A lesson on obesity and the causes of obesity!

What is obesity?

Obesity is the condition of being grossly fat or overweight

What causes obesity? 

The following habits have been identified and proven to be major causes of the sickly, health threatening condition of obesity.

Watching TV:

TV watching for prolonged hours is a strong predictor for obesity. Recent research has proved that people who watch around two hours of TV a day are much more likely to be overweight than those who watched only half an hour each day. When you watch TV you are virtually motionless thus your heart rate, blood pressure and metabolic rate decline, resulting in burning 20 to 30 calories less every hour. Research by Harvard University has showed that there is a link between the amount children eat and the amount of television they watch.

Eating Too Fast: This is habit of many people living in fast paced societies. Eating fast lets you eat too much before you are fully aware of it. The human brain takes about 15-20 minutes to start signaling feelings of satisfaction. Scientists suppose that fast eating is a risk factor for the metabolic syndrome which is a combination of the symptoms such as high blood pressure, obesity, and insulin resistance.

Learn values of fruits to man!

Fruits

Scientifically, a fruit is a mature fertilized ovary. Fruits are formed after the fertilization of ovules. The ovules develop into seeds and the ovary into a fruit. The food we obtain from fruits is manufactured by photosynthesis in the leaves of a plant. Fruits are therefore storage organs of food.

Fruits are an important component of a healthy human diet. They naturally contain low calories, fat, sodium, and cholesterol. They keep the body healthy and have many benefits including the following:

Lowering the Risk of Illness and Disease: The many vitamins and nutrients in them reduce risk for many illnesses such as: Stroke, heart disease and other heart-related illnesses; type 2 diabetes; certain cancers, such as mouth, stomach, and colon-rectum cancer; kidney stones and Bone loss.

It is important to eat a variety of fruits, because different fruits contain different vitamins. Mangoes, papayas (pawpaw), melons and citrus fruits, like oranges and grapefruit, have high vitamin C concentration. Cantaloupe, apricots, peaches, and nectarines are sources of vitamin A.

Learn a lesson about why and how we breath!

The processes of breathing and gaseous exchange are very important in the maintenance of life. Health science emphasizes living in a clean atmosphere to have safe lives.Read on to learn how and why we breathe.

Lungs and breathing:

Cells need oxygen and they produce carbon dioxide as a waste product. The importance of breathing is to get oxygen into the body and remove the carbon dioxide.

Location of the Lungs:

The lungs are found in the thorax which is the part of your body protected by the rib cage. The lungs are two (the left and right) and are pink in color because of the dense capillary network around them. The trachea divides into two bronchi, one going to each lung.  The bronchi split progressively into smaller tubes called bronchioles. The bronchioles finally end at small bag called alveoli where the exchange of gases takes place. Just below the lungs is the diaphragm which separates the thorax from the abdomen.

SOFT DRINKS AND YOUR HEALTH

Too Sweet for Our Own Good

We encourage hydration and drinking plenty of fluids. Our teenage son loves drinking soft drinks, but he has gained a lot of weight. How do we balance the counsel we receive on drinking adequate amounts of liquids, especially as we see our son now struggling with his weight?

W

hen we encourage the intake of fluids, we’re referring primarily to drinking water. As you point out, many people, both young and old, are drinking increasing amounts of soft drinks (also known as sodas or sugar-sweetened beverage [SSBs]).  These drinks are laden with refined sugars and are fueling epidemics of obesity and diabetes throughout the world. Significant consequences result, especially in low and middle-income countries.

SMOKING AND ITS EFFECTS TO MAN

What is smoking?

 Smoking is a practice in which a substance is burned and the smoke is tasted or inhaled. Tobacco is the most smoked substance.

The most common method of smoking today is through cigarettes. The cigarettes are industrially manufactured or hand-rolled from loose tobacco and rolling paper.

Other implements used for smoking include pipes, cigars, bidis, hookahs, vaporizers, and bongs.

It has been suggested that smoking-related diseases kill one half of all long term smokers but these diseases may also be contracted by non-smokers.

A 2007 report states that, each year, about 4.9 million people worldwide die as a result of smoking (Wikipedia)

SCIENCE LESSONS ABOUT THE LIVER

The human liver and its functions
The liver is located in the upper right-hand part of the abdominal cavity, below the diaphragm, and on top of the stomach, right kidney, and intestines.
It is cone shaped; it is a dark reddish-brown organ because of the enormous blood volume it carries. In weight it lies between 1.44-1.66kg.
It is supplied with blood from:
a.    the hepatic artery bringing in Oxygenated blood
b.    the hepatic portal vein bringing in Nutrient-rich blood  from the digestive system
The liver consists of two main lobes, and each lobe is made up of thousands of lobules. The lobules are connected to small ducts that connect with larger ducts which join up to form the hepatic duct. The hepatic duct transports the bile produced by the liver cells to the gallbladder and duodenum.

CONSIDER YOUR SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH

The living should know that life is lived once and there are no spare parts for it. So whoever wants to live longer should live responsibly. Sexual affairs have claimed and are still claiming so many lives all over the globe. Am very sure you know this but I feel you need to reconsider it. Is your sexual life style healthy? How about the reproductive health?

The World Health Organization(WHO) defines Sexual health as “a state of physical, mental and social well-being in relation to sexuality. It requires a positive and respectful approach to sexuality and sexual relationships, as well as the possibility of having pleasurable and safe sexual experiences, free of coercion, discrimination and violence.” But how many of us meet the recommendations as per the above definition? We even don’t know the how of engaging in sexual intercourse. As a result we also have very poor reproductive health. We are not respectful, we engage in forced sex, we rape.