NON-COMMUNICABLE DISEASES……….what puts you at risk

Yesterday, 8th July was National physical activity day in my country, Uganda. Physical activities happen to be one of the preventive measures of the different non-communicable diseases. And having volunteered for a project that creates awareness about NCDs for over a year now, I felt it necessary for me to share something with you my lovely people.

Medical students at the National Physical activity day yesterday

Non-communicable diseases are chronic diseases that are not infectious and cannot be transmitted from one person to another. They are silent killer diseases with more than 36 million deaths globally per year (about 63% global deaths). Most of these diseases are common in developing countries, and the good news is that they can be prevented to a large extent. These diseases have no cure, and they start developing at a young age until they manifest, usually in old age.

These diseases are caused by random genetic abnormalities, hereditary, lifestyle or environmental causes. Examples of these diseases include cancer, diabetes, hypertension, osteoporosis, autoimmune diseases, fractures, mental disorders, poisoning, hormonal conditions, malnutrition.

Well for this post, I will focus more on the NCDs which occur due to lifestyle causes. Because these diseases are within our control as individuals, and this control is through lifestyle modification. These main 4 diseases are diabetes (high blood sugar), chronic lung diseases e.g. asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), cancer, diseases of the heart and blood vessels e.g. high blood pressure and heart attacks
Although each disease has its own specific cause, there are 4 main shared risk factors which predispose us to non-communicable diseases and they include;

1.Tobacco
Tobacco smoking is one of the greatest preventable risk factors for NCDs killing more than 15,000 people a day and account for 1 in 6 deaths from NCDs. Remember than even a passive smoker is equally affected. And smoking is associated with lung cancer, COPD,

2.Alcohol
Controlled alcohol consumption may be protective to your cardiovascular system, however heavy and uncontrolled alcohol consumption can predispose to mouth and throat cancer, laryngeal cancer, esophageal cancer, breast cancer in women, liver cancer and bowel cancer, also elevated blood pressure which can predispose to stroke.

3. No/ insufficient physical activity
The extent of physical activity may be different according to age, nutrition status, pregnancy, and other factors. Physical activity helps to keep our bodies fit, to burn fat and prevent obesity or being overweight. Being Overweight predisposes us to diabetes, high blood pressure. Insufficient physical activity also predisposes us to certain cancers.

4.Unhealthy diets
The unfortunate bitter truth is that these are some of the most delicious and fancy meals on the planet and they are usually readily available. Examples include oily foods, carbonated drinks, high sugar diet. All these predispose us to obesity.

Once we know the risk factors, then we know how to work our way around preventive mechanisms. Speaking of which am heading out for my morning rope skipping before having my additive-sugar free breakfast.
SoI will be sharing with you about the different specific NCDs, one by one

Welcome to a healthy world😀