Diseases if Hippocrates saw them, he would wonder: the dark side of our modern life
Lifestyle is a style practiced by society and people, which is shaped according to specific geographic, economic, cultural and religious factors. Lifestyle refers to the characteristics of the inhabitants of an area in a specific time and place. It includes the daily behaviors and functions of individuals in jobs, activities and leisure time in addition to diet.
In recent decades, lifestyle has become a truly influencing factor in health, and has received more attention from researchers. According to the World Health Organization, 60% of factors related to an individual’s health and quality of life are related to lifestyle. Millions of people follow an unhealthy lifestyle. Thus, they sound the alarm of disease, disability and even death.
An unhealthy lifestyle can cause many problems such as joint and skeletal diseases, cardiovascular diseases, high blood pressure, weight gain, and others. Therefore, the relationship between lifestyle and health must be taken into account.
The modern lifestyle has brought about vast changes in the lives of all people. This lifestyle includes many factors that affect health such as poor nutrition, unhealthy diet, smoking, drinking alcohol, drug abuse, stress, etc. Besides, people’s lives face new challenges due to modern lifestyles. For example, emerging new technologies and businesses confined to non-physical places such as the Internet and virtual networks, which lead our world to great challenges that threaten the physical and mental health of individuals.
Diseases if Hippocrates saw them, he would wonder: the dark side of our modern life
What is the link between a modern lifestyle and health in individuals?
There are many factors or customs prevalent in societies, some of which impose the modern life system and delete others, these factors have a direct, if not immediate, impact on the lives of individuals. Here we will try to include the most prominent factors that have affected the way modern societies live:
Diet and Body Mass Index (BMI)
Diet is the most important lifestyle factor and has a direct and positive relationship to health. The poor diet imposed on us by modern life has led to the creation of serious problems such as obesity, which is a common health problem in modern societies. An unhealthy lifestyle can be measured by body mass index. A “civilized” lifestyle leads to nutritional problems due to the use of junk foods, which in turn leads to an increase in cardiovascular disease.
Exercise and sports
It is no secret to anyone that exercise is important for general health problems, and regular exercise is always included in the lifestyle. Continuous exercise combined with a healthy diet increases the quality of health and reduces common age ailments. Working life that lasts for long hours poses many difficulties for people to stick to exercise and constant movement, which poses a real danger to health.
Sleep
It is considered one of the basics of healthy living. In our time, we have witnessed many cases that encourage staying up late and displace adequate sleep in exchange for more working hours, which means more money. It is well known that sleep disturbances have numerous social, psychological, economic and health consequences. Thus, the impact of modern lifestyle directly on sleep, has an indirect effect on mental and physical health.
sexual behaviors
A normal sexual relationship is essential for a healthy life. The imbalance in the pattern and nature of sexual relations is a problem in most societies and has a significant impact on mental and physical health. Science says that the unexamined sexual relationship imposed by the modern lifestyle leads to various family problems or sexually transmitted diseases such as AIDS and others.
Take drugs
Addiction of all kinds is an unhealthy lifestyle. Smoking and drug use lead to various problems; Such as cardiovascular diseases, asthma, cancers and strokes. According to a study conducted in Iran published in the Iranian Journal of Public Health, 43% of females and 64% of males smoke hookah. Another study showed that 30% of people between the ages of 18 and 65 will smoke cigarettes permanently.
Uncontrolled drug use
Unhealthy drug use behaviors such as self-medication, drug sharing, over-the-counter drug use, prescribing too many medications, joint uses of unnecessary medication, poor handwriting in prescriptions, harmful effects of drugs, etc. without explaining the catastrophic drug-related effects Live in a modern lifestyle.
New technology
Advanced technology facilitates human life. But the misuse of technology leads to many consequences. For example, using a computer and other devices until the middle of the night may affect sleep pattern and may affect the sleep process. Mobile phone addiction is also associated with depressive symptoms.
Spare time
Rest and relaxation time is considered a “luxury” factor in the modern lifestyle. Neglecting rest times can lead to negative consequences. Unorganized planning of leisure and work, exposes people to a real danger to their health.
If Hippocrates saw these diseases, he would be amazed!
The most prominent “modern” diseases
Text Neck
It is a recent health condition that affects the neck of people, and medically it is a chronic spasm of the neck muscles that results from repeated stresses and wrong positions of the neck due to excessive viewing of videos on smartphones or the use of text messages and conversations on social media for a long period of time.
In order to avoid getting a neck spasm, you should pay attention to the neck positions while using mobile phones, by raising the phone to the level of the eyes so that the head does not tilt downward. The same applies to the screen of a desktop or laptop computer, where the screen must be at the same level as the head. If you suffer from pain in the neck area due to these positions, adjust your sitting position, practice stretching your neck and upper back so that they are straight instead of tilted, and pull your shoulders back and maintain this position.
Computer Vision Syndrome
Computer vision syndrome is caused by staring at a computer screen all day. Symptoms of this syndrome include headache, dry eyes, blurred vision, difficulty concentrating, sensitivity to light, and burning or redness in the eyes. In order to avoid this syndrome, the following are recommended:
- Continue to pat your eyes, as the lids wash the eyes with tears of natural healing effect.
- After 20 minutes of staring at a screen, spend 20 seconds looking at an object more than a meter away.
- Keep your computer screen light to a minimum.
- Use optical filters and get anti-glare screens.
- Position your computer monitor so that it minimizes reflections from windows or overhead lights in front of it.
- Keep the screen at least 20 inches away from your eyes.
- The center of the screen should be about 4 to 6 inches below your eyes, i.e. set the screen so that you are looking down and with a straight head and neck.
- Have a thorough eye examination by an ophthalmologist periodically.
Diseases if Hippocrates saw them, he would wonder: the dark side of our modern life
Poshitis
This name is not a medical name, and refers to the pain caused by carrying an oversized handbag on the elbow (elbow) which creates pain in the shoulder, back, buttocks, and arm, and a numbness and tingling sensation in the hands. In the past few years, women’s handbags have become huge, and the numbers and sizes of personal items that women may carry in this bag have increased, which has contributed to the increase in the emergence of this condition. It also affects teens and children who carry their backpacks on one shoulder, which can strain muscles, cause joint pain, muscle tears, and tendinitis of the shoulder.
In order to prevent, you must pay attention to several points, such as bending the knees when bending to lift a heavy bag off the ground. In addition to carrying the bag on two shoulders or switching the side you carry the bag on every 30 minutes. Also, when choosing your bag, choose bags made of lighter materials and contain fewer metal parts, and adopt backpacks instead of handbags when traveling long distances. And, of course, for all women.. Carry only what is necessary with you!
Carpal tunnel syndrome
Carpal tunnel syndrome is caused by repetitive motion of the wrist, as well as incorrect positioning of the wrists while using a keyboard or mouse. It is a painful and worsening condition that occurs as a result of compression of the median nerve in the wrist. It begins with pain, numbness, and tingling in the thumb and two adjacent fingers, and as the condition progresses, it may affect the rest of the hand and forearm. In order to prevent it from happening:
- When sitting at your desk for many hours a day, be sure to support your arms at your desk at a correct angle by adjusting the height of your chair.
- Take breaks from work to relax your muscles.
- Allow your hands to relax at your sides while reading on the computer.
- Do stretching exercises aimed at keeping the wrists flexible and relaxing the muscles and nerves to facilitate circulation.
Feet deformities
Wearing the right footwear is crucial. However, modern lifestyle requires you to experiment with body-unfriendly shoe styles. When women wear high heels, the foot remains in a downward position, which increases pressure on the bottom of the foot.
Over time, this can potentially lead to foot deformities such as hammer toes, bunions, and more. A downward position of the foot (high heels) also causes the axis of the foot to turn outward and may cause temporary or permanent deformity. This can be prevented by choosing the right shoes, especially low-heeled shoes with comfortable toe space, which is one of the main ways to prevent foot deformities and pain.
Obesity
Pathological weight gain or obesity is caused by unsupervised eating ready-to-eat food. Most processed or fast foods are high in fats and trans fats. If you don’t eat fruits, vegetables, and unrefined carbohydrates, and drink a lot of alcohol along with a lack of physical activity and a smoking addiction, then you’re probably the perfect recipe for satisfactory weight gain.
Besides stress and lack of sleep, obesity can cause a wide range of health problems including diabetes, cholesterol, and cardiovascular disorders. Obesity can be prevented in very simple ways, including:
- Follow a healthy eating plan including nutritious, low-calorie foods such as fruits, vegetables and whole grains.
- Avoid saturated fats and reduce your intake of sweets and alcohol.
- Beware of stimuli that cause you to overeat, such as staying up late and fast food.
- Exercising regularly, about 150 to 300 minutes of moderate-intensity activity per week, prevents weight gain.
Diseases if Hippocrates saw them, he would wonder: the dark side of our modern life
Heart disease
Most modern heart diseases such as coronary heart disease or heart attacks and infarctions are caused by increased levels of cholesterol and triglycerides due to consumption of processed and junk foods, smoking and drinking alcohol along with lack of exercise. It is possible to prevent infection with the most common diseases of the age through simple steps that have a great benefit in reducing the risk of a heart attack or myocardial infarction, including these steps:
- Smoking must be stopped in all its forms, as no amount or type of tobacco is safe. Smokeless tobacco, cigarettes, shisha, hookah, second-hand or passive smoking, and chewing tobacco are all harmful to the heart.
- Regular daily exercise can reduce the risk of heart disease. Moderate exercise, such as walking at a brisk pace for about 30 minutes on 4-5 days of the week, can make a real difference in reducing your risk.
- Finally, in order to maintain a healthy heart, you should follow a diet rich in fruits, vegetables and whole grains while avoiding a lot of salt and sugars in it.
Diseases if Hippocrates saw them, he would wonder: the dark side of our modern life
Hearing loss
It is very common nowadays for teens to listen to music and watch movies while commuting on public transportation or walking in the street. But did you know that while you are using headphones, it helps to distract the people around you. Listening to music at high volumes for long periods of time can affect your ears and may also cause permanent damage. In addition, some types of bacteria carried by unclean earphones cause the type of hearing loss commonly seen in older adults in young people.
For prevention, adjust the volume on your phone so that it is enough to hear your music comfortably, but not loudly. It is recommended to listen to music at 60% of the maximum volume. The earphones should not be used for more than an hour at a time.
These diseases, and many more, would not have appeared without the modern lifestyle in which we used to live and practice despite it being unhealthy in several respects. Both ancient and modern diseases.
Diseases if Hippocrates saw them, he would wonder: the dark side of our modern life
