Session3: The Burden of Lifestyle-Related Diseases
THE BURDEN OF LIFESTYLE-RELATED DISEASES
Lifestyle diseases, like heart disease, stroke, diabetes, obesity, metabolic syndrome, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and some types of cancer, have risk factors that are similar to long-term exposure to smoking, an unhealthy diet, and not being physically active. Lifestyle diseases are caused by long-term exposure to these three modifiable lifestyle behaviors.
These illnesses used to be called "Western diseases" or "diseases of affluence." Now, they are known worldwide as "non-communicable and chronic diseases" that belong to the group of "degenerative diseases." Chronic diseases can cause people to lose their freedom, be disabled for years, or even die, and they cost a lot of money to treat.
Chronic diseases are a big public health problem around the world right now. In 2005, the World Health Organization (WHO) said that chronic illnesses were responsible for 61% of all deaths, or 35 million, and 49% of the total number of sick people around the world. By 2030, 70% of all deaths around the world will be caused by chronic diseases, and 56% of the worldwide burden of disease will be caused by diseases. Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean are expected to have the most growth.
In the year 2000, the World Health Assembly passed a resolution about how to avoid and treat chronic diseases. It asked its Member States to make national policy frameworks that include both healthy public policies and economic and taxation measures for goods and services that are healthy and unhealthy. The resolution also asked for programs to prevent and control chronic diseases, to measure and keep track of death rates and the number of sick people in an area who are sick because of chronic diseases, to promote effective secondary and tertiary prevention, and to come up with guidelines for screening, diagnosing, and treating chronic diseases in developing countries that are cost-effective.
Combining four healthy lifestyle habits—keeping a healthy weight, exercising regularly, eating a healthy diet, and not smoking -- seems to lower the chance of getting the most common and deadly chronic diseases by as much as 80%. This backs up the current public health advice to live a healthy lifestyle. Because the roots of these habits often start when a person is young, it is particularly important to start teaching important lessons about healthy living at a young age.
Even though the benefits of healthy living are well known, only a small number of adults live this way, and the number is going down. People aren't very aware of the link between health and culture, which is unfortunate. Many people don't know that a change in living is a big reason why more people are getting chronic diseases and dying from them. Lifestyle is usually seen as a private matter. Lifestyles, on the other hand, are social habits and ways of life that people choose for themselves and that reflect their personal, group, and socioeconomic identities.
Small but doable changes to how people live their lives are likely to have a big effect on both the individual and the community level. Health experts and the media now tell people over and over again that they need to do healthy things to stay healthy. Heart disease, cancer, and dying too soon are less likely to happen if you exercise, stop smoking, eat a high-fiber, low-fat diet, keep your weight in check, and learn how to deal with stress.
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