Healthy Lifestyle Awareness Month: Our unhealthy lifestyles

Published Feb 28, 2020

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LIFESTYLE - ABOUT 80% of premature deaths in the world are the result of chronic health conditions, caused by unhealthy lifestyles.

With February marking Healthy Lifestyle Awareness Month, the POST spoke with the Heart and Stroke Foundation South Africa about these figures in relation to South Africans.

According to research, 225 South Africans are killed by heart disease every day and 10 people suffer a stroke in the country every hour.

These are some of the numbers that have authorities encouraging people to adopt healthier lifestyles.

Gabriel Eksteen, a dietitian and exercise physiologist for the foundation, said the World Health Organisation estimated that cardiovascular disease, cancer, chronic respiratory disease and diabetes accounted for over 80% of premature deaths caused by unhealthy lifestyles.

“These four conditions share four important lifestyle risk factors, namely inactivity, poor diet, alcohol abuse and tobacco use.”

Eksteen said there were four lifestyle factors where South Africans fell short and could improve.

“Eating healthily, drinking in moderation, if at all, not smoking and being physically active reduces the risk of a heart attack as you age by 80%. Each South African needs to evaluate his or her lifestyle against these ideal behaviours. As a nation, we are performing dismally among the worst globally.”

He pointed to certain factors in our habits that are problematic:

Eating habits are the number one cause of poor health worldwide, causing one in every five deaths.

“South Africans eat too little fruit, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts and fatty fish and consume too much sugar, salt and red meat.”

Recommendations encourage at least 150 minutes a week of moderate-intensity physical activity or 75 minutes of more vigorous activity.

“Previous surveys estimate that more than 50% of South Africans don’t meet these minimum levels.”

In South Africa, 37% of men use tobacco and 28% report risky drinking behaviour (where they drank five or more standard measures of alcohol on a single occasion in the past 30 days).

“Although usage is lower in women, it is on the increase and the damage can be more severe. Smoking is the single most harmful lifestyle habit, tripling the risk of a heart attack and doubling the chance of a stroke.

“The health risks increase with each additional daily cigarette, while even second-hand smokers are 30% more likely to suffer a heart attack.

“There is no doubt that vaping is harmful too, yet only time will tell on the true impact on our collective health.”

Eksteen said the benefits of moderate alcohol consumption had possibly been overstated, but a drink a day was generally accepted as safe.

“Conversely, excessive intake causes weight gain, damages the heart muscle, triggers irregular heart rhythms, increases the risk of various cancers and elevates harmful fats in the blood.

“Unsurprisingly, alcohol is the seventh leading cause of death worldwide, with most fatalities between 15 and 49 years. In South Africa, binge drinking is common and this is linked to violence, accidents, crime and social decline.”

He said while the questions, and therefore the answers, were doom and gloom; it was important to also highlight that the many ills of an unhealthy lifestyle could be negated or reversed by improvements in lifestyle. These could include the benefits of smoking cessation, exercise, improved diet and the like.

He added that in his opinion Healthy Lifestyle Awareness Month should focus on a better awareness of one’s health - which speaks to introspection into one’s lifestyle but also to regular health assessments to be more aware of your current health.

He mentioned a case where a wife, whose husband recently passed away from a stroke at the age of 45, could not understand why this happened, yet he rarely visited the doctor and was a lifelong smoker.

“Health awareness, from a cardiovascular perspective, means being tested for intermediate-risk factors of heart disease such as high blood pressure, abnormal cholesterol, raised blood sugar and abdominal obesity. From a more holistic perspective, this could include preventative cancer screenings and HIV screening too.”

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