Non-com­mu­ni­ca­ble dis­eases (NCDs) are chron­ic health con­di­tions that are not con­ta­gious to oth­ers. While a di­ag­no­sis can be scary, there are many op­tions in treat­ing or pre­vent­ing symp­toms. Learn­ing about your con­di­tion can be the best tool in man­ag­ing it.

Un­der­stand­ing Non-Com­mu­ni­ca­ble Dis­ease (NCD)

The la­bel of non-com­mu­ni­ca­ble dis­ease de­scribes a wide range of con­di­tions, dis­eases and dis­or­ders. These have ge­net­ic, lifestyle, or en­vi­ron­men­tal caus­es rather than vi­ral or bac­te­r­i­al, and they are char­ac­terised as health con­di­tions that:

• Aren’t caused by acute in­fec­tions or ill­ness

• Re­sult in long-term health is­sues

• Re­quire long-term treat­ment and care, such as lifestyle changes or med­ica­tion.

Health con­di­tions that are con­sid­ered non-com­mu­ni­ca­ble dis­eases in­clude:

• Can­cer

• Car­dio­vas­cu­lar dis­ease

• Di­a­betes

• Chron­ic lung ill­ness­es

• In­juries that cause per­ma­nent dam­age

• Men­tal health dis­or­ders

The sever­i­ty of glob­al im­pact.

Non-com­mu­ni­ca­ble dis­eases are the num­ber one cause of death and dis­abil­i­ty around the world. World­wide sta­tis­tics re­gard­ing non-com­mu­ni­ca­ble dis­eases show that:

• Non-com­mu­ni­ca­ble dis­eases kill 41 mil­lion peo­ple world­wide on an an­nu­al ba­sis. This ac­counts for 71% of all deaths glob­al­ly.

• Each year, 15 mil­lion peo­ple around the world die pre­ma­ture­ly be­tween the ages of 30 and 69 years old from a non-com­mu­ni­ca­ble dis­ease.

• Car­dio­vas­cu­lar dis­eases make up most non-com­mu­ni­ca­ble dis­ease deaths, fol­lowed by can­cer, res­pi­ra­to­ry dis­eases and then di­a­betes.

• These four cat­e­gories of dis­ease ac­count for more than 80% of all pre­ma­ture non-com­mu­ni­ca­ble dis­ease deaths.

NCDs can­not be cured. Lifestyle In­ter­ven­tions are cru­cial.

Treat­ing non-com­mu­ni­ca­ble dis­ease may look dif­fer­ent than treat­ing an in­fec­tion, but there is a wide range of op­tions to man­age your con­di­tion. Talk to your health care pro­fes­sion­al about which treat­ment plan may work best for you.

Can­not be cured

Keep in mind that there are no treat­ment op­tions that lead to cur­ing a non-com­mu­ni­ca­ble dis­ease from your body. In­stead, your doc­tor may pre­scribe med­ica­tions and rec­om­mend lifestyle changes to im­prove your symp­toms.

Pre­vent­ing and man­ag­ing NCDs

An ounce of pre­ven­tion is worth a pound of cure.

Not all non-com­mu­ni­ca­ble dis­eases are pre­ventable, but you can low­er your risk by main­tain­ing healthy habits: In­clud­ing an ex­er­cise regime to your dai­ly sched­ule, eat­ing less sug­ary and high salt foods, man­ag­ing your stress lev­els, qual­i­ty sleep and elim­i­nat­ing un­healthy habits such as smok­ing and ex­ces­sive al­co­hol con­sump­tion.

You can al­so stay ahead of these dis­eases by keep­ing up with reg­u­lar doc­tor vis­its. If you have health con­cerns or know of a con­di­tion that runs in your fam­i­ly, talk to your doc­tor about your symp­toms. They can help nar­row down what may be af­fect­ing you and com­plete screen­ings to de­tect chron­ic health con­di­tions.