Maintaining Healthy Life Prevent Occurrence of Disease Conditions

Question: Describe about the Maintaining Healthy Life for Prevent Occurrence of Disease Conditions. Answer: Introduction: Damasio (2015) describes homeostasis as the capacity, existing in every living organisms, of constantly maintaining definite functional variables within a array of values, harmonious with survival. However, another definition of homeostasis is stated as the active processes that facilitate ideal circumstances to be maintained for cells, in spite of recurrent alterations taking place inside and outside (Clancy McVicar, 2009). Imbalance in the homeostasis can lead to the impaired functioning of vital systems in the body and occurrence of the disease condition. Background information (Negative feedback, internal environment, receptor, controller and effector): Homeostasis purpose is to keep the body in a state of equilibrium and permit a degree of independence from the environment. In a human being, maintaining a stable internal environment can be harder than we believe as many factors contribute to this: body temperature, inner pH., inner concentrations of various ions, hydration, blood pressure and glucose level in the blood. The human body is in a constant state of maintaining homeostasis as we regularly eat, drink and sweat, which is affected by our intake of water, carbon and sugar. All of these intakes need to be controlled to provide a positive, constant internal environment. Human beings also have physiological mechanisms built into the body to assist with these factors which all affect the chemical reactions that maintain life (Doherty, 2006). The nervous system and hormones are responsible for this and when the equilibrium is susceptible or absent, there is a severe threat to the health of the patient (Waugh Grant, 2015). This imbalance causes the process of negative feedback to begin. This process occurs when certain regulatory systems become active to bring any abnormal balance back to their normal levels. All bodies have control systems which help us to maintain homeostasis and they detect change in the internal environment. The internal environment is extracellular fluid that flows persistently within the blood and lymphatic system and must have ideal levels of water, ions, gas and nutrients and its normal temperature and ideal pressure for the cells to stay healthy, as any disruption within these may lead to death (Rhoades Bell, 2012). Extracellular fluids of this internal environment constitute about one third of the total body fluid. The internal environment is controlled by careful absorption of fluids and mater ials across cell membranes present in the body. This absorption is under the control of the neuroendocrine system. Removal of waste is also an important factor for maintaining internal environment. These processes of absorption and removal, which comes under internal environment, are collectively called as homeostasis. A human body has thousands of control system which comprises of three basic components: a receptor, control centre and effectors. These components support different jobs, in order to manage the internal environment. These control systems operate to control functions of individual organs and its relation to the other organs (Clancy, McVicar, 2009). Mechanism of action: Role of the endocrine system in glucose homeostasis can be exemplified by insulin and glucagon. Glucose regulation is important in diabetic patients or patients prone to diabetes. This regulation of glucose is a part of the keeping body in homeostasis. Two hormones involved in the regulation of glucose are insulin and glucagon. These hormones are secreted by pancreas's Islets of Langerhans. Islets of Langerhans secretes these hormones directly in the blood flow. Glucagon is secreted by alpha cells which constitutes about 20 % and insulin is secreted by beta cells which constitutes about 70 % of the pancreatic islet cells (Brissova et al., 2005). Transmembrane receptors like G protein coupled receptors control secretion of insulin and glucagon from the pancreatic islet cells. Blood glucose in mainly regulated by the negative feedback mechanism (Berg et al., 2002). Glucagon plays its role in case of hypoglycaemia and insulin plays its role in case of hyperglycaemia. In case of hypoglyc aemia there is the fall of blood glucose level and subsequently alpa cells of the pancreatic islet cells get activated. As mentioned earlier, these alpha cells secrete glucagon which converts stored glycogen to the glucose. This process of conversion of glycogen to glucose is known as glycogenolysis. This process helps to maintain the normal level of blood glucose. When the blood glucose level is raised, it is called hyperglycemia. In the hyperglycemic state, beta cells of pancreatic islet cells come into the action. These beta cells secrete insulin, which maintains normal blood glucose level. Due to insulin, liver converts more glucose to glycogen and stored. This process of conversion of glycogen to glucose is called glycogenesis. Through Glucose transporter type 4 (GLUT4) receptor, insulin facilitates movement of glucose into the muscle and fat tissue cells. After entering into the cells, glucose is converted into the Glucose-6-Phosphate, which maintains the concentration gradient across the cell membrane and facilitate movement of glucose into the cells. Thus, insulin is the plays major part in the control of the glucose level and maintaining homeostasis in the body (Chang et al., 2004). Symptoms: Symptoms of hyperglycaemia include augmented thirst, hunger, frequent urination, sugar in urine, headache, blurred vision, and fatigue (Rutter Newby, 2015). Diagnosis: Diagnostic tests for hyperglycaemia comprises of random blood glucose, fasting blood glucose, oral glucose tolerance test and Glycated hemoglobin (A1C) test (Rutter Newby, 2015). Treatment: Treatments available for diabetes include insulin, metformin, sulphonylureas, thiazolidinediones, Alpha-glucosidase inhibitors, Dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP4) inhibitors and Sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors. Future directions for the treatment of diabetes include stem cells like pluripotent stem cells, embryonic stem cells and adult stem cells (Rutter Newby, 2015). Current research and future directions: Current research is mainly focused towards investigating link between the diet induced obesity, hypertension, inflammation and hyperglycaemia. Because all these complications are interrelated and affects progression or cure of another complication. Future research for this endocrine disorder should be directed towards investigation the medication which can be commonly used in all these complications. This can be only possible, if scientist can find out a common target or pathway leading to all these complications (Long Dagogo-Jack, 2011; Colosia et al., 2013). Conclusion: Homeostasis is important aspect for the maintaining healthy life and to prevent occurrence of disease conditions. Homeostasis can be maintained by external factors like proper diet, environment and exercise and internal factors like maintaining proper functioning of endocrine and nervous system. As mentioned above, impaired function of endocrine system can lead to disease like diabetes. Diabetes is associated with other disease like obesity, hypertension and inflammation. Hence future direction of research should be directed towards investigating common target or pathway leading to all these diseases and developing drugs for these targets. 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