What is meant by disease *
What are the most common causes of diseases* Types Of diseases* Diagnosis of diseases* Disease First of all we must speak about health.
Health is a condition in which all of the body functions are integrated
and are being maintained within the limits of optimal design
. Disease
is a pathological condition of an organ resulting from various
causes- infection, genetic environmental.. etc
. which are characterized by certain group of symptoms
and signs
This is can be summarized by
Prof. Dr. Kasule*
.He said that ( Disease is divergence from the normal but not all
deviation is disease because of the reserve capacity and ability of the body
to adjust. In most cases, a deviation must also be related to other adverse
changes to be able to constitute disease. The demarcation between pathology
and normal physiological variation can be fine. Hunger and thirst for
example are psychological warning signs and are not pathological conditions.
A hungry person is not in immediate danger. When the situation of food
deprivation persists over a long time then physiological disturbances within
the compensatory range occur. Pathological changes appear if food
deprivation extends beyond that). He
continued by mentioning that definition is
very relative And giving examples for that
like ( high blood pressure in an elderly person does not have the same
implication as the same level in a younger person. Temperature levels have
different interpretations in neonatal and adult infections. Adolescent
behavior that may be normal would be considered illness in adults. There are
changes in the body that should be accepted as normal processes of aging and
not as diseases. There is a space-time variation in definition and
perception of disease depending on the culture, beliefs, attitudes, and
prevalence of diseases. In localities where the burden of major diseases is
high, some minor ailments may be ignored whereas in other places they are
taken as serious diseases. There are diseases that may be associated with
social status.
New diseases continue to be
defined due to changes in the causative agents, host factors, or new
scientific knowledge) .Then He reached the most important point about
the aspect of disease which it is not only attacked body but also soul. He
said(
Definition of disease considers several dimensions that may operate singly
or in combination: moral/spiritual, biological/pathological ,
psycho-social, or normative/statistical. Loss of spiritual equilibrium is a
disease in itself and soon leads to physical disease. Most diseases involve
disturbances in the equilibrium of the normal body physiology. These
biological disturbances may be within the range of normal physiological
variation or may be clearly pathological. The psycho-social dimension of
disease is associated with loss of equilibrium and may precede or follow
physical disturbances
** Prof.Dr.Omar Hassan Kasule
CAUSES OF DISEASE
Prof. Dr. Kasule mentioned about causes of diseases that it might be pathological causes or sometimes no apparent causes . He said When all the factors that produce a certain pathological condition are existing, we say that there is a sufficient cause of disease. However humans can never know for sure that there is a sufficient cause because Allah’s divine will is involved. There are many cases when all the humanly known factors of a disease exist but the disease does not occur. This is because of the unknown factor attributable to Allah alone. There are empirical factors that must operate for a certain pathological condition to occur. These are referred to as necessary causes. Then he discussed two main groups of diseases and their cause. Intrinsic diseases are genetic or in-born .And Extrinsic diseases are those acquired after birth. Then he finished this topic by saying Islamically speaking we can not say that there was a genetic or chromosomal mistake. It is all part of Allah’s grand design
Physical cause
Disease can also be classified by physical cause: infectious (viral,
bacterial, fungal, protozoal, or helminthic), neoplastic, allergic,
genetic, congenital, nutritional, environmental, mental, degenerative,
metabolic, circulatory, or hormonal. The inflammatory process is a reaction
to the original disease pathology in both its acute and chronic forms and is
essentially a defensive measure. It is sometimes also harmful to the body on
its own. Most disease processes are actually attempts by the body to repair
damage
Mental cause
Disease can be classified as physical or mental. This classification
is not valid all the time because in many instances mental conditions
have a physical or biochemical basis. Mental disorders are either
neuroses (anxiety, phobia, hysteria, obsessive-compulsive disorders,
or depression) or psychoses. Psychoses are more serious than neuroses.
Psychoses normally require drug treatment whereas the preferred
management for neuroses is psychotherapy. Psychoses can be organic
(types of epilepsy) or functional. The functional psychoses are either
affective disorders (manic-depressive disorders, endogenous
depression, reactive depression) or schizophrenia. Schizophrenia
involves disorders of thought, emotions, will, body movements,
delusions, and hallucinations. It is noteworthy that schizophrenia has
the same prevalence all over the world. The Qur’an uses the term
madness (junuun) to refer to the major disorders like psychoses. The
Qur’an also explains how the label of madness is used to refer to
righteous people like prophets who are abused because they differ from
the general public that is bent on evil (p 297 15:6, 26:27, 37:36,
44:14, 51:29, 51:52, 52:29, 54:9, 68:2, 68:51, 81:22
Malnutrition
Under-nutrition causes disease by depriving the body of essential
nutrients. Protein energy malnutrition of children in poor countries
is due to lack of protein and calories. Vitamin and mineral
deficiencies disturb normal metabolism. Extreme nutritional
deprivation, leads to death. Over-nutrition results in obesity ,
diseases such as heart disease and various types of cancer. Excessive
intake of necessary nutrients like vitamins causes various hypervitaminosis syndromes.
Infection
Infection of the human body by other organisms is part of Allah’s plan
especially in fulfilling the food chain. It is part of the balance of
the eco-system. This does not however mean that such diseases should
be left alone. There has been some confusion about hadiths of the
prophet dealing with infection and contiguousness of disease. There is
actually no contradiction between hadiths that indicate that disease
is contagious (KS p. 504) and those that indicate the opposite (KS p.
504). The Prophet was speaking about different diseases on different
occasions. Even with one disease like leprosy there are contagious and
non-contagious forms (Ibn al Qayim p. 154).
Neoplasms
Loss of control over cell multiplication results in cancer. This is
violation of a basic law in biology that equilibrium and homeostatsis
will be maintained.The molecular basis of cancer has been elucidated
in detail recently. Oncogenes are thought to be the basis for
neoplastic growth. Carcinogens as initiators or promoters interact
with the oncogenes to lead to neoplastic proliferation. Age and
heredity play a role in cancer etiology. Malignant neoplasm differs
from the benign one in being less differentiated, being anaplastic,
high growth rate, invasion of local tissues, and distant metastases.
Normally the immune system is able to detect the neoplastic cells and
eliminate them. In situation of relative immune deficiency it is not
possible to eliminate the neoplastic cells.
Degeneration
In old age phenomena of growth and decay are more that repair and
growth and degenerative diseases could result. These are strictly
speaking part of Allah’s design and not an anomaly.
DISEASE AND QADAR
Occurrence of Disease as Qadar:
It is Allah’s pre-destination that a person falls sick.
Treatment/prevention of disease is not against qadar. Medical
treatment is subsumed under the principle that qadar can reverse
another qadar (radd al qadar bi al qadar). In the end all cure is from
Allah and not the human (26:80).
Types of diseases
There are two mean groups of heart
diseases, medical and non medical
The medical group which includes for examples
heart failure ( the pump can't do its function). also Heart attack due to
occlusion of one or more of blood vessels supplying it
And Heart arrest which considered real emergency needs
from you some knowledge about basic life support. if you are interesting to
know more
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As we said each
disease has a group of symptoms and signs -Pain
is one of the most important symptoms of diseases that force peoples
asking the help of medical staff also it helps medical staff to
diagnose the nature of the disease-Chest pain for example is one of the
greatest challenge for medical staff such pain has a lot of what's called
differ ional diagnosis that's to mean- a group of diseases sharing in the
same pain- Chest pain of cardiac origin is called angina- and in most of
cases it is due to decrease of oxygen supply of heart muscle -This pain
needs beside the pain killer special treatment of the cause which is more
important- To look for the reason for that pain and try to overcome that
cause by increasing the blood supply for heart muscle- This can be done
through medications or sometimes it need surgery .Heart failure is a
progressive condition in which the heart's muscle becomes weaker and
gradually loses its ability to pump enough blood to supply the body's needs
Although there is no way to completely heal a failing heart, there are many
things a person with heart failure can do to you the information you need
click here
The Cleveland Clinic
Now let us have an idea about non medical diseases Once I attend symposium in psychiatry lecturer Professor Okasha said that depression - one of the most common psychiatric illness was known since ancient times as common disorders of the human race. Ancient Egyptians six thousands years ago recognized depression and located it in the heart as shown in Ebers papyrus
( In their hearts is a
disease And God has increased their disease
)
Relation between heart
diseases & psychological diseases
For more than 50 years, clinical researchers have acknowledged the importance of psychosocial factors in the pathogenesis, assessment, and treatment of physical illness. In the 1940s, psychosomatic theorists, most of whom were trained in the psychoanalytic tradition, suggested that conditions such as hypertension and asthma reflected unconscious conflicts that were expressed in physical symptoms . Although the psychosomatic model is still embraced by some investigators, the past several decades have witnessed a proliferation of research evaluating behavioral aspects of medical conditions, describing both the direct and indirect effects of behavior and psychological functioning on incidence and progression of disease. An important issues The historical antecedents of current research into the psychosocial aspects of Coronary heart diseases have been traced to the late nineteenth-century writings of physician , who noted characteristics of ambition and high energy among his cardiac patients . During the 1930s, two separate lines of research advanced thinking in this area developed theories about heightened aggression among patients with CAD , while others formulated the concept of an innate stress response characterized by behavioral and: physiological changes . In the 1950s cardiologists helped to integrate earlier work by suggesting the probability of a coronary-prone personality . More recent work has identified specific affective states (depression, anxiety, chronic anger) that are predictive of CAD as well as relevant social and environmental factors associated with CAD , In addition, psycho physiological researchers during the past two decades have successfully documented important individual differences in physiological and behavioral responses to stress and the relevance of cardiovascular reactivity for the etiology of CAD The purpose of this issues are, first, to elaborate upon the historical perspective by delineating the contribution of each area of research toward understanding psychosocial factors in CAD
Stress
Stress as mentioned in text books has been broadly defined as an experience in which the demands of a situation exceed the perceived ability to cope with the situation , most often resulting from a person-environment transaction and leading to either over arousal or under arousal of the organism . Much research has been directed toward elucidating the nature of the “stress response,” . In human beings, the stress response is marked by a cognitive appraisal of a situation as threatening, followed by physiological changes such as increases in blood pressure, heart rate, respiratory rate, output of stress hormones, and changes in blood platelet activity. It has been hypothesized that stress-associated physiological arousal may contribute to chronic elevations in blood pressure and increased risk of cardiac disease . The stress response is thus a function of personality and individual differences that may affect the appraisal of the situation, as well as influence person-environment interactions Work environment has become one of the most commonly studied environmental precipitants of stress related cardiac disease and it has been argued that work environment is more important to evaluate than are individual factors They found that job strain (high demand and low control) was associated with increased rates of cardiovascular diseases prevalence, and that workers with the lowest level of social support had higher prevalence rates regardless of level of job strain. This research shows promise in providing evidence of the complex interaction of factors (i.e., work stress and social support) associated with CAD
Depression and Anxiety
Depression has been confirmed as an important factor in the initial onset of CAD as well as among patients with previously diagnosed CAD. It is was confirmed that importance of negative emotions, including depression, anxiety, and history of depression, for prognosis of post-myocardial patients. Their results were suggestive of post-MI depression being more strongly associated with arrhythmic deaths , while anxiety was more strongly associated with acute coronary syndromes . Also they found that major depressive disorder was the best predictor of cardiac events during the 12 months following catheterization among patients with CAD. It has been suggested that decreased heart-rate variability associated with reduced parasympathetic nervous system activity may be one mechanism explaining the association of major depression with CAD
Non Medical Heart Diseases
Heart Hardness (Thencefore
were your hearts they became like a rock and even worse in hardness
. Then , even after that , your hearts were hardened and became as
rocks , or worse than rocks , for hardness . For indeed there are rocks from
out which rivers gush , and indeed there are rocks which split asunder so
that water Soweth from them . And indeed there are rocks which fall down for
the fear of Allah hat hearts which allows you to kill pure children and poor
women with a big smile in your face. To do all bad things you can or can't imagine. Can we consider
this heart is human one . Even wild animals are kind with their young
children. Allah is not unaware of what they do. Then because of their
breaking of their covenant , and their disbelieving in the revelations of
Allah , and their slaying of the Prophets wrongfully , and their saying :
Our hearts are hardened Nay , but Allah hath set a seal upon them for their
disbelief , so that they believe not save a few .And because of their breaking their
covenant , We have cursed them and made hard their hearts . They change
words from their context and forget a part of that whereof they were
admonished . Thou wilt not cease to discover treachery from all save a few
of them . But bear with them and pardon them
Heart Blindness
Look for this Eye
ball can you see it , It is the organ of vision which it is a precious gift
from our Lord
, . And brain
translate what we are seeing
But can we see electricity ! Can we see the truth
Oh, here we are , There are a lot of things we can't see with our eyes.
Either we their effect like light for electricity. Or we can see them by our
hearts .We confound their hearts and their eyes . As they believed not
therein at the first , We let them wander blindly on in their contumacy
Truly it is not their eyes that are blind but their hearts which are in their breasts
IF your heart is blind how can you see the light of faith
Stain and Seal of heart
We mentioned
before that if you made a simple mistake and didn't ask forgiveness
form your Lord . This will stain your heart with a small black spot . This
spot spread until the whole heart became black Say :
Have ye imagined , if Allah should take away your hearing and your sight and
seal your hearts , who is the God who could restore it to you save Allah?
See how We display the revelations unto them? Yet still they turn away
they hear not When the hypocrites and those in whose
hearts is a disease said : Their religion hath deluded these . Whoso putteth
his trust in Allah ( will find that ) lo! Allah is Mighty , Wise
Remember that you can't stain sea by one drop of ink
.By no means ! But on their hearts is the stain of the cill which they do
A seal
is more tight band on
heart which keep it away from under standing
-God has set a seal on their hearts and on their hearing and on their eyes
is a veil
As for the deniers, whether
you warn them or not, they will not have faith. God has set a seal upon
their hearts and ears, and on their eyes there is a covering. A grievous
punishment awaits them It is these mental states
which prevent people from accepting the truth; the Qur’an has called them
‘seals’ over people’s hearts. The minds of those who do not consider the
true call seriously, who are proud and worldly in their attitude, are
covered with an invisible veil which makes them impervious to the truth.
When one is prejudiced against something, one cannot see its rationality,
even if there are clear signs in support of it
Then after him We sent Messengers to their people, they brought them
clear proofs, but they would not believe what they had already rejected
beforehand. Thus We seal the hearts of the transgressors 74 -
(those who disbelieve in the Oneness of Allah and disobey Him).
Just try to be honest faithful with yourself and your Lord few days , And
check you feel happy
If you have a chance to read a book try to read the translation of Yusuf Ali
to the meanings of The Holly Quran
He said in the meaning of heart illness: The heart of man as created by God
is pure and unsullied. Every time than a man does an ill dead it marks a
stain or rust on his heart . But on repentance and forgiveness such stain is
washed off if there is no repentance and forgiveness the stains deepen and
spread more and more until the heart is sealed and eventually the man dies a
spiritual death . It is such stains that standing the way of his perceiving
truths which are obvious to others. That's why he mocks at truth and
hugs falsehood to his bosom
Disease in the Qur’an
The Qur’an has used several terms to refer to disease. In the subject form
the word maradh has been employed in the context of spiritual diseases of
the heart . In
the adjective form the words maridh and saqiim have been used. The Qur'an
discusses disease as a disabling condition than can exempt a person from
certain obligatory acts of physical . Disease was also described
as a harm . The Qur’an being primarily a book of moral
guidance, spends more time discussing the causes and treatments of moral
diseases and gives relatively little space to physical diseases. Humans are
urged to undertake the necessary research to understand the physical
diseases
Relation between diseases of the heart and diseases of the body
There is a 2-way interaction between physical and spiritual maladies.
Disbelief leads to a lot of human cruelty like genocide because of
lack of moral restraint. Diseases of the heart such as jealousy lead to
violence and even death. Lack of self-restraint in appetite leads to obesity
and attendant diseases. Addiction to alcohol leads too much physical and
mental derangement. Protein energy malnutrition of the poor manifests social
injustice in the community. Lack of spiritual equilibrium leads to inability
to handle the normal stresses of life such that the victims become addicted
to alcohol and psychoactive substances with consequent physical illness.
Addiction to power and sex leads to violence. Physical diseases may cause so
much depression and loss of hope that they develop diseases of the heart
Pathology
Pathology is concerned with abnormalities of structure and function,
which result from disease or are produced by disease (Bowman p. 4.3).
It seeks to explain the why of a disease, which includes etiology,
pathogenesis, morphological changes, and the functional impairment.
Most of pathology is about the reactions of the body and its
adjustment to insults. As mentioned before, the line between
compensatory change in normal physiology and pathology can be very
fine.
Manifestations of Disease
Disease manifests as symptoms or signs. Symptoms are subjective
patient complaints or description of disease. Signs are objectively
verifiable disorders. A syndrome is a combination of symptoms and
signs associated with a disease condition. Symptomatology is perhaps a
better indication of disease severity because it includes the
personality of the patient and reactions. Thus the same pathology does
not produce the same symptomatology in all patients. Those with strong
iman may complain less about pain than others. Fear of death also
affects worry and complaint about disease.
Diagnosis
How can we diagnose heart disease
Diagnoses are measures including history, physical examination, and
logical deduction or induction that lead to definition of a disease.
Believing
Physician can reach the correct conclusion
from available data more often than the non-believing one. A
definitive diagnosis need not be made before treatment starts.
Treatment is started using a tentative diagnosis. The true diagnosis
may be deduced from the response to treatment. One of the strengths of
empirical science is that a disease can be treated successfully
without fully understanding its pathogenesis or even how the treatment
works at the molecular level. This occurs for example in cases when a
new unknown chemical compound is tried on animals and then on humans
with good results. It is then adopted as a treatment. The mechanism of
action is established only later or may never be established
definitely. However this strength has a back-side to it. Using
treatments whose mechanisms of action are not well understood can lead
to side effects and adverse effects later.
Prognosis
Prognosis is an empirical estimate of the future course of the
disease. From the Islamic viewpoint, prognosis is part of the
knowledge of the unseen (‘ilm al ghaib). The physician does not have
the privilege to say anything definitive about the future prognosis.
He or she can only extrapolate based on available data and must always
have the humility to say ‘Allah Knows Best’ .
Duration
Diseases may be classified by their duration as acute or chronic.
Acute disease is a temporary disturbance of homeostasis. Chronic
disease may establish a new level of homeostasis.
Moral Criteria
Diseases may also be classified by cause as diseases of the heart (amradh
al qalb p. 958
2:10,
5:52, 8:49, 22:53, 24:50, 33:12, 33:60, 47:20, 74:31). and diseases of
the body (amradh al badan). These two categories have been mentioned
by the Qur’an.
Diseases of the heart include: lahw (21:3), ghaflat (18:28), ghill (7:43, 15:47, 59:10), ghaidh (3:118-119), kibr (40:35, 40:56), nifaq (2:8-10, 2:2-4, 3:167, 5:41, 9:8, 9:64, 9:75-77, 48:11). These diseases of the heart lead directly or indirectly to somatic diseases. Diseases of the body mentioned in the Qur’an include: blindness, ama (p 851 2:17-18, 2:171, 5:71, 6:50, 6:104, 7:64, 10:43, 11:24, 11;28, 12:84, 17:72, 19:9, 20:102, 20:124-125, 22:46, 24:61, 25:73, 27:66, 27:81, 28:66, 30:53, 35:19, 36:66, 40:58, 41:17, 41:44, 43:40, 47:23, 48:17, 54:37, 80:2), akma (congenital blindness 4:49), deafness(sum) (2:18, 2:171, 6:39, 8:22, 10:42, 21:45, 27:80, 30:52, 43:40), lameness (araj) (p 807 24:11, 24:61, 48 :17), leprosy (baras) (p 189 3:49, 5:110), dumbness (bukm) (p 204 2:18, 2:171, 6:39, 8:22, 16:76, 17:97). Among neuroses described in the Qur'an are sadness, worry and anxiety. Sadness, huzn was described in general (p. 332-333 3:139, 3:153, 9:40, 9:92, 19:24, 28:8, 29:3, 33:51, 58:10). Separation from loved ones is a cause of sadness, huzn al firaaq (p 333 12:13, 12:84, 12:86, 20:40, 28:7, 28;13). Sadness is an earthly problem since it does not exist in jannat (p 333 2:38, 2:62, 2:112, 2:262, 2:27, 2:277, 6:48, 7:35, 7:49, 10:62, 3:34, 35:34, 39:67, 41:30, 46:13). Worry and anxiety (hamm and ghamm) were also described by the Qur'an (p 1293 3:154, 12:84, 16:58, 40:18, 43:17, 68:48).
NATURE OF DISEASE
Reaction and Adjustment
A pathophysiological disturbance is normally a response to a
biological, physical, or chemical insult or injury to the body. Thus
most disease manifestations including their symptoms and signs are a
reaction to the injury and an attempt to re-adjust. Most disease
processes operate at the cellular level. The causes of cell injury
are: hypoxia, physical agents, chemical agents, infectious agents,
immunological anomalies, genetic, and nutritional disorders. Cells
respond to injury in two ways: (a) adaptation: atrophy, hypertrophy,
and hyperplasia. (b) Acute injury which could terminate in death or
could be reversed.
Benefits
In an Islamic context, disease does not always connote a negative or
bad event. There are indeed many situations when what is a disease
situation is actually beneficial. Falling ill may be Allah’s way of
forcing the person to take a desired rest or care for the body before
it can deteriorate further. Death from some diseases was said by the
Prophet to be martyrdom (shahadat). Patience in the face of severe
illness is a reason for entering paradise (jannat). The pain due to
disease is a reminder of the punishment and suffering that the
evildoers will suffer from in hell. Disease can be an opportunity for
personal redemption by expiation/atonement for previous sins (KS p.
503-504, MB#1949). The trials that one goes through and the eventual
patience can be rewarded by Allah’s forgiveness (MB#1948). Patience
with chronic disease/disability is associated with high reward for
example epilepsy (MB#1954) and loss of sight (MB#1955). Disease may
enable a person return to the due equilibrium in life. Falling sick
may at times be Allah’s blessing in disguise that a person is
incapacitated and thus is prevented from pursuits that could prove
more dangerous for him. While a person is sick and is not busy with
the routines of life he may have time to reflect and remember Allah.
Punishment
Some diseases are due to disobedience. Acts of disobedience may be
followed by epidemic disease or by disease in an individual. The
disease may be directly related to the sin such as liver cirrhosis due
to chronic alcohol consumption or there may be no direct relationship.
Disease as an Exemption from Obligations
Allah in recognition of the burden of disease and the need to give the
body a chance to recuperate excused the sick from some physical
religious obligations (2:10, 48:17, 2:184, 2:185, 2:196, 4:43, 4:102,
5:6, 9:9, 73:20).