can be extremely dangerous due to the build up of a certain fat known as â€Å"Adipose Tissue† under the skin and around major bodily organs. Someone can usually be defined as being obese if they have a BMI of over 30 (BMI can be calculated by dividing mass in Kg by height in Meters, squared). Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) is a common disorder of the blood vessels that supply the heart muscle with oxygenated blood. It is a major cause of death in developed with Reports in the UK suggesting that 3-4% of men aged between 35 and 74 die each year due to the effects of CHD. In the reports for women, the risk appears to be about half of this figure. Each year around 156000 people in England and Wales die from CHD. The heart is used as a pump to pump blood around the body; this is done via the contracting of the hearts muscles. This process needs a continuous supply of oxygen in order to function, however if this oxygen supply is cut off or slowed down the muscle cannot contract and therefore the muscle will soon die. One of the processes that can restrict the amount of oxygen getting to the heart is called â€Å"atherosclerosis† alternatively known as â€Å"Hardening of the Arteries†). This can lead to the coronary arteries to be blocked due to the build up of mater ials inside the artery walls. This causes the amount of space available for the oxygen to pass through the artery to become heavily constricted. Atherosclerosis is a very slowly developing problem and people who contract it normally do not show any signs until they are at least 40 years of age. However in some people, the process can be caused to happen much faster. This is normally due to things such as high blood pressure, the presence of low-density lipoproteins (LDL’s) or even excessive amounts of harmful chemicals in the blood cuased by things such as the excessive consumption of tobacco. Damage from the presence of these substances will build up inside the coronary artery and exist as deposits known as an atheromatous plaque. Once this plaque has restricted the wideness of the lumen by 50% or more, flow of oxygen into the heart muscle will not meet required amounts and will cause a pain to be felt during exercising known as â€Å"angina†. This pain is felt in the left shoulder, chest and arm, but can still be felt in the neck and left side of the face for some people. Another danger from the presence of an atheromatous plaque in the coronary arteries is the danger of a blood clot being formed around the plaque. These blood clots are known as a â€Å"Coronary thrombosis† and are caused by fibrous protein Collagen coming into contact with the platelet which causes the platelet to secrete a chemical that react with the blood and cause a clot to form. These blood clots further slow down the flow of blood through the artery. This could cause the part of the heart receiving the oxygen from this artery to fail in receiving enough blood and therefore shut down or stop the heart from beating altogether. When this happens it is called a â€Å"myocardial infarction†. A myocardial infarction is a very serious condition in which the heart fails to beat. Around 90% of all cases of myocardial infarction are direct effects from the problems aroused by Coronal thrombosis. Myocardial infarctions are potentially fatal if a large amount of muscle is affected. Cardiac arrests are a result of myocardial infarction due to the lack of beating from the heart. During a cardiac arrest, no pulse can be felt on the victim and also the victim will lose consciousness (faint). If the heart is not restarted before the muscle cells starts to die off, then the victim will also die. A reconstruction of the effect an Atheromatous Plaque can have upon the wideness of the Lumen inside a blood vessel (self made image) Cholesterol is an important substance in the structure of cell membranes and we must have a certain amount of it in our body or the liver will produce its own form of cholesterol to be transported and used by cells. However, evidence from tests completed by scientists suggests that having an excessive amount of cholesterol in the blood increases the risk of suffering from CHD. It is still unclear whether or not ones levels of cholesterol in the blood stream can be controlled by ones diet although, data does show that eating large amounts of saturated fats can increase your chance of having a high cholesterol blood content. Excessive cholesterol can be dangerous as it is not soluble in water so therefore it cannot be transported using the blood plasma transportation system. Instead it must be transported around the body in something called â€Å"lipoproteins† which are tiny balls made up of various lipids, cholesterol and proteins. There are many varieties of lipoproteins which are normally categorised into 3 main sub-sections. These sub-sections are defined by the amount of protein they contain (also known as their density) and consist of: High Density Lipoprotein (HDL): High protein content and low lipid content Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL): High Lipid content and lower Protein content Chylomicrons: a very high lipid content and very low protein content HDL’s are usually given the job of picking up cholesterol from around the body and transporting it to the liver. On the other hand, LDL’s are usually given the job of transporting cholesterol from the lover to other parts of the body. LDL’s play a part in the formation of an atheromatous plaque due to the tendency for them to deposit cholesterol into the damaged walls of arteries; in contrast HDL’s seem to actually help in preventing CHD. This is because they remove cholesterol from tissues including those of blood vessel walls. Therefore a person who has a high HDL: LDL ratio in their body would be much better protected against CHD than someone who does not. The structure of a lipoprotein (this one could be a LDL due to its High Lipid content and lower Protein content) (http://ta.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%AE%AA%E0%AE%9F%E0%AE%BF%E0%AE%AE%E0%AE%AE%E0%AF%8D:Structure_of_a_Lipoprotein.jpg) Blood pressure can be defined as the pressure that blood inside vessels applies onto the walls of the vessel in which it is being transported. If a person has an exceptionally high blood pressure, they are said to have â€Å"hypertension†. This increases ones risk to CHD by causing the walls of the arteries to thicken and stiff much like atherosclerosis causes the blood vessels to become hardened. The cause of high blood pressure is not always clear in every case. However scientists have suggested that a high intake of salt or the excessive consumption of lipids may be aiding in the creation of a high blood pressure, this is due to the high water affinity of salt itself which could be drawing in water via osmosis, increasing the volume of blood and therefore pressure upon the blood vessels. High blood pressure is normally combated naturally by the body via the kidneys which would excrete more liquid containing the salt solution; however this process does not always work therefore leading to people with high blood pressure being either advised to just eat a low- salt diet or be given diuretics which will make the kidneys complete the process. In conclusion, It can be seen that both poor diet and obesity can both have a certain effect upon the chances of someone contracting Coronary Heart disease, however it can also be seen that the effects from both of these problems could easily be combated by simply eating a healthier diet containing all of the nutrients needed in the body and also in the correct proportions allowing for a balanced diet and a healthy lifestyle.

Analysis of Archibald Lampmans The City of the End of Things Essay

Analysis of Archibald Lampman's The City of the End of Things       Iron Towers. Terrible flames.   Inhuman music, rising and falling.   Grim depths and abysses, where only night holds sway and gruesome creatures crawl before their awesome Master.   Through these disturbing images, and a masterful adaptation of the sonnet structure, Archibald Lampman summons forth The City of the End of Things.     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The nameless City he creates is a place of mechanical slavery and despair, where Nature cannot exist, and human life is forfeit.   The place is a veritable Hell; no, worse than a hell - it is Tartarus.   By evoking the name of this, the most feared of realms in classical Mythology, Lampman roots his poem, and thus his City and message, in Greek and Roman legend.   This is very important since, by wrapping the poem within a mythological narrative, it automatically begins to undermine any attempt to enforce Christian (and other) readings upon it.   It becomes important to understand exactly what is intended by the usage of 'Tartarus', and precisely how deeply it permeates the structure of the poem.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Tartarus was not just another realm within the classical world - it was a land beyond Hades, beyond the Underworld, lying as far below hell as the Earth lay below Heaven; is was said that an anvil would fall for nine days before reaching it.   It was a land of exile, a prison for those who displeased the current ruling hierarchy of Gods and divine beings.   Uranus imprisoned his first children there; the Titans, having overthrown their father, threw the Cyclops into Tartarus - only to take their place once Zeus' rebellion disposed of the despotic giants.   It soon became a place of such fear that the mere threa... ...in fact, seem insanely chaotic.   Our mindless support of self-centred political systems, of abuse of fellow human beings of different nationalities - it may well have appeared quite insane to him.   The poem, therefore, delivers a strong message of warning: we must develop a stronger awareness, a care of what is happening, lest we, the collective we - humanity, the 'Idiot', are left in the ruins of our effort, alone, forever.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Works Cited Grimal, Pierre.   "Tartarus"   The Dictionary of Classical Mythology.     Ã‚   New York: Blackwell, 1986.   p.443. Lampman, A.   "The City of the End of Things."   Canadian Poetry:    From the Beginnings Through the First World War.   Ed. Gerson, C and Davies, G.   Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1994.   259-262. Tripp, Edward.   "Tartarus"   Crowll's Handbook of Classical Mythology.   New York: Crowell, 1970.   p.545.

Malthus And Africa

Africa, being a third world country with much economic oppression, is currently being debated in the General Assembly about whether or not it should have population control. Many experts believe that, if not controlled, the rate of the increasing population of Africa will have disastrous effects. Over two hundred years ago, a man by the name of Thomas Robert Malthus wrote an essay on the effects of population and the food supply titled  «An Essay on the Principle of Population.  » This essay dealt with the growth of population and if not restrained, how it would destroy man’s subsistence here on Earth (Geyer 1). Much of what he wrote applies to not only Africa, but also the entire world today. Currently, the population growth in the Western Nations is approaching zero. This means that each family is having 2. 1 children, enough to replace the current population. For North America to double, it would take one hundred years, for Europe, two hundred. But for Africa to double, it would take only twenty-four years. There are many factors as to why Africa, and many other third world countries, reproduces at such a rate. Lack of contraceptives, traditional values, high infant mortality, and poor education are a few of these actors (Duffey 2).  «It is a lot easier for a country to deal with its problems if it has less people, » says Brian Hailwel, who studies Malthus’s theories (Kolasky 1). Carl Haub who stated,  «It is almost impossible for a developing country to move from the Third World to the First World when their population is rising so rapidly » supports Hailwel’s statement. Malthus believed that the evolution of mankind existed in cycles. Good times occurred when there were high wages and good living conditions, which led to early marriages and rapid population increase. Then come the bad times. Disease, low ages, and epidemics lead to population decrease and a restored balance between population and resources. This cycle then repeats (Stundbia 4). He also felt that the Poor Laws, which attempted to support those whose incomes were too low to support themselves, were in the long run more harmful than helpful. This just leads to lower wages and families that can not support the children they already have bearing more. Many people seem to think that war, famine, and plague will help keep the world’s population restrained. These disasters are one of the two checks on the growth of population that Malthus identifies in  «An Essay on he Principle of Population.  » He called these two checks positive checks and preventative checks. Positive checks are famine, disease, and wars while preventive checks are celibacy, abortion, and late marriages. Africa participates very little in the second check Malthus identifies due to previously stated reasons. When Malthus wrote his essay, he did not take into account the impact technology would have on food production. Due to the  «Green Revolution » which brought about the tractor, refrigeration, chemical fertilizers, and genetic engineering, there was a tremendous increase in food production. Until the mid-eighties, food production kept up with population growth. Since then, it has been steadily declining. Grain production is declining due to soil erosion, waterlogging and salting of irrigated land, air pollution, water shortages, and overuse of land (Berntsen 3). Technological advances compensated for the loss of farmland. Even though less land can be used, more food is being produced. Unfortunately, there are many indications that the world is, at present, producing the maximum amount of food it is capable of. The combined effect of the loss of farmland and the peaking of yield er acre impose limitations. The same problem is in occurrence for the meat production. Nearly all of the world’s rangelands are in use. Seventy-percent of the world’s annual meat is range fed while the other thirty-percent is grain fed. The only room for growth is in the grain fed, and that is estimated to only grow another forty-two percent (Berntsen 2). Fish are also on the decline as a reliable resource for food. The destruction of spawning grounds and the use of mile-long nylon nets has caused the overharvesting of the ocean. A five- percent increase is optimistic (Berntsen 3). The result of the present being the peak in food production while the population is still growing is frightening. If food were to be distributed equally, the food supply would be ten pounds per week. Currently, Americans eat seventeen pounds of food per week. When the world population reaches approximately eleven billion in the year 2050, the food supply will be six to seven pounds per week, which is below the level of food people eat who live in poverty today (Berntsen 1). Malthus believed that three things cause the decline of living conditions: the overpopulation of young; the nability of resources to keep up with the rising human population; and the irresponsibility of the lower class (Simison 2). Malthus suggested a regulation on the size of families of the lower class to fight this. Tunisia, which is located in Northern Africa, has introduced birth control with remarkable results. If overpopulation is not checked, it leads to the crowding of people and the fight for food and water. This, in turn, leads to genocide and other means that are normally considered inappropriate as acceptable (Geyer 2). Equilibrium is what Malthus thought population should achieve. This is where the birth rate equals the death rate. When this is reached, wages will stay the same and any disturbances caused will have compensating changes (Stundbia 5). Malthus, who is credited for this idea, did not think the human population would ever achieve it. He figured that it would be exceeded, a positive check would result, and the cycle would start all over again. Taking Malthus’s theories into account, the only thing that will help Africa economically is for the population to be repressed. In fact, for the next generation or two, the reproduction level should be below the replacement rate. This dramatically decreases the population, therefore increasing the chances it has to grow and develop. If Africa’s population is not repressed, there will not be enough food to feed the people living there. Even First World countries will be unable to help, because they will need all the food they can produce. A gruesome famine will occur, with thousands dead. Africa will experience a major setback and may possibly never recover. I believe that much of Malthus’s theory is correct. Much of the data he used in the seventeen hundreds was incorrect, but his ideas still apply. The cycles he explained have proven to occur. Almost all of the world’s land that can be used is being used to produce the maximum yield. Scientists have predicted the world’s growth to reach eleven billion by the year 2050 if left unchecked. Many have also agreed that the maximum food supply is being produced. If countries such as Africa, whose population tripled from 1950 to today, do not curb their population growth, there will not be enough food to feed them, much less countries that are considerable better off economically. I also think that if Africa were to be educated and there was less oppression, the result would be lower population growth. The idea of allowing families to have only a certain amount of children is morally wrong. Some people seem to think that Malthus’s ideas are extinct and do not apply to the world today. They consider him and what he thought to be dead. But, as Pablo Neruda once said,  «Everything that is buried is not dead » (Geyer 1). He is still alive because his theories can still be applied to today. The consequences of not considering Malthus’s theory as a real threat are too great. For life to exist as we know it, population must be repressed. If not, man’s subsistence will be extinct.

Short Story - 931 Words

Peter had warned me to stay outside at first, that hed call me if he needed help, but I am too impatient of a person to actually listen to him, so when I heard a loud bang I reacted as fast as I could. I walk into the industrial park place and wince when I see Lizs dad. Hes just lazily leaning against a small metal table, his arms crossed. His suit was whipping around, chasing Peter easily, but it was crashing into every support beam in the barren concrete and it only had two more left until the whole place comes crumbling down. Peter grunts as he finally lands on the floor, standing up straight. Im sorry, Pete, Mr. Allen states easily, pushing himself off of the table. Peter shrugs and lifts his arms, For what? That thing†¦show more content†¦I yelp loudly in pain, my side was already hurting and now that pain was added to more on my other side and to my back. I was face up under the dusty concrete, my chest was pressed under it, my legs and arms free of it. I tried to move a little but I immediately scream in pain, something was in me, I can feel the hard metal inside of my abdomen. Ah, I groan out, my head feels like it wants to explode, and I know, even if I am able to lift this off of me, I cant because if I do Ill bleed out. My eyes widen when I realize Peter isnt next to me, I cough a few times, the dust making it into the throat. Peter! I scream, Peter, hey Peter where are you? Hello? Peter yells out frantically. I immediately sighed in relief at the sound of his voice. A tear brushed down my face, picking up dust along the way, W-where are you? Im down here, I-Im stuck. Im stuck, I cant move. I cant- He yells out, but stops suddenly, making me wiggle with excruciating pain. Peter, hey, hey, whats going on are you okay? I squeak out, tears streaming down the side of my temples. I twist my head around trying to search for him but my vision is blocked by other pieces of concretes, making me cry harder. I cant lose him. So, I do what I know best, I close my eyes tightly thinking about Peter, all of my memories of him, the sound of his voice echoing in my head. TheShow MoreRelatedshort story1018 Words   |  5 Pagesï » ¿Short Stories:  Ã‚  Characteristics †¢Short  - Can usually be read in one sitting. †¢Concise:  Ã‚  Information offered in the story is relevant to the tale being told.  Ã‚  This is unlike a novel, where the story can diverge from the main plot †¢Usually tries to leave behind a  single impression  or effect.  Ã‚  Usually, though not always built around one character, place, idea, or act. †¢Because they are concise, writers depend on the reader bringing  personal experiences  and  prior knowledge  to the story. Four MajorRead MoreThe Short Stories Ideas For Writing A Short Story Essay1097 Words   |  5 Pageswriting a short story. Many a time, writers run out of these short story ideas upon exhausting their sources of short story ideas. 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Racism is so prevalentRead MoreThe Idol Short Story1728 Words   |  7 PagesThe short stories â€Å"The Idol† by Adolfo Bioy Casares and â€Å"Axolotl† by Julio Cortà ¡zar address the notion of obsession, and the resulting harm that can come from it. Like all addictions, obsession makes one feel overwhelmed, as a single thought comes to continuously intruding our mind, causing the individual to not be able to ignore these thoughts. In â€Å"Axolotl†, the narr ator is drawn upon the axolotls at the Jardin des Plantes aquarium and his fascination towards the axolotls becomes an obsession. InRead MoreGothic Short Story1447 Words   |  6 Pages The End. In the short story, â€Å"Emma Barrett,† the reader follows a search party group searching for a missing girl named Emma deep in a forest in Oregon. The story follows through first person narration by a group member named Holden. 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