I was watching BBC a couple of days ago when I came across a report on the soaring obesity rates in North America. According to new research published in the medical journal Lancet, half of all Americans will be obese by 2030 if obesity rates continue to rise in North America. Currently, 32 percent of men and 35 percent of women in America are obese, or put another way, have a Body Mass Index of 30 or more.
What's even more alarming is that studies suggest that these rates could trigger 7.8 million cases of diabetes, 6.8 million cases of stroke and heart disease, 539,000 cases of cancer, and tack on $66 billion a year to health care costs.
According to reports, American's aren't the only one's facing a rise in obesity rates. We are also seeing a rise of Obesity among are friends over in the UK. If trends continue, 41 to 48 percent of men in the UK and 35 to 43 percent of women will be obese by 2030. Currently, 26 percent of the UK’s population is obese.
Reports recognize that more needs to be done among the government and health sectors to combat the rising trends we're seeing with Obesity levels in this part of the world. As it stands, governments seem to be hands off on the whole issue, but if measures are not taken, we will begin to see a real burden on both with the health and government sectors. If you think our health care system is the worst it's ever been in our time, wait and see what happens 10, 20 even 30 years from now.
As a tax payer, I certainly don't want to take on the financial burden of paying the costs of the many of the health related issues that we are now starting to see in this part of the world. This is a serious matter, and I believe more needs to be done on our parts to lobby our governments to take more preventative health measures when it comes to the health of its nations.
Don't sleep on this issue and more importantly don't become a statistic years down the road! Do what you can now to take your health and those of your loved ones seriously! And if you can join in the fight in holding our governments and health systems more accountable when it comes being more proactive when it comes to our health.
Don't sleep on this issue and more importantly don't become a statistic years down the road! Do what you can now to take your health and those of your loved ones seriously! And if you can join in the fight in holding our governments and health systems more accountable when it comes being more proactive when it comes to our health.
Article source: www.cluthmagonline.com; www.thelancet.com
Photo-source: www.google.ca
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