How Modern Life Can Be Bad for Our Health - Term Paper Example

How modern life can be bad to our health Name University Affiliation How modern life can be bad to our health Introduction When we try to do some comparison of the modern life and life in the last one hundred or so years, we can realize that indeed there is a big difference in people’s lifestyle. We can identify tremendous changes that have taken place in the social aspects in the societies (Boaz, N. T. 2002. Pp.2004 – 232. ). Things are happening differently, even in case one of our departed ancestors peeps into our modern life, he/she can be left astonished because it will be hard for him to cope up with the current life. Aspects that were considered big problems and threats to human and animals’ life are no longer a problem today. To some extent, problems and challenges that we are encountering in the current world did not exist in the ancient world. Therefore, the world has undergone a big camouflage and averagely, the standard of human life has positively improved as compared to the one led by our ancestors. Many factors are attributed to these difference, one major factor that acts as a core factor before others is the technological advancement the world has undergone. Of course, we have other important factors but this one of improvement in technology has enabled other factors to affect the societies. Right from evolutionary, revolutionary, industrial and the modern digital age, technology has been improving in fact, in every age, technology is very different. This has altered the many aspects in the social lives of the modern people. One aspect that has really changed due to changes in technology is human health. Public health measures such as water treatment, sewage disposal, disease prevention etc have boosted the health standards of the population hence life expectancy has raised. Despite of the scientists’ innovation efforts to make life more comfortable, the current generations tend to indulge in activities that pose risks to their health hence short life span of the human life than in earlier years. This paper focuses on the things that are worshiped in the modern life that tend to pose risks to our health (Boaz, N. T. 2002. Pp.2004 – 232. ).Majorly, the paper discusses the ideas postulated by Robert Sapolsky a neurobiology professor. Sapolsky carried numerous researches on both health and social aspects of human life. From his findings, he discovered that stress is the major factor that is endangering the human species in the current times contrary to earlier days. He points out that stress can emerge from all aspects of human life. In our daily endeavors, we tend to encounter with different challenges, these challenges sometimes are very traumatizing, horrific and discouraging hence, making us loose the hope (Eckersley R. 2005. pp. 252-pp258.).). Human beings often strive to live a better life that is comfortable, when a person lead a comfortable life, his body function normally thus, he lives a health life. However, when he is faced with recurrent problems, his internal body functions are disrupted leading to illness. Sapolsky asserts that stress itself does not kill, but it heightens the risks of diseases attacks. Therefore, most of the diseases people suffer from are due to the stress they encounter in the daily lives. One can easily wonder since in developed countries like UK and US, health facilities are of good standards, these countries spends a lot of funds in health sector than any other nation around the globe. Nevertheless, they have the same health outcomes like those of developing countries like Cuba, Canada and South Africa (Sapolsky, 2004. pp. 409–pp.450.). This raises concern; there must be an unseen monster that has crept into the society devouring the life of the society members. Sapolsky has identified this monster to be “stress”. He point out that some nations have better social environment than others do, a nation can have good heath facilities but the social environment is so demanding hence many stressed individuals. We have mentioned stress to be a major factor putting human life at risk, but we have not defined it. In its definition, stress is a normal physical response to happenings that make someone threatened or upset his balance .When we face danger whether it is imagined or real, our bodies develops a defensive mechanism that is rapid and automatic process. This reaction mechanism is called “fight or flight” or stress response. This is the body’s way of protection, stress often save our life in emergencies by giving us more strength to defend ourselves from the dangerous situations. More so, stress response aid us to rise to the occasions to counter challenges, it sharpen our concentration in active activities such as thesis presentations, game-winning etc. As we can see, stress is a normal thing people tend to have, thus, it is important to us especially in emergencies (Sleeman, J. 201. pp.230-300.). Sapolsky in his long-term research in neurobiology, devised that health stress is needed to a certain point, however when it goes beyond this point, it stops to be helpful rather starts causing damage to our body health. It affects our productivity, relationships; moods even our quality of life. Our body biology shows that when we undergo threats, our nervous system release stress hormones such adrenaline and cortisol. These hormones are responsible in arousing the body to prepare for an emergency action. They cause an increase in our heartbeat, tightening of body muscles and sharpen our senses. These changes results to the production of extra energy in the muscles. Hence our strength increases, speed the reaction time, preparing us to either fight or run away from the danger. Nevertheless, when we are subjected to such kind of conditions for prolonged time, the stress hormones tend to have negative effects to the normal functioning of our bodies. Modern life is full of hassles, demands, deadlines, frustrations etc, thus, for many of us, stress has become part of our daily life. As mentioned earlier, stress in small doses is not bad in fact; it helps us perform under pressure and tend to motivate us do our best. However, when we are in stressful moods constantly, it wears our body and mind. When our bodies are wearied, it means that the biological functions such as digestion, excretion, homeostasis, respirations, blood circulation and many more do not take place normally (Sapolsky, 2012. pp. 409–pp.450.). This gives way for attack of diseases, more so; too much stress response hormones in blood become toxic hence harming some of the body organs. Professor Sapolsky observed that in the ancient life, stress response mechanisms by the body saved people’s life by running away from predators or even enabling them to catch the prey. However, nowadays, the modern man has over magnified the work of simple stress responses to counter big long-term challenges. For instance, the same stress response mechanism that early man applied is the one modern man is applying on things such as final examinations, traffic jams, loan repayment, difficult employers etc. In simple terms, the current generation has forgotten to know that the body mechanism to resist challenges was meant for life saving, instead we transfer them to other big problems (Eckersley R. 2005. pp. 252-pp258.). In his research, Sapolsky alerts the current generation that their life is at great risk due to the long-term exposure to stress. He says long-term stress leads to serious health problems because it tends to disrupt every system in the body. Chronic stress raises the blood pressure, it suppresses the immune system, contribute to infertility, raises the risk of the heart attack and speed up the aging process. More research reveals that long-term stress rewire the brain leaving the victim more vulnerable to the depression and even anxiety. Stress in children cause dwarfism, in adults it causes disruption of the repair of body tissues and bones. In females, it causes irregular menstrual cycles, while in males; it lowers the testosterones hormone hence low sperm count. Generally, in both sexes, stress lowers the interest in sexual desires. He tells us that even animals such as zebra use stress response mechanism to flight from predators, however, such animals do not experience long term stress like that one the current man is undergoing .Therefore, he notes that human beings are at high risk of dying due to stress than other animals because of the long-term stress we encounter on daily basis. Sapolsky has pointed out some of the causes of stress in our daily lives; he notifies us that some of these causes are external factors, which are out of our control. While other causes are self-inflicted, some of them we can avoid them .The common external factors in the current world that tend to cause stress are things like major life changes for example lifestyle changes that makes one to be uncomfortable than before. Lose of employment; divorce, death of the beloved, demotion etc are some of negative life changes that may cause chronic stress. Secondly, our work or occupations can be so stressing, some tasks are strenuous in that people use a lot of physical energy for long hours per day. This does not give the body enough time to rest even at resting hours for example at night, the body muscles become so tired hence no comfort while sleeping. Low-income people always walk long distances going to their places of work, when they get there; the tasks themselves are very demanding thus the stress hormone level always high in their body due to the stress they get while on work (Eckersley R. 2005 pp. 252-pp258.). The work conditions are often tough in that the employers demand productivity and meeting deadlines. People are forced to work overtime to meet the set targets. Sapolsky notify us that our occupations are the number one causes of stress hence it is a big threat to our modern life. Relationship difficulties are also another cause of stress in the current life. Sapolsky asserts that a human being is a social being; therefore, any person desires to socialize with other people. Relationships are built when people interact, friendship relationship, love relationship, business relationship are example of the results of interaction. However, these relationships often break and because the bonds between the parties are broken, the affected tend to upset their balance hence leading to stressful moments (Sapolsky R. M. 2004.pp. 409–pp.450.). Financial problems are also major factors that bring stress; everything on this earth has been commercialized. Right from basic needs such as food, clothing, shelter and other luxurious goods one has to dip into the pocket for him to survive. Low-income earners find it hard to make ends meet with their little income; therefore, the resulting thing is to remain stressed. For one to afford adequate food, good education, and luxurious life he has to have a reliable source of income. This means that financial status of a person determine the kind of lifestyle and comfort an individual lead (Boaz, N. T. 2002. Pp.204 – 232.).  Diet is another current cause of stress in our modern society. As mention in last paragraph, one cannot afford good food without enough funds. Therefore, a big population around the world lead malnourished life, this is a situation where do not have enough food to eat. The biological functions of the body mainly depends on the diet, when somebody is poorly fed, he stands a risk of being attacked by various ailments. Sapolsky notes that some of the people who can even afford good food are at risk of being attacked by ailments due to poor feeding habits. Good nutrition requires that someone eat a balanced diet food that has all the components of nutrients. Some people tend to overeat, or they prefer some meals to the others. This has resulted to the increase in obesity situations Hersen, M., & Gross, A. M. (2008. pp.119–p450.). An obese person stands high chances of getting stress related ailments such as cardiac failure, high blood pressure, diabetes etc. Thus, he warns us that the eating habits in the modern society also pose a health risk to our life. Other than the external causes of stress, we also have the internal causes or self generated. Sapolsky warns that things such as inability to accept the uncertainty in our daily life can also be a source of stress. Some discouraging or horrible things can take place in our life and in most cases; people tend not to accept the reality. Pessimism is also another cause of stress, when one often hopes for the worst to happen it means he is worried thus, the level of stress response hormones is always high in the blood (Morris, L. 2009. pp.34-300). This is dangerous for our life as noted earlier. Unrealistic expectations are another cause of stress, people often set targets in their tasks, and others seem not to set the average targets, which they can achieve when they strive. They set big targets that are unrealistic according their potential hence once they do not attain these targets they become stressed. Thus, professor Sapolsky tells us to be vigilant on the self-inflicted causes of stress. In regards to Eckersley R. (2005. pp. 252-pp258.).Another cause of stress in our social environment is the cultural practices in different societies. The social life of particular people from particular regions around the world is determined by the culture of the society in those regions. These practices tend to pose threat to our human life. Some communities still practice old cultural practices that are in one way or another heightened the risks of contracting certain diseases. For example, the culture of female circumcision, wife inheritance, and polygamy among the societies especially the African societies are very dangerous to the modern man. Therefore, some cultural practices that cause stress such as these one are past time, they have to be abolished in the current society. Sapolsky has given some of the methods we can use to reduce the stress we always encounter in our daily endeavors. He tells us that everybody has the ability to reduce the impact of stress and we should get used to the reduction techniques for us to leave longer (Sapolsky, 2012. 300–p450.). Some of the ways he proposed are; relaxation techniques such as deep breathing, meditation and enough sleep. He also says that we must learn how to manage stress. Sometimes we may feel that the stress we are undergoing cannot be controlled but he encourages that we can often control it the way we respond to it. Stress management involves taking charge of our emotions, thoughts, schedule, surrounding and the manner we handle our problems. It involves changing our reaction when we cannot take care of ourselves. Conclusion In conclusion, current social life has undergone a dramatic change as compared to the life in the last few decades. Things have become more dynamic in that every individual is always on the run to cope with the changes that are taking place. Technology has driven the whole world to be crazy; it has simplified life and at the same time made the social interaction to be more sophisticated. Sapolsky one of the neurobiologist of the current times has identified a new agent killer of human life to be stress that results from the daily routines. He says that stress is the mother of a large percentage of many diseases that are devouring the current population. He asserts that stress itself does not kill, but it increases the chances of being attacked by opportunistic diseases. He advises the current generation to adopt the stress management measures to live a little bit longer. References Boaz, N. T. (2002). Evolving Health the Origins of Illness and How the Modern World Is Making Us Sick. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Pg. 2004 – 232. Pages. Eckersley R. (2005). Is modern western culture a health hazard? Oxford journals>international journal of epidemiology>volume 35. Pg. 252-258. Hersen, M., & Gross, A. M. (2008). Handbook of clinical psychology. Hoboken, N.J.: J. Wiley & Sons. pp.119–p450. Sapolsky, R. (2012). Being human: Life lessons from frontiers of science.  New York: W. H. Freeman and Company. pp. 300–p450. Morris, L. (2009). Daily life through world history in primary documents. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press.pp.34-300. Sapolsky R. M. (2004). Why zebras don’t get ulcers. Henry Holt and Company publications. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, Volume 39.pp. 409–pp.450. Sleeman, J. (2010). Health: the casualty of modern times. Mount Barker, S. Aust.: Dragon Lair Publishing. 2010 - 362 pages Read More