Based on your knowledge and experience, evaluate two factors or actions that promote our health status

Based on your knowledge and experience, evaluate two factors or actions that promote our
health status as well as two factors or actions that can cause dysfunction and result in
disease.
Two factors that promote our health status include exercise and healthy eating. Two
factors that can cause dysfunction include smoking cigarettes and sedentary lifestyles. Good
nutrition is the foundation of good health. By eating a balanced diet, one avoids various health
problems. Shunning bad nutrition helps one avoid problems such as obesity. Healthy eating
entails ensuring that one eats lots of fruits and vegetables while shunning away from fast food.
Through healthy eating, one can maintain a healthy weight. Physical exercise can help ensure
that one avoids various chronic illnesses. Regular exercise helps improve one’s quality of life in
general. Regular exercise also helps one to reduce the level of cholesterol in the body.
Smoking is one habit that affects health negatively. Cigarette smoking is associated with
a host of diseases. Cigarette smoking also results in people dying prematurely. Smoking is an
overly addictive behavior, and while some people start due to peer pressure, it becomes difficult
to quit smoking. Quitting may require one to get medical help to avoid suffering withdrawal
symptoms. Smoking affects not only the smoker but also the immediate family members. People
who smoke expose their skin to the effects of smoking through secondary smoke. Secondary
smoke is equally dangerous and could result in the individual getting various diseases. In
addition to smoking living a sedentary lifestyle with minimal physical exercise also affects one’s
health negatively. In the modern era, most people spend most of their time seated with little or no
physical activity. People work from a seated posture and operate computers. This can contribute
to various diseases.

Identify two diseases that could result from factors or actions you examined above. Which
body system(s) will be impacted by the diseases?
One disease associated with smoking is lung cancer. Lung cancer adversely affects the
respiratory system. Smoking is associated with most of the lung cancer deaths. Tobacco smoking
produces many chemicals that are toxic to the human body. People who smoke cigarettes are 15
to 30 times more exposed to lung cancer-related deaths compared to people who do not smoke.
Quitting smoking results in a reduction in the risk of getting lung cancer (Barukčić, 2019).
Secondhand smoke can also cause lung cancer, and this means that smokers also put the lives of
others in great danger (Barukčić, 2019). One disease that is associated with a sedentary lifestyle
is high blood pressure. High blood pressure affects the circulatory system. A sedentary lifestyle
is associated with little or no exercise. Exercise helps in putting the blood pressure in check. It is
important for everyone to ensure that they exercise regularly (Tremblay et al., 2010). Lack of
exercise, coupled with improper nutrition, can result in obesity, which puts one at risk of getting
high blood pressure.
Briefly analyze two effects human activity and lifestyle habits have on our environment (air
quality, food, and water quality, waste, recycling, etcetera).
Human activities such as the use of combustion engines, industrial machinery, and cars
emit pollutants into the environment. Some of the pollutants emitted into the environment
include methane, carbon dioxide, and aerosols (Manisalidis et al., 2020). These have an effect on
the amount of sunlight received by the earth. They lead to an increase in incoming sunlight,
consequently increasing the temperature of the earth. As temperature rises, icebergs, ice, and
glaciers melt. As climate changes, viral infections intensify as these are largely sensitive to the
climate. Water gets warmed up, and this increases the incidences of water-borne infections.

Other diseases whose prevalence is high due to climate change include malaria, poliomyelitis,
and cholera (Manisalidis et al., 2020). Air pollution also causes respiratory diseases, and the
immune system is affected. Air pollution tends to affect both water and soil. When these two are
affected, food productivity and crop yield and consequently affected.
Lifestyle habits have a direct impact on the environment. For instance, smoking is
detrimental not only to the health of the smoker but also to the environment. Manufacturing of
cigarettes and tobacco has a high cost on the environment as it causes deforestation. The soil is
left bare and without critical nutrients. The food productivity of that area is affected. Also,
cigarette butts are non-biodegradable; they are thus toxic waste. The smoke produced is a
pollutant; it contains carbon dioxide, nitrous oxides, ammonia, methane, and nicotine. It has
adverse effects on the lungs of the smoker as well as other people who become passive smokers.
Thus, when a person decides to be a smoker affects the environment as well as the well-being of
those who live with him or her.

References

Barukčić, I. (2019). Smoking of tobacco is the cause of human lung cancer. Journal of Drug
Delivery and Therapeutics, 9(1-s), 148-160.
Manisalidis, I., Stavropoulou, E., Stavropoulos, A., & Bezirtzoglou, E. (2020). Environmental
and health impacts of air pollution: A review. Frontiers in public health, 8.
Tremblay, M. S., Colley, R. C., Saunders, T. J., Healy, G. N., & Owen, N. (2010). Physiological
and health implications of a sedentary lifestyle. Applied physiology, nutrition, and
metabolism, 35(6), 725-740.