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Lifestyle Diseases" - It's not just a "Western" problem anymore.
Heart disease is hard to photograph. Diabetes is not something
you can generate news photos of easily. Most of us in the
"Western World" or the "First World Nations" (U.S., Canada, Europe,
Australia, New Zealand, Japan and parts of South America, etc.) have a very restricted view of what is really
happening globally and especially in the "Third World
Nations". Our impressions come from the media for the most
part. We think of third world nations and remember news images of
what usually makes the news: disasters, war, poverty, and
disease. We are aware of the economic boom in China, the high
tech industry in India, but we don't think of "the rest of the world"
as having to worry about our own nemesis: lifestyle related illnesses.
Here is a wake up call from the World Health Organization and other sources: Deaths from "lifestyle" diseases will double by 2015 unless all-out efforts are taken to combat them
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Approximately 17 million people die prematurely
each year of largely preventable chronic diseases making this the
leading cause of death in the world today.
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Globally, non-communicable or "lifestyle" diseases
account for nearly 60 percent of deaths. By 2020, this is expected to
rise to 73 percent.
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Surprisingly, it is not the industrially developed
but the developing countries that have recorded a greater increase in
non-communicable diseases. In 1999, developing countries
accounted for 79 percent of deaths from non-communicable diseases. The
figure is expected to rise to 85 percent by 2020.
- The incidence of diabetes is the highest in India
with 20 million contracting a disease that in 50 percent of cases can
be avoided through a healthy lifestyle. By 2020, the number of
diabetics in India is expected to touch 58 million.
So, what on earth is going on?
Part of the explanation is offered by a WHO report on Southeast
Asia.
(http://www.wpro.who.int/media_centre/press_releases/pr_20020312.htm)
"Modern tools, motorized transport and increased urbanization have
contributed to people leading less physically active lives throughout
the region. Meanwhile, calorie intake has stayed the same or even
increased with the availability of higher-fat foods, such as "fast
foods". The result is higher rates of obesity and high blood pressure,
which in turn have led to a dramatic surge in non-communicable
diseases. The rise in these diseases is separately fueled by another
lifestyle factor - smoking, which persists as the largest single cause
of preventable death in the region." Global health watchers are
decrying the same social tendencies that we have seen lower
health in the West, such as children watching television instead of
playing in a physically active manner.
The same killers that stalk the streets of the "first world" have
invaded the "third". Sedentary living, "modern" diets, smoking
and stress. More information from WHO - "Studies in New Delhi
have revealed that it is not the well off but the poor and the
underprivileged that are increasingly falling victim to sedentary
lifestyles."
What I saw in urban Thailand
In 1996 I did a series of seminars for Burapha University in Thailand
on holistic approaches to stress management. It might be easy to
imagine Thai people enjoying a tropical land where they sip on fresh
coconuts, slice fresh pineapples for lunch and then enjoy a dip in
ocean from one of their famous beaches. What I found among the
largely urban and highly educated people I taught was a lifestyle that
sounded straight out of any big city in the USA. Thais told me
stories like this: "I get up and struggle through rush-hour traffic to
get to my workplace, work hard at my high-stress job all day, squeeze
through rush hour to get home, grab something quick to eat, then
collapse in front of the television before I go to bed." Now,
it's not just the well-educated classes in third world countries, but
many of the masses as well that are challenged to live healthy lives.
So, what on earth do we do?
Wellness is no longer "helping the healthy be even healthier". It
is now taking on the number one cause of pre-mature death in the
world. It is deadly serious and should no longer be dismissed by
the uninformed. At the same time we have learned over the last
thirty years that the least effective thing we can do is attempt to
scare people into being well! One of my favorite Don Ardell
quotes shows up again: "Wellness is too important to be presented
grimly!"
While the latest and strangest virus makes first page news, the
epidemic of "lifestyle diseases" has silently grown to take over the
number one fatality position. Part of our challenge is to increase
awareness of how important healthy lifestyles are to everyone,
everywhere. Let's bring the ownership of this challenge to
everyone worldwide. Instead of every single promotional picture
of people engaging in vibrant and healthy lifestyles being photos of
professional models portraying the upper-middle to upper class "first
world" leisure lifestyles, let's show wellness for what it is: exactly
what the whole world needs!
Action Steps
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Get informed: Go to the World Health Organization website
(http://www.who.int/en/) and do a search under "lifestyle
diseases". Read and catch up on the problem.
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Get involved:
Join the National Wellness Institute
(http://www.nationalwellness.org/forum/register.php) and
get involved with their International Committee. Register there for the
committee's forum.
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Be a Global Citizen: Travel. Visit the rest of the world in
a less insulated, less voyeuristic way. Connect with the
locals. Dive in and really taste where you are at.
Read. Enjoy learning about other countries and cultures.
Even novels with international settings can teach you a great deal about the rest of the world.
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