Lifestyle Diseases

Lifestyle Diseases in Urban India – Are You at Risk?

~Purnaa Negi (@purnaaanegi)

The 21st century is filled with surprises, some that are peaceful and serene whilst some that bring along pain and genuine exhaustion.

Living in urban India is a trump card. On the contrary, there are still a variety of reasons as to why being in an industrially urbanized sect of the society might contribute adversely to your health. The primary cause being the increasing rise of lifestyle diseases.

It may be present in close proximity to you, affecting you directly or may be acquired by you. But at the end of the day, it is responsible to hinder your growth and metabolism.

In this article, we will be discussing the Lifestyle Diseases the urban Indians face, and how it affects them.

What are Lifestyle Diseases?

Lifestyle Diseases are the type of medically proclaimed diseases or disorders which are associated with how an individual lives.

These mainly occur because of various reasons such as faulty life choices, lack of sleep routine and exercise, poor food habits, and so on. Over a period of time, such poor habits lead to the birth of these lifestyle disorders and diseases.

The Lifestyle Diseases Silently Killing Urban India

The poor lifestyle patterns are the origin of the lifestyle diseases. In some cases, these diseases prove to be fatal. Below are some of the silent killers that are harming you, and you don’t even know.

Chronic Heart Diseases

This is related to the Cardiovascular Class of Diseases (CVD) which further lead to Cardiac arrests, Heart failures, Strokes, Hypertensive heart diseases, and so on.

Lifestyle Diseases

The causes of this can be genetic, excessive stress, heavy drinking, chain-smoking, and a lack of exercise. A person, usually in his/her mid-60s and having high blood pressure suffers from chronic heart diseases.

As a matter of fact, most of the heart diseases are preventable with proper habits with a 90% survival rate.


This is a respiratory problem hampering the airway of the lungs which causes difficulty in breathing normally. The causes of asthma range from an unhealthy environment having a dearth of pure air to genetic inheritance.

The impure air may act as an agent to worsen the asthma. Thus moving to the countryside or a place with cleaner air without any industries nearby is considered as a way to effectively deal with this disorder.


Cancer is a group of disorders in which the abnormal cell growth within the body has the potential to spread to other parts of the body, causing malignant tumors.

This is mostly inherited but in some cases can be due to poor lifestyle habits. Smoking causes lung cancer, excessive drinking causing liver cancer whereas faulty genes cause breast cancer.

One effective way to ensure a cancer-free life is to have monthly check-ups, regular exercise, maintaining 4 meals a day, and avoiding stressful situations.

8 Ways to Reduce Your Cancer Risk | MD Anderson Cancer Center


Diabetes is characterized by high blood sugar and low insulin levels in an individual. There are two types of diabetes.

Type-1 diabetes can be regulated by increasing blood glucose levels and lowering sugar intake. Type-1 diabetes is incurable and patients need to remain under treatment throughout their lives.

Type-2 diabetes can be regulated by exercising and doing yoga. Type-2 diabetes is very common in people but at the same time has less severity when compared to Type1.

Although Type-2 diabetes cannot be cured, some studies show that it can be greatly regulated and maintained (reversed in some cases) by proper lifestyle habits, medication, and diet.

Eating Disorder

These are briefly characterised into three disorders.

Anorexia nervosa, which refers to the inability to eat anything thus causing malnutrition. It happens when a person fears the gaining of weight and ruining their physical impressions, thereby reduce eating.

The second is Bulimia nervosa which is characterised by a human binge eating and then vomiting whatever they eat to avoid weight gain.

The third is Obesity which is unnatural weight gain due to excessive binge eating.

All the three are caused due to previous trauma(s), change in locations causing emotional distance from loved ones, or even breaking up from a long relationship. Undoubtedly, these are a form of lifestyle disorders.

Substance Abuse

A majority of the youth, not only in India but around the world indulge in substance abuse.

With the privilege of living in an urban area, there are ways people cope up with their problems. Most of these coping mechanisms include substances that often acutely hurt the body and immunity.

These include smoking under stressful times, drinking under unhappy times, or even takin drugs under extreme pressure. These harmful substances often lead to an addiction causing irreparable damage to the body. Such dangerous addictions are almost impossible to get rid of.


The amount of workload an individual carries in his day to day life is solely responsible for the stressful life. Stress occurs when time is not managed well enough or when personal and professional relationships have no specified boundaries. Dealing with stress requires one to be organised.

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On the other hand, visiting a psychologist helps get a head start. If not diagnosed and treated well, stress can sometimes lead to major problems such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Hyperventilation, Depression, and Anxiety.

To Conclude…

In the end, we can clearly say that lifestyle diseases are one of the most dangerous forms of ailments in the urban areas of India. However, there are also ways in which one can prevent the impact it withholds on the person.

While yoga and meditation can help one to get their life back on track, self-control and will power will always be your ally when it comes to fighting against lifestyle diseases in urban life.

Believe that you are strong enough to compete against all the odds, to face whatever the future holds for you. Whatever comes your way, the only weapon you ever need is your own self.

Anupam Kundu
A professional blogger and an IT freak. The atypical combo of a Civil Service aspirant and a Tech enthusiast.