By “HAVE WE BEEN LIVING LIFE WRONG?”
Science demands that our civilization is in progress day by day. It is true, but, as we are extending our lifespan on this earth, major complications in our way of living have crept upon us. Knowingly or unknowingly, daily lifestyle choices are becoming a threat to modern mankind with plenty of health issues popping up to directly or indirectly affect our daily activities. The prime victim of our harsh, so-called modern lifestyle is our metabolic system. In biological terms, metabolism is the balance between the creation and breakdown of molecules. It is the body’s regulatory mechanism that deals with the storage and usage of energy. Metabolic disorders can range from mild to severe diseases which are a direct consequence of our lifestyle choices. A cluster of diseases has been wreaking havoc ever since we started making advancements toward the betterment of humankind. This cluster of diseases, aka, metabolic syndrome encompasses all the clinical, biochemical, physiological factors which altogether contribute to the increase in cardiovascular diseases,
diabetes, obesity, etc. Some of the outstanding ones include obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and hypercholesterolemia.
These diseases have been implicated to be underpinning some of the most deadly diseases known, even cancer. Obesity is something unavoidable in the case of today’s youth. Fast foods have been the hidden villain for children of all ages.
Nowadays diabetes, heart diseases, stomach ulcer, and many more such disorders have started affecting the health of people of every age, let it be children below 10 years or golden-ager above 60 years. Everyone is running behind shortcuts, whether in the case of work, food, exercise, or even sleep. Such shortcuts have actually shortened our lives.
The average life expectancy of humans has dropped to 67.4 years for males and 70.3 years for females according to WHO data (2018). This is an alarming situation warning mankind to adapt to certain changes in their lifestyle. The coming segments describe some of the major metabolic disorders and the ways in which we can improve our quality of life.
Obesity (aka Overweightedness)
Obesity is a disorder associated with the accumulation of excess body fat. It occurs without any significant symptoms other than abnormal weight. It underpins many diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, coronary heart disease, and in severe cases, death. It is the most common disorder, mainly in today’s young generation. There are more than 10 million cases per year in India. On average, if the body’s BMI rate is more than 25, it is considered
overweight and if it crosses 30 then the person is obese.
Diabetes
It is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by high blood glucose levels. After a heavy meal, the body starts using up glucose, but not all at once. In that case, the glucose is stored as glycogen in the muscle and liver for future use and the enzyme which works tirelessly to make this happen is insulin. However, diabetes is a result of either insufficient amounts ofinsulin(Type 1/Type 2) or prolonged exposure to insulin, causing minimal or no response(Type 2).
Hypertension
High blood pressure is a condition in which the long-term force of the blood against your artery walls is high enough that it may eventually cause health problems by damaging vital organs such as the kidney, liver, heart, and finally brain over time.
People often become prey to this due to workload, stress, and anxiety. An estimated 1.28 billion adults aged 30-79 years worldwide have hypertension.
Hypercholesterolemia
Hypercholesterolemia is yet another condition where there is a deposition of cholesterol, causing a constriction in the blood vessels.
Eating greasy foods every day might give the soul a sense of satisfaction for the time being. But they will definitely make one reel with pain in the long run. Due to modern unhealthy lifestyles, heart diseases as a consequence of hypertension and hypercholesterolemia have become very common and causal causes of fatalities.
Cholesterol can create blockages of normal blood flow
CAUSES
1) Unhealthy or improper diet– All metabolic disorders common nowadays are linked to neglected dietary choices.
Intake of junk and greasy foods is rewarding to many and a diet lacking the proper nutrition that our body needs are a common but dangerous choice we often make.
2)Sedentary lifestyle- Online world is definitely an advancement for the tech sector, but it has cursed the young generation by driving them away from joyful playgrounds and other outdoor activities. Children nowadays concentrate more on online mobile games rather than physical sports. This makes them sedentary and prone to accumulating calories.
3) Medications- Although the pharmaceutical industry advertises the benefits of medications for certain conditions with minimal side effects, it is frankly unavoidable to not tamper with the harmony of the various systems of our body. An excessive amount of medications can cause desensitization of our body to that stimulant, leading to no therapeutic effect.
However, the medications in the bloodstream are capable of disrupting the flow of different substances, impacting internal homeostasis, and more often than not, impacting metabolism.
4) Social issues- The current economic situation is at the heart of increased obese people. The food industry has made most unhealthy food products cheap and budget-friendly causing a boom in their sales. The result of this manifested in a staggering increase in the number of metabolic disorder cases. Stress, anxiety, and depression are other groups of determining factors for hypertension, obesity, and even other heart diseases.
5) Irregular biological cycle- Interrupted sleep(insomnia) and irregular timings of sleep and eating can actually cause several metabolic syndromes as this can alter hormone levels responsible for several metabolic processes. Late-night snacks are more injurious to health than fast foods. Staying up late at night due to different reasons can cause indigestion which further leads to disrupted metabolism.
6)Harmful Habits- Drinking or Smoking is considered to be cool and is fairly a common thing among people in their early to late 20s. Despite its capacity to alleviate pressure from work, it severely impacts our physical
health. A growing body of evidence confirms the increase in blood sugar levels beyond the threshold amount after smoking/drinking.
Measures towards a healthy life
