Lifestyle Factors And Disease Health And Social Care Essay

In today’s world, people are suffering from various diseases based on many lifestyle factors. Lifestyle diseases include diseases which occur based on regular habits of people. The onset of these lifestyle diseases is insidious, they take years to develop, and once encountered do not lend themselves easily to cure (John H, G. 2010). Such diseases are known as chronic diseases which are a major issue in this modern society. These are non-communicable diseases and are the major cause of death all over the world. Chronic diseases are now the major cause of death worldwide. Diseases such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease, migraine and stroke are the main cause of deaths in the world, representing around 60% of all the deaths. In 2005, 35 million people died from chronic disease out of which half of them were women and aged fewer than 70. Around 80% of people in low and middle income countries have suffered from chronic disease (World Health Organization, 2010).Lifestyle factors are responsible for chronic illnesses because of many health related factors such as smoking habit, improper time management which leads to sleep deprivation and by following a hectic schedule. Some chronic diseases are hereditary; it is not the case all the time that lifestyle factors are responsible for it.Although they play a major role in occurrence of these diseases.

A hectic schedule can also affect people’s lifestyle. They are not able to maintain a healthy relationship because of this hectic schedule. Thus, the unhealthy relationships formed lead to problems in working place, argument with parents, misunderstandings between friends, which cause stress (Smith, M et al. 2010). Thus, a continuous exposure to stress disrupts the mental state and may lead to health problems. Chronic stress affects almost every system in your body. It can raise blood pressure, suppress the immune system, increase the risk of heart attack and stroke, contribute to infertility, and speed up the aging process (Headsup, n.d) .The quality of relationships maintained by people relates to the ability of tolerance to stress. There are several ways in which stress is dealt with. The best method is a change in lifestyle. Controlling and being in charge of thoughts, schedule, emotions and way of dealing with problems (Headsup, n.d). Also relaxation techniques such as meditation, physical exercises, listening to soothing music, deep breathing, are some of the most effective stress busters. Therefore, it is important to maintain a healthy relationship and taking out time for rest and relaxation (Lifepositive, 2010).

Besides unhealthy relationships, emotional factors also lead to chronic illnesses. A hectic schedule can leave a person having negative emotions and thoughts. Disease can be a result of long lasting negative thoughts. Negative emotions such as stress, anger, anxiety or resentment, without realizing it, can cause the body to act in an unnatural way (Ellis, 2010). Excessive fear can affect a person’s kidneys. For children, fear leads to nocturnal enuresis which means bedwetting. In adults, fear disturbs the working of the heart and tends to cause a deficiency in the kidneys (Smith, C. n.d).Too much anger and over reaction to certain situations affects blood circulation and sometimes leads to an excessive response by the nervous system. All of this regulates the body functions such as heart rate and blood pressure which could trigger strokes. People go through constant pensiveness (over thinking or excessive mental work) and worry because of the busy lifestyles they live. Discussing work matter while eating, studying continuously for a long time and many other kinds of multitasking involves a lot of mental work and thinking. All this sometimes affect the lungs which cause breathlessness, stiffness of shoulders and neck, headache, memory loss and absent-mindedness (Smith, C. n.d). Sadness sometimes also has effects on the heart and lungs. For example, ‘Takotsubo cardiomyopathy’ which is also known as ‘Broken-heart syndrome’ is a disease which causes temporary weakening of the heart muscles .The syndrome is triggered due to emotional stress like death of a loved one, a break-up or constant rejection by someone. This causes shortness of breath or chest pain and also sometimes leads to heart attack. (Rowan, K. 2009)Despite of the problems and situations faced in life, it is important to develop the ability to deal with and take charge of our thoughts and emotions. This will help in remaining focused, flexible, healthy and positive at all circumstances. (Smith, M. 2010)

Time management is a set of certain practices, skills principles and guidelines that helps an individual to manage time and accomplish what he/she wants. Time management is very important because time is a limited resource if not used wisely will never come back. Improved time management makes a person more productive thereby reducing time waste and effort. Also in today’s age, some planning should be done to make smart choices. One of the most important ways to manage time is by eliminating the urge of doing things that distract oneself which ultimately disorganizes one’s lifestyle (Nikitina,A. 2010).Laziness Is one of the key reasons for an unorganized lifestyle. If an individual is lazy he/she would have shortage of time to do productive things. There would be no time for thinking; thinking should actually be an individual’s top priority action. There wouldn’t be a definite finish time; laziness reduces work efficiency as an individual wouldn’t find time for taking breaks. A lazy person wouldn’t find time for exercise, no exercise reduces lifespan. Dr Weiller said “Recent studies show that only one out every 20 people do the recommended exercise”. Also a lazy individual would have no time for a personal life (Hindustan Times, 2010).Laziness also causes various diseases. One of them is avoliton which has an association with mental illnesses like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder .A person faces avolition when he/she has trouble in motivating himself/herself to do things (Smoker,M. 2010). Laziness is also a symptom for depression. Being lazy leads to an improper routine and an improper routine leads to diseases. For example eating at irregular times especially during midnight when the body needs to rest influences gain in weight leading to obesity. Fred Turek, professor of neurobiology and physiology in the Weinberg College said that Proper timing of meals requires change in behavior which could be a critical element in slowing the incidence of obesity. (Fellman,M. 2009).Sleep deprivation is dangerous and rampant. It affects the brain severely. It is mainly caused due to the current lifestyle which is high paced causing lack of time to get sleep needed (Sleepnet 2007). Excessive usage of gadgets leads to Sleep deprivation. For e.g. Watching television keeps oneself awake when he/she should be sleeping. Also falling asleep with the television on affects sleep not in a positive manner. Another good example is the usage of cell phones during sleep time .A recent study shows that people usually teens sleep while using their cell phones to text messages back and forth. They always keep their cell phones within vicinity (Naczelnik,S.2010). The I pad has also been declared dangerous to use before bed time. Staring at its screen before sleeping can lead to lying awake all night because the direct exposure to its light source inhibits secretion of melatonin from the body (Zibreg,C. 2010).Adverse sleep deprivation causes serious diseases like diabetes, obesity and heart disease (Cyprus,S.2010) .

However hereditary could also be one of the reasons responsible for chronic illnesses other than various lifestyle factors. Many chronic diseases such as diabetes, migraine are passed on within families from one generation to another. Inherited genes are not possible to heal consciously or subconsciously, and this is why chronic diseases are very difficult to solve with genes repeated within the family (Mihaela,T. 2010). In some individuals genetic factors may predispose them, but environmental and lifestyle factors are what determines whether disease manifests itself or not (Richardson,K. 2010). In developing countries lifestyle factors are one of the major risk factors for chronic diseases than people inheriting hereditary factors. They last for a longer period of time, and leads to high proportion of diseases.

All in all, in today’s generation lifestyle factors as mentioned in the above arguments play a major role in people suffering from chronic illnesses. Other than lifestyle, genetic factors are also responsible for the number of deaths due to chronic disease. And in order to overcome this everyone should lead an organized and a healthy lifestyle by encouraging more physical activity,avoid smoking and managing time efficiently.