5 - Environmental and Nutritional Diseases Flashcards
Worldwide, there’s been a dramatic increase in mortality due to?
HIV/AIDS and associated infections
There’s been an 11.2% decrease in deaths from?
Infectious diseases, maternal, neonatal, and nutritional disorders
There’s been a 39.2% increase in deaths from non-communicable diseases such as?
Cancer, CVD, and DM
What’s the single leading global cause of health loss?
Undernutrition
What are leading causes of death in developed countries?
Ischemic heart disease and cerebrovascular diseases
Health effects of climate change: Overview
Partly man-made
Culprit: increase in greenhouse gases (CO2) via burning of fossil fuels, ozone, and methane
GHG along with water vapor gives the greenhouse effect: absorbs and re-emits infrared energy radiated from Earth’s surface
Health effects of climate change: on human body
CVD, cerebrovascular and respiratory disease
Gastroenteritis, cholera, food-borne and waterborne infectious diseases
Vector-borne diseases, malaria and dengue fever
Malnutrition
Toxicology of Chemical and Physical agents
Xenobiotics: exogenous chemicals
Chemicals may be excreted in urine or feces; eliminated in expired air, or may accumulate in bone, fat, brain or other tissues
Xenobiotics Pathway (Slide 10)
Pollutants in air, water, and soil are absorbed through lungs, GIT and skin
Reaches various organs where they get metabloized via blood stream
Get either:
Detoxified into water soluble compounds
OR
Activated into toxic metabolites
Both these types produce ROS that can produce cellular damage
Air Pollution
Among pre-existing pulmonary or cardiac disease
Outdoor Air Pollution
Ozone (O3): produced by UV radiation and O2 in the stratosphere
Absorbs most dangerous UV radiation
Decreased extent and thickness of O3: CFCs in A/Cs and fridges
CFCs drift up and participate in chemical reactios that destroy ozone
Outdoor Air Pollution 2
Ground level ozone gas (N2O and volatile compounds) produce free radicals –> injures epithelial cells of respiratory tract
Carbon Monoxide
Systemic asphyxiant
Hgb has 200 fold greater affinity for CO
Accidental and suicidal death
Indoor Air Pollution - Bioaerosols
Range form microbiologic agents causing infections like: Legionnaire’s Disease, viral pneumonia, common cold
Indoor Air Pollution - Radon
Radioactive gas derived from uranium
Widely present in soils
can cause lung cancer in uranium miners
Metals as Environmental Pollutants: Lead
Readily absorbed metal that binds to sulfhydryl groups in proteins, which then
Interferes calcium metabolism and leads to
Hematologic, skeletal, neurologic, GI and renal toxicities
Metals as Environmental Pollutants: Mercury
Binds to sulfhydryl group proteins with high affinity lead to damage in CNS and kidney
Minimata Disease - Cerebral palsy, deafness, blindness, mental retardation
Forms
Metallic (elemental)
Inorganic mercury compounds (mercuric cholride)
Organic (methyl mercury)
Main sources of exposure: contaminated fish (methyl mercury)
Metals as Environmental Pollutants: Arsenic
Interfere with several aspects of cellular metabolism
Toxicities prominent in the GIT, nervous system, skin, and heart
Metals as Environmental Pollutants: Cadmium
Preferentially toxic to: KIDNEYS AND LUNGS
Involve increased production of ROS
Occupational Health Risks: Industrial and Agricultural Exposures
- Chloroform and CCL4 in dry cleaning agents and paint removers –> CNS depressions and coma
- Polycyclic hydrocarbons released during combustion of fossil fuels –> potent carcinogens
- Organocholorides llike DDT, lindane, aldrin, and dieldrin –> disrupt hormonal balance due to antiestrogenic and antiandrogenic activity
Tobacco
90% of lung cancers
Smoke contains more than 2000 compounds
Nicotine
Potent carcinogens is polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
Tobacco 2
Tobacco with alcohol multiplies risk of oral, laryngeal, esophageal, and lung cancers
Maternal smoking increases risk of abortion, premature birth and IUGR
Alcohol Abuse
After consumption, unaltered absorption in stomach and SI
Distributes in tissue and body fluids in direct proportion to blood levels
Increased NADH/NAD Ratio
Decreased NAD major cause of accumulation of fat in liver