As we get wealthier, why do we seem to be getting sicker? Does having it all mean losing our health? We live in prosperous times where healthcare clinics seem to dot every street corner. Meanwhile, drug companies advance medications at an accelerated rate. Yet, we seemed debilitated by the disease of affluence.
Walsh (2009) describes the disease of posterity as diabetes, lung cancer, and heart disease. Fischetti (2016) attributes lifestyle choices to these non-communicable diseases that afflict the wealthy. Does having wealth confuse our priorities and make us sick?
Could physical activity be the miracle snake oil people spend billions of dollars chasing? Increased activity can potentially decrease obesity, cardiovascular disease, cancers, and pain. Exercise can improve the immune system, arthritis, and other diseases and discomforts (Giroir and Wright, 2018). Adults should be getting at least 150 minutes of exercise a week. These recommendations improve our quality of life. Even though most people know this, a lack of physical activity is becoming a worldwide pandemic.
With the myriad of benefits that exercise offers, it is hard to imagine that maintaining physical health is not a priority in most people’s lives. What stops people from daily exercise? Lifestyle choices of comfort, lack of time, family and/or friend pressure, and weather (Giroir and Wright, 2018). Daily exercise can save our nation millions of dollars on preventing chronic diseases rather than trying to maintain and cure them.
World Health Organization (2020) teaches a healthy diet combats stroke, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. They also point out that urban lifestyles have led to unhealthy diets of processed foods high in fat, sodium, and sugar, while lacking healthy fruits, vegetables, and fiber.
We have made breakthroughs in the healthcare industry with vaccines, targeted therapies, emerging drug treatments, improved mental health therapies, implanted devices to alter paralysis, and early disease detection (Releases, N, 2022). The list of medical victories continues to rise, and yet we are still plagued with preventable diseases.
With the abundance of education in prosperous countries, it remains a mystery why we are not making the efforts to protect our health. What will it take to get us to focus on wellness and make the changes necessary to choose health instead of a sedentary lifestyle?
What is the price tag of health? Movement and diet.
Are you ready to make the change?
References:
Fischetti, M. (2016). Developing countries are battling diseases of the rich and poor. Scientific American, 314(2), 76–76. https://doi.org/10.1038/scientificamerican0216-76
Giroir, B.P., & Wright, D. (2018). Physical activity guidelines for health and prosperity in the United States. JAMA : The Journal of the American Medical Association, 320(19), 1971–1972. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2018.16998
Ramalingaswami, V. (n.d.). Diseases of affluence. https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/49396/WH-1992-Nov-Dec-p24-eng.pdf
Releases, N. (2022). Cleveland clinic unveils top 10 medical innovations for 2022. Cleveland Clinic Newsroom. https://newsroom.clevelandclinic.org/2022/02/16/cleveland-clinic-unveils-top-10-medical-innovations-for-2022/
Walsh, B (2009). A new campaign to fight diseases of the wealthy. Time. Retrieved https://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1904877,00.html.
World Health Organization. (2020). Healthy diet. Who.int; World Health Organization: WHO. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/healthy-diet
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Could Having Wealth Make Us Sick
by Stephanie Daich
