Common Health-Related Risk Factors - Coursework Example

Table of Contents Table of Contents 1 What Will Kill You First: Smoking, А High Fat Diet or Аlсоhоl Аbusе? 2 Epidemiology/prevalence of health issues related to smoking, a high fat diet and alcohol-abuse 3 The whole patient context 4 Pathophysiology and pathology: 4 Key manifestations/clinical characteristics of major pathologies/pathophysiologies 6 Comparison of the overall impact each risk factor has on pathology/pathophysiology 7 Pre-hospital/Medical Management: 9 Pre-hospital management practices/therapies 11 Comparison of the overall impact of the risk factors 12 Summary and Conclusions: 14 References 16 What Will Kill You First: Smoking, А High Fat Diet or Аlсоhоl Аbusе? Name Institution Course Tutor Date General Background/Introduction: Key/common health-related risk factors/mechanisms of disease Human mortality can be caused by different factors in life. Taking of high fat diet, smoking, and alcohol consumption are among the major factors that cause mortality. High fat diet is characterised with health related risk factors like; diabetes, obesity, and heart disease in general ‘metabolic syndrome’. Smoking is associated with lungs, liver, and heart diseases, that is, strokes, heart attacks, cancer, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (US Department of Health and Human Services, 2014, p. 17). Alcohol consumption leads to morbidity, disability, and mortality from traffic crashes and chronic health impacts. Epidemiology/prevalence of health issues related to smoking, a high fat diet and alcohol-abuse High fat diet, smoking, and alcohol consumption leads to health issues to both men and women. Health issues associated with high fat diet affects people of all ages. Smoking health related issues is mostly prevalent to men and women adults worldwide (Hughes, Stead, Hartmann‐Boyce, Cahill, & Lancaster, 2014, p. 6). Majority of people start smoking from age 21 or younger, especially the school going children. Health related issues associated with alcohol consumption affects women in the age bracket of 16-54 and men in 16-34, thus highly affecting younger people globally. The whole patient context Taking of high fat diet, smoking and consuming alcohol commonly affects the health of a person. The three are associated with chronic health impacts that lead to might mortality rate. A person who has the risk factors associated with high fat diet, or smoking, or consuming alcohol can equally die. This is because the three interrupts with the life of the victim leading to health problems that are likely to cause death (Talukdar, Bandyopadhyay, Li, Xu, McNelis, Lu, & Olefsky, 2012, p. 1411). It is apparent that those people who engage in the three risk factors at their young age, they start getting health problems during adulthood and it might worsen at old age leading to death. The rate of consumption of high fat diet, alcohol and smoking determines the level of health problems because increased consumption leads to quick and severe health consequences. Pathophysiology and pathology: Description of the impact smoking, a high fat diet and/or alcohol-abuse has on the relevant body system/s Smoking affects the respiratory system of the smoker where one gets liver, lung and heart diseases, which leads to death because of tobacco. Smoking also leads to strokes, cancer, heart attacks and COPD, as well as hypertension and peripheral vascular disease. The more the number of years a person spends smoking, the severe the effects. It is evident that if a person starts smoking at his/her young age, or during the early years, this leads to increased tar of the smoked cigarette, thus increased risk of suffering from the above diseases. There is also the secondhand smoke, which affects people the same with environmental tobacco smoke and they cause health effects to people at all ages. There is higher tar content in cigarettes especially from the underdeveloped countries, because of not being filtered thus risk of getting tobacco related diseases easily. A higher fat diet results to prevention of development of insulin in the body to enhance reduction of the blood sugar. This insulin resistance leads to increased blood sugar amount leading to diabetes, obesity, and heart disease, which is a part of the metabolic syndrome. Insulin resistance can be induced by minor changes in the diet like taking high fat diet for some few days or in fewer amounts (Matsubara, Mita, Minami, Hosooka, Kitazawa, Takahashi, & Seino, 2012, p. 48). There is deliberation of liver’s insulin activity because of inflammation of free fatty acids, thus going through the metabolism, which leads to vascular and metabolic diseases and cancer. Alcohol consumption leads to negative health effects such as, disability, morbidity, and mortality. The drinking patters and alcohol consumption rate leads to differentiated mortality and morbidity (Ronksley, Brien, Turner, Mukamal, & Ghali, 2011, p. 63). Increased consumption of alcohol leads to increased risk of chronic health effects, such as the coronary heart illness. This occurs because of injuries resulting from the traffic crashes leading to cardiovascular disease and cancer. The average volume of a person’s alcohol consumption or the number of drinks a person takes daily reflects to one’s level of being at risk in alcohol-related mortality. This mostly affects the young people because of the uncontrolled drinking habits. One is also likely to suffer from unintentional injuries, hypertension, and cause violence at home. Mechanisms responsible for the development of pathology/pathophysiology Pathology/pathophysiology results from mechanisms like ‘poor reversible airflow obstruction and inflammatory response from the lungs that is not normal. This lead to adaptive and innate immune responses because of being highly exposed to noxious gases and particles that comes from the cigarette smoke. On the other hand, metabolic disorders lead to fatal diseases like cancer and atherosclerosis. The common route of drug and food administration or the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) gets exposed to the dieted attacks because of toxins and bacteria, thus leading to inflammation. There is also development of mechanism like the fat cells and visceral fat leading to increased levels of plasma and altering the levels of substances like the resistin and adiponectin. Nevertheless, consumption of ethanol leads to chronic and acute pancreatitis because of activation of ‘intrapancreatic digestive anzyme through sensitization of the acinar cells leading to stimulation of secretagogue released from the duodenal I cells and pathiologic stimuli (Brien, Ronksley, Turner, Mukamal, & Ghali, 2011, p. 636). The consumotion of alcohol also leads to translocation of the gut bacteria through the portal system and lipopolysaccharides capable of interacting with the toll-like receptors. This results to immunogenic mediators and inflammatory mediators including; interferons and ‘tumor necrosis factor-α. The normal substrates are shunted away from the catabolism to the lipid biosynthesis because of increased NADH generation from the acetaldehyde dehydrogenase and alcohol dehydrogenase, elevated ‘peripheral fat catabolism, and ‘impaired secretion of the lipoproteins. Key manifestations/clinical characteristics of major pathologies/pathophysiologies Major pathologies/pathophysiologies are characterized with clinical/manifestations like the abnormalities or having undesired conditions. The metabolic syndrome is characterized with macrophage, and nuetrophils resulting from the smoking cessation and lack of balance between the antioxidants and oxidants from the lungs (Yerushalmy, 2014, p. 1361). There is also the T lymphocytes, which relates to the level of inflammation and the air obstruction degree, as the inflammatory cells releases the mediators and cytokines. The physiological abnormalities like the hyperinflation, air obstruction, ciliary dysfunction, mucous hypersecretion, systemic effects, pulmonary hypertension, and abnormalities in the gas exchange are characteristics of COPD pathophysiology. There is also the hypercarpnia, respiratory acidosis, and hypoxaemia leading to death or critical respiratory failure. The muscle fatigue occurs between the perfusion and ventilation, those worsening the exchange of pulmonary gas. Due to alcohol consumption, there is experience of collagen deposition from the ‘perisinusoidal hepatic stellate (Ito) cells’ resulting from influx of the neutrophils to the parenchyma and activiation of the kupffer cells and platelet-activation of the factor, as well as the mitochondrial function and damage of the membranes from alcohol oxidation. Comparison of the overall impact each risk factor has on pathology/pathophysiology Smoking leads to inflammation in the lungs especially in the small airways. This is because of the inhaled toxins, defence mechanism impairment, and tissue destruction (Cahill, Stead, Lancaster, & Polonio, 2012, p. 246). They limit the process of disruption and destruction of the repair mechanism; hence, severity of the disease from smoking cessation. The airways infalammation, mucous hypersecretion, bronchoconstriction, and aedema also results to triggering of the pancreatitis and mitochondrial functioning on the hepatic neoantigens. The damaged proteins and free radicals transform the toxic metabolites and this is related to the insensitive tissues, which leads to storage of glucose. As the level of cholesterol resulting from nicotinic acids and statins cause the risks of heart disease, thus increased spread of metabolic syndrome (Serino, Luche, Gres, Baylac, Bergé, Cenac, & Burcelin, 2012, p. 548). Poor diet exacerbates the metabolic syndrome, which is related to the Stein-Leventhal syndrome, fatty live, and the sleep apnea. The glucose level is reduced by the administration of the metformin and injection of the insulin, thus minimization of risk of metabolic syndrome. Drugs, such as the antihypertensive drugs and the enzyme inhibitors converted through the angiotensin, as well as the diuretics are used in treatment of high blood pressure as a metabolic syndrome from people with increased levels of cholesterol. It is also necessary to go for weight reduction, take diet having reduced levels of saturated fat and carbohydrates, and engaging into physical activities. The blood serum of the affected person contains the amino acids, fatty acids, ‘impaired byproducts of the lipid oxidation, and increased organic acids. This is because the increased risk of metabolic syndrome results from the chronic inflammation. Brain is very important in some cases because it enhances creation of the lipid metabolism, ‘modulating peripheral carbohydrate,’ and metabolic syndrome because of too much fructose and taking much sugar (Stuckler, McKee, Ebrahim, & Basu, 2012, p. 1235). Increased level of reactive proteins makes a person to be at risk of cardiovascular disease because the airflow obstruction degree tends to be high and its diagnosis requires measurement of the spirometry. The gene expression associated with the pro-inflammatory mediators allows activation of the transcription factor and elevated axacerbations. Production of neutrophils is enhanced by the presence of main proteases, such as the protease 3, cathepsin G, as well as the semi elastase of the proteases and inactivation of the anti-proteases through the oxidation process. Release of the connective tissue and cytokine of the growth factor and amplification of the pro-inflammatory responses lead the fibrosis from the airways. Pre-hospital/Medical Management: Common patient presentations/conditions and their diagnosis Due to smoking, the patient presentation to the paramedics involves feeling of shortness of breath, productive cough, and high blood pressure. There is also production of pancreatic acid, infection in the bladder, heart attack, and stomachache. The paramedics diagnosis the kidney, rectum, bladder, pancrease, stomach, and the liver among other body organs to identify the level of effect of tobacco smoke (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 2012, p. 889). There is also scanning of the lung, trachea,, bronchus, larynx, esophagus, and the cervix, as well as colon and oropharynx to identify any risk of cancer. Smoking during pregnancy is characterized with ectopic pregnancy, low birth weight, stillbirth, sudden death syndrome of the infant, preterm, and the orofacial clefts to the infants. Increased period and level of smoking required the paramedics to assess for stroke, lung cancer, and heart disease (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 2011, p. 1513). If there is realization of the abnormal flow of the blood in the system, the paramedics conduct tests for the blood clotting, which is likely to lead to heart attacks. Smoking leads to blocking of the blood vessels, thus reduction of the blood flow to the skin and legs. There is also diagnosis of asthma and lung disease because of complain of chronic bronchitis and emphysema, as the COPD. Alcohol consumption is associated with diagnosis of; hypertension, diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, cancer (oral, oesophageal, colon, rectal, liver, and laryngeal cancer), and ischaemic stroke, as well as cirrhosis. The paramedics scan the lung, liver, or any part likely to get cancer according to the patient complaints of feeling pain and heart attack. The paramedics assess the cardiovascular disease once a patient complaint of; depression, schizophrenia, mania, panic disorder, phobia, emotions, anxiety disorder, working memory, and hypomania, as well as dysthymia and brain damage among other alcoholic-related disorders. A patient with cases of alcohol consumption might also see paramedics with complaint of bladder or problems in the urinary system (Cho, Lee, Rimm, Fuchs, & Giovannucci, 2012, p. 415). A person seeks for medical attention because of having common cold and bacterial infection in the body parts that are likely to be affected by cancer. There is increased level of violence resulting from alcoholic people and traffic injuries because of drunkard drinking. The paramedics conduct diagnosis of kidney stones, the respiratory system, and conducts assessment for hormonal imbalance, osteoporosis, sexual dysfunction, skin colour, and rheumatoid arthritis. High fat diet is diagnosed through the patient presentation of hypertension, diabetes, and obesity. They are also presentation of changes in the lungs’ functionality, pancreas, and bladder abnormalities (Chalkiadaki, & Guarente, 2012, p. 185). A patient might also be having cardiovascular disease, liver disease, and kidney dysfunction. The paramedics assess the level of fats in the body and measure the level of blood pressure and glucose in the blood. If the level of cholesterol, fatty acids, and blood sugar is high, there should be conduct of assessment of heart, lung, and liver functionality. It is evident that high fat diet leads to increased cases of hypertension and changes in the metabolic syndrome. Another risk factor is the microalbuminuria, and dyslipidemia, as metabolic syndrome. There is also diagnosis of glucose tolerance, high rate of excretion, as well as electrocardiogram. One is likely to develop some obesity-related health complications as metabolic syndrome. Pre-hospital management practices/therapies In the case of smoking, it is necessary for the person to stop smoking in order to have reduces level of heart attack and other effects resulting from tobacco smoking. It is widely realized that stopping the habit of smoking is quite hard and it takes a long period for one to fully stay a day without smoking a single cigarette. One should take drinks like tea, milk, and juice in order to cut the thirst and avoid smoking tobacco. Pre-hospital activity that is necessary in the case of alcohol consumption is to avoid consuming alcohol and take other substitutes like tea, juice, and milk to end one’s thirst. One should also take excessive water in order to wash away some of the alcohol in the body (Nan, Lee, Rimm, Fuchs, Giovannucci, & Cho, 2013, p. 560). One should control his drinking habit with time and ensure that he/she manages to stop it completely. Consumption of high fat diet is associated with pre-hospital practice where a person reduced consumption of fatty foods. In collaboration with food containing low fats, one should take high carbohydrates, and diet that has energy deficient in order to control his/her weight. It is also necessary to take a lot of water, do exercise, and take high content of fruits and vegetables (Cantó, Houtkooper, Pirinen, Youn, Oosterveer, Cen, & Auwerx, 2012, p. 843). There should be reduction of sugar in one’s foods because sugar also contributes to increased fat in the body, thus diabetes and metabolic syndrome. Complications associated with these presentations on patient morbidity/mortality Smoking is associated with common complications like liver and lung disease, heart attack, high blood pressure, and cancer among others. It is widely realized that cancer causes high rate of mortality/morbidity to smokers. There is also pulmonary disease and pneumonia, which cases many deaths to those who are passive or active smokers. It is widely realized that smoking reduced the life span of a person because of its related health risks. For instance, women smokers suffer from breast cancer, which is known to be a high killer disease. Stroke and coronary disease contributes to increased morbidity and mortality rate among the smokers. Alcohol-related deaths occur once lung and kidney failure, as well as ischemic heart disease affect an alcoholic. Liver disease and oral cancer are also major contributors of death associated with alcohol consumption (Chen, Rosner, Hankinson, Colditz, & Willett, 2011, p. 1886). It is widely noticed that most people who consume alcohol without control succumb accidents and end up losing their lives and causing deaths to other people in the particular accidents. Other people who engage into violence related to alcohol consumption might lead to causing death because of being attacked by the other party in a harmful way. High fat diet is associated with mortality because of the health issues resulting from too much fat in the body, such as heart attack, hypertension, diabetes, and heart diseases (Haraguchi, Aoki, Ohtsu, Ikeda, Tahara, & Shibata, 2014, p. 939). It is widely identified that people who get heart diseases; such as heart attack die easily and this is the same to those suffering from hypertension and diabetes. Stroke is also another common health issue that leads to death of the victims because once the blood clots at a certain point, the flow of blood in the body develops abnormalities, which leads to death. Comparison of the overall impact of the risk factors Smoking, alcohol consumption, and high fat diet are all associated with health risks that influence morbidity and mortality (Pirie, Peto, Reeves, Green, Beral, & Million Women Study Collaborators, 2013, p. 137). It is evident that smoking and alcohol consumption are associated with risk factors that are almost the same. They both lead to lung, liver, and heart disease. Smoking and alcohol consumption leads to pulmonary diseases. However, the rate of mortality resulting from alcohol consumption becomes high because of consumption of dry liquor, which has high content of alcohol. Smoking can lead to mortality to people at all ages because some consumer secondary smoke, which can also affect children. Around 40% of the smokers develop chronic diseases that lead to their deaths. 90% of lung cancer deaths results from smoking tobacco. Alcohol consumption leads to around 60% of death to the victims because of increased traffic crashes (Bierut, Goate, Breslau, Johnson, Bertelsen, Fox, & Edenberg, 2012, p. 447). The mortality rate resulting from high fat diet is mostly associated with hypertension and heart diseases. Cardiovascular risks leads to 25% mortality rate of those people consuming diets that have high fats. Heart disease results from increased fat, which influences the functioning of the heart, thus heart attack leading to death of the victim. It is clear that the three risk factors can lead to increased mortality rate, but smoking and alcohol consumption have high mortality rates compared to high fat diets. The diagram below shows how these lifestyle changes increase health burden with reference to Australia. Summary and Conclusions: Smoking, high fat diet, and alcohol consumption are all related to health problems. The three risk factors affect the health of a person depending on the rate of consumption or smoking and the period spent. It is clear that the three affects both sexes and people of all ages but the most affected people are young adults and adults. The three risk factors are associated with lifestyle and the diet that people take. There is high mortality rate resulting from the three because of the effect of pulmonary disease and metabolic syndrome. People go to seek for health care after developing issues related to their body systems, such as pulmonary system and metabolic pathways. The condition of the diseases resulting from the three risk factors is what causes death to the victims and not the specific risk factors. The three can be controlled through personal discipline, such as stopping consuming alcohol, smoking and taking diets with high fats. 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