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Public Health Professional to Understand the Immune System
Understanding the immune system is important because it will help public health professionals take the appropriate approaches or steps in implementing and motivating community educators to create programs (e.g., nutritional strategies) that will influence and encourage individuals to take charge of their health and embrace healthier eating lifestyle or nutritious foods. The idea is that nutrient-rich foods contain vitamins, minerals and not too many calories. vitamins and minerals are micronutrients which maintain the human’s body and help keep it healthy (AAFP, 2021). Calder et al (2020) talked about how various mechanisms and clinical data have shown that vitamins such as A, B6, B12, C, D, E, zinc, ion, folate, omega-3 fatty acids and others play a significant role in supporting the immune system. That is, adequate intake of these vitamins are essential for a strong immune system (Calder et al., 2020). As Calder et al (2020) explained, inadequate intake of these important nutrients can lead to a decrease in resistance to infections; and as a result, can cause an increase in the burden and progression of disease (Calder et al., 2020). For example, in a study that focuses on “comprehensive understanding of the gut mucosal immune system in allergic inflammation” showed how nutritional approaches have been analyzed to treat allergic diarrhea (Tokuhara et al., 2019). The study demonstrated that vitamins A and B can induce and maintain certain cells (e.g., Tregs cells or T cells), which involves the utility of vitamin supplementation in children against food allergy (Tokuhara et al., 2019). In addition, Vitamin A and metabolites partake in the process of gut mucosal homeostatic network (Tokuhara et al., 2019). Other examples of how this knowledge may be used in public health practice are the use of vaccines because of the ability to stimulate the immune system by resembling a natural infections and also the reinforcement of handwashing as this will help decrease the spread and impact of infections (Calder et al., 2020; Battle, 2009).
Public Health Professional to Understand the pathophysiology of Inflammation
It is important for a public health professional to understand the pathophysiology of inflammation as Battle (2009) indicated that understanding inflammation is being able to recognize the body’s response to injury (e.g., pain, redness and swelling). Moreover, Inflammation is a frequent constituent of many injuries that are due to a great number of different environmental hazards. Another reason is because to a certain extent, nearly every chronic illnesses in the body involve chronic inflammation such as osteoarthritis, chronic hepatitis, atherosclerosis, cardiovascular disease and rheumatoid arthritis (Battle, 2009). Therefore, being knowledgeable or aware of the diseases that lead to inflammation can encourage or motivate a public health professional to establish or engage in prevention measures (Battle, 2009). Other examples of how this knowledge may be used in public health practice are that, once a public health professional has a thorough understanding of the role of chronic and acute inflammation of a disease, this knowledge would help in the regulations of health policy that are in place to control exposure to numerous environmental hazards. In addition, understanding the pathophysiology of inflammation would help guide the day-to-day use of medications ( e.g., aspirin, anti-histamines, steroids, and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents) for the relief of signs and symptoms of inflammation (Battle, 2009). For example, Elliot et al (2019) demonstrated how inflammation can contribute to two or more chronic conditions in one patient. In other words, inflammation can play a significant part to what is called multimorbidity as well as adverse outcomes associated to multimorbidity, specifically individuals experience functional limitations that lead to disability. So understanding inflammation is key for future work in examining multimorbidity formulations and the differences in severity between conditions (Elliot et al., 2019).
Public Health Professional to Understand Carcinogenesis
It is important for a public health professional to understand carcinogenesis as this knowledge will help in cancer prevention research, which emphasis is about reducing the rate of occurrence or mortality from cancer. One example is that, understanding carcinogenesis or the development of cancer can help in prevention approaches of delaying or blocking steps in the process of cancer development (Battle, 2009). Moreover, Battle (2009) talked about a recent and widely public health challenge about overweight and obesity in both children and adults and concluded that individuals who are overweight and obese are likely or at an increased risk of developing tumors in various organs of their body. As a public health professional, understanding this health challenge or the “highly complex process” of cancer can guide and provide knowledge to a public health professional in the implementation of educational programs and the development of policies that focus on diet and obesity such as promoting healthy eating habits, for instance, reduced calorie intake (Battle, 2009). According to Battle (2009), studies have shown that many dietary compounds (e.g., high-fat-diet, heavy meat) are known to be carcinogens whereas others have been shown to decrease the risk of cancer; therefore, another example of how this knowledge may be used in public health practice would be for public health professional to continue to put emphasis toward cancer research and prevention that would lead to the reduction or exposure of certain dietary compounds in other to prevent carcinogenesis (Battle, 2009; Hoare et al, 2019).
