Are Diet And Exercise Good Enough To Reverse Lifestyle Diseases?

Are Diet And Exercise Good Enough?

Sitting for long periods and other sedentary lifestyles are contributing to several diseases like diabetes, heart ailments, etc. Know if it is possible to reverse the risk by changing your lifestyle habits.

Lifestyle Diseases are developed due to the change in lifestyle habits such as the diet the person eats, the exercise and the stressful life one leads. When this change is continued for long periods of time it can develop even in the younger population.

A few decades ago, the lifestyle of people in the urban cities changed drastically, which has also affected the rural populations. The people who are in their 8th decade of life or more are the ones who had a different lifestyle. They lived in spaces that were expansive, they had to walk to reach their destinations whether it was the market or school or place of work. They carried their provisions and vegetables home and hence their resistance and aerobic exercise was part of their daily routine.

Exercise And Diet Are Important To Sustain Health And Wellness

Currently, the spaces have shrunk, due to the overuse of vehicles and the way the malls and departmental stores provide carts which can be used to easily take the items to the boot of the car, the kind and type of exercise has changed. This has led to the need to take out time for exercise every day. While we do see more people cycling, walking, or training for the marathons, the actual number of people who lead an active life with regular exercise has been estimated through research to be only two per cent of the people. The exercise prescribed is at least 30 to 45 minutes of exercise at the same time at least 6 days a week, a combination of, aerobic and resistance exercises to be done regularly. There are very few people who are able to sustain the same for years together.

Diet is the kind of food a person eats habitually. It comes down generations with a few changes. But to actually change the diet that people eat it will take two generations. The current scenario with a different type of fad diet to reduce weight is coming into vogue. Almost twenty to thirty per cent of people are overweight or obese in urban cities. Hence they are looking out for solutions to reduce weight quickly to prevent diseases related to the wrong lifestyle.

Any non-communicable disease takes many years to develop and hence to prevent it also takes some time. If one has had diabetes or heart disease for more than 5 years and has been on medication for the same it is very important to take medical help along with a dietitian and physiotherapist to improve their quality of life. If someone has had diabetes for many years and are in a state of uncontrolled diabetes, they need to take professional help to reduce weight, which could be the root cause for the problem. They cannot and should not stop taking their medicines, and follow a newer diet and exercise lifestyle. They should always take the help of all three types of professionals.

Changing Your Lifestyle At Early Stage Of The Disease May Reverse It

The recent diet such as a very low carbohydrate diet is being followed, gadgets are used to make sure they achieve the required level of ketones in their system. Then further gadgets are used to assess their blood sugar for the period of 14 days and again they are repeating the continuous monitoring of the glucose. Then the diet and medicine are adjusted by the medical fraternity. They also have gadgets to check their pulse, blood pressure and the activity that they are able to do in a 24 hour period. They have coaches who are following their health parameters and their diet and making them change their exercise and food habits to achieve their goals. They need to continue to be on such programs which such monitoring to make sure they do not get into the issues of diabetes again. The problem is these sessions are expensive and how long are people ready to follow such strict regimens. If they move off and change their diets to a different pattern and keep adding foods that are not allowed and do not measure their glucose and other parameters they can end up in a stage which is worse off than where they started. The best place where pre-diabetes or early diabetes can be reversed by the right lifestyle, but this has to be monitored regularly to check whether they have slipped back into the disease.

Early cardiac disease such as blood pressure can be controlled by reducing weight and following the right diet. Reducing a few kilos also help initially in maintaining blood pressure. But as it proceeds it is very important to work with a medical professional and the crux is maintaining the blood pressure at normal levels. If this is not maintained they can get kidney disease or stroke and many other issues. If it is early ischemic heart disease this can be maintained without worsening with exercise and diet. But as it proceeds it definitely needs medical help.

Takeaway

In the early stages, lifestyle diseases can be reversed with diet and exercise. But it needs a continuous watch to make sure that the disease does not come back. But if the disease has progressed then medication is definitely needed along with the lifestyle changes such as diet and exercise and added with de-stressing to help maintain and not move into the complications of the disease.

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