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.

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.

The science about the mouth and its hygiene

The books of science put it that in the human mouth are the; tongue, salivary glands, and teeth.

The tongue is a very important organ in a way that it aids speech, tasting of food, rolling of food, and swallowing. The tongue has taste buds for sweet, bitter, sour and salty chemicals. The foremost part of the tongue tastes sweet and salty chemicals. Sweet chemicals are also tasted at the end of the tongue toward the throat. Salt is also tasted from the sides of the tongue.

Taste buds for bitter chemicals are located mainly at the inner end of the tongue. There is normally a tendency of vomiting very bitter substance when they get to this region as we try to swallow. Sour chemical substances are tasted from the sides (left and right) of the tongue. Because of the tongue it is easy to sort bad from good foods.

The salivary glands release a fluid called saliva. Saliva is sticky, colorless, and very useful. Saliva has the following functions: softening food as we chew; sticking/binding small food particles together to form a bolus for swallowing; lubricating the mouth cavity; and contains the enzyme called salivary amylase (ptyalin) which chemically digests starch into maltose. Amylase starts the chemical digestion of starch.

The teeth are hard bony structures within the mouth. They are held firmly in the jaws by cement and gums. Their functions are; chewing, cutting, grinding, tearing and sorting food.the teeth also aid speech and prevent the jaws from falling in more so in old age. They have some little gaps in between.

HOW MUCH FOOD SHOULD YOU EAT TO BE HEALTHY?

How much food is enough for you!  For us to be healthy, we need adequate food.

Each day of our lives we depend on food. David Ssemata , a renowned writer and public speaker one day while giving a public speech about the value/ importance of doing work, informed the audience that when he was still young, his mother told him that  “my son, if you feel you should not do work, sell your stomach first and then sit to relax.”

Again, many people have said it, that we work to be able to put food on our tables. This too is true, because no man will save money if their stomachs are demanding food. Food takes a foremost priority in our lives.

But the question is how much food is enough for you? Science teaches that the amount of food we consume depends of several factors including: - Age, sex, job occupation, level of activity, health condition et cetera.

It is known that young children eat more than the adults. The reason is simple; these children are forming new cells to grow, they are very active and restless, thus they have high food demands. Feed them rightly on nutritious food so that they grow healthy.

How to Avoid/ prevent disease in humans

What brings disease in lovely homes?

The desire of most homes is to have good life and living long if possible. People can do a lot to save the life of a sick individual in a home. Life has great value; we cannot give it a price; we can’t simply let it go. That is why we cry and mourn when one of us dies.

Being healthy is when we are physically well, mentally sound, and emotionally stable. If any of those areas is suffering, then we are not healthy. We can surely work towards the well being of all these three, if we have willing hearts and the commitment to ourselves and those you love. I have to talk about commitment to your own self because change must start with me before I influence another person. I must have private victory over myself before I gain public victory.

Some diseases that we suffer are a result of our life styles. For example; neglecting exercises and to much sitting with out exercising.

Feeding: what do you put into your mouth as food? As much as food is very important for your survival and life processes, some foods if not taken appropriately can lead to disease. Tell me the germs that cause blood pressure both low and high! What about diabetes? Be careful about food.

The science and health care of human teeth

The mammalian teeth

Since am talking about human beings, I will call then human teeth. The teeth are bony structures located in the buccal cavity. Buccal cavity is the mouth cavity. I wish to invite you take a drive through the lesson about your teeth today!

The first teeth that form in the young children are called the milk teeth. The milk teeth are composed of the incisors and canine. They are weak teeth but are very helpful.

The milk teeth are replaced by the permanent teeth. The permanent teeth have four sets. The first are the Incisors, the second are the canines, the third are the premolars and the forth are the molars.

The incisors are chiseled shaped; because of this shape they are used for cutting/ biting food into smaller bits. Incisors occupy the front part of the mouth. The canines are pointed in shape; they are used to tear food and they are more developed in flesh eating animals. The premolars have a rough surface with cusps and ridges; grinding and chewing of food starts here. The molars also have cusps and ridges providing a large surface area for crushing/ chewing and grinding food into finer particles.

The Value in Physical exercise

Another look at the importance of physical exercise
The physical aspect/ dimension of life caters for exercise, nutrition, and stress management. The physical body requires eating the right kind of food, getting enough body rest and relaxation, and exercising on a regular basis.

We neglect exercise because it looks not to demand for urgency, but sooner or later we find ourselves in dealing with the health problems and crises that come as a natural result of our negligence.
Most of us think we don’t have enough time to exercise. This is wrong, we have the time to do it but we don’t have time not to. You don’t need much time; you need three –six hours a week. I mean a minimum of 30minutes a day. Does that really look too much time in terms of the impact on the other hours of the week?

You don’t even need special equipment to do exercise. But if you can go to a gym it is to your advantage.  Play a game you like such as football, tennis, netball, or volley ball if you have an opportunity. However, you don’t need that much to make your body fit.

A good exercise program is one that you can do in your own home, to build your body in the three areas of; endurance, flexibility, and strength.