11. Zdrowie

Higieniczny tryb życia

Ćwiczenie 1.

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A guide to living a healthy lifestyle

You are tired of looking and feeling the way you do. Your body is not right and it's keeping you from functioning as well as you would like too. The way you are living now and your habits are the reasons you are not feeling and looking as healthy as you should. It is time for you to make some changes in your life to live a better life to become a more healthier person. How do you change your life around to look and feel better?

The first thing you need to do is change your diet. Whether you are a large person or a small one, everyone needs to eat right. It is not about losing weight, but eating the correct foods for your body. Drinking plenty of water, eating vegetables and fruits is one of the ways to correct your diet. What you put into your body determines how healthy you are. Start taking vitamins on a daily basis.

Incorporate some type of exercise routine in your life. Even if you don't do anything but take a walk everyday, everyone needs some form of exercise in their life. Get a physical once a year. Let your doctor do routine test to make sure your blood pressure is correct and your cholesterol level is right. Take any other test for different things that you might need to have to make sure your body is healthy.

Visit your dentist twice a year for cleanings and any other dental work you need. Brush and floss your teeth twice a day to keep your teeth and gums healthy. Taking care of your teeth can maintain a healthy body too. If you are a smoker try to quit smoking. Smoking is definitely not good for your lungs. Try to drink alcohol in a moderate way. Getting the correct amount of sleep at night will help to keep you healthy also. Everyone should get at least six hours of sleep a night, but if at all possible try to get a full eight hours. Being well rested will not only make you feel good, but it will have you looking good.

With doing all of these things you will maintain a healthy body. Everything that you do to maintain your healthy body is part of how you live your life. You have to start doing certain things in your life to have this healthy life style for it to become a part of you. Even though you might not be doing some of these things in your life right now, it's never too late to start. Exercising, eating right, routine check-ups with your doctor and dentist are some of the main things you can do to live a healthy life. Once you start living your life healthy you will look and feel great.

Pytania cło dyskusji

1. What do you think a so-called healthy lifestyle involves? What are its characteristic features?

2. There is no one ideal healthy lifestyle - everyone should have their own depending on their needs (personality, life commitments, etc.). Explain and justify your opinion.

The Atkins Diet

The Atkins diet is a high-protein, high-fat, low-carbohydrate plan. The diet allows for unrestricted amounts of meat, cheese and eggs while severely restricting carbohydrates, including sugar, bread, pasta, milk, fruits and vegetables. Atkins' diet is based on the theory that eating carbohydrates creates a production of insulin, a hormone secreted from the pancreas, leading to increased weight gain and hunger, which is a true physiologic response. When converting to this approach, the plan holds that dieters will experience reduced appetite and their bodies will use stored fat for energy versus burning glucose from carbohydrate digestion. Burning fat for energy will supposedly lead to weight loss.

Disadvantages:

The medical community continues to debate the potential damaging effects of long-term, high-protein diets on kidney function, cholesterol levels, and possible increased risk of heart disease, osteoporosis and cancer. The Atkins diet restricts carbohydrates and limits the amounts of fruits, vegetables, milk and other high-fiber foods. These foods naturally provide essential vitamins and minerals to maintain health. Atkins diet followers may have difficulty maintaining this diet in the long term. The problem is taste. The only way to really satisfy taste without carbohydrates is by increasing fat. And this is another concern with the Atkins plan. Weight loss occurs predominantly through a process called ketosis, and a majority of it (at least initially) is fluid loss. There have been no long-term randomized studies to support the safety of this diet.

Advantages:

People like eating high amounts of protein foods that are often restricted

on other diets. Those who have been unsuccessful on other

low-fat, high-carbohydrate diets will often lose weight with this plan.

The diet is easy to follow; no point system, calorie counting or complicated

meal plans are involved.

Pytania do dyskusji

1. What do you think are the reasons why people go on a diet? To what extent are these reasons always justified?

2. What are the benefits and risks involved in going on a diet?

3. To what extent is going on a diet a test of a person's strong will and determination?

Ćwiczenie 2.

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Learn how to fight the hidden causes of fatigue

In a society where overwork and sleep deprivation have become the norm, we all can relate to feeling so run-down that merely walking from the couch to the refrigerator for another cold one is a daunting task. But if you're dragging all the time, even with plenty of shut-eye* and a routine schedule, it means your problems are more than mental. Unfortunately, it takes many chronically sluggish people years to learn that their fatigue is biologically based and readily treatable. Here are a few possible explanations.

Allergies

Experiencing allergen-induced fatigue is common, yet most people fail to make the connection. Researchers point to several likely reasons for allergy sufferers to feel run-down. One is that the inflammation experienced during an allergic reaction involves the production of certain soporific* chemicals that tend to dull alertness. Another: reaching the deepest stages of sleep is more difficult when the airway through the nose is clogged.

Signs include congestion, runny nose, tearing, itching, wheezing, coughing, difficulty breathing. Most people know when they're suffering from allergies, but don't associate the allergic response with their fatigue. The best strategy is to avoid whatever sets off your allergies, but that's not always possible.

A major cause of fatigue is the actual treatment of the allergy. Over-the-counter antihistamines make some users sleepy. But with a prescription, allergy sufferers can now obtain non-sedating antihistamines that won't leave them drowsy. Successfully treating the allergy with a non-sedating medication should eliminate the fatigue.

Depression/anxiety

Unconfronted feelings can exact a physical toll as well as a mental one, even for people who don't fall into the category of the clinically depressed. People who are indirect and hold down anger tend to have a significant amount of muscle tension, which wears them down over time.

Depression is often seen as a woman's problem - in the US, one in four women receives the diagnosis at one point in her life, versus one in 10 men. This can be partly explained by the fact that men are less likely to attribute a loss of energy and drive to a mood change.

Depression and anxiety can produce physical symptoms not unlike those of a viral syndrome such as the flu: achy joints and general weakness. Alterations in brain chemistry affect the way the entire body functions. Symptoms of depression can also include a persistent sad mood, sleep disturbance and insomnia (compounding the problem of fatigue), as well as excessive sleep, reduced interest and enjoyment, poor concentration, loss of appetite, suicidal thoughts, and low levels of motivation.

Anxiety - also characterized by a decrease in energy and motivation, as well as sleep problems - is often accompanied by dry mouth, shortness of breath, and increased aches and painf. These conditions, along with constant suppressed anger, tend to wear down the body.

Medication and psychotherapy are the staple approaches to most mood disorders. The treatment arsenal also includes physical exertion. A number of good studies demonstrate that exercise decreases the biological symptoms of anxiety.

In addition to increasing energy and motivation, successfully treating the depression or anxiety is likely to result in a deeper, more restful sleep.

*shut-eye = sleep

*soporific - making one sleepy (usypiający)

1. What can be the risks and disadvantages (side effects?) of taking various drugs?

2. How can fatigue and lack of sleep affect a person's life? What can be done to elim­inate them?

Higieniczny tryb życia, schorzenia i ich leczenie

Ćwiczenie 3.

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*ambient - coming from the surrounding area (otaczający)

"lucid - clear, showing clear thinking (przejrzysty, przytomny)

*pipe - transmit by wire or cable, here: play with a high sound (tu: głośno puszczać)

The sounds of music

Exposure to most noises causes irritation, stress, and can result in permanent hearing loss and health problems. It's difficult to eliminate noise, Often we try to cover offending ambient* noise with music. If you like the music, it usually results in fewer physical problems.

We know that brain waves are modified by sounds. Beta brain waves, those between 14 and 20 hertz are most common. We achieve relaxed concentration or lucid* awareness when alpha waves, between 8 and 13 hertz, are present. Music with about 60 beats per minute-particularly that of Mozart, Brahms, and Bach-shifts the brain's activity from beta to the higher-awareness alpha waves. It's called the Mozart Effect. This type of music lowers stress and increases concentration. A study in England found students scored 10 points higher on an IQ test after listening to Mozart compared to those exposed to silence, white noise, or other music. White noise is just low-level random sounds. Examples are radio static and running water.

Researchers suggest that we respond to music because our bodies are rhythmic. Our breathing, heartbeat, and many other body functions have an intrinsic rhythm.

Other recent research links exposure to music to improved mental skills. Einstein played the violin and believed this helped his subconscious mind to

solve problems. Many people who suffer from insomnia find that some of Bach's music helps them. Lively popular music boosts energy and endurance.

But being exposed to music you dislike causes negative effects, including higher blood pressure and stress. Most adults refer to the tunes teenagers listen to as noise. Teens feel the same way about other people's music. There's a story about a large group of young people gathering daily near a convenience store. They weren't doing anything wrong, but their presence irritated the store's owner and customers. The owner had an idea. He piped* classical music outside the store, and the teens quickly disappeared.

The tempo of religious music induces a feeling of peace and helps a person cope with physical and emotional pain. On the other end of the spectrum, heavy metal, rap, or martial music excites the nervous system and prompts people to dynamic action or aggressive behavior. It's not surprising that Gulf War pilots listened to recordings of heavy metal music before launching their offensive flights into battle.

Your heartbeat tends to synchronize with any ambient pulsation. With modern rap music, there is concern as to what the unnatural rhythm changes do to listeners' bodies, emotions, and even their subconscious. Long-term effects are unknown.

Music will influence our health and behavior. By knowing about its effects, we can use it to our benefit.

Pytania do dyskusji

1. What is the role of music in people's lives? Consider its effects on the human organism.

2. Give reasons why music has become so important in the lives of so many people, especially young people.

Niepełnosprawni

Ćwiczenie 4.

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Civil rights extended to disabled

Written to afford equal opportunities in employment, public accommodations, transportation, government services, and telecommunications, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 represents an unprecedented opportunity to eliminate barriers to independence and productivity for persons with disabilities.

For most Americans, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 rightfully restructured the attitudes of business, government, and society and expanded opportunities for all Americans. However, for basic privileges of access and employment, persons with disabilities were left outside the law. To correct these real and perceived oversights, ADA gives civil rights protection to individuals with disabilities that are like those provided to other individuals on the basis of race, sex, national origin, and religion. Specifically, it guarantees equal opportunity for individuals in dealings with public and private sector employment, accommodations, transportation, telecommunication, and state and local government services.

The term 'disability' covers a wider array of conditions than an easily spotted physical limitation. People who are considered 'disabled'

under the Act are individuals with physical or mental impairments

that substantially limit one or more of the major activities of life, such as walking or talking. The term also applies to people with a record of an impairment, such as someone recovering from cancer, as well as people who are regarded as having a disability, such as a person with a disfiguring injury.

It's important to realize that all disabilities are not created equal. People with disabilities are extremely diverse. The deaf, the blind, and the mobility-limited have different needs and require different methods of attention during medical services delivery. Disabilities fall into major groupings: mobility impaired, sight impaired, hearing impaired, speech impaired.

The ADA guarantees the disabled the opportunity to participate in the 'full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, and advantages of any public place'. Private businesses must remove barriers at existing facilities and must make any new or renovated facilities accessible to the disabled. ADA also affects public services, such as the telecommunications industry and public transportation provided by state and local government.

Pytania cło dyskusji

1. Why should the disabled participate in social life in the same way other people do?

2. What is and can still be done in Poland to enable people with impairments to enjoy access to various public and social institutions?

Uzależnienia

Ćwiczenie 5.

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*clot - a lump of dried blood in the system (zakrzep)

Effects

of the smoking ban

Researchers from Montana and the University of San Francisco recently examined the impact of a short-lived Helena, Montana, 2002 smoking ban. Although the ban lasted only six months, reverberations from the smoke out were far-reaching.

While the ban was in place heart-attack admissions among Helena residents at the region's one hospital

dropped by 60 percent, moving from an average of seven per month to , a little more than three. No similar changes were reported in the surrounding communities.

Experts estimate that just 20 minutes of breathing smoke-filled air makes a nonsmoker's blood platelets almost as 'sticky' as the platelets of pack-a-day smokers. Such a condition makes the nonsmoker more likely to form clots* that could cause a heart attack or stroke.

*cannabis = marijuana (konopie indyjskie)

Three studies suggest a link between cannabis use and risk for developing depression and schizophrenia later in life, according to a 2002 Medscape Medical News article. An Australian study of 1,601 students from 44 secondary schools found that teenagers, particularly girls, who used cannabis were more likely to develop anxiety or depressive disorders. Weekly cannabis use was found to double this risk, and daily cannabis use was associated with a five-fold increase in risk.

A Swedish survey of male military recruits, ages 18 to 20, conducted in 1969 and 1970, found that cannabis use increased the risk of

schizophrenia by 30%. The authors of this study suggest that occasional cannabis use has few harmful effects, but repeated use poses a serious mental health risk, and these risks should be acknowledged in light of current movements to liberalize or legalize cannabis use.

A third study, which was conducted in London, found that adolescents who had used cannabis by the age of 15 were at the greatest risk for developing symptoms of schizophrenia in adulthood. Collectively, these studies point to a need to develop measures to reduce frequent recreational use of the drug by teenagers.

Pytania do dyskusji

1. Should smoking be banned in all public places or not? Give reasons why.

1. Addictions such as drinking alcohol, smoking and drug abuse have all been proved harmful for people's health. Explain what is their negative influence and why people are tempted to fall victim to it.

System ochrony zdrowia

Ćwiczenie 6.

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Public and private health care system

Publicly funded medicine is a level of medical service that is paid wholly or in majority by public funds (taxes). Publicly funded medicine is often referred to as 'socialized medicine' by its opponents, whereas supporters of this approach tend to use the terms 'universal healthcare' or 'single payer healthcare'. It is seen as a key part of a welfare state*.

Publicly funded medicine may be administered and provided by the government, but in some systems that is not an obligation: there exist systems where medicine is publicly funded, yet most health providers are private entities. The organization providing public health insurance is not necessarily public administration, and its budget may be isolated from the main state budget. Likewise, some systems do not necessarily provide universal healthcare, nor restrict coverage to public health facilities.

Proponents of publicly funded medicine cite several advantages: universal access to high quality care, equality in matters of life and death, the reduction of contractual paperwork, and the creation of uniform standards of care. One important difference is the reduction in the percentage of societal resources devoted to medical care (in other words public systems cost less than private systems).

Almost every country that has a publicly funded health care system also has a parallel private system, generally catering to* the wealthy. Proponents of these private systems argue that they are necessary to provide flexibility to the system and are a way to increase funding for the health care system as a whole by charging the wealthy more. Opponents believe that they are allowed to exist mainly because politicians and their friends are wealthy and would prefer better care. They also argue that all citizens should have access to high quality healthcare. The only country not to have any form of parallel private system for basic health care is Canada. However, many wealthy Canadians go to the United States for care.

*welfare state - a socio­political system in which citizens enjoy free services such as health care, unemployment benefits, school education, homes for the elderly, etc. (państwo opiekuńcze)

Pytania do dyskusji

1. What are the advantages and disavantages of the public health care system?

1. High quality medical care can only be provided by the private system. To what extent do you agree (disagree) with this statement? Justify your opinion.

*compIiance -obedience (tu: stosowanie się do zaleceń lekarza)

^ancillary - auxiliary (pomocniczy)

* referral - the act of sending a patient to a specialist or hospital (= referral note, skierowanie)

In the next few years, 20%-50% of all physician-patient interactions will be virtual, according to Dr. Allen Wenner, a family physician and vice president for clinical applications design at Primetime Medical Software in Columbia, S.C. "There will always be situations where the in-office visit will still be required." But physicians "can get a lot closer to their patients" by collaborating via e-mail and the Internet.

Current medical practice suffers from a number of ills, ranging from limited time for doctor-patient interaction to poor patient compliance*. The business of scheduling an appointment and traveling to the physician's office is often inconvenient to a patient, as is the paperwork that accompanies many visits.

Patients are forever waiting for services. They wait to get an appointment, wait for lab results, then wait to see the physician again for treatment, Dr. Wenner says, "If the patients need ancillary* services such as a referral*, they have to wait again. I call this poor service." Dr. Wenner's office features a 'virtual waiting room'. The patient enters an empty reception area and registers himself on a computer. A staff member is available to assist those who are less comfortable with technology.

The patient then is directed to a 'subwaking room', where a nurse or medical assistant checks vital signs and where the patient enters his medical history and current health

concerns into a computer. By the time the patient and physician meet, "the physician has already looked at the data the patient has entered into the computer in advance," Dr. Wenner says. In certain situations, a nurse will review the 'virtual chart' and assist the patient. "If it isn't a serious enough condition to require a complete medical exam, they don't have to see the physician," Dr. Wenner says.

Appointments can be scheduled and prescription refills requested via Dr. Wenner's Web site. To date, no patients of Dr. Wenner's have complained about the system. Dr. Faith Fitzgerald, professor of medicine at the University of California, Davis, is concerned that these virtual systems would remove the core of the physician's craft: the interaction with the patient.

There will always be instances when patients come in for unnecessary office visits. Physicians, however, "lose a tremendous source of medical information" when they don't see the patient face to face. "Many of my patients tell me things on the phone to minimize their symptoms so they won't have to come in, even though they should," she says.

Dr. Wenner said that he isn't concerned that virtual visits will lead to misdiagnoses; medical errors take place because physicians don't have enough data about the patient. He said that he believes that 20% of all visits could be treated provisionally without the patient coming in. A thorough electronic history, gathered by an expert interview system, should be enough for a clinician to make a provisional diagnosis.

Pytania do dyskusji

1. To what extent is personal contact between the doctor and the patient necessary in medical treatment?

2. The doctor-patient relationship should be based on mutual trust. Express and justify your opinion on the statement. In what situations is this trust nonexistent?

The Hippocratic Oath

The Hippocratic Oath is one of the oldest binding documents in history. Written in antiquity, its principles are held sacred by doctors to this day: treat the sick to the best of one's ability, preserve patient privacy, teach the secrets of medicine to the next generation, and so on. "The Oath of Hippocrates," holds the American Medical Association's Code of Medical Ethics (1996 edition), "has remained in Western civilization as an expression of ideal conduct for the physician." Today, most graduating medical-school students swear to some form of the oath, usually a modernized version.

Hippocrańc Oath -Modem Version I swear to fulfill, to the best of my ability and judgment, this covenant:

• (...) I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures which are required, avoiding those twin traps of overtreatment and therapeutic nihilism *.

• I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon's knife or the chemist's drug.

• I will not be ashamed to say "I know not," nor will I fail to call in my colleagues when the skills of another are needed for a patient's recovery.

• I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know. (...)

• I will remember that I do not treat a fever chart, a cancerous growth, but a sick human being, whose illness may affect the person's family and economic stability. (...)

• I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure.

Written in 1964 by Louis Lasagna, Academic Dean of the School of Medicine at Tufts University.

""nihilism - the belief that nothing has any value or meaning

Pytania do dyskusji

1. Why is prevention better than cure?

2. What do you think is the role of the Hippocratic oath today? To what extent is it still valid nowadays?

Dodatkowe zagadnienia do dyskusji

1. Sunbathing is a popular activity during summer. What is your opinion about sun­bathing as a way of spending time on holiday? To what extent is sunbathing healthy and harmless?

2. You are what you eat. Explain the meaning of this saying. Do you agree or disagree with it? Why? Why are eating habits and food so important for our health in general?

3. Give reasons for the popularity and more and more widespread use of alternative medicine in the treatment of various diseases. Is there a choice between traditional and alternative medicine, or should they complement each other? Justify your opinion.

4. Vegetarianism is an ideology, not a diet. Do you agree or disagree with this state­ment? Justify your opinion.

5. A healthy lifestyle is for the rich, because only they can afford it. Express and justify your opinion about this view.

6. Hypochondriacs are in fact healthy people who are the only ones to prevent various illnesses effectively. To what extent do you agree with this statement? Justify your opinion.

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