Bi6871 Health Risks

Faculty of Science
Spring 2009
Extent and Intensity
2/0/0. 2 credit(s) (plus extra credits for completion). Type of Completion: graded credit.
Teacher(s)
prof. RNDr. Jiřina Hofmanová, CSc. (lecturer)
prof. RNDr. Alois Kozubík, CSc. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
prof. RNDr. Alois Kozubík, CSc.
Department of Experimental Biology – Biology Section – Faculty of Science
Contact Person: prof. RNDr. Jiřina Hofmanová, CSc.
Timetable
Tue 15:00–16:50 BFU
Prerequisites
Connected with lectures of Physiology of cell systems and Genotoxicity and carcinogenesis
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
The course gives an overview of the most harmful environmental factors and their impacts on human health including possibilities of disease prevention. Attention is aimed to specific dietary factors (especially of lipid character) and their association with etiology of some serious so-called civilisation diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer, allergies or stress. The organism is viewed as a hierarchical system and the basic processes that are necessary for maintaining of homeostasis are described.
Main objectives can be summarized as follows:
to gain basic knowledge of environmental factors (especially dietary)influencing human health and of possibilities of disease prevention; to aquaint with recent results of epidemiologic and scientific studies of given topic; to learn ability to elaborate and present assigned topic
Syllabus
  • Causes of initiation and promotion of civilization diseases - genetic predisposition, life style. Type of studies (epidemiological, clinical, and experimental studies, population screning ), occurence of cancer (in the Czech Republic, in the world).
  • Carcinogenesis - main cancer promotion factors, genetic and non-genetic factors, endogenous factors - the role of hormones.
  • Carcinogenesis and life style (smoking, diet, physical activities).
  • Harmful environmental factors - radiation (ionizing, non-ionizing), chemicals and xenobiotics (heavy metals, aromatic hydrocarbons, PCBs, dioxins, pesticides, drugs etc.).
  • Diet - energy balance, effects of high-glycide nad high-fat diets, specific dietary lipids - butyrate, essential fatty acids.
  • Chemoprevention - risk assesment, targets for decrease of risk and mortality , anticancer factors.
  • Prevention, diagnostics and treatment of cancer.
  • Experimental, epidemiologic and clinical studies, population screening, diagnostic markers.
  • Therapy - surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, immunotherapy.
  • Predictive oncology - detection of specific markers, comparison of methods and interpretation of measured parameters, data management and data interpretation - significance of multidimensional statistical analyses, predictive markers.
  • Homeostasis, health and disease - basic terms, short introduction to the theory of systems.
  • Negative and positive feedback - significance for homeostasis, homeostasis on the cell, tissue and system levels.
  • Organism as hierarchic system, cooperation of nervous, endocrine and humoral systems.
  • Causes of cardiovascular diseases.
  • Causes of allergy and inflammation.
  • Stress - causes and consequences.
  • Prevention of functional damage and diseases vs. therapeutic possibilities.
Literature
  • Food and Health in Europe: a new basis for action, WHO Regional Publications European Series, No. 96, 2006
  • Wilhelm Z. a kol., Výživa v onkologii, Brno 2004
  • FOŘT, Petr. Co jíme a pijeme? : výživa pro 3. tisícitletí. 1. vyd. Praha: Olympia, 2003, 246 s. ISBN 8070338148. info
  • Jak vzdorovat rakovině. Edited by Olga Dostálová. [1. vyd.]. Praha: Grada-Avicenum, 1993, 205 s. ISBN 80-7169-040-6. info
  • Free radicals, aging, and degenerative diseases (Eds. J. E. Johnson, Jr., R. Walford, D. Harman, J. Miquel), Alan. R. Liss, Inc., New York 1986
  • + speciální rewiev a separáty
Assessment methods
Lectures, elaboration of specific topic and one's own presentation, class discussion. Presentation of assigned topic, final written test
Language of instruction
Czech
Follow-Up Courses
Further Comments
Study Materials
The course is taught annually.
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2008 - for the purpose of the accreditation, Spring 2011 - only for the accreditation, Spring 2003, Spring 2004, Spring 2005, Spring 2006, Spring 2007, Spring 2008, Spring 2010, Spring 2011, Spring 2012, spring 2012 - acreditation, Spring 2013, Spring 2014, Spring 2015, Spring 2016, spring 2018, Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2021, Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2024, Spring 2025.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Spring 2009, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/sci/spring2009/Bi6871