Urban Lifestyle choices coupled with different factors lead to obesity, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer. We have imbibed all of the stated lifestyles as a fashion statement. Smoking, alcoholism, less of physical activities, poor dietary habits are considered as key contributors to such chronic diseases.
Diseases like diabetes and stress disorder are most common amongst all lifestyle diseases today. According to International Diabetes Federation, India has witnessed about 72,946,400 diabetes cases in 2017. By the year 2025, it is estimated that three-quarters of the world’s 300 million adults with diabetes will be in non-industrialized countries and almost a third in India and China reports NCBI.
The study, led by researchers at Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, found that “the rates of diabetes and hypertension are high among middle-aged and elderly people across all geographic measures and socio-demographic groups in India.” These two lifestyle diseases are likely to increase as the population tends to Urbanise. Looking at the statistics we can see that the prevalence of diabetes is gender neutral and it is 6.1% for women and 6.5% for men and hypertension trends are higher in men i.e. 25% than 20% amongst women.
The substantial causes for projected growth of two diseases can be:
- Weather and Climate Change:
The micro climatic conditions of Indian cities have been declining. Seven of the world’s 10 worst polluted cities are in India, a study has revealed. PM 2.5 which is considered as a dominant pollutant in most major Indian cities, has an associational relation with increased risk of diabetes finds a study in 2016 on Global health. PM 2.5 is widely studied air pollutant which is also associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease, pulmonary disease, kidney disease, and other non-communicable diseases. The study shows a remarkable consistency between the PM 2.5 pollution and the risk of diabetes. The estimates through the research showed that about 3.3 million cases of diabetes and 8.2 million deaths due to diabetes were attributable to the increased concentration of PM 2.5. A report by Reuters showed that, “Breathing dirty air causes stress hormones to spike” this shows that components of Air has a correlation to the stress amongst the city dwellers.
- Work Place Issues:
There is a deep inter-linkage between work place issues and lifestyle disorder like hypertension and diabetes. There’s no doubt that work gives us stress. Problems in work place can sometimes cause prolonged depression. Too much pressure and competition and spending irregular hours in work can be a probable cause but these are further accentuated by lack of sleep and bad nutrition as well. These combined together leads to diabetes amongst the middle aged men. Hypertension or prolonged stress in work can also lead to diabetes in long run.
- Pregnancy:
The lifestyle disorders like Diabetes and stress, affect the most when one plans to conceive. Feeling stressed during pregnancy is quite common, but too much stress can result into severe problems like troubled sleeping, prolonged headache and loss of appetite etc. If the high level stress continues for a long period of time may lead to heart diseases and high blood pressure. Stress also increases the chances of having a premature baby or a low weight baby and also it may affect the health of the babies as well. Similarly, diabetes has its own concern. Women who are diabetic and plans to conceive should try to get the blood sugar levels balanced. High blood sugar, can harm the baby during the first weeks of pregnancy also there are greater chances of developing preeclampsia which can be life threatening for the baby. Long term diabetes problems during the pregnancy can lead to eye problems, kidney diseases as well.
When we evaluate every such lifestyle disorder the key to this is, healing the body through natural processes. Meditation, Ayurveda and Natural medicines can come to rescue. The use of allopathic can treat the body to some extent by making choices towards healing it is needed. Natural remedies like plant-based products and diet can help in cultivating healthy habits amongst people and provide a healthy lifestyle.
By RAJAT TREHAN Clinical Nutritionist,Health, Wellness and Fitness.
";
