Poor lifestyle choices such as poor diet, lack of physical activity, smoking, overuse of alcohol, and inadequate relief of chronic stress are key contributors in the development and progression of preventable chronic diseases, including obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension, cardiovascular disease and several types of cancer. Even though doctors encourage healthful behaviors to help prevent or manage many chronic medical conditions, many patients are inadequately prepared to either start or maintain these appropriate, healthy changes. Most patients understand the reasoning behind a healthy lifestyle even if they don’t understand the disease processes that can occur when they don’t maintain healthy habits. Despite an understanding of what constitutes a healthy lifestyle, many patients lack the behavioral skills they need to apply every day to sustain these good habits.

Nevertheless, healthy lifestyle modifications are possible with appropriate interventions, which include nutritional counseling, exercise training, and stress management techniques to improve outcomes for patients at risk and those who already have common chronic diseases.

Medical studies show that adults with common chronic conditions who participate in comprehensive lifestyle modification programs experience rapid, significant, clinically meaningful and sustainable improvements in biometric, laboratory and psychosocial outcomes.

Obesity

Being overweight or obese isn’t a cosmetic problem. These conditions greatly raise your risk for other health problems. Overweight and obesity also increase the health risks for children and teens. Overweight children are more likely to become overweight or obese as adults, with the same disease risks.

Obesity has become one of the greatest problems for modern society as it greatly increases the risk of numerous health conditions from diabetes and hypertension to sleep apnea, osteoarthritis, lower back pain and gallbladder disease. Obesity is also closely associated with cancer, coronary artery disease and overall diminishes life expectancy.

While your Body Mass Index or BMI is normally used to calculate the extent of body fat and the extent of obesity, the risk is also affected by your distribution of fat. Abdominal fat poses the highest risk and is also referred to as central obesity. Central obesity greatly increases the risk of lifestyle diseases early in life with conditions like raised insulin, high blood pressure high triglyceride levels and high cholesterol levels even affecting young adults.

As is the case with almost all lifestyle disease risk factors, this is part of a vicious cycle, exacerbated by poor eating habits, a sedentary lifestyle and other conditions.

Diabetes

Millions of people are affected by type two diabetes, but many individuals are unaware they have it. Type 2 diabetes is when your body does not produce enough insulin or cannot use the insulin efficiently enough. This results in high blood sugar, since insulin is responsible for breaking down sugar to use for energy in the body. Diabetes can lead to long-term complications like kidney disease, blindness and poor wound healing. The risk factors for diabetes include being overweight, not eating a healthy diet and physical inactivity.

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease consists of different problems that make it difficult to breathe, including conditions such as emphysema and chronic bronchitis. People with COPD experience shortness of breath, wheezing and coughing. Though treatable, breathing problems can decrease someone’s quality of life and can be devastating. The prevention of COPD includes smoking cessation and avoiding secondhand smoke.

Coronary Heart Disease

As your body mass index rises, so does your risk for coronary heart disease (CHD). Obesity can lead to heart failure. This is a serious condition in which your heart can’t pump enough blood to meet your body’s needs.

A healthy diet with physical activity is one of the best weapons you have to fight CHD. The food you eat (and the amount) can affect other controllable risk factors: cholesterol, blood pressure, diabetes and overweight.

Being physically active every day can reduce the risk CHD. Research has shown that 3–4 sessions per week, lasting on average 40 minutes per session, and involving moderate-to-vigorous-intensity physical activity can help lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol and keep your weight at a healthy level. But something is better than nothing. If you’re doing nothing now, start out slow. Even 10 minutes at a time may offer some health benefits.

High Blood Pressure

Blood pressure is the force of blood pushing against the walls of the arteries as the heart pumps blood. If this pressure rises and stays high over time, it can damage the body in many ways. Your chances of having high blood pressure are greater if you’re overweight or obese. To prevent high blood pressure, everyone should be encouraged to make lifestyle modifications, such as eating a healthier diet, quitting smoking, and getting more exercise. Treating high blood pressure involves lifestyle changes and possibly drug therapy.

Stroke

Being overweight or obese can lead to a buildup of plaque in your arteries. Eventually, an area of plaque can rupture, causing a blood clot to form. If the clot is close to your brain, it can block the flow of blood and oxygen to your brain and cause a stroke. The risk of having a stroke rises as BMI increases.

Being inactive, overweight or both can increase your risk of stroke. A balanced diet, eating fresh foods where possible is recommended. It is also important to maintain a balance between exercise and food intake; this helps to maintain a healthy body weight. Smoking can increase your risk of stroke or further stroke by increasing blood pressure and reducing oxygen in the blood.

Cancer

Cancer is group of diseases with similar characteristics. Cancer can occur in all living cells in the body and different cancer types have different natural history. Epidemiological studies have shown that 70-90% of all cancers are environmental. Lifestyle related factors are the most important and preventable among the environmental exposures. Tobacco consumptions either as chewing tobacco or smoking tobacco will account for 50% of all cancers. Appropriate changes in lifestyle can reduce the mortality and morbidity from a good proportion of cancer and heart diseases.

Being overweight or obese raises your risk for colon, breast, endometrial, and gallbladder cancers.

Osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis is a common joint problem of the knees, hips, and lower back. The condition occurs if the tissue that protects the joints wears away. Extra weight can put more pressure and wear on joints, causing pain.

Sleep Apnea

Sleep apnea is a common disorder in which you have one or more pauses in breathing or shallow breaths while you sleep. A person who has sleep apnea may have more fat stored around the neck. This can narrow the airway, making it hard to breathe.

Obesity Hypoventilation Syndrome

Obesity hypoventilation syndrome (OHS) is a breathing disorder that affects some obese people. In OHS, poor breathing results in too much carbon dioxide (hypoventilation) and too little oxygen in the blood (hypoxemia). OHS can lead to serious health problems.

Reproductive Problems – Obesity can cause menstrual issues and infertility in women.

Gallstones

Gallstones are hard pieces of stone-like material that form in the gallbladder. They’re mostly made of cholesterol. Gallstones can cause stomach or back pain. People who are overweight or obese are at increased risk of having gallstones. Overweight or obese isn’t a cosmetic problem. These conditions greatly raise your risk for other health problems. Overweight and obesity also increase the health risks for children and teens. Overweight children are more likely to become overweight or obese as adults, with the same disease risks.

Polycystic Ovarian Disease

PCOD is on the rise, and more and more young girls are being diagnosed with multiple small cysts in the ovaries, making it a common cause of infertility. PCOD can occur due to many reasons — stress, obesity, wrong eating habits, eating junk, too much exercise, and inadequate sleep. Those with PCOD usually have irregular periods and have to take hormonal tablets to induce a period. They may also have facial hair and a high level of androgens (male hormones).

Polycystic ovaries are not particularly troublesome and, in many cases, they do not affect fertility. The real problem starts when the cysts create a hormonal imbalance, leading to a series of other symptoms. Extreme form of PCOD would mean being overweight, scanty or no periods, being prone to acne, grow unusually heavy body hair, and mood swings. Along with this, there may be problems with fertility and often recurrent miscarriages.

As women with PCOD lose weight, hormone levels start to return to normal. Testosterone levels fall, serum insulin levels go down and the symptoms of PCOD diminish, with significant improvements in the growth of excess hair due to weight loss. Over the last few years, research into the nutritional approach to PCOD has revolutionized the treatment of this problem.

PCOD is on the rise, and more and more young girls are being diagnosed with multiple small cysts in the ovaries, making it a common cause of infertility. PCOD can occur due to many reasons — stress, obesity, wrong eating habits, eating junk, too much exercise, and inadequate sleep. Those with PCOD usually have irregular periods and have to take hormonal tablets to induce a period. They may also have facial hair and a high level of androgens (male hormones).

Polycystic ovaries are not particularly troublesome and, in many cases, they do not affect fertility. The real problem starts when the cysts create a hormonal imbalance, leading to a series of other symptoms. Extreme form of PCOD would mean being overweight, scanty or no periods, being prone to acne, grow unusually heavy body hair, and mood swings. Along with this, there may be problems with fertility and often recurrent miscarriages.

As women with PCOD lose weight, hormone levels start to return to normal. Testosterone levels fall, serum insulin levels go down and the symptoms of PCOD diminish, with significant improvements in the growth of excess hair due to weight loss. Over the last few years, research into the nutritional approach to PCOD has revolutionized the treatment of this problem.

Gastro Esophageal Reflux Disease

Gastro esophageal reflux disease, commonly referred to as GERD or acid reflux, is a condition in which the liquid content of the stomach regurgitates (backs up or refluxes) into the esophagus.

Several changes in eating habits can be beneficial in treating GERD. Reflux is worse following meals. This probably is so because the stomach is distended with food at that time and transient relaxations of the lower esophageal sphincter are more frequent. Therefore, smaller and earlier evening meals may reduce the amount of reflux for two reasons. First, the smaller meal results in lesser distention of the stomach. Second, by bedtime, a smaller and earlier meal is more likely to have emptied from the stomach than is a larger one. As a result, reflux is less likely to occur when patients with GERD lie down to sleep.