Preventing Lifestyle Disease.
Lifestyle disease, also known as Non-communicable disease NCD or chronic disease are health conditions that develop over time, largely due to a combination of Lifestyle Choices and other factors.
What is a Lifestyle disease?
These are medical conditions that are not transmitted from one person to another.
They are generally characterized by their long duration and slow progression.
How Non-communicable diseases differ from communicable diseases.
NCDs differ from CDs in different ways.
They include:
1. Cause
NCDs are not caused by infectious agents. They're results of genetics, lifestyle choices, and environmental factors.
Such as poor diet, lack of exercise, and smoking.
2. Transmission
NCDs are not contagious.
You cannot be transmitted from one person to another.
While CDs are contagious and spread through air, water, contact, or bodily fluids.
3. Duration
While CDs can be chronic or acute, but are often shorter in duration.
E.g., colds, malaria.
4. Prevention
NCDs are preventable by lifestyle changes such as healthy eating, exercise, and ceasing smoking.
While CDs are preventable by conducting vaccination, sanitation, and hygiene.
Examples of NCDs
2. Cancers.
These include chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma.
4. Diabetes.
This includes depression and anxiety.
7. Osteoporosis
8. Obesity-related conditions
Major causes and risk factors
Poor diet and physical activity
Poor dieting entails consistently eating unhealthy foods.
Frequent consumption of foods high in sugar, salt, unhealthy fats, and processed ingredients can lead to obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and insulin resistance.
Hence, over time, these conditions may develop into type 2 diabetes, heart disease and certain cancers.
Additionally, a diet low in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean proteins also robs the body of important nutrients essential for long-term health.
Lack of Physical Activity.
The heart is weakened by a lack of activity.
Even the muscles and metabolism are affected.
When we don’t move enough, fewer calories are burned by the body, leading to fat buildup, hence weight gain.
The risk of high blood pressure, poor blood sugar control, and weak bones is also increased.
Over time, this raises the risk of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, osteoporosis, and even some mental health disorders are also increased.
Together, poor nutrition and inactivity set the stage for most chronic lifestyle diseases, which often develop silently over time.
Tobacco and Alcohol Use
Excessive intake of both tobacco and alcohol use is are major risk factor for non-communicable diseases (NCDs), and their effects on the body are usually long-term and severe.
Smoking and chewing tobacco introduce harmful chemicals into the body.
It's known to damage the lungs and heart, increase blood pressure, and reduce oxygen supply.
Long-term usage is directly linked to diseases like lung cancer, chronic respiratory diseases, stroke, and heart disease.
Tobacco is so dangerous that even secondhand smoke puts others at risk.
Concerning alcohol, heavy or frequent use can cause harm to the liver, heart, and brain.
It increases the risk of liver cirrhosis, high blood pressure, some cancers and mental health disorders.
Apart from these resulting illnesses, too much intake of alcohol can contribute to poor decision-making and unhealthy lifestyle habits.
Environmental and genetic factors
Lifestyle choices aren't the only cause of NCDs.
The environment and individual genes can also play a major role.
Your environment, such as where you live and work, can greatly affect your health.
Factors like pollution, absence of clean water, exposure to harmful chemicals, poor sanitation and poor access to healthcare can all increase the risk of NCDs.
A clear example is the instance of how living in a polluted area may increase your risk of heart disease or asthma.
Considering genetics, sometimes, NCDs run in families.
Individuals may inherit a higher risk for diseases like diabetes, hypertension, or certain types of cancer from their family members with a family history of those diseases.
Family history and genetics don't guarantee the existence of the disease, but it does increase the chances and risks, especially if combined with poor lifestyle habits.
The global impact of NCDs
Economic strain and health systems
NCDs place a heavy burden on both health systems and national economies.
NCDs like diabetes, heart disease, and cancer require long-term care, regular medication, and frequent visits to the doctor.
This frequent visit and the need for continual need for health care puts pressure on hospitals and healthcare workers.
In situations like this, resources meant for emergencies or infectious disease outbreaks or pandemics are often exalted in managing chronic conditions.
The economic stand is not spared as NCDs reduce work productivity due to frequent illness or early death of workers.
Families of affected persons spend a lot of money on treatment, sometimes dragging them into poverty.
The governments of middle-income and developing countries also face higher healthcare costs, leading to insufficient funds and resources for other sectors like infrastructure and education.
Burden on families and communities
Another heavy blow is seen in families and communities.
First off, the heavy cost of long-term treatment drains household income, leading to stress on money acquisition, budgeting and other expenses in the family.
This stress often takes an emotional toll on the family members, coupled with the emotional drench that comes with caring for a sick loved one.
Taking care of a sick family member doesn't only cause an emotional wreck, it also consumes time and hinders productivity, leading to unattended responsibilities.
Hence, the children and younger members of the family are forced to take up the responsibilities of unavailable adults and guardians, leading to strain in relationships a, nd most times, social isolation.
Global trends and statistics
With growing cases of NCD, obesity rates have nearly tripled since 1975.
Also, the number of people suffering from diabetes rose from 108 million in 1980 to 422 million in 2014.
Tobacco alone kills more than 8 million people each year. Alongside cancer, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes, which have claimed 9.3 million, 17.9 million and 2 million lives respectively.
Premature deaths are skyrocketing as over 17 million people die from NCDs before the age of 70. 1 in 4 adults do not meet the global recommendation levels in physical activities.
All these and more lead to NCDs accounting for 74% of all global deaths and soon could cost over $47 trillion by 2030 due to treatment, productivity loss, and long-term care needs.
Prevention and management
Lifestyle Modifications
NCDs can be prevented and managed through lifestyle modifications.
Here, a healthy diet comes into play.
Frequent consumption of fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains and protein can help boost resistance as well as reduce intake of trans-fat, salt, sugar and processed foods.
A healthy diet alongside regular physical activities trumps the prevention measures as it improves stress and bodyweight management.
Exercise like swimming, cycling, brisk walking and dancing are the game changers here.
But it is important to bear in mind that these healthy diets and physical activities hold little to no ground when heavy alcohol and tobacco consumption have not been ruled out.
In all, regular screening and tests are advised to keep the body state in full awareness, also adequate rest and sleep are advised to therefore heighten overall welfare.
Public Awareness and Education
This entails helping the general public understand the risks of NCD by recognizing the lifestyle habits that lead to these diseases.
This can be done through public campaigns, health education in schools, workshops, wellness events, fitness challenges, social media and growing technologies.
Once the public understands the risk causes, NCD can be combated, and therefore myths and misconceptions busted.
Government policy and intervention
This is inarguably one of the strongest tools in combating Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs).
Governments, through public health regulations, can regulate unhealthy products by enforcing clear food labelling for processed foods and products.
Also, bans on smoking in public places, higher taxes on alcohol, tobacco and sugary drinks can reduce the rate of these diseases.
An important course of action is the availability of affordable Healthcare and frequent surveillance for efficient feedback.
Well-thought-out policies that ensure free or affordable screening and tests should be passed and maintained in order to be able to detect and treat NCDs early.
Challenges in combating NCDs
As far as combating NCDs goes, some challenges hinder bringing these diseases to a standstill.
Low awareness in low-income countries.
Standing as the major barrier in breaking the chain and fighting against NCDs, low awareness entails limited health education.
When people are unaware of diseases like diabetes or cancer, NCDs cannot be prevented or managed.
This poor access to information leaves communities drowned in pathetic cultural beliefs and misinformation, thereby associating NCDs with fate or spiritual causes rather than the true cause.
Inadequate access to healthcare
Inadequate access to healthcare stands as one of the challenges in many low- and middle-income and developing countries.
When access to healthcare is inadequate, it acts as a major obstacle in preventing and managing NCDs.
Conclusion
NCDs become hard to prevent and manage when adequate healthcare is inaccessible, especially in low-income areas.
Several communities are faced with limited health facilities, a lack of specialists, high treatment costs, and poor access to medication.
Strengthening healthcare systems, creating and implementing policies, advocating for health education and encouraging healthy lifestyles are the keys to combating and ending NCDs effectively.