H.E.A.L's Health

H.E.A.L’s Limb 1

Health

The human body is a work of art both inside and outside, so wonderfully built that one would be inquisitively puzzled as to why it ever becomes diseased. The environment is the main culprit so I wonder why health and environment are treated as separate issues when doing so is almost a sin.

War- Microbiology and toxicology v/s immunology

Think of a war. The ‘attackers’ are from the environment (chemicals, microbes, allergens, ‘bad’ food...) and the ‘defenders’ are inside your body (your immune system and your general health). Your health (physical, mental and genetic) is directly or indirectly related to your environment (physical, social and psychological). We have to understand both and cannot separate the two (Health and environment). Indeed, a new field or method of studying health is Conservation medicine. It studies the interaction between human health and the environment and that includes animals. Conservation medicine is also known as Ecological medicine, Environmental medicine, or Medical geology.

Teaching health issues

Microbes and chemicals in the environment constantly threaten the proper functioning of our body and indeed all living things, our animals and crops. Sometimes the threat is self-inflicted and sometimes accidental. H.E.A.L will address both. People need to know more about pathogens (microbes-bacteria, viruses and other organisms); when, how and why antibiotics are used. It is also important that people not only realise that abuse of antibiotics causes the emergence of resistant bacteria (those that are not killed by the overused antibiotic) but also understand what causes the resistance. Microbes in the environment are controlled using various chemicals (soaps and disinfectants). Some of these too cause resistance and many can harm the environment. Thus, caution has to be exercised in our use of chemicals in controlling microbes (see POPs in the blogg on Environment). But control there must be because pathogens infect our hopes and kill our progress; drugs (both medicinal and illegal) and chemicals can destroy lives physically and psychologically.

Let us learn more about them. We need the knowledge to minimise the impact of these three potential killers from the environment. Too much medicinal drugs can be bad; learn about side-effects and cross-reactions.

Genetics in disease

What about genetics? Some diseases are hereditary (they run in the family) and are therefore genetic. This is a kind of war where the ‘attacker’ is not from the environment but from inside your body. Some genetic diseases have complex hereditary characteristics. Biologists are starting to understand the genetic basis of diseases like cancer, heart disease, hypertension and diabetes. We tend to ignore this aspect of disease. Medical curricula too do not tend to stress this. Indeed, in the future there will be genetic tests that will define the genetic predisposition of individuals (i.e., genetic tests will show if you have a higher risk to get the disease). Accordingly, preventive measures and treatment will be less random and will be based on these tests. We should certainly wonder if environmental issues (food, exercise and chemicals) can influence genetic diseases. “It’s one of these classic things: is it genes or environment? It turns out it’s both,” says Dr. Jake Lusis, professor of medicine and human genetics at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, “Heart disease is one of these complex diseases in that it has multiple genetic and environmental factors. Really, our understanding is very, very incomplete.” Another doctor at John Hopkins University says, ‘You can’t beat genetics.’ We will discuss this too; Environment v/s Genetics in the prevention and cure of disease.

The genetic basis of some diseases is quite complicated. Let us consider diabetes type 2 as an example in this category of disease. Much of the genetic basis is known. Three companies in the US, Navigenics, 23andMe and DecodeMe are already offering genetic tests that can tell if someone has a genetic predisposition for diabetes type 2. Dr Francis Collins, the former director of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) says, ‘I signed up for all three because I wanted to see if they gave the same answer; they all agreed my diabetes risk is higher.’ However, he adds, ‘Admittedly, right now your family history may be your best bet and it doesn't cost anything.’ You cannot change your genetics but more interestingly is that, at least with diabetes type 2, environmental factors can override the genetic predisposition. Controlling weight, eating a balanced diet and including plenty of exercise are some of the environmental changes we can make that will reduce the possibility of contracting Type 2 diabetes and even control it. It is not simply about reducing sugar intake because it is not sugar that causes diabetes. Overweight or obesity is the real risk factor, not the sugar directly. Several studies have shown that there is ‘no definitive influence of sugar intake on the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.’ However we should reduce high calories generally and have a balanced diet.

Mechanism and control of disease

Our body has its own rules and we cannot change these. There is some room for tolerance and adaptation but if we stretch the rules beyond their limits disease will set in. How much can we stretch? That is the question. Stretching too much is equivalent to Biological stress. Stress of any form is the primary initiator of disease. If we removed that stress, we could prevent disease.

Preventive medicine

Prevention involves understanding the ‘rules’ in the body. The rules are simple and follow simple logic which I would like to call ‘Bio-logic’. One of the rules is based on a very simple phenomenon- burning. If you burn wood, for example, heat is produced and we can use it for cooking. Similarly, if we burn food, energy is released. Whether you burn wood or food, oxygen is needed (That is why you ventilate the coal when you are grilling your BBQ). Your body needs food (sugar) and oxygen to produce energy. Your body needs energy; simple!

Now, if one part of your heart, for instance, does not receive food and oxygen, that part dies. This is a disease of the heart called MI (Myocardial infarction). If the same thing happens in your brain, a part of the brain dies. This is called a stroke. Food of the right type (water included) is very important. But food does not bring only energy; it also supplies very important things called ‘Nutrients’. The process of taking food into the body is called ‘Nutrition’. Oxygen is not a nutrient. It is only needed to break down the food we eat. We can increase the available oxygen in our body with exercise.

Nutrition and exercise in prevention

Exercise increases the availability of food and oxygen to tissues and organs. Thus exercise should not be only for athletes, young or diseased people. The numerous benefits of exercise need to be reiterated.

Thus, we wish to introduce ‘Diex lifestyle’ activity groups to give education on Diet and Exercise and also on removal of bad habits. Ideally, nutritionists, P.E teachers, pure biologists and doctors would work together to devise ‘Diex’ programmes in view of promoting health and controlling disease. Indeed, certain diseases can be quite effectively controlled using diet and exercise. Prevention is cheaper than cure and sometimes there is no cure. Here is one of the many ways H.E.A.L will try to contribute towards savings in individual expenditure on health.

Communicating with the doctor

Many people say that doctors do not like giving details about the disease of their loved ones. But the question is, ‘If he told them everything, would they understand the answer?’ You need a minimum medical knowledge to improve communication between a health professional and a patient.

It is my firm belief that there is no knowledge more important than Biology for an individual and perhaps for his country as well. I am not imposing the ‘Bio-concepts on you. You already are ‘Bio’- you like it or not; a large part of your environment is ‘Bio’. ‘Bio’ means ‘life’. In this respect, H.E.A.L will also explain, despite its projected attempt to over-simplify biological and medical issues, how complicated the human body is and how difficult and tricky, diagnosis of a disease is and why no unqualified person should try to diagnose or prescribe medicine.

It is also important to realise that the doctor does not know everything about medical issues. To this effect, H.E.A.L proposes to unambiguously define for the public, the role of each biologist in society- the biology teacher, the ‘Medical’ lecturers, the nurse, the health care assistant, the doctor (more appropriately the medical practitioners), the medical scientist, the medical researcher (the one who gives medical professionals all their knowledge), the medical biologist and the environmentalist, amongst others.

We would like to formulate a series of articles and videos entitled ‘A day in the life of a ...........’; a day in the life of each of the numerous professions involving Biology. A day in the life of a nurse, for example, would show to people how hectic this profession is. Hopefully, this will allow people to be more patient and show more respect to nurses. The nurse, in turn, having been the focus will correct his imperfections, if any.