SSEH3301 Study Guide - Final Guide: Diabetes Mellitus Type 2, Physical Exercise, Cardiovascular Disease
15 Jun 2018
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Chapter 1: Health - Past, Present and Future
Course Objectives:
- Oriented towards a healthy lifestyle rather than athletic training and fitness.
- Concentrates on disease challenges of modern living, health & fitness assessment,
exercise programming and diet & weight control
- Develop and refine skills in health&fitness assessment, counselling and prescription
Problem today… Chronic Diseases are leading killers in our society
- Cardiovascular disease
- Type 2 diabetes
- Cancer
Although they are largely preventable by change of lifestyle (exercise and diet), they lead to
70% of all deaths.
Solution is to find what we can do on daily basis to reduce risk of developing chronic diseases.
A Health Perspective of Human Evolution
→ Hunter-Gatherer Ecosystem (30,000 -50,000 years)
a. Lifestyle
i. Much physical activity (hunting, gathering, finding shelters)
b. Diet
i. Mostly vegetarian diet with intermittent game meat (wild leaves, fruits, men hunt
animals)
c. Causes of death/health issues
i. Accident, injury, illness, starvation, thirst
→ Peasant-Agricultural Ecosystem (8,0000 - 9,000 BC)
a. Lifestyle
i. Less physical activity (growing crops, raising animal for food)
b. Diet
i. More reliable source of food (low meat consumption, high plant consumption)
c. Causes of death/health issues
i. Crop failure, osteoporosis, anaemia, deficiency diseases
→ Industrial Ecosystem (1800s - present day)
a. Lifestyle
i. Physically inactive (sedentary work & leisure, labour-saving technologies)
b. Diet
i. Plentiful supply, high in fat/sugar and animal protein, low in carbs/fibre and
vegetable protein
ii. Changes in food production, processing and preparation
c. Causes of death/health issues
i. CHD, diabetes, obesity, osteoporosis, increase infections
Dietary Changes
1. Increase glycaemic load (more calories but of less quality)
2. Macronutrient composition (increase in CHO and less of CHON)
3. Decrease micronutrient density (decrease in vitamins & minerals bc of empty calories)
4. Fatty acid changes (increase in saturated & trans fatty acid)
5. Acid-base balance (from slightly alkaline to slightly acidic)
6. Sodium-potassium ratio (decrease in potassium and increase in sodium intake)
7. Fibre content (many fibre-free foods in diet)
Foods such as bread, cereal, dairy, added salt, alcohol etc are unknown to hunter-gatherer
populations and now make up to 70% of typical Western diet.
Physical Activity Changes
- Lower physical exertion in work & leisure
- Labour saving technologies have made us sedentary
→ Technology helps to improve people’s live but it reduce our physical activity
-Lower physical exertion in work & leisure
In SUMMARY
→ Lifestyle and diet changed significantly but genetic makeup of Homo sapiens has changed
little in past 10,000 years (still genetically adapted to hunter-gatherer lifestyle
→ Modern humans are programmed for a physically healthy lifestyle but our physical activity
today is 38% of our ancestors and now food is ABUNDANT.
Hypothesis: Our genetic biology is not equal our contemporary lifestyle → Chronic
health disorders
Health Consequences of Physical Inactivity
1. Cardiovascular diseases (coronary heart disease, hypertension, stroke)
2. Metabolic diseases (diabetes, obesity)
3. Pulmonary diseases (asthma)
4. Immune dysfunction
5. Cancer (breast, prostate, pancreatic)
6. Musculoskeletal disorders (osteoarthritis, osteoporosis)
7. Neurological disorders (cognitive dysfunction)
Categories of Disease Prevention
1. Primary
a. Preventing occurrence of disease
2. Secondary
a. Early detection and intervention to reverse or halt disease progress
3. Tertiary
