Unhealthy lifestyles and their deleterious relationship with infections: A Narrative Review

Abstract

Infection morbidity and mortality generate a significant global health burden. Several pandemics throughout human history have caused considerable suffering and killed millions of people. The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic is one such example. Individual lifestyles, if healthy, have been shown to modulate immune function and help fight infection. The five most important lifestyles are diet, obesity, exercise, alcohol consumption, and smoking. A favorable lifestyle or a prudent change result in reducing the risk and severity of infections. These include several viral, bacterial, parasitic, and fungal infections. The medical scientific literature is loaded with large well-done studies that have focused on the individual role of these lifestyles. A direct connection has been identified and verified in most cases. This manuscript provides a narrative review of this lifestyle-infection relationship. The aim is to raise the awareness of health care providers on the significant impact healthy lifestyles can have on infectious diseases. It is hoped that disseminating this data will translate into improved healthcare.