Lifestyle diseases result due to lack of physical activity and unhealthy diet. Lifestyle diseases are significantly affecting the younger population. Let’s take a look at the most common lifestyle diseases in India.
Obesity
One of the biggest lifestyle diseases that are seen commonly in India is obesity. This normally happens when people eat a lot more food than they should and when their eating habits are not healthy as well. Quite often reduction in physical activities can lead to one becoming obese as well. A person who has more weight than what he should can experience severe issues such as problems in breathing, increased chance of heart attack, high blood pressure, and diabetes to name a few. National Family Health Survey (NFHS) has suggested that India is right now second in the world with 155 million obese citizens.
Type II diabetes
As has been said already obesity can also lead to problems such as type II diabetes. This one is the form of high blood sugar where the patient does not depend on insulin – the insulin is already produced in one’s body but it becomes unable to use it for some reason or the other. Normally this disease develops among adults. According to International Diabetes Federation, India has the largest amount of patients of Type II diabetes. The number has been pegged at around 40.9 million people. The best ways to manage diabetes are to limit the causes that can lead to such a disease such as diabetes, lack of physical activity in one’s life, and smoking.
Heart diseases
Any abnormality that affects your blood vessel walls and heart muscles can be called a heart disease. It is basically a situation where the aforementioned organs do not function normally. The main reasons for heart diseases among Indians are smoking, drinking excessive amounts of alcohol, eating lots of junk food that leads to high levels of cholesterol and triglycerides, and diabetes. With 50 million people India ranks at number one in the world as far as number of people suffering from heart diseases in a country is concerned. In fact, heart diseases are said to be the biggest killers in India if World Health Organization (WHO) is to be believed.
High blood pressure
Under normal circumstances your blood pressure should read below 140/90 – the ideal figure is said to be 120/80. If it is that figure or anywhere higher than that it is called high blood pressure. It can happen due to a wide variety of reasons such as increasing levels of stress in one’s life, eating too much salt in one’s food, obesity, genetic issues, and ageing. Quite often high blood pressure can also lead to obesity and diabetes. Doctors and health experts have these days come up with a diet named DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) in order to help prevent the occurrence of this condition among people.
Cancer
Cancer kills thousands of people in India every year. There is still some controversy as far as the causes of this killer disease are concerned. As per some theories genetic conditions are the main reason as to why people suffer from such a disease. However, studies have shown that unhealthy eating habits and smoking are supposed to be the main reasons for cancer. At least they are known to increase the chances of one suffering from this disease. There are various kinds of cancer but the commonest ones are lung, skin, and breast cancer. Lung cancer happens because of too much smoking.
