Excuse my borrowing the Star Trek ‘Live long and prosper’ message, but today’s article is very much in the vein of looking at your lifestyle, changing it and living longer... maybe not long enough to get onto the Starship Enterprise, but you get my drift.
Most of us probably think that smoking, and associated diseases, is the major cause of death, especially in the western world. However, according to a new global study, it is in fourth place. We are more likely to shorten our lives by eating junk food.
I cannot stress eating well enough because it is such a simple change to our lives and now, thanks to this study, this change is guaranteed to help us live longer. There is plenty we can do to lengthen our lives, to make sure we live longer and healthier and, eventually, die of old age or natural causes.
The single most important thing we can do is to eat a nutritious diet, with plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables. These findings are the result of the 2013 Global Burden of Disease, Injuries and Risk Factor project (GBD, 2013).This was a huge undertaking that looked at the causes of disease and premature death across 188 countries between 1990 and 2013.
The GBD created 17 groups of risk factors likely to shorten the lives of men and women globally. In addition, by examining the overall disease burden, the study worked out exactly how many years were lost to ill health, disability or early death.
Most of us think that smoking is the major cause of death. A new study has revealed we are more likely to shorten our lives by eating junk food
I am going to try to represent some of the factors, including the amount of years likely to be subtracted from your life, as well as the resulting diseases, such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and others. The list below begins with the highest risks, going downwards to the least risky factors.
• Dietary risk – takes 9.7 years from your life. The diseases caused could be diabetes, urogenital, blood and endocrine, tumours, and the largest proportion is cardiovascular disease.
• High systolic blood pressure – takes 8.6 years from your life. The diseases are the same as above with the exception of tumours.
• Child and maternal malnutrition – takes 7.3 years from your life. The illnesses include nutritional deficiencies, maternal disorders and a group including diarrhoea, lower respiratory and other common infectious diseases.
• Tobacco smoke – takes 5.8 years from your life. The diseases include chronic respiratory diseases, cardiovascular disease, tumours, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, diabetes, blood and endocrine diseases.
• Air pollution – takes 5.7 years from your life. This includes cardiovascular diseases, tumours, chronic respiratory disease and the group of lower respiratory and other common infectious diseases.
• High body mass index – takes 5.5 years from your life. It includes the diabetes grouping of diseases, the cardiovascular and tuberculosis grouping and tumours.
• Alcohol and drug use – take 5.2 years from your life. This includes a whole host of various conditions and diseases, including self-harm and interpersonal violence, unintentional injuries, transport injuries, mental and substance use disorders, digestive disease, cirrhosis, cardiovascular, tumours, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and lower respiratory and other common infectious diseases.
• High fasting plasma glucose – takes 4.8 years from your life. This is a pre-diabetes state.
• Unsafe water, sanitation and handwashing – take 3.4 years from your life.
• Unsafe sex – takes three years from your life.
• High total cholesterol – takes 2.6 years from your life.
• Occupational risks – take 2.4 years from your life.
• Low physical activity – takes 1.8 years from your life.
• Sexual abuse and violence – take 0.8 years from your life.
• Low bone mineral density – takes 0.6 years from your life.
In summary, after a poor diet, the next major causes of a shorter life are high blood pressure and children’s and mothers’ malnutrition. This is a factor reflecting the truly global nature of the study.
In all, the researchers, headed by Christopher Murray at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in Seattle, Washington, identified 79 risk factors that contribute to an early death and chronic disabling disease. I have listed just a few to give you an idea of the extent of the study.
These factors account for 57 per cent of deaths. In other words, just 43 per cent of us are dying of old age (Lancet, 2015).
An interesting omission from this huge study was the lack of inclusion of the third major cause of death in the US, which is ‘iatrogenic’, or death caused by medicine, including prescription drugs.
This has been reported widely in other studies (JAMA, 2000). The GBD 2013 project was funded by Bill Gates, a champion of pharmaceuticals in general – vaccinations in particular. Could the global researchers have turned a blind eye to the third major cause of death in the US?
What this study should do is make us look, again, at our lifestyles in relation to our longevity and make the necessary adjustments.
kathryn@maltanet.net