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Concept of Body Reserves

February 20th, 2008 at 12:15am |

Concept of Body Reserves
By Frankie Goh

Our body has a store of reserves which keep us healthy in the midst of constant attacks by external harmful agents such as alcohol, nicotine, germs and daily stress. These reserves, in engineering terms, are roughly equivalent to the “safety margins” of a particular specification. To illustrate this important concept, let us take the example of a kidney donor. When he donates a kidney to someone in need of a kidney, he is left with one kidney. Though 50% of his kidney “power” is gone, yet the donor is still able to live a normal life. This implies that for daily requirements, he needs less than 50% of kidney “power” to live. Below the critical level, kidney failure sets in. The same concept applies to the other body organs. Essentially, when the reserves are depleted, the body shows signs of illness.

Alcohol consumption and liver damage

Alcohol is a drug which poisons the body. The liver is able to render it harmless before it causes damage to the other parts of the body. During the initial years of alcohol consumption, the person may not experience the harmful effects of alcohol, due to the detoxification process of the liver. In the process, however, the liver bears the brunt of the damage caused by alcohol. When the reserves of the liver are completely depleted, liver failure develops.

Cigarette smoking and lung failure

Similarly, smoking depletes the reserves of the lungs and destroys them. A normal person needs less than less 50% of lung “power” for daily activities. The reserves are called upon when there is an increased demand for lung “power”, e.g. during strenuous exercises, an asthmatic attack or a chest infection. When the reserves are completely gone, even the slightest exertion will cause the person difficulty in breathing. If a person starts smoking at age 20 and it takes 30 years to deplete the lung reserves, he will at 50 become breathless on walking but would have felt fine before that. If his smoking gets heavier, his lung reserves will be depleted even faster and his lung disease will set in much earlier than 50.

Cholesterol and heart diseases

A person experiences chest pain when any one of the three arteries supplying the heart muscles is severely obstructed. If the obstruction is not severe, he may not feel any chest pains at all, as the heart muscles are able to draw on their reserves to cope with the decreased blood supply.

The above three examples illustrate the point that it would be too late if action is taken to rectify the situation only when the disease has set in.

The importance of this concept becomes clear when we extrapolate it to illness like asthma, vasomotor rhinitis (sensitive nose) and chronic skin problem. Medication should therefore be taken even after symptoms are relieved. This is to allow the person sufficient time to rebuild his reserves, so that a relapse is less likely. This point will be further explained in future articles.

Frankie Goh is a family counselor and researcher.

He manage a website : Earn Money Online http://www.ezy-cash.com

He is also the Internet Marketing Co-ordinator of Healthbuy.com Herbal Products & Easy Forex (Foreign Exchange).

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Frankie_Goh
http://EzineArticles.com/?Concept-of-Body-Reserves&id=935287

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