On Lifestyle: When We Can Treat Ourselves and When We Need to See a Doctor

 

When Should We Treat Ourselves  and When Should We See a Doctor?

Knowing what we can manage ourselves, when first aid is enough, and when professional medical help may save a life

 

lim ju boo, alias lin ru wu (林 如 武)

 

Modern medicine has given us extraordinary powers to diagnose and treat disease. But there is another form of healthcare that begins much closer to home: what we do for ourselves every day.

We can prevent many illnesses through sensible eating, regular physical activity, adequate sleep, maintaining a healthy weight and avoiding harmful habits.

At the same time, we should understand an equally important principle:

Not every health problem should be treated at home.

Knowing when self-care is appropriate and when we should seek professional medical help is an important part of taking responsibility for our own health.

Perhaps the simplest way to understand this is to think of healthcare as having three levels.

The Three Levels of Health Care

1. Emergency crisis — act immediately.

We should learn to recognise situations such as a possible heart attack, stroke, severe breathing difficulty, unconsciousness or major bleeding. These are not conditions for home treatment. They require urgent professional medical help.

2. Minor illness and injury — know what we can safely do ourselves.

Many everyday problems, such as a simple cold, a small cut, a minor burn or an uncomplicated sprain, can often be managed initially with sensible self-care and basic first aid. But we must also recognise the warning signs that tell us when medical attention is necessary.

3. Everyday health — prevention is largely in our own hands.

For much of our lives, the most important healthcare may be what we do before we become ill: eating sensibly, remaining physically active, maintaining a healthy weight, sleeping adequately, avoiding tobacco, using alcohol sensibly, managing stress and undergoing appropriate health checks.

These three levels are not alternatives to one another.

They are complementary.

We need to know when to act immediately, when we can care for ourselves, and how to prevent illness in the first place.

 

1. Emergency Crisis — Act Immediately

Some medical emergencies give us very little time to think.

A person suddenly develops severe chest pain, becomes breathless and sweaty, and complains of pain spreading to the arm or jaw.

Another person suddenly develops weakness of one side of the body, has difficulty speaking or develops facial drooping.

Someone else may suddenly collapse and become unconscious.

These situations are very different from an ordinary headache, cold or minor injury.

They may represent a heart attack, stroke, cardiac arrest or another life-threatening emergency.

The most important lesson is simple:

Do not wait to see whether the problem goes away. Get emergency medical help immediately.

Knowing a few warning signs can sometimes make the difference between life and death.

Possible heart attack

Severe or persistent chest pressure or pain, especially when accompanied by breathlessness, sweating, nausea or pain spreading to the arm, shoulder, back, neck or jaw, should be treated as an emergency.

Do not simply assume that it is indigestion or muscle pain.

Possible stroke

A useful way to remember the major warning signs is FAST:

F — Face: Is one side of the face drooping?

A — Arms: Is there sudden weakness or inability to raise one arm?

S — Speech: Is speech suddenly slurred, confused or difficult?

T — Time: Time is critical. Seek emergency medical help immediately.

Other sudden neurological symptoms, such as loss of vision, severe imbalance or sudden confusion, can also be warning signs.

Cardiac arrest

A heart attack and cardiac arrest are not the same thing.

A heart attack occurs when blood supply to part of the heart muscle is blocked.

Cardiac arrest occurs when the heart suddenly stops pumping blood effectively.

A person in cardiac arrest may collapse, become unconscious and stop breathing normally.

This is an extreme emergency.

If someone is unresponsive and not breathing normally, emergency services should be called immediately and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) started if the rescuer knows how to perform it. An automated external defibrillator (AED), when available, can provide potentially life-saving treatment while professional help is on its way.

The important principle is:

In a true emergency, time is tissue and time is life.

 

2. Minor Illness and Injury -  Know What We Can Safely Do Ourselves

Fortunately, most of us encounter many more minor illnesses and injuries than life-threatening emergencies.

A simple cold, for example, may cause a runny nose, sore throat, cough and mild fever. In an otherwise healthy adult, rest, adequate fluids and appropriate symptomatic treatment may be all that is required.

A mild episode of diarrhoea may similarly settle with rest and careful replacement of lost fluids and electrolytes.

Minor headaches, uncomplicated muscle aches and some other short-lived problems can also sometimes be managed at home.

But self-care does not mean ignoring symptoms.

We should always remain alert to deterioration.

If an illness becomes severe, persists unusually long, or develops worrying symptoms, medical advice should be sought.

 

Minor injuries and first aid

There is another area where ordinary people can do a great deal for themselves: first aid.

A small cut, superficial graze or minor burn does not necessarily require a visit to hospital.

For a small cut, wash your hands, gently clean the wound with clean running water and apply gentle pressure with clean gauze or cloth if it is bleeding.

Once the bleeding has stopped, protect the wound with a clean dressing.

For a minor burn, cool the affected area under cool running water for about 20 minutes. Ice should not be placed directly onto a burn because it can cause additional tissue injury.

For a minor sprain, protecting the injured area and allowing it to rest can help. Cooling the area with something cold wrapped in a cloth may help reduce pain and swelling.

These are simple examples of first aid, not substitutes for medical care.

 

When a minor injury is no longer minor

A wound that initially appears small may sometimes require professional attention.

Medical assessment is important when bleeding cannot be controlled, a wound is deep or gaping, there is loss of sensation or movement, a foreign object is embedded, or an animal or human bite has occurred.

Increasing redness, warmth, swelling, pus or fever may indicate infection.

Serious burns, extensive burns, electrical burns and burns involving important areas such as the face or major joints should also receive medical attention.

Similarly, a suspected fracture or significant head injury should not be dismissed simply because the person remains conscious.

First aid is meant to help us until proper medical care is obtained when it is necessary.

 

3. Everyday Health — Prevention Is Largely in Our Own Hands

Perhaps the most important level of healthcare is the one we practise every day.

Many of the diseases that trouble us today are not caused by a single infectious organism. They develop gradually through a complicated interaction between our genes, ageing, environment and lifestyle.

These are often called lifestyle diseases.

They include obesity, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, fatty liver disease and some forms of cancer.

Our daily habits cannot control everything. Genetics and ageing matter, and some diseases occur despite excellent lifestyles.

But our behaviour can nevertheless have a profound influence on our health.

 

Food is more than calories

For many years, nutrition was discussed largely in terms of calories, protein, fat, carbohydrate, vitamins and minerals.

These remain important.

But food is far more complicated than a collection of nutrients.

Fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, nuts, seeds, herbs and other plant foods contain thousands of naturally occurring compounds. Some have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory or other biological activities.

This does not mean that eating a particular food will magically prevent disease.

There are no miracle foods.

Rather, it is the overall pattern of eating that matters.

A varied diet containing plenty of vegetables and fruits, appropriate sources of protein, whole or minimally processed foods and reasonable amounts of healthy fats is generally more sensible than relying heavily on highly processed foods.

 

Exercise is another form of medicine

We tend to think of exercise as something we do to lose weight.

It is much more than that.

Regular physical activity helps maintain muscle, improves insulin sensitivity, supports cardiovascular fitness, assists weight control and contributes to psychological well-being.

Exercise does not necessarily mean going to a gym.

Walking, cycling, gardening, swimming, climbing stairs and other forms of regular movement can all contribute to physical activity.

For older people, even modest activity performed regularly may be more realistic and sustainable than an ambitious exercise programme that is quickly abandoned.

Consistency is often more important than intensity.

 

Sleep, stress and the rest of our lifestyle

Our lifestyle is not only about food and exercise.

Chronic stress can affect sleep, appetite, behaviour, blood pressure and many other aspects of health.

Sleep is equally important.

We sometimes regard sleep as wasted time because we have so much to do. But the body does not regard sleep as wasted time.

Sleep is an active biological state during which numerous regulatory and restorative processes take place.

A healthy lifestyle therefore includes not only what we eat and how much we exercise, but also how we sleep and how we manage the stresses of everyday life.

Avoiding tobacco is particularly important, while alcohol, if consumed, should be used sensibly.

Regular health checks can also help detect conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes and abnormal cholesterol before they cause obvious symptoms.

 

The medicine cabinet is not the whole answer

Modern medicine is extraordinarily valuable.

When blood pressure is dangerously high, medication can save a life.

When blood sugar remains too high, medicines may prevent complications.

When cholesterol is dangerously elevated, appropriate treatment can reduce cardiovascular risk.

But there is an important question we sometimes forget:

Should medicine be the only treatment?

A tablet may lower blood pressure, but it does not necessarily correct the habits that contributed to the problem.

A medicine may lower blood glucose, but it does not replace healthy food or physical activity.

Medicine and lifestyle therefore should not be enemies.

They should work together.

And lifestyle management should never be used as an excuse to stop prescribed medication without medical advice.

Some people will require medication even when they follow an excellent lifestyle.

The goal is not to avoid doctors and medicines at all costs.

The goal is to use them wisely and when they are needed.

 

We should neither fear doctors nor depend on them for everything

There are two extremes that we should avoid.

The first is to rush to the doctor for every minor ailment that could safely be managed with sensible self-care.

The second and potentially much more dangerous is to avoid doctors altogether and attempt to treat serious disease ourselves.

Both approaches can be harmful.

Healthcare professionals possess knowledge and diagnostic tools that we do not have at home.

At the same time, we should not surrender responsibility for our own health.

Good healthcare is a partnership between the individual and the medical profession.

We should learn enough about our bodies to recognise what we can safely manage, while also recognising the warning signs that tell us when professional help is needed.

 

The best prescription begins before the illness

Modern medicine can do remarkable things.

It can rescue people from infections, heart attacks, strokes, severe injuries and many other serious diseases.

But another form of medicine is available to us every day.

It is how we live.

Every healthy meal, every walk, every hour of adequate sleep, every cigarette avoided and every effort to maintain a healthy weight contributes to our long-term health.

And when illness or injury does occur, knowing a little first aid and knowing when to call for professional help can sometimes make an enormous difference.

Perhaps the wisest approach is therefore neither:

“Treat everything yourself.”

nor:

“Leave everything to the doctor.”

It is to know the difference.

Act immediately when there is an emergency.
Treat minor problems sensibly when it is safe to do so.
And make healthy living our everyday form of preventive medicine.

We cannot control everything that happens to our bodies.

But we can control many of the things we do to them.

And perhaps that is one of the greatest lessons of modern healthcare:

The doctor may save us when we are seriously ill.
First aid may help us when we are injured.
But every day, much of our health remains in our own hands.

Chronic Disease and Acute Emergencies

VERSION 1 — FOR CLINICIANS AND MEDICAL RESEARCHERS

 Choosing the Right Medical Strategy for a Changing Disease Burden

Why modern medicine must combine emergency excellence with long-term metabolic and lifestyle intervention

By lim ju boo, alias lin ru wu

(林 如 武)

Modern medicine has achieved something extraordinary: it can resuscitate a patient in cardiac arrest, reopen an occluded coronary artery, remove a ruptured appendix, control intracranial haemorrhage, replace a failing heart valve, suppress overwhelming infection and provide organ support in intensive care. In acute illness, the speed, precision and technological sophistication of contemporary medicine are often literally life-saving.

Yet the dominant health burden of the twenty-first century is increasingly different.

The major challenge is no longer confined to infections, trauma and acute surgical disease. It is the enormous and expanding burden of chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs)—type 2 diabetes, obesity, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory disease, metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), and many cancers.

The World Health Organization estimates that NCDs account for approximately 74% of deaths worldwide. The major modifiable risk factors include tobacco use, physical inactivity, unhealthy diets, harmful alcohol consumption and air pollution.

This creates an important distinction in medical strategy:

Acute disease demands rapid intervention. Chronic disease demands sustained modification of the biological and behavioural environment in which disease develops.

The two approaches are not mutually exclusive. Indeed, the future of medicine may depend on integrating them.

 

The scale of the chronic-disease problem

The magnitude of the problem is difficult to appreciate without statistics.

Cardiovascular disease remains the world's leading cause of death. WHO estimates that approximately 19.8 million people died from cardiovascular disease in 2022, representing about 32% of all deaths. Approximately 85% of these deaths were attributable to heart attack and stroke.

Diabetes has expanded on an equally remarkable scale. The number of people living with diabetes increased from approximately 200 million in 1990 to 830 million in 2022. Diabetes contributes to blindness, kidney failure, cardiovascular disease, stroke and lower-limb amputation.

Obesity has become another global metabolic phenomenon. In 2022, approximately 2.5 billion adults were overweight, including more than 890 million living with obesity. About 16% of adults worldwide were obese. Adult obesity has more than doubled since 1990.

Physical inactivity provides another important part of the picture. Approximately 1.8 billion adults—31% of the world's adult population—did not meet recommended physical-activity levels in 2022.

These figures describe more than a collection of unrelated diseases. They reveal an interconnected metabolic ecosystem.

Obesity increases the risk of insulin resistance and hypertension. Insulin resistance contributes to type 2 diabetes and dyslipidaemia. Hypertension and dyslipidaemia accelerate vascular disease. Metabolic dysfunction contributes to fatty liver disease. Sleep apnoea can worsen hypertension, insulin resistance and cardiovascular risk. Physical inactivity compounds many of these processes.

The patient therefore rarely presents with one isolated disorder.

A patient labelled as having "hypertension" may simultaneously have central obesity, insulin resistance, dyslipidaemia, sleep apnoea, MASLD and physical inactivity.

The challenge is consequently not simply to lower one laboratory value.

It is to modify the underlying cardiometabolic trajectory.

 

1. Type 2 Diabetes: Disease Control versus Metabolic Reversal

Type 2 diabetes provides perhaps the clearest example of the distinction between conventional treatment and lifestyle intervention.

The conventional medical approach has enormous value. Metformin, GLP-1 receptor agonists, SGLT2 inhibitors, insulin and other agents can substantially improve glycaemic control and, depending on the drug and patient profile, cardiovascular, renal and weight-related outcomes.

It would therefore be incorrect to regard pharmacotherapy simply as "symptom suppression."

However, medication alone does not necessarily remove the metabolic drivers of type 2 diabetes.

The patient may continue to have excess visceral adiposity, insulin resistance, physical inactivity, poor sleep, an energy-dense diet and progressive metabolic dysfunction despite a satisfactory HbA1c.

This is where lifestyle medicine becomes central.

Weight reduction, dietary modification, physical activity, resistance training, adequate sleep and behavioural intervention can improve insulin sensitivity and, in some patients, produce remission.

The evidence is particularly important here.

The ADA has noted that weight reduction of 3–7% can improve glycaemia and cardiovascular risk factors, while sustained weight loss exceeding 10% generally produces substantially greater metabolic benefits and may permit diabetes remission in appropriate patients.

The DiRECT trial and related evidence have demonstrated that substantial weight loss can produce remission of type 2 diabetes in a proportion of patients, particularly when significant weight reduction is achieved relatively early in the disease course.

Thus, the appropriate clinical question is not:

"Should this patient receive drugs or lifestyle treatment?"

It is:

"What combination of lifestyle intervention, pharmacotherapy and other treatment is most appropriate for this patient's disease stage and risk?"

 

2. Obesity: A Disease, Not Merely a Failure of Willpower

Obesity deserves particular attention because it frequently functions as the upstream driver of several apparently separate diseases.

Modern medicine increasingly recognizes obesity as a chronic disease involving complex interactions among genetics, neurobiology, eating behaviour, environment, socioeconomic factors and the food system.

This is important because the simplistic instruction to "eat less and exercise more" may be insufficient for many patients.

The clinician must consider:

Ø dietary quality and energy density;

Ø appetite regulation;

Ø sleep;

Ø medications that promote weight gain;

Ø psychological and behavioural factors;

Ø physical activity;

Ø socioeconomic circumstances;

Ø endocrine disorders where clinically appropriate;

Ø metabolic complications;

Ø and the patient's capacity to sustain behavioural change.

Treatment may therefore include nutrition therapy, behavioural intervention, structured physical activity, pharmacotherapy and, for selected patients, metabolic surgery.

The contemporary evidence-based approach is not anti-drug.

Rather, it recognizes that different tools address different components of a complex disease.

3. Hypertension: A Number, a Risk Factor and a Biological Process

Hypertension illustrates another important principle.

Antihypertensive drugs can prevent stroke, heart failure, kidney disease and cardiovascular death. Their value should not be minimized.

At the same time, blood pressure is influenced by sodium intake, body weight, physical activity, alcohol consumption, sleep, stress, kidney function and other biological factors.

Dietary intervention therefore has a genuine therapeutic role.

WHO recommends limiting salt intake in adults to less than 5 g/day, equivalent to less than 2 g/day of sodium.

For an individual patient, reducing excess dietary sodium, increasing appropriate physical activity, achieving healthy weight reduction, improving sleep and moderating alcohol intake may substantially improve blood pressure.

Some patients will still require antihypertensive medication.

That is not a failure of lifestyle medicine.

It is the reality of multifactorial disease.

 

4. Cardiovascular Disease: Prevention and Rescue Are Different Medical Tasks

Cardiovascular medicine beautifully demonstrates the difference between chronic prevention and acute intervention.

Atherosclerosis develops over years or decades.

The acute myocardial infarction may occur within minutes.

These are biologically connected but clinically different problems.

Long before a coronary artery becomes acutely occluded, the patient may have accumulated years of exposure to hypertension, smoking, dyslipidaemia, obesity, diabetes, physical inactivity and other risk factors.

Prevention therefore involves risk-factor modification, appropriate medication, smoking cessation, dietary intervention, exercise and management of diabetes and hypertension.

But when a coronary plaque ruptures and produces an acute coronary occlusion, the therapeutic priority changes completely.

The question is no longer:

"What caused this patient's atherosclerosis over the last twenty years?"

It becomes:

"How quickly can we restore coronary blood flow and prevent death of myocardium?"

That is the domain of emergency medicine and interventional cardiology.

 

5. Chronic Respiratory Disease: Prevention and Acute Rescue

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease provides another example.

Smoking cessation is among the most important interventions for reducing continued exposure to the principal preventable cause of COPD.

Yet a patient with an acute severe exacerbation may require bronchodilators, corticosteroids, oxygen or ventilatory support.

Again, prevention and rescue are different medical tasks.

Lifestyle and environmental intervention can reduce long-term risk.

Emergency medicine saves the patient when respiratory failure occurs.

 

6. MASLD and the Metabolic Liver

Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) illustrates how chronic disease can remain clinically silent for years.

Excess adiposity, insulin resistance and metabolic dysfunction can produce hepatic steatosis and, in some individuals, progressive steatohepatitis, fibrosis and cirrhosis.

The disease therefore provides another argument for addressing metabolic health rather than treating laboratory abnormalities in isolation.

Weight reduction, dietary improvement, physical activity and management of diabetes and cardiovascular risk factors are central components of management.

The liver becomes another organ through which the consequences of systemic metabolic dysfunction become visible.

 

7. The Patient with Several Diseases at Once

One of the weaknesses of a purely disease-by-disease model is that it may fragment the patient.

Consider a 58-year-old man with:

Ø BMI of 32 kg/m²;

Ø hypertension;

Ø type 2 diabetes;

Ø elevated triglycerides;

Ø fatty liver;

Ø obstructive sleep apnoea;

Ø sedentary occupation;

Ø high consumption of refined carbohydrates and processed foods.

He may arrive at different clinics labelled as having five or six different diseases.

But biologically these conditions are not independent.

They may represent different manifestations of a common cardiometabolic environment.

The physician should therefore ask not only:

"What drug treats this disease?"

but also:

"What combination of biological, behavioural and environmental factors is driving this cluster of diseases?"

This is where multidisciplinary lifestyle medicine becomes particularly valuable.

 

Acute Medicine: When Minutes Matter

The argument for stronger chronic-disease prevention must never diminish the extraordinary importance of emergency medicine.

There are situations in which delaying conventional medical intervention in favour of alternative approaches may cost a patient's life.

Acute myocardial infarction

An acute coronary occlusion requires rapid assessment and reperfusion when indicated.

Depending on circumstances, this may involve antiplatelet and anticoagulant therapy, pharmacological reperfusion in selected settings, and especially percutaneous coronary intervention.

No nutritional programme can reopen an acutely occluded coronary artery quickly enough to substitute for emergency reperfusion.

Aortic dissection

Acute aortic dissection is a catastrophic vascular emergency.

Patients may require immediate blood-pressure and heart-rate control and, depending on the anatomical classification, urgent surgical or endovascular intervention.

This is not a setting for experimental alternative treatment.

Acute stroke

Acute ischemic stroke requires rapid neurological assessment and brain imaging to determine eligibility for reperfusion therapy.

Selected patients may receive intravenous thrombolysis, while eligible patients with large-vessel occlusion may benefit from mechanical thrombectomy.

Hemorrhagic stroke requires an entirely different pathway involving blood-pressure management, reversal of anticoagulation where appropriate, neurosurgical or neurocritical-care intervention and management of raised intracranial pressure.

The distinction between these conditions is crucial.

Sepsis and meningitis

Severe infection can progress rapidly to shock and multiorgan failure.

Appropriate antibiotics, source control, fluid and haemodynamic management, oxygenation and organ support may become life-saving.

Anaphylaxis

Anaphylaxis is another situation in which delay can be fatal.

Intramuscular epinephrine is the first-line treatment.

No dietary intervention, supplement or herbal preparation can replace it during an acute airway or circulatory crisis.

Trauma

Major trauma demands coordinated emergency care involving airway management, haemorrhage control, imaging, blood products, surgery and intensive care where required.

This is precisely where modern conventional medicine demonstrates its greatest strengths.

 

The False Dichotomy: Conventional versus Natural Medicine

The traditional argument that one medical system must defeat another is increasingly unhelpful.

The better question is:

Which intervention has the strongest evidence for the clinical problem in front of us?

A patient with type 2 diabetes may benefit from nutritional intervention, exercise, weight reduction and medication.

A patient with hypertension may need dietary sodium reduction, weight management, physical activity and antihypertensive drugs.

A patient with myocardial infarction needs emergency cardiovascular intervention.

A patient with appendicitis may require surgery.

A patient recovering from major surgery may subsequently benefit from nutritional rehabilitation, exercise and behavioural support.

The medical system should therefore be condition-specific rather than ideology-specific.

 

Toward an Integrated Medical Model

The future may lie neither in abandoning conventional medicine nor in relying on pharmaceuticals for every chronic problem.

Instead, medicine can be conceptualized as a continuum:

Prevention → early detection → lifestyle intervention → medical treatment → specialist intervention → emergency rescue → rehabilitation → long-term prevention.

This model recognizes the strengths of different disciplines.

Lifestyle medicine is particularly important in preventing and modifying many chronic diseases.

Conventional medicine is indispensable for diagnosis, risk stratification, pharmacotherapy, surgery, emergency care and treatment of complications.

Functional approaches may contribute useful hypotheses about diet, behaviour and interconnected physiological systems, but claims of efficacy should remain subject to the same standards of clinical evidence applied to all medical interventions.

The important distinction is therefore not between "natural" and "chemical."

It is between evidence-supported and unsupported intervention.

 

The Patient Must Become an Active Participant

Chronic disease cannot be managed successfully by the doctor alone.

The clinician can prescribe.

The laboratory can measure.

The scanner can visualize.

The pharmacist can dispense.

But the patient eats every day, sleeps every night, decides whether to smoke, chooses how much to move, and determines whether long-term behavioural changes are sustained.

This makes chronic disease fundamentally different from many acute emergencies.

A surgeon can remove an inflamed appendix while the patient is anaesthetized.

No physician can exercise on behalf of a patient for the next twenty years.

The patient's daily environment is therefore part of the treatment.

 Two Faces of Medicine

Modern medicine should not be forced to choose between emergency medicine and lifestyle medicine.

It needs both.

The physician who saves a patient from myocardial infarction performs an extraordinary act of acute medicine.

The physician who helps a patient lose substantial excess weight, control hypertension, reverse prediabetes, stop smoking and prevent cardiovascular disease is performing an equally important—although less dramatic—act of medicine.

One saves the patient today.

The other may prevent the emergency from occurring tomorrow.

The most rational healthcare system therefore recognizes two complementary responsibilities:

When the body is in immediate danger, rescue it.

When disease is developing slowly, change the conditions that allow it to develop.

The future of medicine should not be a contest between conventional medicine and lifestyle-oriented approaches. It should be an evidence-based integration in which each is used where its strengths are greatest.

The ultimate objective is not simply to treat disease.

It is to reduce the number of people who become seriously ill in the first place.

References for the clinician version

The statistics and major clinical claims above are based principally on current WHO and ADA material, including:

1. World Health Organization. Noncommunicable diseases. WHO.

2. World Health Organization. Cardiovascular diseases. Updated 31 July 2025.

3. World Health Organization. Diabetes. 14 November 2024.

4. World Health Organization. Obesity and overweight. Updated 8 December 2025.

5. World Health Organization. Physical activity. 

6. American Diabetes Association. Standards of Care in Diabetes—2025: Obesity and Weight Management. 

7. American Diabetes Association. Standards of Care in Diabetes—2025: Prevention or Delay of Diabetes. 

8. WHO. Healthy diet. 

9. WHO. Use of lower-sodium salt substitutes: Guideline. 2025.