A disease is a particular
abnormal condition, a disorder of a structure or function, that affects part or
all of an organism. The causal
study of disease is called pathology. Disease is often construed as
a medical condition associated with specific symptoms and signs. It may
be caused by factors originally from an external source, such as infectious
disease, or it may be caused by internal
dysfunctions, such as autoimmune
diseases. In humans, "disease" is
often used more broadly to refer to any condition that causes pain, dysfunction, distress, social problems, or death to the person afflicted, or similar problems for those in
contact with the person. In this broader sense, it sometimes includes injuries, disabilities,disorders, syndromes, infections,
isolated symptoms, deviant behaviors, and
atypical variations of structure and function, while in other contexts and for
other purposes these may be considered distinguishable categories. Diseases
usually affect people not only physically, but also emotionally, as contracting
and living with a disease can alter one's perspective on life, and one's
personality.
Death due to disease is called death by
natural causes. There are
four main types of disease: pathogenic disease, deficiency disease, hereditary
disease, and physiological disease. Diseases can also be classified as
communicable and non-communicable. The deadliest disease in humans is ischemic heart
disease (blood flow obstruction),
followed by cerebrovascular
disease and lower
respiratory infections respectively.
Terminology
Concepts
In many cases, terms such
as disease, disorder, morbidity and illness are
used interchangeably. There are situations however when specific terms are
considered preferable.
Disease
The term disease broadly
refers to any condition that impairs the normal functioning of the body. For
this reason, diseases are associated with dyes functioning of the body's normal
homeostatic process. Commonly, the term disease is used to refer
specifically to infectious
diseases, which are clinically evident
diseases that result from the presence of pathogenic microbial
agents, including viruses, bacteria, fungi,
protozoa, multicellular organisms, and aberrant proteins known as prions. An infection that does not and will not produce clinically evident
impairment of normal functioning, such as the presence of the normal bacteria and yeasts in the gut, or
of a passenger virus, is not considered a disease. By contrast, an infection that is
asymptomatic during its incubation period,
but expected to produce symptoms later, is usually considered a disease. Non-infectious
diseases are all other diseases,
including most forms of cancer, heart disease, and genetic disease.
Chronic disease - disease that
is a long term issue
Incurable disease - disease
that cannot be cured, also known as pathological disease
Terminal disease - disease with
death as an inevitable result of it
Determinants
Generally, the context in which an
individual lives is of great importance for both his health status and quality
of their life. It is increasingly recognized that health is maintained and
improved not only through the advancement and application of health, but also
through the efforts and intelligent lifestyle choices of the individual and society. According to the World,
the main determinants of health include the social and economic environment,
the physical environment, and the person's individual characteristics and
behaviors.
An increasing number of studies and
reports from different organizations and contexts examine the linkages between
health and different factors, including lifestyles, environments, health care
organization, and health policy – such as
the 1974 Lalonde report from Canada; the Alameda County
Study in California; and the
series of World Health
Reports of the World Health
Organization, which focuses on global health issues
including access to health care and improving health outcomes, especially
in developing countries.
The concept of the "health
field," as distinct from medical care, emerged from
the Lalonde report from Canada. The report identified three interdependent
fields as key determinants of an individual's health. These are:
Lifestyle: the aggregation of
personal decisions (i.e., over which the individual has control) that can be
said to contribute to, or cause, illness or death;
Environmental: all matters related
to health external to the human body and over
which the individual has little or no control;
Biomedical: all aspects of health,
physical and mental, developed within the human body as influenced by genetic
make-up.
The maintenance and promotion of
health is achieved through different combination of physical, mental, and social
well-being, together sometimes referred to as the "health
triangle." The WHO's 1986 Promotion further stated that health
is not just a state, but also "a resource for everyday life, not the
objective of living. Health is a positive concept emphasizing social and
personal resources, as well as physical capacities."
Focusing more on lifestyle issues
and their relationships with functional health, data from the Alameda County
Study suggested that people can improve their health via exercise, enough sleep, maintaining a healthy body weight, limiting
alcohol use, and avoiding smoking. Health
and illness can
co-exist, as even people with multiple chronic diseases or terminal illnesses
can consider themselves healthy.
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