Oh! Doctor what is wrong with me?
Have I contacted any disease?
When we are sick, this is usually what comes to our mind;
Who gave me this disease?
Where did I contact it from?
But Is It Always True?
Do we only get sick from communicable diseases?
IT IS NOT
But Why?
This is because there are sicknesses or illnesses that aren't communicable neither via human to human nor zoonotic.
Hence the Prompt,
NON-COMMUNICABLE DISEASES
Before you continue, can you check out this wonderful post by @blackdaisyft to see the statistics of death caused by this set of Diseases here
What Is A Communicable Disease?
These are diseases that can be transmitted from one person to another or from animals to man or from animals to animals
Emphasis here lies on the fact that IT CAN BE TRANSMITTED.
Then,
What Are Non-Communicable Diseases: (NCDS).
These are just the opposites of communicable diseases.
They are diseases that cannot be transmitted from anyone or any animal.
That leads us to the question
How Then Does It Arise?
This question can also be rephrased as
What Are The Risk Factors Of Non- Communicable Diseases?
They includes but not limited to;
Unhealthy Lifestyles :
Which may be defined as general drop in healthy living, lack of exercise and sedentary lifestyle, unhealthy feeding and drinking bad water.
Just anything you do that is not healthy is included here.
- Ageing :
You should not be surprised at this because even your machines you buy that was developed with top notch science and technological knowledge still breaksdown with time.
That is why we service them from time to time.
Now imagine this;
The machines do not work all the time within the 24hours clock but only works when you need it for a particular task but then,
The body system is constantly doing one work or the other.
It is the true definition of 24/7 round the clock, round the month and round the year.
Why Won't It Breakdown Even When You Properly Care For It?
What makes the difference in how we service our body is that it prolongs when the body will breakdown but it will definitely breakdown.
LIST OF NON COMMUNICABLE DISEASES
- CKI( Chronic Kidney Injury)
- CLD( Chronic Lung Disease)
- GERD( Gastric Esophageal Reflux Diseases)
- Asthma
- Allergy
- Diabetes mellitus
- Hypertension
- Obesity
- Headache
- Fever
- Physical injuries
- Mental health conditions ( Dementia, Alzheimer)
- Stroke
And so on.
What Are They?
Let's discuss few of them not all so don't go anywhere and read till the end😅
- DIABETES MELLITUS
We all must have heard about this disease in one way or the other but we basically know it is an increase in sugar level of the body but most times we do not know the sugar in question which makes us to always push the blame to the table/industrial sugar we use ( I mean the dangote sugar we use for those in Nigeria).
I am not saying that the sugar above doesn't contribute but it is important to note that:
The Carbohydrate foods, the beverages we take which includes tea, soda drinks (Pepsi, coca Cola e.t.c), Honey and so on all contributes to the risk factors of this diabetes mellitus.
Then,
This is a condition where there is excessive sugar in the blood.
Diabetes Mellitus is of two types:
Type 1 DM
This is the Diabetes Mellitus that arises as a result of the inability of the pancreas to produce little or no insulin which is the hormone that helps in regulating excessive blood sugar.
Type 2 DM
This is a condition in which there is sufficient insulin but the insulin is insensitive to the cells.
The cells aren't sensitised by the presence of the insulin.
The insulin is there but it does not know it has work to do as the cells doesn't signal it to work.
Key Symptoms Of Diabetes Mellitus
We call them the 3P's in Diabetes Mellitus;
Polyuria ( excessive urination)
Polyphagia ( excessive hunger)
Polydipsia ( excessive water intake)
Did you know that long standing diabetes mellitus can lead to hypertension?
- PHYSICAL INJURIES
Physical injuries are those caused by our environment and the way we relate with them.
They are caused by traumatic experiences, weather ( heat or cold) and even radiation exposures.
That is why it is not good to get exposed to rays except when necessary e.g X-rays.
Fractures for instance can come from a mechanical injury and we all know how discomforting and painful a fracture could be.
- GERD
When we eat food, the food goes through the esophagus down to the stomach.
The stomach is an acidic environment.
When the contents of the stomach tries to come up to the esophagus, this disease occurs.
This is because the Esophageal wall is not acidic and exposing acid to a non acidic environment is dangerous.
We all must have heard a story or two about someone who had an acidic accident and we know how bad it can be.
Most common symptom of this disease is experiencing heartburn more than once in a week.
- ASTHMA
This is a disease that affects both children and adults.
We often see people who carry inhalers, well, what comes to my mind is that the person is suffering from Asthma or Respiratory related Diseases such as catarrh until proven otherwise.
This is a condition in which a person's airway is blocked by mucus or narrowed which makes breathing difficulty.
Some Common Causes Of This Disease Includes;
- Airborne allergens, such as dust and wastes.
- common cold
- Physical activity.
A clear symptom of this disease is dyspnea (difficulty in breathing)
This disease can be life-threatening in some of the attacks and may lead to death especially when no one is around for assistance.
- HYPERTENSION
This is a very popular one we all know especially when you have been with an elderly person ( not trying to say it is a disease of the old).
The heart pumps out blood within a certain pressure into the arterial walls before it gets into circulation just the way our boreholes pump water with a certain force.
What Happens If This Force Is Exceeded?
For our pumps, sometimes it gets broken and we will need the assistance of a plumber to get it back into action.
The same thing happens when the blood is pumped with a pressure greater than what it should ideally be pumped out with.
When this happens, hypertension sets in.
Now medically,
Hypertension is defined as a condition in which the force used in pumping out blood in the arterial wall is too high.
Hypertension sets in when the blood pressure is above 140/90mmhg.
Oh, I remembered I said we won't discuss all so you could be able to finish the ones we discussed🤩
Hope you learnt something New?
This is my entry for the #MED-HIVE prompt here
Also posted here
Stay Safe
Thanks A Lot For Reading
