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Social Sci LibreTexts

10: Health

  • Page ID
    299437
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    • Virus

      • Not a living cell

      • 1/1000 size of bacteria

      • Vaccines used to prevent infection, but can’t be killed with antibiotics

    • Bacteria

      • Prokaryotic cell

      • Can be treated with antibiotics

    • Parasite

      • Eukaryotic organism

      • Can be treated with antiparasitic drugs


    • Chronic conditions persist over a long period of time; cannot be prevented by vaccination or cured by medicines, nor do they disappear

    • Some examples: 
      • Heart disease

      • Obesity

      • Hypertension

      • Type 2 diabetes

      • Cancer

      • Mood disorders

      • Osteoporosis

      • Osteoarthritis

      • Cirrhosis

      • Dental caries

      • Respiratory illnesses (asthma, COPD)

      • Dementia


    • Osteology – study of bones and skeletal system

      • Determine evolutionary relationships

      • Analyze locomotion patterns

      • Comparisons between primates and humans

      • Examination of human characteristics (applications in paleoanthropology, bioarchaeology, forensics)

    • Bioarchaeology

      • Study of human remains

    • Paleopathology

      • Health

      • Diet reconstruction

    • Paleodemography

      • Population characteristics

      • Sex and age differences

      • Mortality rates


    Skeletal Evidence

    • Scoliosis, kyphosis, and lordosis

      • Curvature of the spine

    • Tumor

      • Cells divide uncontrollably, forming a lump or mass of abnormal tissue

    • Rheumatoid arthritis

      • Autoimmune disorder that people are born with

    • Osteoarthritis

      • Condition that develops from age and wear and tear

      • Sometimes athletes or dancers can get arthritis if they are putting significant strain on their joints

    • Tuberculosis

      • Bacterial disease that affects the respiratory system, but it also affects the surrounding bone

    • Syphilis

      • Sexually transmitted bacterial infection

    • Rickets/osteomalacia

      • Caused by a vitamin D deficiency that causes bone to become too soft to support one’s body weight

    • Osteoporosis

      • Progressive increase in bone erosion

      • Increased porosity of skeleton leading to reduction in bone mass

      • After menopause, reductions in bone mass may reach up to 2% of cortical bone and 9% of cancellous bone.  People may lose 35% of cortical bone and 50% of cancellous bone by 30-40 yrs after menopause (bone loss occurs in everyone due to aging, but declining levels of estrogen increases bone loss)

      • Increased mortality rate due to complications of fractures 

      • Prevention – enough calcium and vitamin D, plenty of exercise which maintains bone mass (provides a reserve against bone loss later in life)


    Culture Bound Syndromes

    • Symptoms are recognized or occur in a specific society or culture

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