While some health issues people encounter are rare, there are quite a few health problems that are considered common. This is simply because they are problems faced by a wider proportion of the human race. Some are common mental health issues, such as anxiety disorders, eating disorders, mood disorders, and psychotic disorders. Most women’s health issues comprise fibroids, Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS), HIV/AIDS, and a host of others. Health issues are generally commonplace among the elderly. However, most senior citizen health issues are arthritis, heart disease, and cancer. Though there are quite a few others, we will only look at the top 10 frequently encountered health issues as it relates to mental health, women’s health, and senior citizen health.
10. Arthritis
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This is one of the most common senior citizen health issues. People over 65 usually have to contend with the fact the major bane on their ability to be active would be arthritis. Of all senior citizen health issues, arthritis affects the highest proportion of the demography with over 49.7% of the ≥65 population affected.
9. Anxiety disorders
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Like it or not, each and every one of us is likely to be affected by one or more disorders. Though these common mental health issues are unlikely to have a serious effect on our daily lives, they could if left unchecked. Anxiety disorders comprises of panic disorders (e.g. apprehension and fearfulness), agoraphobia, post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder. Each of this common mental health issues is often more prevalent amongst certain categories of persons than others.
8. Uterine fibroids
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Of the common women’s health issues faced, uterine fibroids are a usual noncancerous tumor amongst women who are of childbearing age. Symptoms of fibroids include; pain during sex, frequent urination, lower back pain, painful periods and reproductive problems.
7. Cancer
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Amongst the most prevalent women’s health issues faced, the most common is cancer. Cervical and breast cancer are the two types of cancer affecting women the most. The key to keeping women alive is early detection. According to most recent statistics, over 500,000 women die from cervical cancer and another half-million die from breast cancer annually making cancer one of the deadliest women’s health issues.
6. Heart disease
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Heart disease is one of the rampant senior citizen health issues. It actually is the leading killer of persons of the age of 65 and over. Heart disease affects over 37% of men and 26% of women who are 65 years and older.
5. Mood disorders
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Mood disorders are some other common mental health problems that are prevalent. Of these the most common are bipolar disorders and depression. Bipolar disorders involve a dramatic shift in mood and depression keeps many in a state of perpetual lows. Each of these common mental health issues affects other aspects of our health as they alter eating and sleep patterns, cause restlessness and mysterious physical symptoms.
4. Eating Disorders
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Eating disorders are a few of the common mental issues that affect us. The three main types of eating disorders are anorexia nervosa, binge eating disorder and bulimia nervosa. These three types of eating disorders usually lead to other mental health and physical health problems.
3. HIV/ Aids
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The AIDS epidemic has marched into its third decade and still remains one of the major women’s health issues, especially amongst young women. It is a struggle for many young women to protect themselves from sexually transmitted diseases especially HIV/AIDS. It is even harder for many in low income countries to be able to get the required treatment. HIV infection leaves many of these women vulnerable to tuberculosis. This is the reason why in low income countries it is one of the leading causes of death amongst women within the ages of 20 – 59 years.
2. Respiratory diseases
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One of the major senior citizen health issues are respiratory diseases. Chronic lower respiratory diseases are ranked as third of most common causes death among persons of the age of 65 and above. At least 10% of men and 13% of women of 65 and above are living with asthma. Another 10% of men and 11% of women within this category are living with either emphysema or chronic bronchitis.
1. Non-communicable disease
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Non-communicable diseases have been a major killer of women in low-middle income countries, resulting in the deaths of over 4.7 million women in 2012 alone. Major killers have been tobacco, drugs and substances, alcohol, road accidents, and obesity.
These are the common health issues that most people of today face. Other major health problems not included by worthy of mention are Alzheimer’s, violence against women (a major cause of mental and physical problems), and sexually transmitted infections. Whilst age and income are a major determinant of susceptibility to these illnesses, a healthy lifestyle is a good start.
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