Chronic Disease - Understanding How We Acquire Them and How to Prevent Them

As I discussed in previous article 'Simple Steps Toward a Healthy Life' you come to understand what free radical is and how it is created. But when your body produces more free radicals than it can handle, it creates an 'oxidative stress'. What is the first thing that comes to mind when we hear the word 'oxidation', you are right- it is the same process that causes a cut apple to turn brown. This is mostly the cause, for majority of the chronic diseases.

What are chronic diseases?

It must have the following aspects:

• complex causality,
• multiple risk factors,
• long latency periods,
• a prolonged course of illness, and
• functional impairment or disability

Most chronic diseases have no cure and some can be immediately life threatening e.g. heart disease. Some can persist over time and can be intensive in terms of management, e.g. diabetes. Most are going to be affecting a human throughout the life time so the quality of life is robbed from them.
Dr Myron Wentz said "most of us are living too short and dying too long"
We looked at the aspects of chronic diseases but we need to know which ones are in the team of 'chronic diseases' let us look at the main most common threat

• Ischaemic heart disease (also known as coronary heart disease)
• Stroke
• Lung cancer
• Colorectal cancer
• Depression
• Type 2 diabetes
• Arthritis
• Osteoporosis
• Asthma
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
• Chronic kidney disease
• Oral disease

These conditions cause real pain for individuals in terms of morbidity, mortality and health care costs in Australia, and are amenable to preventive measures. Hooray did you see 'it can be preventable'
So prevention is the best way to go, since there is no cure.
What is the difference between chronic and infectious disease?
Infectious disease

• Pass person to person
• Disease resulting from the presence and activity of a microbial agent, with or without actual contact.
• Need to identify you have it through tests and mostly curable

Chronic disease

• Within a body and non communicable
• It is long-term, not contagious, only dangerous to person that has it
• It is too late by the time you find out and put up with the consequences

So far from what we have learned from this article, we can come to a conclusion that is

• It is a result of excessive free radicals
• There is no cure once you get it.

Next article I am going to talk about how we can prevent us from getting chronic disease

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