Are you Safe from NCDs?
by Lanz Arit
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Non-Communicable Diseases are diseases that are not transmissible directly from one person to another. They tend to be of long duration and result from a combination of genetic, physiological, environmental, and behavioral factors.
Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), including heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, and chronic lung disease, are responsible for almost 70% of deaths worldwide. In low- and middle-income countries, nearly three-quarters of all NCD deaths and 82% of the 16 million people died prematurely or before reaching 70 years of age.
Modifiable Risk Factors
This refer to characteristics that societies or individuals can change to improve health outcomes. The rise of Non-Communicable Diseases has been driven by primarily four modifiable risk factors:
Tobacco Use - Tobacco is a common and hazardous risk factor of many chronic non-communicable diseases, killing millions annually. Tobacco kills around 6 million people each year; that is one death roughly every six seconds. More than 5 million of those deaths result from direct tobacco use, while over 600 000 are the result of non-smokers being exposed to second-hand smoke.
It is a primary risk factor to the main NCDs; cardiovascular disease, cancer, and chronic respiratory disease.
2. Physical Inactivity - Physical activity leads to increased physical fitness, exercise capacity, and risk reduction of a wide variety of pathological diseases and clinical disorders, resulting in lower rates of morbidity, all-cause, and cause-specific mortality, and increased life expectancy. Thus, physical inactivity increases the risk of coronary heart and cerebrovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension, several cancers (e.g., lung, prostate, breast, colon, others), osteoporosis/fractures, and dementia. Physical inactivity is the fourth most significant risk factor for poor health in the UK, exceeded by smoking, high blood pressure, and a high body mass index (BMI).
3. Harmful Use of Alcohol - The harmful use of alcohol leads to 3.3 million preventable deaths throughout the world annually. Along with tobacco, diet, and lack of exercise, alcohol is one of four major common risk factors for NCDs. Despite this, alcohol is still widely consumed in ways and volumes that are particularly hazardous. It is a causal factor in more than 200 disease and injury conditions, including liver disease, cancers, cardiovascular disease, mental illness, and injuries.
4. Unhealthy Diet - Foods, diets, and nutritional status are important determinants of noncommunicable diseases. What we eat and our nutritional status can affect cardiovascular diseases, some types of cancer, and diabetes. Foods, diet, and nutritional status, including overweight and obesity, are also associated with elevated blood pressure and blood cholesterol and resistance to the action of insulin. These conditions are not only risk factors for NCDs but significant causes of illness themselves.
Non-Modifiable Risk Factors are:
Age - According to American Heart Association computations, about 80 percent of people who die from cardiovascular disease are 65 years and older. Age itself increases your risk of developing heart disease.
Gender - Heart disease has long been considered to be primarily a men's disease. Although women tend to develop cardiovascular disease about ten years later in life than men, the outcome for women is often worse.
Family History - Our risk for developing heart disease increases if you have a relative who developed heart disease early, before age 55. If your parents developed heart disease later in life, it might be age-related rather than genetic. While you cannot change your genes, knowing your family medical history and sharing it with your doctor is essential.
Race - African-Americans are at significant risk of developing cardiovascular disease.
Preventing and Controlling Non-Communicable Diseases
Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) impose a significant burden on health and development in the World. NCDs are the leading causes of death and disability in all parts of the Globe. WHO supports the Member States in the prevention and control of NCDs to:
Raise priority accorded to NCDs through international cooperation and advocacy.
Strengthen national capacity, governance, multisectoral action, and partnerships.
Reduce the significant modifiable risk factors, such as tobacco use, harmful use of alcohol, unhealthy diets, and physical inactivity.
Develop and implement effective legal frameworks.
Orient health systems through people-centered health care and universal health coverage.
Promote high-quality research and development.
Through evidence-based interventions, monitor trends, determinants, and progress in achieving global, regional, and national targets.
Prevention is better than cure, as they always say. This holds for non-communicable and communicable diseases as well. Any action to forestall diseases, exercising, taking nutrients, eating nourishing food, and keeping a solid mind would be less in effort contrasted with the pressure and costs caused once a sickness hits.
References
Non-communicable Diseases. (2021). WHO. https://www.who.int/health-topics/noncommunicable-diseases#tab=tab_1
Physical Activity and Non-Communicable Diseases. (2021). Physiopedia. https://www.physio-pedia.com/Physical_Activity_and_Non-Communicable_Diseases
Tobacco Use. (2020). NCD Alliance. https://ncdalliance.org/why-ncds/ncd-prevention/tobacco-use\
Understanding Health Risks. (2016). News In Health. https://newsinhealth.nih.gov/2016/10/understanding-health-risks
Common risk factors for major noncommunicable disease. (2019). NCBI. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6794648/
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