Contents:
- Medical Video: Pediatric Metabolic Liver Disease | CIRM Spotlight on Disease
- What is metabolism?
- What is a metabolic disorder?
- What causes metabolic disorders?
- What are the types of metabolic disorders?
Medical Video: Pediatric Metabolic Liver Disease | CIRM Spotlight on Disease
Have you ever wondered how your body can move? How can the food you eat can be processed into energy that you normally use for your activities? How could your body never lack energy? All of that can happen because of something in the scientific language known as metabolism. How important is the role of metabolism for your body, right? Then, what happens if you experience a metabolic disorder?
What is metabolism?
Metabolism is a collection of chemical processes that occur in your body. This process begins with the body absorbing nutrients from the food you eat, then nutrients broken down with the help of digestive enzymes into other simpler forms that are more acceptable to the body, so that they can eventually be circulated together with blood for your daily energy source (catabolism).
But not all of these nutrients are circulated throughout the body. Some substances produced from metabolic processes are stored for energy when a time is needed. Some others are used to maintain and develop cells. Part of this process is called anabolism.
What is a metabolic disorder?
Body metabolic disorders are conditions when the metabolic process does not occur properly. The body actually produces nutrients that are excessive or lacking in the body.
Body metabolic disorders can occur in various forms, such as:
- Lack of enzymes or vitamins whose presence is needed for chemical reactions in the body
- There are chemical reactions that actually inhibit the metabolic process (abnormal)
- Abnormalities in organs that are important in metabolic processes (such as the liver, pancreas, endocrine glands etc.) and
- Lack of nutrients in the body.
What causes metabolic disorders?
Many factors can cause disruption of metabolism. The disruption of the process of working a particular organ is one of them. This condition often occurs due to a lack of a hormone or enzyme, excessive consumption of certain foods, and hereditary factors.
There are several metabolic disorders that occur due to inherited gene mutations. This is supported by the National Institutes of Health which say that there are certain ethnic genes that can trigger congenital metabolic abnormalities, such as sickle cell anemia in African descent and cystic fibrosis in Northern European ancestry.
What are the types of metabolic disorders?
Diabetes is one of the most common types of metabolic disorders, which consist of type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes. Diabetes can trigger a lack of insulin levels in the body and eventually trigger disorders of the kidneys, vision, heart and blood vessels.
Besides diabetes, congenital metabolic disorders are the most common type of metabolic disorders, including:
1. Gaucher's disease. Conditions in which the body cannot break certain types of fat until it finally collects in the liver, spleen and spinal cord.
2. Glucose and galactose malabsorption. Conditions in which there is an error in the transport of glucose and galactose through the abdominal wall which actually causes severe diarrhea and dehydration. Symptoms that appear can be controlled by reducing the consumption of foods containing lactose, sucrose, and glucose.
3. Hemochromatosis inherited. Conditions in which the body stores excessive iron in several organs and actually causes liver cancer, liver cirrhosis, diabetes and heart failure.
4. Maple syrup urine disease. This condition interferes with the metabolic process with the presence of certain amino acids which cause more rapid degeneration of neuron cells, and can cause infant death even in the first few months of life.
5. Phenylketonuria, which can cause the body's inability to produce enzymes, mental retardation, organ damage and unusual posture. This disorder can be treated by limiting the consumption of certain types of protein.
Body metabolic disorders are complex disorders but are rarely discussed, so they still need a lot of further research.
