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The Importance of Lifestyle Changes
- Shirley Hernandez
- 7 feb 2017
- 4 Min. de lectura
Approximately 382 million people are currently affected by diseases as type 2 diabetes; some reports projected that these statistics will increase to 592 million by 2035. Increasingly people are affected by overweight and obesity, which have proved to be one of the main causes of chronic diseases as type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases.1
Around 68 percent of persons who are living with type 2 diabetes can develop cardiovascular diseases as strokes, high blood pressure and heart attack. Considering lifestyle changes could reduce the incidence of chronic diseases as diabetes, cardiovascular and renal diseases and definitely to avoid complications by chronic disease, disabilities, and premature death.1
When the subject of lifestyles changes arises some people have reluctance because the majority of these strategies require an important individual effort to accomplish good results. However, what is a lifestyle? or even, what do you need to change? A lifestyle is defined as the habits that people use to perform their daily life; it means what are their eating patterns, physical activity frequency, and recreation preferences.2
Lifestyles are defined by behavioral patterns that are involved on what the people think or believe about their own
health, for instance, is frequent some individual underestimate the risks to being sedentary, having high-caloric food intake and high saturated fat eating patterns, as well as, overweight or obesity, additionally have high risk to get a heart attack or develop type 2 diabetes. In fact, the stressed life, routine, and difficulties to get healthy choices to eat, or even do physical activity, have gotten worse the consequences of chronic diseases at the actuality.3
The lifestyle change starts inside of everyone; the people decide to adopt a lifestyle change to the extent that they believe that need a change, once they believe need a change all then their mindset will be changed, as well as their thoughts, attitudes, and behavior. The health knowledge effects will have affected positively the life of people and will be evidenced in healthy lifestyles reducing the probability to be affected by chronic diseases, having quality of life.3
Everybody have seemed or even have heard about successful cases of weight loss, cholesterol reduction, and improving glucose levels, but they are waiting that these successful experiences happen to them without a visible effort or through magic pills. The truth is that to achieve such level of success people need to run an extra mile, no matter how hard it is at the beginning, the question is how strong is the motivation to be better and improve their own health at the end. Moreover, some researchers have pointed out that in order to be effective in the process of lifestyle change, they recommend first, establish goals attainable to reduce weight, including healthy eating patterns and frequent physical activity, by above all, they recommend perform "initiatives of follow-up" and "self-monitoring process" for effectively the lifestyle changes can be carried out reducing the usual tendency to give up or discouragement in the middle of process.2,3
When the people start to evidence progress on their lifestyle change receive the self-motivation and positive reinforcement that they need to be effective and be better at the end. It is important to start with attainable goals to avoid be discouraged and the relapses; also, at the extent, people recognize the effectivity of one procedure can perform it with more probability of success and have the availability to recommend to others.4
Currently, many communities have been benefited with health promotion activities and have also been persuaded to perform strategies to improve their own health. Practical strategies to reduce food portions, nutritional labels, healthy snacks, and drinking water have improved the health condition of many people but above all, have changed their mindset to reduce the incidence of chronic diseases.2,3
As a result of successful campaigns to improve the people lifestyles, it has increased the expectative of life in at least 4 years. The government and health agencies are in agreement that people need to run the extra mile to be better, reducing their probability to get sick or at least prevent chronic diseases.2
Smoking bans in public areas, bicycle lines in cities, recreational areas, and healthy food choices at schools are strategies that have been successful; however, the people willing to take real actions about their own health it has proved be effective to produce sustainable results at the end.2,3
In short, the importance of lifestyles changes lies in decrease the incidence of chronic diseases avoiding disabilities, and premature death, but above all on be aware of what can we do to improve our own health, because at the end of the day the most important influence in our personal motivation are ourselves.
References
Lorber D. Diabetes, Metabolic Syndrome and Obesity: Targets and Therapy. 2014; 7 169–18. dx.doi.org/10.2147/DMSO.S614.
Artinian NT, Fletcher G, Mozaffarian D. Interventions to Promote Physical Activity and Dietary Lifestyle Changes for Cardiovascular Risk Factor Reduction in Adults. Circulation. 2010; 122:406-441. DOI:10.1161/CIR.0b013e3181e8edf1
World Health Organization. (WHO). http://www.who.int/mediacentre/multimedia/podcasts/2009/lifestyle-interventions-20090109/en/. Published 2009. Accessed February 06, 2017.
Eg M, Frederiksen K, Vamosi M. How family interactions about lifestyle changes affect adolescents’ possibilities for maintaining weight loss after a weight-loss intervention. A longitudinal qualitative interview study. JAN. DOI: 10.1111/jan.13269.
