Why No One Talks About Noncommunicable Diseases
In recent days, we have been mostly worried about infectious diseases because they spread among us rapidly and are caused due to droplet infection. One of the largest killers of life is noncommunicable diseases or chronic diseases. Noncommunicable diseases don't spread among people, but the mortality rate is higher among people than in infectious diseases. Why don't we focus on these diseases? Let’s see why we should focus on noncommunicable diseases too, as it causes more impact on the whole world.
What Do You Know About Noncommunicable Diseases?
Noncommunicable diseases are also known as chronic diseases because they tend to last for a longer duration of time due to genetic, physiological, environmental, and behavioural factors. Cardiovascular problems like heart attack and stroke, genetic disorders such as diabetes and respiratory diseases like asthma, which are prevailing among us for a longer time. Generally the severity of those noncommunicable diseases increases by age, environmental and physiological factors.
Why Does No One Talk About Noncommunicable Diseases?
It’s high time now, and people should prioritize the risk of noncommunicable diseases as this causes several mortality rates worldwide. According to the All-India Medical Report, 11 percent of men and 10 percent of women living in urban slums in India are highly affected by diabetes. Numerous studies report a strong connection between poverty and chronic diseases. It's becoming a global threat, and people lack the money to tackle these noncommunicable diseases. People face financial struggles and poverty in day-to-day life.
“The Groundwork For All Happiness Is Good Health”
The Severity Of Global Impact
Noncommunicable diseases are the foremost cause of disability and death worldwide. World statistics regarding noncommunicable diseases show:
- On an annual basis, noncommunicable disease kills 41 million people worldwide, accounting for 71% of all deaths globally.
- Around 15 million people die prematurely between 30 to 69 years old due to noncommunicable diseases worldwide.
- Cardiovascular diseases rank first among noncommunicable deaths, followed by cancer, diabetes, respiratory problems.
Despite the existing facts and data, why is NCD not given importance?
Here Are 5 Main Reasons Why No One Talks About Non Communicable Diseases
1. Lack Of Awareness:
People lack awareness about non communicable diseases because these diseases are not transmitted to others. These diseases are long term consequences and people are not taking effective measures for treatment and care and this leads to the progeression of these diseases to the different stages. Diseases like heart disease, stroke and heart attack if untreated can alter your quality of life and it becomes life threatening. People are not worried about these diseases until it causes a major threat to life. They lack awareness to treat these diseases in the beginning or initial stage of the disease.Non communicable diseases are non infectious health conditions so it cannot spread from person to person and it is also known as chronic disease. One should be aware of non communicable diseases and treat it in initial stages to avoid serious complications of this disease.
2. Risk Factors Of Non Communicable Diseases:
People are leading an unhealthy lifestyle which is the main reason for developing risk factors on non communicable diseases. All of us remain unaware about the risk factors behind non communicable diseases such as lack of physical activities and healthy diets, second hand smoke which acts as a major risk factor for chronic diseases such as COPD, heart diseases, cancer and diabetes. People should pay attention to the harmful effects of consumption of alcohol and smoking which is the cause for many non communicable diseases. Long term exposure to these lifestyles will lead to obesity or overweight, raised blood pressure, blood glucose and cholesterol. Each one of us has the responsibility to create awareness among people about the risk factors associated with non communicable diseases and have to make lifestyle modifications to reduce risk factors of non communicable diseases.
3. Worried Only About Ongoing Diseases:
People are worried only about ongoing diseases like COVID-19 and other trending diseases which we are always hearing and talking about. They only concentrate on things which they listen and see in their day to day life and they miss life threatening diseases which are progressing day by day slowly and it creates a greater impact on mortality rate.Non communicable diseases like heart diseases, stroke, cancer, diabetes, and other chronic disease which does not spread to others but on the other hand they spread to different organ and damages the other organs in the body. They grow inside the body gradually but causing severe effects on progression and non communicable diseases are responsible for almost 74% of all the deaths world wide. so we should realize the importance of non communicable diseases and have to educate people to get treatment as soon as possible.
4. Lack Of Prevention And Treatment:
Non communicable diseases are not given importance by the people and they are not taking any preventive measures and treatment as they take infectious diseases like mouth masks, sanitizers, covid test as a preventive measures. People do not even care to monitor their blood pressure, blood glucose level, and cholesterol level which are major causes for non communicable diseases. people lack concentration on treatment options like medications, nutritional supplements, surgery for the cure of non communicable diseases. Along with medications people should aware of lifestyle changes like doing exercises to maintain ideal body weight which can prevent from diabetes melitus, doing meditation that can lower your blood pressure and use of tobacco and smoking can be avoided to prevent lung disorders and consumption of alcohol should be avoided in order to prevent liver cirrhosis.
5. Noncommunicable Disease Funding:
Many people are providing funds for noncommunicable diseases because we lack the financial stability to handle problems raised through non communicable diseases. As we know, poverty and not treating disease properly due to the financial crises lead to death caused by noncommunicable diseases. It is estimated that less than 3 percent of funds are addressing noncommunicable diseases among total funds. Government can take steps in identifying mechanisms for sustainable funding for healthcare promotions.
Tips To Overcome The Death Rate Caused Due To Chronic Diseases
Many of us are not coming forward to join hands to eradicate the deaths caused by chronic diseases. This blog concentrates on creating awareness about the mortality rate of chronic diseases that we should understand first. People like the government should implement preventive measures to reduce the mortality rate. Here are a few tips to overcome the present situation.
- Awareness among people about non communicable diseases should be increased.
- People should take some preventive measures and they should concentrate on several treatment options available for non communicable diseases.
- People should give equal importance on treating non communicable diseases as they worry about infectious diseases.
- Individuals should be aware of risk factors and mortality rate on non communicable diseases.
- The government should concentrate on health strategies towards the Millennium development goals to receive external funding for chronic diseases, which covers up to 50 percent of the health budget.
- All the regional health forums should become central to implicate global discussion and activities about chronic diseases.
- Allocate adequate funds for health promotion activities by various media units to create mass awareness.
Conclusion
As discussed in this blog, non communicable diseases are long term health consequences faced by the people in day to day life. It needs long term treatment and care. One should be aware of the risk factors of non communicable diseases and should be treated as soon as possible. Individuals should show attention by monitoring blood glucose, blood pressure and cholesterol levels regularly to diagnose the diseases in earlier stages and should be treated accordingly. Reducing the use of major risk factors such as tobacco, alcohol, physical inactivity and eating unhealthy food may prevent serious complications.
“Good health is the real wealth”
