Let food be your medicine, and medicine be your food
“Let food be your medicine, and medicine be your food,” to the popular modern warning that “you are what you eat,” humans have constantly comprehended the relationship between nutrition and health. The physiological needs of human cells provide the basis for understanding why food has such an effect on overall health. Cells use nutrients to act correctly in their food. Problems such as illness and handicap arise when the body gets insufficient nutrition.
The human body requires unique caloric and nutritional requirements to function correctly.
Caloric needs
Caloric need refers to the energy needed in each cell of the body to conduct different chemical reactions. Macronutrients – fats, hydrocarbons, and proteins in the diet we consume, provide the body with energy. These molecules are broken down and used as fuel for cellular functions to constitute essential amino and fatty acids. The calories that a person needs every day depending on the age, sex, height, and physical activity of the individual. When too much caloric energy has been absorbed, it is retained in adipose (fat) tissue beyond what is required for the body to function.
Healthy needs
In addition to the need for macronutrient energy, your body requires a variety of micronutrients, such as vitamins and minerals, to help grow your tissue, cell function,s and the structure of your enzymes. There are a wide variety of different types of fruits, greens, fibers, and water.
Basics of Nutrition
Macronutrients
Carbohydrates, proteins, and fats are part of the macronutrients. Carbohydrates provide the metabolic energy required for the body. Fiber is a major carbohydrate often associated with disease prevention because increases in fiber are associated with decreases in the colon, cardiac disease, and adult diabetes.
Amino and Fatty acids
Chemical compounds made mainly of oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon are amino acids. Proteins consist of amino acid chains that are jointed with peptide bonds; in the human body, they form hormones, enzymes, and antibodies. There are 20 standard amino acids, of which nine are important in food.
Micronutrients
Dietary vitamins and minerals required for preserving health are found in micronutrients. Additives may be used to supply inadequate dietary micronutrients. Vitamin deficiencies, including impaired immune, premature aging, and even poor psychological health, may lead to physical dysfunction. Trace mineral benefits vary from the formation of bones and dents to the equilibrium between the acid and base.
Malnutrition
Inadequate, exaggerated, or unbalanced food usage is referred to as malnutrition. The over-consuming of sugar-deficient, nutrient-deficient foods is also seen in developing nations and has to do with obesity and various associated diseases, such as diabetes, hypertension, and cardiac disease. Malnutrition also expresses itself as poverty, hunger, and malnutrition in developed countries, where access to food is often undermined. Chronic malnutrition prevents healthy growth and undermines the functions of the body; this contributes to issues in physical health and ultimately mortality. As a consequence, ensuring proper nutrition is one of the best things a person can do to support optimal health and wellness.
Psychological consequence of nourishment shortcoming
The physical and psychological consequences of inadequate nutrition are interrelated. Where malnutrition refers to physical deficiency caused by inadequate diet, the nutritional deficits underlying this may have a profound effect on mental well-being. Existing or emerging psychological conditions can lead to nutritional deficiency and poor fitness.
Exercise is a body function that can have a positive impact on the well-being of the individual and the person.
Exercise is an activity that involves physical effort and is done to preserve or boost fitness. Sport has many advantages to the body and mind: injury prevention, enhanced cardiovascular function, sports enhancement, weight management, immune boost, anti-depression, and mood improvement.
Effects of Exercise on the Mind
Research reveals that physical activity is also a crucial element for mental health promotion. Training raises endorphins levels in the body. These natural opioids are body pain killers. These are natural opioids. They work alongside neurotransmitters to cause alleviation, pleasure, or even euphoria while the body is suffering from pain or exercises. Marathon runners also feel what is called "runner's high" and may keep running despite their physical stress. Research shows that exercise increases serotonin and endorphins levels and that they stay for several days after a workout, which helps to improve mood permanently. Exercise has been shown to have positive effects on depressed people and to inspire positive self-esteem. This is because of not only the chemical substances involved but also the positive image of the body and the sense of skill which leads to health.
Substance Abuse and Health
Drug misuse, or the normal, dangerous use of drugs, can damage your mind and body.
Abuse of drugs is the natural and recreational use in dangerous quantities or circumstances of an addictive product (drug). The psychoactive effects of drug abuse arise when medications affect neurotransmitter levels in the brain that regulate normal physical and mental functioning.
Substance abuse can influence the mind and body of the consumer in different ways.
Psychological Effects of Substance Abuse
Material abuse can have a major adverse impact on mood, raise the risk of mental illness, and worsen the symptoms. Some people use self-medicating drugs for conditions such as depression, anxiety, or bipolar disorder simply to find that opioid usage only exacerbates the symptoms in the long run while decreasing psychological pain in the short term. Perhaps worse, the negative psychological side effects of drug use have led to an increased risk of suicide for abusers. And after the effects of the treatment have subsided, such soan substances can trigger mood, anxiety, or psychical symptoms, which can continue. In some cases, hallucinogenic agents such as mescaline have induced psychotic conduct years after use.
Physical Impacts of Substance Abuse
Short-term symptoms in the form of somnolence and breathing changes, seizures, diarrhea, irregular heart rate, and even strokes can occur. Users can experience long term degradation of the denture and gum, sleep disturbance, several breathing problems, and brain, renal, and liver damage. Users will also lose appetite and body temperature regulation.
Attitude and Health
Health management requires an appreciation of the effect and quality of life on psychological factors.
The biopsychosocial model considers health and disease to be the result of combined biological, psychological, and social influences. Certain actions can affect our health, such as diet, exercise, and the use of substances. The effect of psychological factors and quality of life are explored in this section.
Part of health psychology is:
Optimism
Optimism is an ideal or beneficial world view that interprets circumstances and events. Learned optimism refers to the ability to evolve in this optimized perspective; it is the confidence that one will have real and positive effects in the future. Research shows that optimism leads to a lower risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke, depression, and cancer. It also has a link with mental wellbeing, as optimists have a more positive feeling of peace and well-being and welcome improvements. Also, optimists have shown that they live healthy lifestyles and use positive coping strategies which both reduce the risk of sickness.
Pessimism
In comparison, the assumption that one has no power over events in one's life is learned helplessness. Depression and anxiety are associated with learned helplessness and both threaten the physical and mental well-being of a person; it can also lead to poor health when people lack diet, exercise, and medical care, mistaken conviction that they cannot improve. The more uncontrollable people see situations, the more tension they experience, and the less optimism they feel for improving their lives. In this regard, research has shown that individuals with an explanatory pessimistic style have a greater risk of suffering from depression and stress, have weaker immune systems, are more prone to minor and major diseases, and less effective health rehabilitation.
Value of Life
Quality of life is recognized as an ever more significant subject of healthcare. Generally speaking, quality of life is the measurement of a person's well being or lack of it. This covers all facets of an individual's life, mental, social, and physical. In healthcare, the quality of life linked to health is an evaluation of how the well-being of the person can influence or affect a disease, disability, or disorder.
