Content Curator
Chronic diseases occur gradually and remain in the body systems for several months, or years. It would lead to poor health. Metabolic derailment of any body system is called a disease. Diseases occur when the normal functioning of the body is affected, both physically and physiologically. Based on the recurrence, diseases can be categorized as acute diseases and chronic diseases. Acute diseases occur suddenly and last for a short period.
| Table of Content |
Keyterms: Diseases, Metabolic derailment, acute diseases, chronic, AIDS, Amputation, Allergies, Arthritis, Asthma
Also Read: Cancer
What are Chronic diseases?
[Click Here for Sample Questions]
Chronic diseases occur gradually and remain in the body systems for several months, or years. Generally speaking, a minimum of three months duration is required to classify a certain disease as chronic. Chronic diseases affect a person physically, mentally, economically also.
Chronic Diseases
-
Here is a table of chronic diseases affecting human beings:
| S. No. | Chronic Disease | Information |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | AIDS | Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, caused by HIV |
| 2 | Amputation | Surgical cutting of a limb from the body |
| 3 | Allergies | Body’s reaction to pollen grains, moulds, spores, dust, etc. |
| 4 | Arthritis | It is due to the wear and tear of cartilaginous tissue in joints of the body like knuckles, wrists, knees, ankles, etc. |
| 5 | Asthma | Inflammation of airways and production of excess mucus |
| 6 | Blindness | One or both eyes may be affected. Blindness may be partial, or total. Night blindness is due to Vitamin A deficiency. |
| 7 | Cancer | Abnormal division and increase in the size of body cells |
| 8 | Colitis | Inflammation of colon of the digestive tract |
| 9 | Crohn’s disease | It is a kind of inflammation of the digestive tract due to the degeneration of the lining of the digestive tract. |
| 10 | Cystic fibrosis | Inflammation of lungs and digestive system |
| 11 | Diabetes | Sugar disease is due to the malfunctioning of the pancreas, and insufficient production of insulin. |
| 12 | Hearing loss | A person becomes partially or completely deaf |
| 13 | Heart diseases | Heart attack or stroke due to excess cholesterol in blood vessels, or dysfunction of heart muscles. |
| 14 | Hepatitis | Liver disease is generally called jaundice. It may be due to different strains of viruses, or metabolic disorders. |
| 15 | Hypertension | High blood pressure |
| 16 | IBS | Irritable Bowel Syndrome, a kind of digestive disorder. |
| 17 | Kidney disorders | Inflammation of kidneys, stone formation, or renal failure. |
| 18 | Obesity | Over-weight of the body |
| 19 | Pulmonary diseases | May be due to inflammation of the trachea, bronchi, or lungs. |
| 20 | Spinal Cord Injury | It may either be due to damage to a part of the spinal cord, any of the nerves that originate from the spinal cord. |
Also Read:
| Related Articles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Tuberculosis | Immune system | Immunity |
| Open Type Circulatory System | Human Genome Project | Auto-Immune Allergy |
| Human Diseases | Infectious Diseases | Sexually Transmitted Diseases |
Common Symptoms of Chronic Diseases
[Click Here for Sample Questions]
The physical manifestation of a disease is called a symptom. Chronic diseases can also be diagnosed primarily through certain kinds of diseases. They are
- Anxiety, depression, and desperation in the mind.
- Weakness and debilitating fatigue in the body.
- The patient suffers from loss of appetite, that is no hunger feeling.
- Some may suffer from acute body pain or pain in a particular part of the body.
- Hypertension (high blood pressure), hypotension (low blood pressure), and diabetes (hyperglycemia) are commonly associated symptoms among patients suffering from chronic diseases.
- In some cases, reddish rashes, bruises, or wounds can be found in a few parts of the body, or all over the body parts.
- An urge for frequent urination, and loss of fluids and minerals from the body.
Also Read: Antibodies
Common Risk Factors of Chronic Diseases
[Click Here for Sample Questions]
A patient suffering from chronic disease may suffer from three kinds of risk factors, like non-modifiable risk factors, behavioural risk factors, cultural and environmental risk factors. Let’s discuss each kind of risk factor.
Non-Modifiable Risk Factors of Chronic Diseases:
Three factors play an important role in influencing modifiable risk factors. They are,
- Hereditary traits
- Age of a person
- Gender (sex)
These risk factors are not due to the lifestyle of a person. Degenerative diseases like diabetes, coronary heart disease and hypertension are common examples of non-modifiable risk factors of chronic disease.
Non-modifiable risk factors
Behavioural Risk Factors of Chronic Diseases:
These risk factors are not due to genetic factors, but due to a person’s habits and lifestyles. Gutka, smoking, alcohol consumption, drugs abuse, eating habits, unprotected sex etc. are the different causes of these risk factors. They result in obesity, lethargy, depression, and chronic sexually transmitted diseases.
Behavioural Risk Factors
Cultural and Environmental Risk Factors of Chronic Diseases
Cultural risk factors are generally due to the level of education, cultural aspects, poverty, lack of purchasing power, the density of population in a certain area, etc. Environmental risk factors include proximity to factories, vehicular traffic, pollution of different kinds, floods, volcanic eruptions, exposure to hazardous chemicals in factories, and accidents in nuclear plants.
Environmental risk factors
Causes of Chronic Diseases
[Click Here for Sample Questions]
Chronic diseases are generally due to the following causes.
- Bad habits like tobacco consumption, smoking, alcoholic consumption, drugs, and untimely or unhealthy food consumption.
- Excessive energy intake through carbohydrate-rich food items.
- Hereditary traits from parents or grandparents, and age factor.
Causes of Chronic Diseases
- Globalization, population explosion, and rapid urbanization change human habits and the environment, thereby causing several kinds of chronic diseases.
- Changes in the functioning of body organs due to lifestyles.
- Increase in blood pressure and blood glucose levels.
Prevention of Chronic Diseases
[Click Here for Sample Questions]
“Prevention is better than cure.” The following measures will prevent the occurrence of chronic diseases in human beings.
- Abstain from bad habits like tobacco consumption, smoking, alcoholic consumption, drugs, and untimely or unhealthy food consumption.
- Make frequent clinical checkups to find the level of blood pressure, blood glucose level, functioning of liver, heart and kidney. It will help you know the common diseases prevailing in your parents, siblings and the entire family.
- Take timely and healthy meals. Avoid spicy food and junk food. Take plenty of water.
Prevention of Chronic Disease
- Regularly go walking, do physical exercises, or yoga to improve the fitness of the body.
- Psychological counselling will help strengthen the mind to cope-up with physical and mental strains due to disorders in the body.
Also Read: Genetics
Relation between Chronic Diseases and Poor Health
[Click Here for Sample Questions]
Poor health is a condition, wherein a person shows degraded performance in different ways. He will face physical, mental, economic, environmental and social problems. Due to physical inactivity and poor earnings, his condition degrades further. Certainly, a person suffering from chronic diseases, without proper medical care suffers badly in many aspects. Besides the above problem, the patient has to suffer from the side effects of regular medication, lab testing and clinical procedures in hospitals.
Chronic diseases impact the normal wellbeing
Also Read:
Things to Remember
- The minimum duration for a chronic disease is three months. It may last for a few years, or the entire lifetime.
- Asthma. arthritis, AIDs, IBS, hepatitis, renal, cardiovascular or digestive problems are some of the chronic diseases.
- Chronic diseases have a physical, mental, economic, and social impact on the patients.
- Chronic diseases are generally related to hereditary factors, lifestyles, bad habits, environment and age.
- Chronic diseases have non-modifiable, behavioural, cultural, and environmental risk factors.
- Lack of appetite, rashes or wounds on the body, frequent urination, body pain may be a few symptoms of chronic diseases.
- Chronic diseases can be prevented by good lifestyle changes, abstaining from bad habits, regular exercise, or yoga and frequent medical checkups.
- Chronic diseases lead to poor health. The patient will become lethargic and physically inactive. Ultimately it leads to economic problems.
Sample Questions
Ques. What are the 3 main factors that lead to chronic diseases? (3 marks)
Ans: Chronic diseases are caused by three kinds of risk factors like non-modifiable risk factors, behavioural risk factors, cultural and environmental risk factors. Following causes lead to these risk factors.
- Tobacco consumption, smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, drug abuse, and untimely unhealthy food consumption.
- Over-consumption of carbohydrate-rich food items.
- Genetic factors from parents or grandparents, and age factor.
- High population density, and rapid urbanization change human habits and the environment, thereby causing several kinds of chronic diseases.
- Increase in blood pressure and blood glucose levels.
Ques: How can you prevent Chronic Diseases? (3 marks)
Ans:
- Healthy eating habits prevent, delay, and manage chronic diseases like hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and kidney diseases.
- Regular physical activities and yoga prevent chronic diseases.
- Abstain from bad habits like tobacco consumption, alcoholism and drug abuse.
- Regular medical check-ups prevent the occurrence of chronic diseases.
- Along with healthy food, sound sleep is required to prevent chronic diseases.
Ques: What increases the risk of chronic disease? (2 marks)
Ans:
- Common risk factors like hereditary traits, lifestyles, age, sex, level of education and environmental factors increase the risk of chronic diseases.
- Behavioural risk factors like tobacco consumption, unhealthy food habits and physical inactivity for a prolonged period also add risk to the existing list of factors.
- There are some intermediate-risk factors like elevated blood glucose, lipids in the blood, high blood pressure and obesity. So regular exercise and good habits prevent chronic diseases.
Ques: What is meant by chronic disease? What are the different kinds of chronic diseases? (2 marks)
Ans: Diseases that last in the body for more than a period of 3 months are called chronic diseases. They last for years or an entire lifetime. Different kinds of chronic diseases cause suffering in humans. They are arthritis, asthma, AIDS, cancer, Renal Function Disorder, cardio-vascular diseases, hepatitis, etc.
Ques: What is a disease? What are the two kinds of diseases? Explain your answer with examples. (3 marks)
Ans.
- Metabolic derailment of anybody is called a disease. Diseases can be categorized as acute diseases and chronic diseases.
- Acute diseases occur suddenly and last for a short period. Malaria, typhoid, cholera, dysentery, flu virus, rotavirus, and certain kinds of organ infections.
- Chronic diseases occur gradually and remain in the body systems for more than three months, or years. Examples of chronic diseases are asthma, AIDS, Hepatitis, heart and kidney diseases.
Ques: Does a chronic disease lead to the poor health of a person? Elucidate your answer. (2 marks)
Ans: Poor health is a condition, wherein a person shows prolonged physical inactivity. He/she will suffer from physical, mental, economic, and social issues. Due to poor physical activity and insufficient earnings, his condition worsens further. A person suffering from a chronic disease needs proper medical care. Otherwise, he/she suffers badly in many aspects. Besides the above problem, the patient has to suffer from regular lab testing and clinical procedures in hospitals.
Ques: What are the common symptoms of chronic diseases? (3 marks)
Ans: The common symptoms of chronic diseases are given below:
- Anxiety, depression, and desperation in the mind of a person suffering from a chronic disease.
- Weakness and debilitating fatigue in the entire body.
- The patient may sometimes suffer from loss of appetite. This is due to gastrointestinal problems.
- Acute body pain or pain in a particular part of the body indicates some chronic disease.
- High blood pressure, low blood pressure, high blood glucose levels, or low blood glucose levels are commonly associated symptoms.
- Unexpected reddish rashes, bruises, or wounds on the body.
- Frequent urination, diarrhoea, and loss of fluids and minerals from the body.
Ques. Which amongst the two diseases: acute or chronic has an adverse effect on the health of a person? Explain giving a suitable example. (2 marks)
Ans. Chronic disease lasts for a long time so it is more harmful than the acute disease. For example, cough and cold, viral fever are acute diseases that do not affect our health badly and we become well within a week or so while tuberculosis (TB) which is a chronic disease affects health drastically and has a long time effect on our body.
Ques. State any two conditions essential for good health. [CBSE 2014] (2 marks)
Ans. Health is a state of being well enough to function well physically, mentally and socially. The health of any individual depends upon :
- Better social environment.
- Better public cleanliness.
- Good economic conditions.
- Social equality and harmony.
Ques. What are the various ways to prevent diseases and What is immunisation? (2 marks)
Ans. (i) We can prevent disease in two ways :
(a) General ways: By preventing exposure to infectious microbes.
- By providing safe drinking water and public hygiene.
- By providing a proper and balanced diet, (any two)
(b) Specific ways: By immunisation.
(ii)Immunisation: The process of developing immune power in the body to fight against diseases is called immunisation. In the process of immunisation, a vaccine is introduced into the body due to which the immune power of the body improves.
Ques. Why is AIDS considered to be a ‘Syndrome’ and not a disease? (2 marks)
Ans. AIDS-causing virus – HIV that comes into the body via the sexual organs or any other means like blood transfusion will spread to lymph nodes all over the body. The virus damages the immune system of the body and due to this, the body can no longer fight off many minor infections. Instead, every small cold can become pneumonia or a minor gut infection can become severe diarrhoea with blood loss. The effect of the disease becomes very severe and complex, at times killing the person suffering from AIDS. Hence, there are no specific disease symptoms for AIDS but it results in complex disease and symptoms. Therefore, it is known as a syndrome.
Ques. What do you mean by disease symptoms? Explain giving two examples. (2 marks)
Ans. When the functioning or the appearance of one or more systems of the body will change for the worse, it gives certain abnormal signs of the disease. These visual changes in human beings are called symptoms. Symptoms give an indication of the presence of a particular disease.
Examples :
- Lesions on the skin are the symptoms of chickenpox.
- Cough is a symptom of lung infection.
Also Read:
Comments