Chronic and Non-Communicable diseases

[waltky]

Lifestyle at root of chronic diseases...

Lifestyle Factors at Root of Non-Communicable Disease Crisis
May 19, 2011 : The World Health Organization says lifestyle factors are at the root of the non-communicable disease crisis, which is responsible for millions of premature deaths every year. WHO is calling for global action to combat this epidemic.

The World Health Organization breaks a common misperception. It says non-communicable diseases or NCDs do not mainly afflict affluent people. On the contrary, it says 80 percent of all NCDs occur in low and middle-income countries. WHO Director-General, Margaret Chan, says millions of people are dying prematurely every year from the world’s biggest killers - cancers, heart disease, stroke, chronic respiratory disease and diabetes. “If you look at, 63 percent of the total number of deaths worldwide, which is about 36 million is due to NCD [non-communicable diseases]," she said. "And, of that 36 million, nine million of them were people below the age of 60. Nowadays, you do not need to die before the age of 60. According to our culture, your life begins at 60.”

WHO says non-communicable diseases are preventable. It reports up to 80 percent of heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes and more than one-third of cancers could be prevented by eliminating the major risk factors. These include tobacco use, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity and the harmful use of alcohol. Minister of Health of Palau, Stevenson Kuartei, says non-communicable diseases are having a devastating affect upon his region. He notes the Western Pacific region is the most diverse in the world. It encompasses 37 countries, which stretch from the world’s biggest country, China across the Pacific to some of the world’s smallest island states. “Today, in our region, home of nearly 1.8 billion people, NCD are responsible for four out of every five deaths," he said. "In some of our small island states, among the adults, the prevalence of overweight-obesity is 80 percent.

"And, more than half of the population report daily use of tobacco," continued Kuartei. "These NCD’s are affecting people earlier in life, robbing many of their most productive years and creating complex health needs that are expensive to treat.” WHO says life-style factors are at the root of the non-communicable disease crisis. It says life-style changes also can be the solution to stemming the epidemic. If nothing is done, it warns NCD deaths will increase by 17 percent over the next 10 years. It says the greatest increase will be seen in the African and the eastern Mediterranean regions. It adds the highest absolute number of deaths will occur in the Western Pacific and South-East Asia region.

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[waltky]

Chronic fatigue research dogged by activists...

Chronic fatigue researchers besieged by hate campaign
Mon, Aug 22, 2011 - A campaign of intimidation, physical attacks and death threats against scientists has been pursued by activists who claim researchers are suppressing the real cause of chronic fatigue syndrome. Police say the militants are as dangerous and uncompromising as animal rights extremists.

One researcher said that a female protester who had turned up at one of his lectures was found to be carrying a knife. Another scientist had to abandon collaboration with US doctors after being told she risked being shot, while another was punched in the street. All said, they had received death threats and vitriolic abuse. In addition, activists — who attack scientists who suggest the syndrome has any kind of psychological association — have bombarded researchers with freedom-of-information requests, made rounds of complaints to university ethical committees about scientists’ behavior and sent letters alleging that scientists are in the pay of drug and insurance companies. “I published a study which these extremists did not like and was subjected to a staggering volley of horrible abuse,” said Myra McClure, head of infectious diseases at Imperial College London. “One man wrote he was having pleasure imagining that he was watching me drown. He sent that every day for months.”

PSYCHOLOGICAL

Chronic fatigue syndrome — also known as myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) — is common and debilitating. A recent BMJ (formerly the British Medical Journal) feature suggested that as many as one in 250 people in the UK suffers from it. Patients are sometimes unable to move and become bedridden, occasionally having to be fed through a tube. For more than 20 years, scientists have struggled to find the cause, with some pointing to physiological reasons, in particular viral infections, while others have argued that psychological problems are involved.

It is the latter group that has become the subject of extremists’ attacks. The antagonists hate any suggestion of a psychological component and insist it is because of external causes, in particular viruses. In the case of McClure, her “crime” was to publish a paper indicating that early studies linking the syndrome to the virus XMRV were wrong and the result of laboratory contamination. So furious was the reaction that she had to withdraw from a US collaboration because she was warned she might be shot.

HATE CAMPAIGN

A similar hate campaign was triggered by a study published in the Lancet earlier this year. It suggested that a psychological technique known as cognitive behavioral therapy could help some sufferers. This produced furious attacks on the scientists involved, including Michael Sharpe, professor of psychological medicine at Oxford University. He had already been stalked by one woman who was subsequently found to be carrying a knife at one of his lectures. The publication of the new study only increased the abuse. “The tragedy is that this tiny group of activists are driving young scientists from working in the field,” Sharpe said. “In the end, these campaigns are only going to harm patients.” None of the scientists the Guardian contacted believed chronic fatigue syndrome was purely psychological. All thought external causes were involved.

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[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat's right, we all gonna die - get used to it...

UN: Cancers, Diabetes, Heart & Lung Disease Biggest Killers
September 19, 2011 - The U.N. General Assembly has convened a high-level meeting to discuss the world’s biggest killer - non-communicable diseases. Leaders met Monday to discuss how governments can curb the 36 million deaths each year from preventable and treatable diseases such as diabetes, cancer, lung and heart disease.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon opened the two day session with this warning: “The prognosis is grim," said Ban Ki-moon. "According to the World Health Organization, deaths from NCDs (non-communicable diseases) will increase by 17 percent in the next decade. In Africa, that number will jump by 24 percent. These statistics are alarming - but we know how to drive them down.” He said the keys to lowering death rates are simple and include increasing exercise, improving nutrition and expanding screening for these diseases.

The secretary-general also urged industry to act responsibly. “I especially call on corporations that profit from selling processed foods to children to act with the utmost integrity," he said. "I refer not only to food manufacturers, but also the media, marketing and advertising companies that play central roles in these enterprises. Those who profit from alcohol sales have to do their part to promote moderation in alcohol consumption. And we can all work to end tobacco use.”

World Health Organization chief Margaret Chan told the meeting that processed foods which are high in salt, trans fats and sugar have become the new staple food around the world. She said they are readily available and heavily marketed, and for a growing number of people they are the cheapest way to fill hungry stomachs. But she warned that this trend has led to a disturbing expansion of the world’s waistline - a factor that has contributed to the rise of non-communicable diseases. “Root causes of these diseases are not being addressed and widespread obesity is the tell tale signal," said Chan. "Worldwide obesity rates have almost doubled since 1980. This is a world in which more than 40 million pre-school children are obese or overweight. This is a world where more than 50 percent of the adult population in some countries is obese or overweight. Obesity is a signal that something is terribly wrong in the policy environment.”

The World Health Organization says that nearly 80 percent of cancers, diabetes, heart and lung disease occur in low and middle income countries. These illnesses also have a debilitating socio-economic effect because when a large percentage of the workforce is sick or dies during their productive years, national economies lose billions of dollars in output and millions of families are pushed into poverty, threatening development. The long-term financial effect could also be devastating. Margaret Chan warned that a recent World Economic Forum and Harvard University study estimates that over the next 20 years non-communicable diseases could cost the global economy more than $30 trillion.

In a declaration adopted by the 193-member General Assembly, the body recognizes the scope of the problem and calls for urgent action. It says prevention must be the cornerstone of the response and urges governments to strengthen their national polices and health systems to meet the challenge. Among the recommendations are promoting increased access to cost-effective vaccinations and disease screening programs to aid prevention and early detection. This is only the second time the U.N. General Assembly has taken up a health issue. The first was HIV/AIDS - for which there is no known cure. In the decade since, there has been huge progress on preventing and treating the virus around the world.

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[editec]

LIFE is the leading cause of death.

What one dies of is merely detail.

 

[uscitizen]

Obesity is becoming the number 1 preventable cuase of death.

 

[strollingbones]

no one is getting out alive....got that?

i have a cold or flu

 

[waltky]

Every 20 seconds, a child dies of a vaccine-preventable disease...

Experts Stress Use of Vaccines to Controlling Chronic Disease
September 27, 2011 - Health experts at the recent U.N. General Assembly in New York focused attention on new ways to combat the rise of non-communicable diseases, or NCDs, including some caused by infectious diseases that could be prevented with vaccines. That connection adds new urgency to the worldwide drive to immunize.

Every 20 seconds, a child dies of a vaccine-preventable disease. That's why health experts say vaccines are essential and the best investment in health. Seth Berkley is the CEO of the GAVI Alliance, a public-private partnership promoting immunizations for children around the world. He attended this year’s U.N. summit on non-communicable diseases in New York. “A number of what we call NCDs turn out to be infectious diseases. About 20 percent of cancer is actually caused by infectious agents. We’ve had a lot of success getting rid of hepatitis B, which is the largest cause of liver cancer and we are hoping with the Human Papilloma Virus [HPV vaccine] to be able to get rid of cervical cancer,” Berkley said.

Berkley also says his organization is rolling out some new vaccines to combat the two most common causes of childhood deaths: pneumonia and diarrhea. “The rotavirus vaccine: the largest cause of viral diarrhea in the developing world, the pneumococcal vaccine which works against the bacteria the pneumococcus, which not only causes pneumonia one of the largest killers in the developing world and can also cause meningitis,” Berkley said. The privately-funded United Nations Foundation is promoting a campaign called “Shot at Life,” to expand access to vaccines to children in developing countries - where more than two million children die before their fifth birthday because they do not get the immunizations they need. David Meltzer, a senior vice president at the American Red Cross, says measles alone kill more than 150,000 children around the world every year including some in the United States.

“In the U.S., measles were eliminated and turned to the history books in the 60s and 70s. So it has been out of the minds of many Americans. Yet as recently as 2000, over 700,000 children were dying every year from measles,” Meltzer said. Meltzer says people in the United States, including some parents, who connect vaccinating children to autism are wrong. “The belief that measles vaccine somehow causes autism, that’s a theory that numerous academic and scientific studies have debunke,” Meltzer said.

Errol Alden, the CEO of the American Academy of Pediatricians, says the belief that vaccines cause autism only adds to the challenges of getting people vaccinated. “The first is the supply. How do we get the vaccine to the countries, how do we setup a system that can give the immunizations. Number two: there are very many myths, falsehoods that spread very quickly about the vaccines and many of those are just not true,” Alden said. The World Health Organization says expanding access to vaccines can prevent 1.7 million deaths each year.

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[Michealleo147]

Hey what's happened to this cat?

 

[Michealleo147]

just look like a professor to teach us.

 

[Michealleo147]

Hello Teacher how are you?

 

[waltky]

Dat's why Granny always gets her vaccinations...

Non-Communicable Diseases Cause Most Deaths Worldwide
May 16, 2012 - The World Health Organization reports almost two-thirds of all global deaths are due to heart disease, cancer, diabetes and other non-communicable diseases. The World Health Statistics Report provides information on the state of health in 194 countries.

Non-communicable diseases are not just a problem of wealthy countries. The World Health Organization says they mainly affect people in poorer countries, of whom half die before they reach the age of 70. Cardiovascular diseases are the most common cause of death, followed by cancers. Data from 194 countries show one in three adults worldwide has elevated blood pressure, a condition that causes around half of all deaths from stroke and heart disease. In many African countries, it notes, as much as half the adult population has high blood pressure. The World Health Organization says most of these people remain undiagnosed. As a consequence, they do not get treated with low-cost medications that could prevent disability or premature death from heart disease and stroke.

WHO Department of Health Statistics Director Ties Boerma said preventable risk factors that cause chronic disease are common across the world. “Of course, tobacco is very well known," said Boerma. "Hypertension is very common all around the world and it has only been declining in high-income countries - elsewhere there is really no evidence of a decline. So, these risk factors - another group, of course, physical inactivity and poor diets are also very important. But this report also highlights the obesity epidemic.” The report finds obesity has doubled in every region of the world between 1980 and 2008. It says one-half-billion people, 12 percent of the world’s population, are considered obese.

The highest obesity levels are in the Americas and the lowest in South-East Asia. Worldwide, women are more likely to be obese than men, making them at greater risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease and some cancers. WHO Mortality and Burden of Disease program coordinator Colin Mathers said it is difficult to design policies and interventions to tackle obesity. “Obesity is a complex interplay of lifestyle, with availability of high-density caloric foods that people like to have and we probably evolved to where we really want to pack the calories on where they are available ... less activity. We are all sedentary, sitting around desks," added Mathers. "So, it is a very complex issue and it involves not only personal choices about whether you eat the extra pack of biscuits or not, but also environmental urban design.”

The World Statistics Report finds nearly five million fewer children are dying from diarrhea, measles, pneumonia and other infectious diseases than in 1990. It says maternal deaths have also declined. The report says other advances have been made in reducing new cases of HIV infections, in cutting tuberculosis mortality by more than one-third since 1990 and in lowering malaria deaths.

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[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat's right - get up off yer butts an' run around the block...

Study Links Long-term Sitting to Chronic Disease
March 08, 2013 : The more you sit each day, the greater your risk of developing a chronic disease, according to a new study.

Researchers from Australia and the United States say prolonged sitting increases the likelihood of developing potentially deadly diseases and conditions such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure. “For some of these conditions...we saw this kind of stair step increase that, at the high levels of sitting you saw higher odds of having the disease, certainly that was true for diabetes," says Richard Rosenkranz from Kansas State University. "And then we saw increased risk at higher levels for high blood pressure as well as for any chronic disease.”

A recently published study has linked prolonged sitting time with the likelihood of developing chronic diseases.

The World Health Organization blames sedentary lifestyles for approximately two million deaths each year and considers physical inactivity to be one of the 10 leading causes of death and disability worldwide. The study also revealed that exercising every morning for 30 minutes doesn't alleviate the risk if a person spends the next eight hours sitting at a desk. “We’re trying to say that, not only do we need to continue to tell these messages about getting in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity like walking or cycling or some exercise at the gym," Rosenkranz says, "we also need to be thinking about finding ways not to sit so much during the day.”

Many of today’s job opportunities have shifted from requiring physical effort to mostly involving sitting and working at a desk all day. However, office work isn’t the only type of occupation that requires prolonged sitting. The researchers also singled out truck drivers who are forced to sit for long periods of time. Rosencranz has developed a plan to alleviate his own personal risk. "I have a sit/stand workstation where in two seconds I can go from sitting to standing," he says. "I just move all of my monitors, slide it up on this thing and I can stand and work for a while and break up the periods of sitting.”

While he's found a personal solution, Rosenkranz believes health problems brought on by physical inactivity need to be addressed on a much broader scale. “We’re going to have to realize as a society that having a lot of people sitting around all the time is a health risk and it’s going to cost us money, it’s going to cost us quality of life and we’re going to have to do something about that," he says. "And so there will be, I believe, social norm changes, cultural changes where it’s OK in a meeting to get up and stand up or stand in the back of the room, take a break from just sitting on our duffs [posteriors] all the time.”

Study Links Long-term Sitting to Chronic Disease