Health Variations | Assignment

Running head: HEALTH VARIATIONS
Health Variations
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

HEALTH VARIATIONS1
Answer 1:
The structural and functional changes in the disease process that
led to Jordan’s weight loss
Crohn’s disease is an IBD (Inflammatory Bowel Disease). It causes inflammation in
the digestive tract of the patients that can further lead of severe abdominal pain, weight loss,
bleeding from ulcers, malnutrition, fatigue and diarrhoea. According to Hillman (2017), it
mostly occurs in the colon and small intestine. However, it is to mention that weight loss is
quite common among the patients who suffer from Crohn’s disease and this is due to
malnutrition. Because of the issue of malnutrition in the patient’s body, there is absence of
sustainable calories for meeting the need of the patients (Gerrish et al., 2016). With the
same, Nurjali and Wildbore (2019) in this context have also claimed that malnutrition lead to
decrease in appetite for water and food. In terms of structural changes in the disease process,
it is to mention that it is basically a result of hormone changes and inflammation within the
patient’s body. The ghrelin and leptin hormones are strongly affected within patients
suffering from Crohn’s disease and for this reason, patients fails to feel hungry. Bleeding
from ulcers are also caused that form adhesion that causing stricture which is
causing bowel obstructions in the terminal ileum (Marwah et al., 2016).
Furthermore, all these changes promote the malnutrition, causing only the macromolecules of
the body like the proteins and fats to be broken down for providing energy, and finally result
in weight loss (Mazal, 2014). This is what Jordan is facing in the case study. With the same,
it is also to note that the increased signals of inflammatory within the patients are caused
because of the fact that the disease implies negative nutritional status that eventually led to
loss in weight (Newcombe et al., 2018).

HEALTH VARIATIONS2
However, in terms of functional changes in the disease process, it is to mention that
the problem of mal-absorption is very common among the patients with Crohn’s disease
(McCullough & Heaney, 2017). Mal-absorption is when the small intestine fails to absorb the
nutrients in proper manner (McCullough & Heaney, 2017). It is basically caused because of
the tendency of inflammations within the intestines of patient’s body. Some of the important
nutrients such as the sugars, minerals, vitamins, fats and proteins are deficient in the patient’s
body (Mazal, 2014). Deficient of these nutrients lead the body to use only the stored
nutrients in the production of energy (Mazal, 2014). These further accompany by severe
blood loss and diarrhoea and ultimately results in weight loss (Sokulmez et al., 2014).
Answer 2:
The pain pathway and how Morphine alters the conscious
perception of pain
It is to note that the pain pathway comprise of four processes- transduction,
transmission, modulation and perception (Bullock & Manias, 2017). Transduction is all about
the processes through which the tissue damaging stimuli in the body activate the nerve
endings (Hao et al., 2015). Transmission on the other hand refers to the relay functions
through which messages are carried from the tissue injury site to the different regions of
brand underlying perception INTEXT. Modulation is a newly discovered process, which
reduced the activity in the transmission system. Lastly, perception refers to the subjective
awareness that is produced by the sensory signals and it involves the integration of several
sensory messages into meaningful and coherent whole INTEXT. It is also to mention that
perception is a very complicated function that uses many processes like interpretation,
attention and expectation INTEXT.