Chronic Indulgence: The End of Far Too Many
We can't take care of our own health. How can I hope we might understand we need to take care of our planet? Snips from this article follow. Tsk tsk.
By the end of 2005, twice as many people will have died from chronic diseases as from all infectious diseases, starvation and pregnancy and birth complications combined, international experts have warned.
The “neglected epidemic” of chronic disease will take 35 million lives in 2005, out of the total 58 million who will die globally. And contrary to popular belief, most of the deaths - 80% - from chronic conditions such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer will be in low to middle-income countries.
The two factors behind this epidemic are smoking and obesity.
While the world focuses on tackling the major infectious diseases – HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis – chronic diseases are largely overlooked, warns Horton. “Without concerted and coordinated political action, the gains achieved in reducing the burden of infectious disease will be washed away as a new wave of preventable illness engulfs those least able to protect themselves.”
HIV/AIDS is predicted to take 2.8 million lives around the world in 2005, for example, while the death toll from cardiovascular disease will be about 17.5 million globally.
The WHO proposes that if the projected deaths from chronic diseases can be reduced by just 2% a year until 2015, 36 million people around the world will be saved from dying prematurely. Key to achieving this is tackling preventable risk factors - for example, cutting salt in processed foods and taxing tobacco products. WHO estimates published in September 2005 suggested that one billion of the world’s population is now overweight or obese.
In its new report, the WHO attributes the deaths of 4.9 million people in 2004 to tobacco use, and 7.1 million deaths to raised blood pressure. While deaths from infectious diseases, pregnancy and birth complications and nutritional deficiencies are predicted to wane by 3% over the next 10 years, deaths due to chronic diseases are projected to rise by 17%.
Thirty five million people will die in 2005 of preventable causes. Gives one something to compare to if 10 million die in 2006 of infectious viral diseases. The chickens will have some catching up to do to pull even with human causes of human diseases.
Comments
...if I see an overweight, smoking environmentalist I'll remember this point!
Posted by: Carl | October 23, 2005 9:12 AM
And yet we have to die of something... We are not going to live forever, one of the troubling things about cause of death statistics.
Posted by: Clare | October 23, 2005 10:36 AM
It must be difficult to estimate how many people would have died earlier were it not for modern medicine.
Posted by: Jim | October 23, 2005 11:53 AM
I once read an article - they were talking to terminally ill patients and asking them what they would have done differently. One lady said, "I would have eaten more chocolate."
Ever since then, I've gone back and forth. I want to live healthy - before it's too late.... I want more chocolate - before it's too late.....("chocolate" representing everything that's bad for me).
Posted by: M. Lawless | October 23, 2005 2:04 PM
Yes, this is mother nature's way of thinning the herd. The reality is that Sooooo many people alive today wouldn't have seen the age of ten without the aid of modern medicine and techniques. Those that would have died from genetic flaws or environmental stresses likely wouldn't have matured to reproduce, thereby allowing natural selection to adapt the species to an ever changing environment. I'm reminded of the natural resistance about 10% of Europeans have to HIV, given it's genetic similarity to haemorrhagic fever. Now, as Fred points out, many of those that are kept alive by modern medicine do a wonderful job of eating more than their fair share, all the while smoking a big fat unfiltered cigarette, haha.
Sean
Posted by: Sean Pecor | October 23, 2005 2:20 PM
I think we (planet and inhabitants on it) are both part of the same whole system and so mirror each other.
Medicine has it's place of course, but it also seems like the more we have of it the sicker we get...trading one kind of illness for another.
Posted by: colleen | October 24, 2005 7:34 PM