Many per­sons do their best to pro­tect their lives from harm and threat of death, es­pe­cial­ly with the rise in crime and vi­o­lence. Iron­i­cal­ly, sta­tis­tics from the World Health Or­ga­ni­za­tion (WHO) 2014 re­ports show that on­ly 11 per cent of deaths in Trinidad and To­ba­go are caused by in­juries (to in­clude vi­o­lence and road ac­ci­dents). Non-Com­mu­ni­ca­ble Dis­eases (NCDS) are re­spon­si­ble for most deaths in the coun­try (80 per cent). How­ev­er, are we equal­ly do­ing enough to pro­tect our lives from NCDs?

Non-Com­mu­ni­ca­ble Dis­eases (NCDS)

NCDs are a group of chron­ic dis­eases that usu­al­ly can­not spread be­tween per­sons. They nor­mal­ly last long and progress slow­ly. Com­mon ex­am­ples are heart dis­eases, di­a­betes, can­cers, chron­ic res­pi­ra­to­ry dis­eases and men­tal dis­or­ders. NCDs are most­ly lifestyle re­lat­ed and are pre­ventable. Sad­ly, this would sug­gest that our lifestyle has a far greater chance of killing us than vi­o­lence or in­juries.

Risk Fac­tors for NCDs

While we place great ef­fort in pro­tect­ing our­selves from in­juries and vi­o­lence, even more should be placed in im­prov­ing our lifestyles and pro­tect­ing our health. The main risk fac­tors of NCDs are to­bac­co smok­ing, al­co­hol con­sump­tion, poor nu­tri­tion/eat­ing habits, so­cial de­ter­mi­nants (for ex­am­ple, where you live and re­sources you have avail­able could im­pact your health) and phys­i­cal in­ac­tiv­i­ty. Let us dis­cuss phys­i­cal in­ac­tiv­i­ty fur­ther.

Phys­i­cal In­ac­tiv­i­ty

Phys­i­cal in­ac­tiv­i­ty and liv­ing a seden­tary lifestyle both sim­ply mean we are not mov­ing enough. Phys­i­cal in­ac­tiv­i­ty is the fourth lead­ing risk fac­tor for death world­wide. Glob­al­ly 25 per cent of adults and 80 cent of ado­les­cents are phys­i­cal­ly in­ac­tive.