Beating Malaysia’s top preventable diseases

OF late, universal access to healthcare has been widely discussed and examined, but prevention is indisputably better than cure where health is concerned.

Lifestyle choices have a significant impact on our susceptibility to chronic diseases such as heart and lung disease, cancer and diabetes. These so-called non-communicable diseases (NCDs) – also known as lifestyle diseases – are responsible for nearly 70% of deaths globally. Ischaemic heart disease tops the cause of deaths worldwide, followed by stroke while chronic obstructive airways disease (a smoking-related chronic lung disease), lung cancer and diabetes are the fourth, fifth and sixth biggest killers respectively.