Life Factors free essay sample

It is caused by a faulty gene that controls the movement of salt and water in and out of the cells within the body. Cystic Fibrosis affects the internal organs, especially the lungs and digestive system, by clogging them with thick sticky mucus. This makes it hard to breathe and digest food. If two carriers have a child, the baby has a 1 in 4 chance of having Cystic Fibrosis. Each week, five babies are born with Cystic Fibrosis and each week, two young lives are lost to Cystic Fibrosis. A the moment half of the CF population will live past 41 years of age, and improvements in treatments mean a baby born today is expected to live even longer. Cystic fibrosis is transferred from the parents through genes. Caucasians (white European) are more common to be a carrier of CF. There is three types of screening for Cystic Fibrosis: newborn screening, carrier testing and antenatal testing. We will write a custom essay sample on Life Factors or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page New born testing The test is a heel-prick to sample blood as part of the normal Guthrie test carried out on all children. The sooner CF is diagnosed, the sooner appropriate treatment can begin. Carrier Testing They will take a simple mouthwash to determine if you are a carrier. This is important if a relative has CF or is a known carrier. It is very important to have the test if one of the partners is a known carrier. Antenatal Testing This test is used early in pregnancy to tell whether a baby has Cystic Fibrosis. It is normally offered to mothers who are recognised as being at a high risk of having a child with Cystic Fibrosis. Implications are miscarriage and premature labour. Other tests Other tests for Cystic Fibrosis are the sweat test (people with CF have more salt in their sweat, which can be detected) or a genetic test, which is a swab taken by gently rubbing the inside of the cheek to check for the search of the faulty CF gene. Cystic Fibrosis is an unpredictable life event, because there is still the chance of a child with a gene defected mother to come out totally healthy. Cystic Fibrosis will affect a person in various life events. Cystic fibrosis causes a build of thick mucus in the lungs and when the thick mucus builds up, it gets stuck in the airways, which causes problems. When this happens: * Breathing passageways become blocked and air can’t get through. * The lungs, nose and sinuses will get infected because of the growth of bacteria in the mucus collection. In some CF patients nasal polyps may develop. Reproductive Organs Cystic fibrosis affects the reproductive organs of men and women differently. Men: are almost always infertile because the thick secretions in the sperm canal cause a blockage that prevents sperm from getting through. Women: are often able to conceive but may have decreased fertility because of thick cervical mucus blocking the entry of sperm. Loneliness – When som eone can’t do the same things that their friends are doing, go to the same places, and they have overprotective parents, it can take a toll on somebody. Many parents, in an attempt to protect their children from the outside world, keep their children inside the house and in their direct supervision at all times. While doing this it is understandable that the parents are just trying to keep their kids healthy, it can make the cystic fibrosis sufferer feel alone. Parents should make sure that their children have fun but safe activities to do with their friends. They can’t keep them locked up forever. Growth – Children that have cystic fibrosis are not going to grow as fast as their peers, and that can make them feel inadequate. While everybody else begins to grow in height during puberty, for a CF patient the growth spurt can come several years later, if at all. Many children will feel embarrassed about this, and the other kids at school are not going to make things any easier. Classmates that are unaware that somebody has this disease can often be cruel and teasing and bullying may occur. Hospital – Cystic fibrosis can often force children to spend several weeks in the hospital if complications occur. When this happens, the patient will be missing a good portion of schoolwork and time with their friends. Luckily, sometimes there are teachers that go to hospitals to teach those that are missing time from school, but that does not always happen. Not being able to live a normal life can cause cystic fibrosis patients to worry about their futures and wonder how they are going to be able to hold down a job. Teens with CF report being depressed for many reasons. Feeling physically unwell, being frustrated by the challenges of endless daily treatments, experiencing negative side effects from medications, missing major life events (sports, parties, concerts, proms) due to hospitalizations, and feeling different from their peers. Teens with CF are more prone to anxiety and depression, and a lack of sleep can worsen the situation. Few teenagers achieve the recommended nine hours of sleep each night, and because of the CF, their sleep may be regularly disrupted because of their medications and coughing. In addition to putting them at greater risk of infection, the lack of sleep can lead to dramatic mood swings. Adolescence is a time of experimentation, and this may include many things: new hair colors, body piercings, styles of dress, drug and alcohol use, and sexual activity. Just because some suffers of CF it doesn’t mean that they are immune to the pressures of the above experimentation. Unfortunately, the physical and emotional impact of this experimentation can sometimes be much harder for teens with CF. Sometimes peer pressure is not the issue. Teens with CF have said they use alcohol or drugs to self medicate due to depression and anxiety, and to seek a temporary relief from the challenges of the disease. Depression also contributes to self-harm, namely â€Å"cutting,† as well as eating disorders. Biological: Of, relating to, caused by, or affecting life or living organisms: biological processes such as growth and digestion. Is related by blood or genetic lineage, i. e. mother gives birth to her biological child. Foetal Alcohol Syndrome Foetal Alcohol Syndrome is a predictable life event, because you can’t for sure be certain that the child will have that defect after the mother consumed alcohol When a woman drinks alcohol during pregnancy she risks giving birth to a child who will have mental and physical deficiencies, for his or her entire life. Yet many pregnant women do drink alcohol. Signs and Symptoms: * low birth weight * small head circumference * failure to thrive * developmental delay * organ dysfunction * facial abnormalities, including smaller eye openings, flattened cheekbones, and indistinct philtrum (an underdeveloped groove between the nose and the upper lip) * epilepsy * poor coordination/fine motor skills * poor socialization skills, such as difficulty building and maintaining friendships and relating to groups * lack of imagination or curiosity learning difficulties, including poor memory, inability to understand concepts such as time and money, poor language comprehension, poor problem-solving skills * behavioral problems, including hyperactivity, inability to concentrate, social withdrawal, stubbornness, impulsiveness, and anxiety At birth, an alcohol-affected baby may suffer withdrawal from alcohol and any other drugs the mother uses. This is known as neonatal abstinence syndrome. The baby may also have either poor muscle tone (a floppy baby) or rigid muscle tone. Infants with FAS/E may have trouble with sleeping and with sucking and swallowing. There are some behavioral patterns that are associated very often with FAS. A good example is that of an â€Å"attachment disorder. † An attachment disorder is a complex problem that occurs in children who have not had the opportunity to form a close and trusting relationship to an adult in the way children usually do. Some of the characteristics include overly â€Å"friendly† behavior, running away, and withdrawal from caregivers. Because many children with FAS spend time in difficult environments, or have multiple placements, many of them develop attachment disorders. Children and adolescent with FAS may be developmentally delayed, have mental retardation or have problems with specific learning differences or disabilities. These conditions are often associated with social, emotional, behavioral, and academic problems. When these and other facts are not identified early in life, children may be viewed as being deliberately â€Å"bad† or having â€Å"emotional† problems when, in fact, they are unable to act in ways that caregivers ask them of. Environmental: It relates to the natural world and the impact of human activity on its condition. Pollution: Pollution is unpredictable because not every area will be as polluted as others. The air obviously won’t be a 100% clean no matter where people go but in some areas there will be more pollution because there is a motorway in the area which produces a lot of fumes and toxins. On the other hand if people live in villages where there is just really space to live for example 200 people the pollution will be minimized because there are not as many people that can pollute the air. The environment plays a very important role in a person? s development through life. There are a few physical effects pollution can have on an individual. Pollution, in its many forms, can have immediate and long-terms effects on the bodys systems and the overall health. Exposure to pollution also affects an individual quality of life, and can increase the risk of certain chronic diseases. The physical effects of pollution on some one? s health depend on the type of pollution to which they are most frequently exposed, including air, water or noise pollution. Short-term physical health effects of air pollution include the following: eye, nose and throat irritation, upper respiratory infectionsincluding bronchitis and pneumoniaheadaches, nausea, allergic reactions and xacerbation of medical conditions, such as emphysema and asthma. Long-term physical health effects of air pollution may include chronic respiratory disease, lung cancer and heart disease. Long-term exposure to air pollution may even cause damage to your brain, nerves, liver or kidneys. Pollution can leave someone highly depressed and anxious, which can lead to tiredness, sw eating, headaches, loss of appetite or overeating. People get frustrated because they don’t know what to do against the pollution. People will avoid going out, so that they don’t inhale the toxic fumes, which will decrease their social activities. They might fall out with friends because they are always declining invitations. Others will be depressed and feel less worthy of living opportunities. Socioeconomic: This is a combination of social and economic factors. Like social are friends and partners, and economic is about money, living conditions and etc. Education Education is predictable, because the law in the UK says that every child needs to be educated for at least 18 years. Education is very important in an individual’s development. It teaches us how to count, read, write and socialize. It prepares us for our future choices we want to take and helps us get there. When children start school they can be quiet nervous and upset because of the new people they will meet. They will make new friends and start socializing with different kind of other children. There cognitive skills will improve and there vocabulary will grow day by day. Education will give them an awareness on how the world functions and that the world and people are not perfect, and sometimes don’t are like they seem. It will make people feel good when they finished their education and can now start the job they wanted to do. Some children will get quiet attached to their teachers and that can be very upsetting for them when they change schools. Starting education might as well mean that they need to move because the travelling distance to even the nearest school might be too far. Parents can get quiet stressed because it is a major change in their routine as well to bring the children into school every morning. The parents will need to help with homework and will need to attend parents evenings which can be long and boring sometimes. People might be failing there education which can lead to epression and anxiety that they won’t get a job with their current education. Parents will be disappointed in them and might even put a heavier strain on them, which can bring them to breaking point. Marriage: Marriage is predictable because almost every person will want to marry in future and have children. Marriage is a very good way to understand how others might feel, because marriage means compromise. Peop le that are married can have joy and happiness in their life, spending it with someone else. Marriage can raise peoples confident and self-image in various ways. It will build a mutual understanding of the other person and make people stronger and believe in themselves. If a person is going through a rough time, the partner which they are married to can be there supportive foundation which gives them strength to face the problem and deal with in a healthy way. Being married can as well help in financial situations because both parties will put their income into the household to keep it going. On the other hand marriage can be stressful and painful, because of financial issues, differences between the two partner’s families, arguments and etc. To be married can be really hard on some people which can lower their self-esteem and confidence. If as well partners are always arguing they will feel unloved by their partner and this will lower there self-image because they will feel unloved. Having children can have a strain on a marriage as well because of the stress the parents will be under because of lack of sleep and rest. That’s the reason that before people marry they should have built a strong foundation on which there marriage can stand no matter what comes there way. Unpredictable- Death of family member: The death of a family member can be devastating for a family. It can leave the family unit broken and in despair due to the loss of a loved one. However it can make you a stronger family unit because the family will support and unite with each other through this difficult time. People will get depressed which can develop to clinical depression which can be life threatening for the person. People could have suicide thoughts because they want to be with the family member that past away. Some people will isolate themselves from society and family, because they don’t want to talk to anyone or because they think that they can’t be happy or can’t laugh after what happened. This can ruin families that have been really close before the death of the family member. There could be arguments about the heritage and who gets the money or â€Å"who should† get the money from the diseased family member. It will strip people’s happiness and will shatter their self- esteem and confidence. Some people might get really angry and defensive at everything people say and might have outbursts of different emotions. The family might start struggling with their finances because the person that died was the primary income provider. And that will cause a lot of extra stress on the family which can make it fall apart. And in some countries education is not free and people have to pay a big amount to send their children to school, and if they don’t have any money the children will stay uneducated. People might not be able to from new relationships because they fear that that person will leave and they will be in pain again. Because people will be worried about their other loved ones dying which can make them very overprotective and make the family feel suffocated. This can have a really bad affect because people will try to avoid that person because f there clinginess. Lifestyle Lifestyle plays a delicate role in the development of individuals and as well on individual’s life expectancy. People that choose to smoke harm themselves physically and mentally. Smoking does not have any benefits the only thing it does is destroy some one’s life. Smoking affects not just smokers but as well people around them (passive smoker). Organs that get affected the most are: Lungs: Smoking is the wide most spread reason for impaired lungs. Long exposure to the smoke will paralyze and disable the lungs to clean the respiratory system. Smoke from cigarettes; generate harmful chemicals such as tar. This chokes the alveoli and tissues in the respiratory track. It leads in the production of mucus, which in turn assists the microorganisms to thrive. Strong smokers will more likely get flu, cough and cold, bronchitis, cancer, emphysema, and various other deadly respiratory illnesses. Heart: Smoking is as well fatal for the heart. A smoker’s heart will beat faster and harder, in time of high stress and depression. The damage is similar to a person having high cholesterol. As the heart beats fast, it results in high blood pressure. Mouth and Nose: Smokers will gradually lose the ability to smell and taste. There are high chances of smokers getting mouth and gum cancer which can affect someone’s life in a really bad way. The worst effect smoking can have on someone is a breakdown of jaws and tongue, which will leave the person not able to talk and communicate effectively. Skin: Smoking squeezes and restricts the blood vessels to the skin. It as well lowers the rate of the blood flow to different parts of the body. A smoker’s skin is very likely to start wrinkling earlier then suppose too. Smoke as well doesn’t smell pleasant so friends might try to avoid their friends that are smoking because they don’t want to passive smoke and as well find the smell disturbing. Smoking is banned in almost every indoor space so smokers would always have to leave the room to have a cigarette. For the individual it might be very hard to give up that bad habit and it will make them feel frustrated with themselves and depressed. It as well is an expensive habit, so money goes out of the window to. It will put a strain on the family dynamic because of the constant money output for expensive cigarettes.