• Question: why do we get sick ?

    Asked by chloe97xox to Amy, Drew, Julia, Kimberley, Sara on 21 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by eviej26.
    • Photo: Amy MacQueen

      Amy MacQueen answered on 10 Jun 2011:

      Hey Chloe!

      Thanks so much for your question! There are lots of different reasons why people get sick – but they can all be split into 2 basic sorts of diseases – infectious and non-infectious.

      Infectious diseases are caused by bad guys such as bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites. They can enter our bodies through the air we breathe, the stuff we eat and through cuts in our skin. So if I have a cold I might cough on my hand and then touch the door and the germs that I leave on the door will pass to you when you touch the door and could make you get the cold too (this is why washing our hands is so important!!).

      Now, we have an immune system in our body that fights most of these invaders and stops us getting sick ALL THE TIME…but sometimes the bugs come in such numbers, or so quickly and cunningly, that they have the upper hand for a while and get us ill – but usually after a few days our immune system kicks in hard and beats them!

      The other type is non-infectious diseases which aren’t spread from person to person and are more to do with your genetic make-up (that’s the DNA you inherit from your parents), the environment (where you live) and your lifestyle (the things you do). These are things like heart problems which you can get when you don’t excercise a lot and eat badly, and skin cancer which you can get from spending too long in the sun with no suncream on!

      Hope that helps! If you have any more questions – or if you don’t think I answered it well enough please let me know!

      Have a brilliant day Chloe!

      😀

    • Photo: Sara Imari Walker

      Sara Imari Walker answered on 21 Jun 2011:

      Hello chloe and evie! Sorry to not get to your question earlier! It looks like you’ve asked it a while ago but I don’t recall seeing it in my inbox here =/

      In any case, great question! To add to what Amy has said, there are a few reasons why we get sick. Much illness is caused by infectious agents as Amy has mentioned. Things such as viruses, bacteria, and fungi. These cause disease by competing with our own bodies’ cells for resources we produce. In some cases they even feed on and destroy our own cells! This can make us feel very sick. That’s why our immune system is so important. It can recognize these foreign agents and try to expel them from our boides.

      The other kinds of illness Amy mentioned, non-infectious disease, like cancer, genetic disorders, heart problems etc. occur when things go wrong in our bodies. For example, cancer is caused by our own cells going rogue. They start to act more like an infecting bacteria than one of our own cells! But, because cancer cells are our own cells they are harder to recognize as being dangerous and our immune system doesn’t try to fight them off. Our bodies are extremely complex! Its amazing that they go wrong so infrequently. When they do however it can make us pretty sick.

      Cool question! Keep asking!!

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