The Silent, Deadly Epidemic of Non-Communicable Disease, by, Ray Suarez. This Article was written on September 8, 2011, and although it is not too recent, it is still an ongoing problem.
This article does not deal with the well-know diseases, such as , malaria, tuberculosis, and influenza , but with the everyday conditions that are just barley recognized as diseases. These silent killers are conditions like diabetes, cancer and heart and lung disease.
In the article Suarez writes "Not all non-communicable diseases are linked to lifestyle choices, but many are exacerbated by poor diet, smoking, alcohol use, or environmental conditions. Obesity is a major risk factor for diabetes, heart disease and some types of cancers", this is a sad statistic that many people are aware of, and what shocks me the most is that people choose to live this way, they can take measures to prevent themselves from contracting these diseases, but instead they would prefer to slowly diminish their quality of life and succumb to their addictions. In a world where there are countries suffering from vicious diseases, such as cholera and malaria, we cannot make the slightest effort to change our lifestyles?
Later in the article Suarez makes a very interesting point, he states, "Watch a day of commercial television in the United States (if you can bear it). Hour after hour come a parade of advertising for drugs to lower blood sugar, cholesterol, blood pressure, stop plaque forming on blood vessels, aid in weight loss, relieve the symptoms of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD. This is a crazy, slightly backwards way of treating non-communicable disease in the rich world, but we have decided we can afford it, and it turns out to be much easier that taking four inches off your waistline", this just proves the point that we would rather take the easy way out and live a life that is not as full as it could be, because we can not make simple changes, like eating better, not consuming as much alcohol, or quite smoking.
This reminded of the film One Water that we watched a few weeks ago. It makes me think of the part were it shows many American families using clean water for luxury purposes like swimming pools and water fountains, while places like Haiti suffer from cholera because they do not have enough clean water.
If something does not change soon, the U.N. estimates that by 2030, 52 million people will die annually from these non-communicable diseases.
This article was posted on Pbs.org and for further reading here is the link:
Studying epidemic diseases in class we learn about how diseases are caused by our lifestyle. Many things in a humans lifestyle everyday can effect the disease we get. Obesity by not eating right and not working out as much. Lung cancer by smoking. Skin cancer from overexsposure to the suns UV rays. Reading this post really opens my eyes because it is so true. How come we are being lazy if we know it is hurting it and potentally killing us? In this post it shows that us humans would rather take the easier way out. This is scary because if I could change one thing to make myself healthier then I would do it. From now on I am going to live a better and healthier lifestyle and crush the lazy epidemic.
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