Nutrition and Diseases

Nutrition plays an important role in everyone's day-to-day health.  It is important that we choose the right foods and exercise regularly in order to maintain an overall healthy lifestyle.  Chronic diseases just do not happen from a simple cause like infection.  They actually happen from a combination of factors in 3 areas: genetic inheritance, diseases that you have had or currently have such as high blood pressure or obesity, and the lifestyle choices you choose to make.  The first two areas, passing of diseases genetically and disease states, are out of a person's control.  That being said, what a person does have control over is the way they choose to feed and nurture their body.  As children, we eat what our parents make us eat, however, as we start to become young adults, we have the choice of whether to smoke, drink to much, exercise regularly, and these are the choices that are strong determinants of high risks of disease down the road.  The best way we can control the factors we can control is to eat right and exercise regularly.  Doing this keeps our immune system strong so that we can fight off microorganisms and cancer cells.  When your immune system becomes weak, then disease can follow. 

According to Sizer & Whitney (2011), a well-nourished  immune system provides the best overall protection for these four simple reasons:

• "Deficient intakes of many vitamins and minerals are associated with impaired disease resistance, as are some excessive intakes.
• Immune tissues are among the first to be impaired in the course of a nutrient deficiency or toxicity.
• Some deficiencies are more immediately harmful to immunity than others.
• Once a person becomes malnourished, malnutrition often worsens disease, which, in turn, worsens malnutrition.  A destructive cycle often begins when impaired immunity opens the way for disease; then disease impairs food assimilation, and nutrition status suffers further."

A well-balanced diet is the foundation that provides defenses to your immune system.  Having a weak immune system has so many side affects to your body.  People who have low immune systems often loose their appetite and start to restrict their food intakes because of not feeling hungry.  This can cause them to go into a downward spiral of malnutrition which will undoubtedly weaken their immune system even more.  Malnutrition does not always mean that people are getting enough to eat but as I mentioned earlier, can come from diseases like cancer, leukemia, AIDS, etc.  These diseases make a person not hungry and also speed up their metabolism which causes a wasting away of the tissues in the body and is similar to starvation.  Proper nutrition is important because while it cannot cure the disease, it can improve the response to the drugs that one is taking.  It can also possibly make a person's hospital stay shorter, which encourages independence, and can improve their quality and outlook on life.  It is important to remember that proper nutrition is an essential component in keeping up a healthy immune system in order to defend the body from infectious diseases. 

Having too little or too many nutrients in the body can have a major affect on your body.  When we overeat or eat poorly, we put ourselves at a higher risk of cancers, hypertension, Type 2 diabetes, atherosclerosis, obesity, and strokes.  "For most people, maintaining a healthy body weight, engaging in regular physical activity, minimizing salt and sodium intakes, limiting alcohol intake, and eating a diet high in fruits, vegetables, fish, and low-fat dairy products work together to keep blood pressure normal" (Sizer & Whitney).  Not only does doing these things work for lowering your blood pressure but it also helps fight of some of the other risks that are mentioned above.  Varying your diet of whole foods, as part of an overall healthy lifestyle, will provide the best chance for having a long and healthy life.

Reference:

Sizer, F., & Whitney, E. (2011). Nutrition Concepts and Controversies (12th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.