Bad food habits such as eating a lot of junk food and an unhealthy lifestyle may lead to several lifestyle diseases. Common lifestyle diseases are obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, anemia and various heart diseases.
Obesity or excessive weight gain is increasingly becoming a common problem among children and adults. Weight gain occurs due to eating large amounts of junk food and also because of lack of physical exercise. People start gaining weight if they regularly eat junk food or mostly staying indoors doing activities that do not involve much physical effort. Over a period of time, this lead to excessive weight gain or obesity.
First sign of obesity is an unhealthy weight gain. The excess fat from the junk food gets stored in the body causing an increase in weight. Fat around the waist is considered very bad. It may lead to heart diseases. Tiredness and lack of energy are the signs of obesity and poor health. People suffering from obesity become slow in all activities and get tired very easily.
High blood pressure is another common lifestyle disease. Although it was seen mostly in adults earlier, it has now also started affecting children. The main causes of high blood pressure are lack of physical exercise, stress and anxiety and even eating food rich in salt and fats. Hypertension is a dangerous disease as it may lead to several heart diseases.
Usually, there are no clear symptoms of high blood pressure. In few people, it may cause heaviness and dizziness in head. It may also cause breathlessness or excessive sweating on slight physical activities.
Diabetes is a major lifestyle disease in India. Millions of people in India are affected by diabetes. Obesity, lack of exercise and stress are thought to be major causes of diabetes.
Patients suffering from diabetes suffer from excess thirst, excess hunger and excess passing of urine. They also suffer from urinary, skin and lung infections. In some people diabetes may also lead to high blood pressure, tuberculosis and heart diseases.
Earlier Anaemia was caused in people who did not get enough food to eat, it is not increasingly seen in children and adults who appear healthy. This is because they eat food that do not contain important nutrients, especially iron. Eating junk food rich in sugar, salt, fats and avoiding healthy food rich in iron may also lead to Anaemia.
Anaemia may cause tiredness, lack of energy, loss of appetite, pale skin and breathlessness. Anaemia may also lower the body’s ability to fight infections and disease causing organisms.
Prevention of lifestyle diseases:-
- Eat a balanced diet that contains important nutrients. Include fresh fruits and green vegetables in the diet. Avoid eating junk food.
- Exercise regularly. Practice yoga under the guidance of an expert or yoga teacher. Also, spend time outdoors and do activities such as walking, running, swimming and cycling. Playing games such as cricket, football, badminton and tennis.
- Avoid spending too much time indoors.
- Set a healthy sleeping routine for everyday. Drink atleast 8 glasses of water everyday.
- Avoid sitting or lying down for long periods of time. Be active.
