What are Lifestyle diseases?
There have been lots of changes in our way of living when compared to the earlier days. These changes have been for the good of our health as well as for the bad. Diseases which come about due to our unhealthy lifestyle choices and practices are generally termed as lifestyle diseases.
What are the unhealthy Lifestyle changes:
Limited body movement
During the past people used to work in jobs which required constant physical activity. The majority were farmers. Today, a huge chunk of the population is in professions which require very little physical movement; or no activity. Machines have taken over almost all the tasks which we did with our own hands. When physical activity reduces over a period of time, the body gradually loses its physical strength and becomes vulnerable to diseases.
A day with no games, no exercises
We do not walk nowadays; even short distances are covered with a vehicle. For their daily household tasks women are increasingly using gadgets and other machines; these give them speed but do not require any bodily movement. The tasks which were done earlier with regular physical involvement are now easily done with the flick of a switch: drawing water from the well, grinding and pounding rice, washing clothes, sweeping the floors.
With the easy access of school buses everywhere children do not need to walk even a few steps. The wide outdoors which were frequented earlier for sports and games have given way to indoors and video and computer games.
Major changes in eating habits:
Overeating
Lack of proper meal timings
Plenty of bakery snacks
High-fat food
Changes in the method of cooking
Major transformation seen in attitudes
In earlier days even if there were not many of these conveniences people were not under undue tension of any sort. The picture is different now. Even children are subjected to heavy mental stress, and suffer from that. For several reasons, and in spite of having enough conveniences, we are still not able to have peace.