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In Southeast Asia, over half of deaths are caused by chronic diseases. These include heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and cancer.
We dive into the chronic disease condition in Asia: how do these diseases affect Southeast Asians?
Southeast Asia faces its own problem with chronic, non-communicable diseases. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 55% of deaths in the region are attributed to chronic diseases.
These diseases include heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and cancer.
Chronic non-communicable diseases are the number 1 killers in the Southeast Asian region. Chronic non-communicable diseases, or NCDs, are non-infectious diseases that cannot be spread from person to person.
These chronic diseases claim about 8.5 million lives per year.
A study on heart failure in Southeast Asia revealed that people from Southeast Asian countries were more likely to die prematurely from chronic non-communicable diseases:
Meanwhile, in Taiwan, atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, or the buildup of plaque inside arteries, is the second-leading cause of death. In India, chronic NCDs accounted for 60% of deaths – cardiovascular disease, such as ischemic heart disease, and cerebrovascular conditions such as stroke are the leading causes.
Many of these life-threatening illnesses are caused by certain lifestyle choices. Habits such as an excessively unhealthy diet, a sedentary lifestyle, and heavy tobacco use continue to contribute to the spread of these diseases.
The right lifestyle –– including a healthy diet, regular exercise, and not smoking cigarettes or other tobacco products –– can prevent at least 80% of stroke, premature heart disease, and diabetes.
The question remains: what are we doing about it?
As it turns out, these poor lifestyle habits and risks of getting diseases are not lost on the region. The Hello Health Readership Survey, which surveyed thousands of readers across Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar, Taiwan, and India, revealed that people looked for these 3 content topics the most:
Based on over 9,000 surveyed across Asia in the Hello Health Readership Survey from June to November 2020
The survey also showed that Southeast Asians were more concerned about other particular diseases than the rest.
Weight management and stress management emerged as the top health conditions people in Southeast Asia were most concerned with, according to the Hello Health Readership Survey.
These two still made it to the list of health concerns people had for their spouses or loved ones, topped by cancer, heart disease, and high blood pressure in Malaysia, Myanmar, and Thailand.
When asked about the health conditions they were most concerned for their parents, high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, cancer, and chronic pain topped the survey – indicating that Asians continue to worry about chronic conditions for themselves and the people around them – as well as their risk factors.
Of the categories related to chronic diseases, heart health emerged as the most-viewed category across all Hello Health sites, with hypertension as the most popular health condition in most countries, except India. This was followed by heart disease, other cardiovascular diseases, and heart failure.
Cancer and diabetes also remained popular categories for Hello Health readers; liver, colorectal, lung, and breast cancer were some of the most commonly read topics.
Based on interactions with Hello Health Sites from 26 May 2021 to 25 August 2021
What are the most common chronic diseases in Asia, and how exactly do they affect the body? Scroll down below to find out more.
Studies show that cardiovascular disease and heart failure is on the rise in Southeast Asia, as more and more of the population continue to possess risk factors such as hypertension, diabetes, and smoking.
One of these cardiovascular diseases caused by lifestyle habits is atherosclerosis, the thickening of the arteries that are triggered by risk factors such as high cholesterol levels, high blood pressure, smoking, diabetes, and a lack of physical activity.
Diabetes is an epidemic in Asia, causing 1.2 million and 1.3 million deaths in Southeast Asia and Western-Pacific countries respectively, according to the International Diabetes Federation.
Lifestyle factors such as obesity can increase the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, which makes your body resistant to insulin. People with diabetes are 2-3 times more likely to develop a cardiovascular disease.
Anyone can get cancer. That said, there are certain factors that increase the risk of getting cancer. These include age, genetics, and for certain types of cancer, exposure to certain triggers.
Lifestyle choices and environmental exposure can also increase your risk of getting cancer: Meanwhile, using tobacco can cause cancer of the lungs, mouth, throat, and other organs.
Many cases of stroke are caused by lifestyle factors. These include hypertension, obesity, diabetes, and high blood cholesterol levels among others. You can reduce your risk of stroke by changing any of these behaviors:
There are 2 types of stroke: ischemic stroke and hemorrhagic stroke. Ischemic stroke makes up 87% of stroke cases. This happens when blood flow to the brain becomes blocked, cutting off oxygen supply to the brain. This leads to brain cell death and loss of function.
Hemorrhagic stroke is caused by bleeding on the surface of the brain, caused by a ruptured artery. Conditions such as high blood pressure (hypertension) and aneurysms cause the arteries to burst and leak blood, which can add pressure and kill brain cells.
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