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Edgar

Anatomy Period 4
Mrs. Instructor
26, February 2016
Reflection of Disease
Similar to our universe we change, every detail influenced on ourselves is permanently
imprinted with difficulty to erase; however health self-awareness can prevent diseases, and may
even save your life. The fact of the matter is we change; due to societys negligence, we maintain
as well as manufacture our own outbreaks of disease. Diseases literal term, Lack of ease, is
too vague of a condition without including the restrictions of bodily functions, experiencing
specific signs or symptoms, and the causes. Youre not alone; your body is always trying to fend
off diseases (such as obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease) and maintain homeostasis.
Homeostasis is a body property of having everything in a balanced/healthy state.
The following disease is one I feel far close to home with, its obesity. This condition is
an excess amount of body fat commonly caused by indulging excessively, having lack of
exercise, or having genetic disorders. Obesity is diagnosed when your BMI is 30 or more, you
have trouble breathing, depression, high blood pressure etc. Preventions are regular physical
activity and a balanced diet. Arkansas right now is the leading state in obesity. The start of the
obesity epidemic dates to early 1980s. In the documentary, Super-Size Me, Morgan Spurlock
conducts an experiment to expose how fast food industry does not encourage a good nutrition.
For a whole month Spurlock purely ate three-meals of McDonalds food a day, having routine
checkups he discovered his health drastically plummeted when gaining 24lbs, 13% BMI increase

high cholesterol at 230mg, mood swings and had accumulation of fat in his liver. This isnt an
isolated incident, it is happening all over the U.S, and because of fast food.
I was always aware of the misery diabetes could dealt on its victims; my mother is a type
1 diabetes recipient. In type 1 diabetes, the pancreas does not produce insulin to break down
sugars and starches to turn it into glucose; this affects her blood sugar levels
(Hyperglycemia/Hypoglycemia) and puts her at risks of other diseases as well as death. My
mother constantly injects her fingertips to draw blood and check sugar levels, if she has
hypoglycemia she eats something, and if she has hyperglycemia she will use the insulin. I recall
one time back in 2010 when my mother was pregnant and I accompanied her on a drive,
pregnancy made her or susceptible to hypoglycemia. She was passenger seat, and during a
conversation I had with her, I noticed her consciousness started to slowly fade. Her eyes were
fixed in sight, speech became difficult and rambled a lot, and there was a cold sweat and mood
swings. I immediately got our driver to pull over to the nearest store to buy milk when I returned
her body was shutting down and she couldnt move, I called 9-11 and injected her with an
emergency high-dosage needle in an orange container. She was at the brink of coma the
paramedics confirmed, I saved two lives that day. Her disease was developed in childhood, and
couldve been prevented if she controlled her sugar intake by having a better diet, exercised, and
slept better.
My uncle Vincent tragically passed away back in 2013 because of cardiovascular disease.
His heart just gave out one morning after I visited him; and because he locked himself in the
bathroom it was long after anyone noticed the incident. The plague in his arteries kept
accumulating making a narrow passage, until it formed a clot and cause a heart attack and stroke.
He was a profound supporter of living to eat and not eating to live, so he developed slight

obesity, high blood pressure, and was pre-diabetic. Its fact that heart disease can begin in
childhood and more than 36% of American adults have cardiovascular disease. Things that led up
to his disease was smoking, excessive alcohol, high blood pressure, and a poor diet. He always
tried to take omega-3 fish oils and Aspirin if he felt pains, but his eating habits never changed.
His disease could have been prevented if he ate a healthy diet, did exercise, and reduced his
smoking and drinking, reduced stress levels, and got routine doctor checkups.
All these diseases arent relatively new to society, however the demographics of the
people with each has stagerly increased. A child born in the U.S. during the 2000, has a 1/3
chance of diabetes and if African-Americans or Latinos were born in that same year they have a
chance of diabetes. Its not the same everywhere in the world defiantly; most of the obesity is
from North America, the U.S in specific. Reflecting on my Latin/Italian culture there is a lot of
food that isnt considered healthy, because of the amount of calories. My lifestyle needs the
exercise Im getting from sports and I try to control my diet. My chances of getting these
diseases are very high, due to the fact many of these are family problems and I already have
slight obesity. The economy and culture aspect do have a major role in influencing disease,
because most of the high calorie foods seem to cost the least, and when youre low on money
and need anything to feed a family, fast food family packs and a liter of soda is a cheap sort term
solution. Economy was a big role in my weight issues; I remember living a segment of my
childhood in a hotel, always eating out because we were struggling, and my only exercise was
the swimming pool, I rapidly gained weight. I knew it was a problem with the U.S fast food
industry, because when I lived in Guadalajara, Mexico for six months I dropped a lot of weight
only to gain it again when living in San Diego.

Like I said, we have changed as a nation; due to societys negligence, we maintain as


well as manufacture our own outbreaks of diseases. However, there is a lot of things that was
could do to still prevent the diseases and fix our habits. Because there is only so much
homeostasis can do by itself, dont waste its efforts and let it go to vain.

Bibliography
"HBO: The Weight of the Nation." HBO: The Weight of the Nation. 2012. Web. 26 Feb. 2016.
"Obesity." - Causes, Symptoms, Treatment, Diagnosis. 1996. Web. 26 Feb. 2016.
"Stroke: Causes and Risk Factors." WebMD. WebMD, 2005. Web. 26 Feb. 2016.
Super Size Me. Dir. Morgan Spurlock. Perf. Morgan Spurlock. Cameo, 2005. Documentary.

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