Recent health care had put a more attention to diseases that can spread – AIDS, tuberculosis, new flu bugs. However, it is also important to notice about chronic diseases –cancer, diabetes and heart and lung disease. Chronic diseases account for nearly two-thirds of deaths worldwide, or about 36 million. Chronic diseases are caused by common risk factors, such as smoking and sedentary lifestyle. Infectious diseases are very important issue to be noticed by global health organizations but it is also important to look at diseases that kill two-thirds of deaths worldwide. Unlike disease that spread, chronic diseases are much more preventable with avoiding tobacco use, alcohol abuse, unhealthy diets, physical inactivity and environmental carcinogens. Despite the fact that chronic diseases are more related with developed countries, rate of chronic diseases in developing countries are increasing as well. Chronic diseases will become a bigger problem if they occur in developing countries because there are not enough doctors and all cancer-related medicines are either nonexistent or beyond the reach of ordinary people in developing countries. It is best to find cost-effective treatments that lead to maximum impact when we try to fix the problem. It is obvious that if people start to stop smoking, drinking, and exercise more we can decrease the rate of people dying from these chronic diseases without spending any money. If problems with chronic diseases are solved, it will also positively affect problems with infectious diseases that people can spend more money and time on infectious problem that exist in developing countries.
Friday, September 23, 2011
New global killers: heart, lung disease and cancer
http://news.yahoo.com/global-killers-heart-lung-disease-cancer-043849285.html;_ylt=AlT.cciNhGjozzp.vq_GMPPVJRIF;_ylu=X3oDMTNzdGRsbTRoBG1pdANKdW1ib3Ryb24gSGVhbHRoU0YEcGtnAzExNGVmMTAyLTE1NDItMzcwMC04NDRmLTBhM2UwMTRkMWQ3ZARwb3MDMgRzZWMDanVtYm90cm9uBHZlcgNkYmZ
Recent health care had put a more attention to diseases that can spread – AIDS, tuberculosis, new flu bugs. However, it is also important to notice about chronic diseases –cancer, diabetes and heart and lung disease. Chronic diseases account for nearly two-thirds of deaths worldwide, or about 36 million. Chronic diseases are caused by common risk factors, such as smoking and sedentary lifestyle. Infectious diseases are very important issue to be noticed by global health organizations but it is also important to look at diseases that kill two-thirds of deaths worldwide. Unlike disease that spread, chronic diseases are much more preventable with avoiding tobacco use, alcohol abuse, unhealthy diets, physical inactivity and environmental carcinogens. Despite the fact that chronic diseases are more related with developed countries, rate of chronic diseases in developing countries are increasing as well. Chronic diseases will become a bigger problem if they occur in developing countries because there are not enough doctors and all cancer-related medicines are either nonexistent or beyond the reach of ordinary people in developing countries. It is best to find cost-effective treatments that lead to maximum impact when we try to fix the problem. It is obvious that if people start to stop smoking, drinking, and exercise more we can decrease the rate of people dying from these chronic diseases without spending any money. If problems with chronic diseases are solved, it will also positively affect problems with infectious diseases that people can spend more money and time on infectious problem that exist in developing countries.
Recent health care had put a more attention to diseases that can spread – AIDS, tuberculosis, new flu bugs. However, it is also important to notice about chronic diseases –cancer, diabetes and heart and lung disease. Chronic diseases account for nearly two-thirds of deaths worldwide, or about 36 million. Chronic diseases are caused by common risk factors, such as smoking and sedentary lifestyle. Infectious diseases are very important issue to be noticed by global health organizations but it is also important to look at diseases that kill two-thirds of deaths worldwide. Unlike disease that spread, chronic diseases are much more preventable with avoiding tobacco use, alcohol abuse, unhealthy diets, physical inactivity and environmental carcinogens. Despite the fact that chronic diseases are more related with developed countries, rate of chronic diseases in developing countries are increasing as well. Chronic diseases will become a bigger problem if they occur in developing countries because there are not enough doctors and all cancer-related medicines are either nonexistent or beyond the reach of ordinary people in developing countries. It is best to find cost-effective treatments that lead to maximum impact when we try to fix the problem. It is obvious that if people start to stop smoking, drinking, and exercise more we can decrease the rate of people dying from these chronic diseases without spending any money. If problems with chronic diseases are solved, it will also positively affect problems with infectious diseases that people can spend more money and time on infectious problem that exist in developing countries.
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Preventing chronic diseases is much harder that preventing acute diseases since many of them stem from lifestyle choices, such as smoking or drinking. The only effective way to reduce their occurrence is to educate the population, an often expensive endeavor. In developing countries this is a very difficult obstacle to overcome, since there aren't even enough resources to provide basic health care or primary education. So in those cases, it would simply not be feasible to try and prevent chronic diseases when the more immediate threats still exist.
ReplyDeleteTreatment of chronic diseases is also costly. There are many which can't be prevented, such as those associated with genetics or old age. In those cases, the only fix is to pour resources into research for cures, or pour resources into temporary treatment and relief. Incredibly expensive, and nearly impossible to achieve in developing countries.
As more countries become developed, they will suffer many of the diseases that the developed world faces, like heart disease and cancer. This is mostly because those populations are starting to live longer and chronic diseases usually will afflict the middle age range. They also gain access to "luxuries," like cigarettes, alcohol, and fatty foods (meat). The disenchanted that end up getting these are very hard to convince when it comes to the topic of how those things are actually bad for their health and well-being. While it is already common knowledge that smoking, excessive drinking, and fatty diets are bad to health, many still do it anyway. It really isn't so much the issue of education as it is with peoples' mindsets, and changing their mindsets on their lifestyles would lead to an insurmountable amount of money.
ReplyDeleteIt certainly does seem like our attention has been largely focused on infectious diseases as opposed to chronic diseases. The problem of addressing the issue of chronic disease is two-fold. First, people need to be aware of what is happening and why: that excessive drinking, smoking and lack of exercise directly correlates with increased rates of heart and lung disease, diabetes and cancer. Second, is that the public needs to change their lifestyle accordingly. It is altogether too easy to dismiss the information we are given with regard to this issue. We need a way that really speaks to the people, that tells them that chronic disease is now a major issue. Exposure to information is definitely the first step.
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