Lifestyle Diseases That Can Affect Your Family – For a disease-free life in old age, adopt healthy life-long habits. Most lifestyle diseases can be genetic but by taking care from a young age, you can easily avoid it and stay healthy till old age.
Lifestyle disorders are diseases caused due to changes in the lifestyle that lead to some cellular damage, affecting the metabolism, hormonal balance and well-being of an individual. It can start as early as in the teenage years and progress to complications in early adulthood and old age. One must start to look out for the signs and symptoms as early as in childhood, during puberty and early adulthood. Various lifestyle-related disease include obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, fatty liver, heart diseases, cancer, musculoskeletal disease, mood disorder.
Some lifestyle habits like over-eating, sedentary lifestyle, excessive consumption of fats and processed food, lack of exercise, smoking and binge alcoholism are common causes of such chronic diseases. It must be noted here that most diseases like obesity, diabetes, heart disease can be genetic and run in several generations predominantly, irrespective of the lifestyle habits. But even then, many of the chronic diseases like obesity and diabetes can be prevented if one follows a healthy lifestyle including exercise and diet.
Here are the diseases you need to be careful of.
Heart disease
The most alarming lifestyle disease is heart disease. Risk factors that are controllable to prevent heart disease are sedentary lifestyle, obesity, high blood pressure, stress, high cholesterol , smoking and alcohol intake. Some unmodifiable risk factor include, genetic predominance, sex (males are affected more than females).
Cancer
Cancer too is now attributed to lifestyle just like obesity. Several studies in the USA have concluded that teenage kids who are obese have higher chances of developing cancers related to pancreas and intestines in later stages of life. Exposure to smoking (active and passive), excessive alcohol intake are other causes of cancer related to lifestyle.
Type 2 diabetes
Type 2 diabetes, as the disease spreads like a wildfire, not only elderly, but even young adults are affected. Type 2 diabetes can be genetic, or develop secondary to obesity, stressful or sedentary lifestyle. However, diagnosis and treatment in time can delay its onset.
Mood disorders
Several mood disorders like depression and anxiety are on the rise in obese population, which increased during the pandemic. Studies suggest that exercise routine, yoga and meditation has helped many in reversing such acute onset mood disorders.
Prevention tips for you
Many diet supplements and exercise trends have surfaced in the past years. However, everyone cannot implement the same approach towards a healthy lifestyle. Adolescent patients, women, elderly all need lifestyle modifications as per their age and comorbidities.
Hence, an evaluation and check-up is needed from the doctor to make sure that such disease can be prevented or controlled. As it can affect anyone in your family, you must be aware of its consequences and make the required changes early. Here are a few easy tips for you.
- Follow a plant-based diet with leafy greens, fruits, nuts and seeds
- Work out for at least 30 minutes a day
- Sleep for 6-8 hours every day. This is important
- Reduce stress.
