How Biological Processes Impact Public Health

A process that is vital for a living organism to sustain life is known as a biological process, and these processes are composed of chemical reactions; examples of biological processes are metabolism and homeostasis. If any modulation in its frequency, rate, or extent occurs, regulation is a result. The regulation of a biological process can occur from a gene expression, protein modification, or an interaction with another protein or molecule (Battle, 2009). These biological processes have a dramatic impact on the public’s health, because it is through these processes that changes occur within the body, which can cause both positive and negative outcomes. An alteration in the processes could have a detrimental impact on the health of the individual (Biological Factors and Their Influence on Health, 2016).  

The health of an individual is not as simple as a chart showing a host, agent, and the environment. Today a person’s health, in terms of their biological processes, includes health policies, clinical medicine, aging, genetics, lifestyle choices, external and internal agents, the government, and more (Bortz, 2005). Although some of these items can be chosen, not all can be. There are times in a person’s life when they will have no choice but to live in poverty, and studies have shown that those that live in extreme poverty have early onset of age-related diseases compared to others, and those that live in extreme poverty have years taken away from their life (Thompson, 2015).  It is easy to see that no one can always control all the factors in their life.

However, there are several factors one can control within their life. Lifestyle choices, like physical inactivity, consuming an unhealthy diet, and not getting enough sleep cause serious biological process changes to occur within the body, such as gaining weight, developing type 2 diabetes and hypertension, increase the risk of heart disease and stroke, and more. Hypertension is one of the most challenging biological processes to overcome, because it is seen everywhere. One in three adults have it, and it is known as the silent killer because of undetected signs and symptoms. Through the biological process of hypertension, other processes are altered within the body, such as issues related to the heart and kidneys (High Blood Pressure, 2017).

Biological processes are determined by social, cultural, and environmental factors. Many opinions state how they feel biological processes impact public health, but my personal opinion is that through the growing trend of an unhealthy lifestyle, physical changes are occurring at a molecular level within the body, which leads to biological processes. This impacts public health by having a lack of skilled staff to deal with the patients, a lack of funding for the ever-growing epidemics, and an increase need for medication because the diseases are becoming unpreventable. Biological processes could impact a society positively, but due to the convenience of fast food all the time, sitting jobs, electronics, and more people are becoming sedentary, leaving their body in confusion.   

Through an unhealthy lifestyle all biological processes that occur within the body, which can be seen in every body system, is altered. People are dying sooner of preventable disease than ever before in my opinion, but the difference here is that what the people are dying from are not contagious and scary like a disease. People are dying from non-communicable disease, and it almost seems like our society has accepted this fact. It is through these biological processes, that, in my opinion, cancer cases continue to rise, along with many other diseases. Biological processes are hurting people today.

References

Battle, C. U. (2009). Essentials of public health biology: a guide for the study of pathophysiology. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett.

Biological Factors and Their Influence on Health. (2016). Retrieved April 26, 2017, from https://brainmass.com/health-sciences/health-care-management/biological-factors-and-their-influence-on-health-419882

Bortz, W. M. (2005, March). Biological Basis of Determinants of Health. Retrieved April  26, 2017, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1449189/

High Blood Pressure. (2017, March 03). Retrieved April 17, 2017, from https://www.cdc.gov/bloodpressure/

Thompson Gnagey , L. (2015, June 09). Biological Process Linked To Early Aging, Death, Among Poor in Detroit . Retrieved April 26, 2017, from https://ns.umich.edu/new/releases/22944-biological-process-linked-to-early-aging-death-among-poor-in-detroit