Non Communicable Disease

Factors responsible for non communicable disease

           In 2002, WHO has listed top ten risk factors of death. Among ten risk factors six are related to non-communicable diseases. Various factors which are related and responsible for non-communicable disease are divided in to two groups: modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors.

I) Modifiable Risk Factors: Most of the risk factors of non-communicable diseases are directly related to our life style and they are modifiable also. The modifiable risk factors of non-communicable diseases are listed bellow:

. Unhealthy diet.

. Use of tobacco and alcohol.

. lack of physical exercise, activities and rest.

. over weight/obesity

. mental tension and high blood pressure.

II) Non Modifiable Risk Factors: Heredity, age, sex, body structures, etc., are non modifiable risk factors of non-communicable diseases. The disease like diabetes and asthma are also known as genetic diseases. Those diseases have high chance to transfer to their offspring. Breast cancer, colon cancer, diabetes, etc., are most common in the people who are physically inactive. The vigorous exercise or participation in physical activity is essential to the people about 30-40 minutes each day for healthy life. There is more possibility of getting high blood pressure, diabetes, heart attack, etc., due to over weight and obesity. Obesity is caused by lack of physical activity.

a)      Cancer: Cancer is the name used for a group of disease that have common characteristics of abnormal growth of cells. “Malignant neoplasm|” and “malignant tumors” are other terms used to indicate this abnormal harmful growth of cell. Normal cells reproduce in a methodical manner in accordance to genetic coding, whereas cancerous growth is uncontrolled and it spreads throughout the body, destroying or replacing normal cells.

Cancer cells have a unique ability to grow and spread outside the organ where they originate. The cell may be carried in the blood or lymphatic channels to other parts of the body where they attack healthy tissues and cause malfunction. Cancer cells differ from normal cells. Diagnosis of cancer is based upon identification of abnormal cells by microscopic examination of suspected tissues. A biopsy involves obtaining a sample of the abnormal tissues by surgical means. Any part of the body can be infected by cancer. More than 100 varieties of cancer have been found till now. It is one of the main reasons of human death all over the world. The more common sites of cancer are the lungs, breast, uterus, urinary bladder, larynx, stomach and liver.

           Because of cancer about 76lakhs people die every year in the world. It is estimated that there will be 114 lakh death cancer by 2030 AD. 70% of death are found in developing country among the death by cancer.

Causes of cancer: Unfortunately, the exact cause of cancer is not known yet. But there are numerous contributing or predisposing factors that may influence the onset of a cancer. The following are the possible causes of cancer:

1)      Physical Factor: radium, x-ray, ultraviolet ray, etc.

2)      Chemical Factors: tobacco and tobacco products, alcohol, colours, etc.

3)      Bilogical  Factors: Virus, bacteria, heredity, hepatitis B, cause lives cancer. Human papiloma virus causes cancers of cervix. Helocobactor pylori causes stomach (gartric) cancer, etc.

Warning Signs of Cancer:

.     lump or hard area in the breast (note: all the tumors are not cancer tumor, out of 8 tumors in the breast one may be the cancer tumor).

.     A change in the wart or mole.

.     A persistent change in digestive and bowel habits.

.     A persistent cough or hoarseness.

.     Excessive loss of blood at the monthly period or loss of blood outside the usual dates.

.     Blood loss from any natural orifice (nose, hole, anal hole).

.     A swelling or sore that does not get better.

.     Unexplained loss of weight.

Prevention and control: Most cancers are curable, if they are identified early. Early detection is the best line of defense or prevention against cancer. Furthermore, the following guideline is given as preventive measures.

.      Avoid the use of tobacco and other products containing tobacco.

.      Avoid excessive exposure of your body part to the sunlight.

.      Support the efforts to reduce air pollution and undue use of pesticides.

.      Follow the healthy food practice or habits which helps to control the 40% cancer.

.      Support the cancer education awareness campaigns.

.      Compulsory breast feeding and treating any kind of wound timlely.

.       About 20% of cancer are found occurring due to long term infections like hepatitis B, genital wart etc. Therefore, the prevention of such infection is essential.

Healthy Tips

0

Communicable Diseases

1)      Worm Infestation (Round Worm): Generally, an infection of intestinal tract caused by any worms is called worm infestation. The cases of worm infestation are mainly found in sub-tropical regions of many developing countries. Worm infestations are caused due to the lack of pure drinking water, unhygienic food, poor personal hygiene and environmental pollution. Worm infestation is also called helminthes disease.

Roundworm is an infection of intestinal tract caused by ascaris lumbricoides. this is manifested by vague symptoms of nausea, abdominal pain and cough. It is also called ascaris. The male roundworm measures up to 25cm and the female up to 30 cm in length. The female worm can lay about 2,00,000 eggs In a day, which are passed through the faeces, and contaminated soil, water and vegetables. These eggs are passed in the faces and become infective in the soil in 3-4 weeks. When the infective eggs are ingested, they reached the intestine where they gets hatched into larvae. The larvae penetrate the intestine and migrate to liver and lungs and then travel to trachea to pharynx. They reach the small intestine where they becomes sexually mature in about 6 to 10 weeks. The incubation period of roundworm is about 2 months.

Mode of Transmission:

The main modes of transmission of roundworm are as follows:

.Faecal-oral route: The eggs in the faeces, and contaminated water, food, vegetables and hands. When these contaminated things directly or indirectly,

come in contact with our mouth, then the eggs easily transmit.

.Poor personal hygiene.

.Lack of food hygiene.

.Vector transmission, i.e, transmission by fly.

Signs and symptoms:

The symptoms of roundworm are as follows:

.Malnutrition                                           .Abdominal pain

.Loss of appetite                                      .Nausea and Vomiting

.Allergic reaction                                     .Distension of abdomen

.Adult roundworms may cause intestinal obstruction

.Live worms are seen in the stool and sometimes in vomit.

.Physical development of children is retarded.

Prevention and Control

The prevention and controlling measures of roundworm infestation are as follows:

.Provision of safe drinking water.

.Proper disposal of wastes excreted by the infected person.

.The raw fruits and vegetables should be washed properly before eating.

.Maintenance of personal hygiene.

.Keeping environment clean.

.Provision of health education to community people about the consequences of roundworm.

.Provision of medicine to all susceptible persons in a six-month interval.

2)      Diarrhoea: Diarrhoea is defined as the passage of loose, liquid or watery stools more than 3 or 4 times a day. About 45,000 children die each year with this disease in Nepal. Diarrhoea may be acute or chronic. The acute diarrhoea is an attack of sudden onset, which usually lasts 3 to 7 days; sometimes it may last up to 10 to 14 days. Diarrhoea lasting 3 weeks or more may be chronic. In fact, diarrhoea is not itself a disease but it’s a symptom of many diarrhoeal diseases such as cholera, gastroenteritis, dysentery, etc. The main causative agent of diarrhoea are E. Coli, Gartner Bacillus and Enteritides.

Mode of Transmission:

The main modes of transmission of diarrhoea are:

Faecal-oral route: Faecal-oral transmission refers to contaminated water, unhygienic food, contaminated fruits, vegetables and drinks and dirty fingers, utensils and ingestion of dirt. Flies also act as mechanical carriers to transfer the disease.

Signs and Symptoms:

The main symptoms of diarrhoea are as follows:

.Loose, watery stool for 3 to 4 times a day.

.Abdominal pain

.Symptoms of dehydration

.Weakness and muscles become cramp

.Dry mouth and eyes

.Low urine output that ultimately stops.

.In severe stage of dehydration, probability of heart and kidney failure.

Prevention and Control:

The preventive and controlling measures of diarrhoea are as follows:

.Oral rehydration therapy (jeevan jal) should be used.

.Have nutritious liquid diet regularly.

.In case of children, breast feeding more than as usual.

.Using medicine according to the causative agent.

.Maintenance of personal hygiene.

.Proper disposal of human excreta.

.Educate people about causes and consequences of diarrhoea.

     

Healthy Tips

0

Quality of Life

Someone rightly said that the quality life is a relative term depending upon the socio-cultural and religious background, personal preference and philosophy life. For a group of people, religious values and practice may be the priority and some other may prefer creative development. Similarly, some may like to have modern innovation bonded with traditional values and culture as an attainment of quality life.

The degree of satisfaction and happiness that one can fulfil through his/her basic and other needs is known as quality of life.

        Quality of life is accepted as being happy and resourceful life. Similarly, it may be a sense of being pleased with what one has or what one gets. If one gets satisfied  with his various physical various physical, psychological, emotional and spiritual needs, it may be a state of attaining quality life. Although satisfaction or happiness has been considered as the core element in acquiring quality life, however, it should not be taken as a short state of happiness; rather it should be along term state of happiness. This completeness in life is the best expression of quality of life.

         So the quality life refers to the life style with full of happiness and satisfaction that fulfils sociocultural, psychological and emotional needs including survival needs.

         Therefore, quality life is a complex phenomenon including basic physical, social, cultural and other needs.

          The basic physical needs include food, shelter, clothing, drinking water, fresh air, etc. similarly social, cultural and other needs include education, health services, security, transportation and communication, entertainment, freedom, etc. these needs, when fulfilled properly and adequately, result in a state of fulfilment for human beings. The fulfilment will bring happiness, satisfaction, peace and harmony in the society. This is said to be the attainment of quality life.

Importance of quality of life: The quality of life represents to the overall status of satisfaction or standard of family and family members in totality. In one hand, it represents the overall standard of the nation and on the other the standard of different classes like high, low, medium and old, children, adolescence etc. without standard and meaningful life, existence of the human life is not regarded as successful and qualitative. More attention was not paid to the quality life due to the lack of development of the structure of human of human society in the ancient time. There was almost no discussion in the importance and necessity of quality life in those days. It was the age of physical development and competition and the major focus was on how could the human life can be made happy and prosperous. But today each and everyone are motivated and interested to have more information about need and importance of quality life. The importance of quality life is described in the following ways:

i)                    Fulfilment of Basic Needs: Quality life plays vital role in a family welfare. Living is very easy in a family where there is quality life. Basic needs like food, housing, clothing, etc. can be easily managed in such family. Easy fulfilment of these needs come under the positive aspect of family.

ii)                  Attainment of quality education: Quality life helps to attain the quality education joining the good educational institution as well as affording the educational materials easily. It helps to achieve better education which ultimately contributes to the economic development of a family.

Introduction

0

Introduction to Environment and Environment Education

Concept of Environment

Environment refers to the surrounding including physical, biological and socio-cultural elements. It is the sum of all external conditions under which we survive. We are always affected by environment in matter of our growth, livelihood and overall development. It provides every element that fulfils our everyday needs. We perform our activities using the elements obtained from environment. environment  includes physical, biological and socio-cultural aspects. Physical aspects refers to all non-living elements like soil, rock, river, buildings, etc. biological aspect, on the other hand, refers to all living creatures. Socio-cultural aspect includes social norms and values. All these aspects constitute environment.

R.C. sharma defines environment as the interaction between living and non-living things. According to him environment encompasses everything, living and non-living objects, the interaction between these and the products of the interactions. There is a harmonious relationship among the components of environment. The status of soil, water and other elements determines the biodiversity because different animals and plants have special adaptability. Similarly, the producers, consumers and decomposers are also in a kind of cyclic relationship. Environmental condition determines our health too.

Concept of Environmental Education

Environment is the source of all our needs. It provides everything required for our livelihood  however, the activities of human beings are not environment-friendly. Many people think and even do not know about the possible consequences of these harmful activities. Environment education is the educational process that teaches everything about the environment. It teaches us ways to keep our surrounding clean and preserve the components of environment in order. The traditional consumption pattern, lack of knowledge about the significance of environment and many other activities are the main reasons for spoiling environmental situation. People take environmental calamities like food, draught and landslide as the curse of god and do not care about afforestation. Environment  education aims at reducing these wrong concepts and promoting nature-friendly activities like afforestation programmes. According to the definition given by the UNESCO in 1978 AD, environment education can be defined in the following way.

Environmental education is a learning process that increases people’s knowledge and awareness about the environment and associated challenges, develops the necessary skills and expertise to address the challenges, and fosters attitudes, motivations, and commitments to make informed decisions and take responsible action.

This definition has clarified the concept of environment education. It develops knowledge, skill and attitude in individual to move with the objective of sustainable development. Conservation of environment is the main directive of environment education. Environmental education enhances critical thinking, problem-solving, and effective-decision making skills, and teaches individuals to weigh various sides of an environmental issue to make informed and responsible decisions.

Importance of Environment Education

Environment helps to fulfill all our demands. However, the activities performed by human beings are not being environment-friendly. Human activities have resulted natural calamities, environmental degradation, environmental pollution and many other problems. Environment education plays a significant role to control these problems and maintain balance among environment. The importance of environment education is described….

Healthy Tips

0

Relationship of health, population and environment with various aspects

Health, population and environment are integrated terms. They are interrelated in many respects. Health of an individual is directly associated with the environment in which one is living. Similarly, rapid population growth provokes massive environmental degradation. That’s why the ground of all these subjects is common. An attempt to study any of these subjects in isolation is to miss many things and make the study lame. Due to their association with each other, these three subjects should be studied in an integrated manner. The relationship among these subjects in various aspects is described below:

Physical Aspect:physical aspect of the environment refers to all the non-living things. It includes natural elements like air, water, soil, etc. as well as artificial elements like houses, buildings; roads, etc. survival of population is possible only by use of these elements. These physical factors determine the health of an individual. If air is polluted, the air contains harmful gases and health status becomes poor. In contrary, if environment is clean and fresh, the health will be good. Therefore, health, population and environment education are interrelated in physical aspect.

Biological Aspect: Health, population and environment are interrelated in biological aspect too. Biological aspect of the environment includes plants, animals and birds. Biological environment provides food, clothes and shelter as well. You have always observed that the food you eat comes from plants. Plants such as cotton and animals such as silkworms, sheep, etc. are the sources of clothes for us. Biological environment determines the health of the individuals. People get nutritive food where there is good agricultural production and consequently become healthy. In this way health, population and environment education are interrelated in biological aspect.

Socio-cultural Aspect: socio-cultural aspect of environment includes social rites, norms and values; these are developed by human beings. Therefore, they are the parts of artificial environment. Social and cultural practices affect environmental situation.

Hindu people regard rivers and some trees like peepal as symbol of god and appeal to preserve them. Every religion teaches us to care other animals and plants. These norms and values created by human beings help to conserve the environment and maintain health status. If environment is conserved, health status improves. If we do not throw garbage and dirt into the river, the river becomes clean and our health will not be deteriorated.

Similarly, when we celebrate feasts and festivals, we should take care of your health and environment. In the name of celebration, we should not take the food items that spoils our health. We should be careful about disposing garbage in appropriate places. Hence, health, population and environment education are interrelated socio-cultural aspect too.

Economical Aspect: Health, population and environment education are related in the economic aspect. When population increases rapidly, unemployment problem increases. With this, the lack of balanced diet, rest, proper environment increases and health status of a person worsens. Environmental degradation increases along with increasing poverty. People utilize natural resources in a random way in maximum amount, forest areas decrease and consequently problem of pollution occurs. People are involved in illegal hunting, smuggling of the parts of animals which causes the declination of wildlife. 

Healthy Tips

21

Introduction to Population and Population Education

Concept of Population
Many people live in your locality. They belong to various social, gender, caste and age status from a small child to the people of dying age, poor people to millionaires, males and females and so on. These people are living in a certain territory. All these people constitute population. Population refers to to a collective group of organism of the same species occupying a particular space. In a broader sense, population may be defined as a set of members taken at a time in an area.

Population size never remains constant. It is detrimental to social, geographical and economic factors of a particular place.

Concept of Population Education
Population growth has become jeopardy in the present context. When a child is born, she/he comes with an ‘extra mouth’ but we cannot expand the land to feet him/her. The same land should be shared for the provision of his/her requirements. It brings chaos in social, economic and environmental sectors. Major threat to modern age is uncontrolled population and massive destruction of environment, resulted by it. People still feel proud to make family size larger due to lack of education that teaches about the advantages of having family size small, controlling of birth and so on. Therefore, education concerned with these subject matters is a must. Population education serves all these functions. The term ‘population education’ was coined by Slon Wayland of Columbia University of the USA for the first time in 1969. He associated the word with awareness related to population problems.

The definition of population education is as diverse as its educators. An attempt to find a single genuine definition is, therefore, in vein. However, all definitions agree on the common ground, i.e. population education is related to awareness about the burning issues of population situation, reasons for population growth and mitigating measures to minimize these all. The first regional workshop on population and family life held in then UNESCO regional office, Bangkok defines population education as an educational programmes which provides for a study of population situation in the family, community, nation and the world with the purpose of developing rational and responsible attitudes and behaviours towards that situation.

The definition clarifies that study of population is the basis of population education and the goal of this subject is to create awareness towards that situation. It is directed modifying and altering behaviours and attitudes related to population, marriage and family life.

Population education is a multi-dimensional subject matter because it includes the elements and topics that belong to other subjects like family planning, health education, economics, and population statistics and so on. For an example, demographic study, and environment are related to science whereas the study of occupation and economic development and others are related to economics. Similarly, social norms and values are the common topics of culture and ethics. Human sexuality and reproduction is the part of sex education, demographic study of population measurement falls under population statistics and the study about contraceptive devices and birth spacing are the parts of family planning. Population education includes all these elements in its study. Population education is, therefore, not merely family planning education, sex education or population statistics but it incorporates the subject matter from all these areas.    

.

General

0

Environmental Health

 The health status of an individual, a community, or a nation is determined by the environment which surrounds him/her. A good environment is necessary for human beings to maintain proper health. Natural conditions, such as air, water and land within which we live is called the environment. we get all the daily requirements from the environment. But, the misuse and mishandling of these materials is creating health hazards for the human beings. Air, water and land pollution are increasing day-by-day and getting serious because of the growing population, urbanisation, industrial growth, advances in nuclear technology, noise, vehicles, improper disposal of waste materials, etc.

     

Health and sanitation is a way of life. It is a quality of living being that is expressed in a clean home, clean farm and clean community. Environmental pollution creates problems for our physical development and longevity. It may spread diseases. Therefore, protection and sanitation of the environment is the preventive measures against the environmental hazards.

 Water and Environment

      Water is absolutely essential to maintain life. Water is required by the people for the purpose of drinking, cooking and washing of the body, clothes, household, farm animals, etc. The body needs water to maintain the fluidity of the blood, to keep the tissues soft and elastic, excretion and secretion, and to maintain the body temperature. We get water from the environment, which becomes polluted due to various factors. The main agents of water pollution are human beings themselves. water may get polluted due to population explosion, improper disposal of excreta and sewage, use of pesticides for agriculture, waste products released by factories, etc. In fact, water is called polluted when it contains pathogenic germs, dust, organic matter, chemical substances, and other harmful elements.

 Disease Caused by Polluted Water

      Water is most essential for the maintenance of life, but if it is polluted, it can also work as a vehicle to carry several and widespread water borne diseases such as:

i)                     Cholera,

ii)                   Diarrhoea,

iii)                  Dysentery, and

iv)                 Typhoid.

 Mode of Water Contamination

      Water is contaminated through the human excreta, sewage, washing of contaminated utensils, clothes, and the agents of diseases. When a person uses such contaminated water he/she may suffer from different types of diseases.

 Methods of Water Purification

       In fact, water is never pure in a chemical sense. Even clean and clean water may contain the germs of diseases. So, water must be purified before use. Water can be purified in various ways. Some of them are:

i)                     Boiling: It is a satisfactory method of purifying water for household purposes. While using this method, water must be brought to a ‘rolling’ boil. Boiling should be done for 5-10 minutes. Boiling destroys all forms of diseases-producing organisms usually found in water. When water is boiled, the container becomes sterilised or water should be boiled Preferably in the same container.

ii)                   Sedimentation and Decantation: it is a natural method of water purification. In this     

method, water is collected from the sources and stored in a jar or container. The water if

allowed to remain for some time in the container, the impurities (e.g. stone, sand, chalk,

mud, etc.) will settle down at the bottom. We will be able to pour out the water without

disturbing the impurities. This process of water filtration is called sedimentation and  it

Serves the following purpose:

. The solid matter in suspension falls to the bottom by gravity and is called the sediment.

. Organic matter is destroyed through oxygenation.

. Bacterial count is also reduced.

iii)                  Sand Filtration: This is also called the filtration of water by four pitchers system. It is an old-fashioned filter system. In this method, the four pitchers are placed one above the other on a wooden stand. All the vessel except the last one has small pores at the bottom. The uppermost vessel contains thick layer of charcoal which is filled with water and which percolates through a hole of the second pitcher.

         The second pitcher contains a layer of sand, and the third contains gravel. Water drips into each of these vessels. The last of fourth pitcher contains filtered water.

          Nowadays, one can buy a manufactured filter from the market. The principle of these filters is that water is made to pass through porous ‘candles’ and in doing so it is purified.

iv)                 Chlorination: One of the most widely used disinfectants for treating drinking water is chlorine and when it is added to water in proper proportion, it is affective in killing pathogenic organisms. Besides, water may be purified by SODIS method. In this method, water is collected in colourless plastic bottles and kept in sunlight for about six hours.