The movie Super Size Me is a perfect example of how a bad diet leads not only to the “aesthetic issue” of obesity, but also to an incredible number of health problems that overburden our bodies and the medical systems that we rely on in the long term.
One of the leading preventable causes of non-communicable diseases is tobacco use. Smoking has been proven to cause several cardio-respiratory problems, but it has not yet been possible to ban it from our everyday consumption.
Alcohol is regulated, so is cigarette and so are drugs; should we regulate sugar, too? asks this woman, writing for the New York Times. It seems that the health problems caused by this substance, although slow-moving, create numerous insidious complications and cause incalculable burdens for national health budgets.
In a globalized world, problems tend to involve more than one issue. In the case of non-communicable diseases, a constellation of political, commercial and scientific issues play in to the fight against these terrible diseases. Communicable diseases are the past; it is time for innovation.
Here the case of South Africa serves an example of the “race against time” represented by NCDs, either they start preventing, or the economic and social costs will become unaffordable in the next years.
At the First Global Ministerial Conference (Moscow, 28-29 April 2011), a paper with some recommendations and a rough idea of the situation was presented. When dealing with finding solutions, here you can find some of the proposals to support your original ideas.
“Naked Chef” Jamie Oliver took advantage of the high-level meeting in September 2011 to promote his campaign on the Internet asking for help in the fight against obesity. According to him it is all about informing the people and helping them to make the right choices.
It was possible to build up a healthy and strong society with sports. By introducing volleyball in Nauru, Australia, a whole community started fighting against the huge expenses created by obesity and cardiorespiratory diseases. It is all about clever ideas to change the current habits of the people.
There is a “major gap in the international agenda”, it is necessary to start working for assuring a better future for developing countries that are getting trapped by the net of incredible expenses such as NCDs.
Adapting to a chronic condition isn’t as easy as it looks like, recently some universities have started offering courses to help these people(mostly old population) to build their lives based on the annoying necessities required by a constant condition of disease.
The CEO of an organization called the “World Heart Federation” talks about the UN Summit, and summarizes the problematic around NCDs. It seems that the UN summit really seemed for many people as an important moment in the planification of our nearby future.
This illustrated video presented by the WHO serves as a great introduction to the problematic of NCDs. In only one minute and 47 seconds you’ll know almost everything you need to know about them without any spoken word.
Nonkosi Khumalo, the chairperson of Treatment Action Campaign South Africa, asks whether African civil society has “lost the plot” in its efforts to encourage stronger international action on the AIDS crisis in Africa.
