A very short post this week as I have masses of work to be doing this week, as well as dealing with the stress surrounding the upcoming January module results! However I thought it was better to post something rather than nothing. On that note, good luck to anyone collecting results on Thursday...
A study recently published in the Lancet suggests that the UK is worse off on many indicators of poor health when compared to other countries, the full article describing the study can be found here on BBC Health.
The Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt feels '30,000 lives a year could be saved if England performed as well as its European neighbours' and the focus should be on the 'big five avoidable killers'. These diseases are cancer, stroke, heart, respiratory and liver disease.
The majority of which link closely to the risk factors associated with lifestyle that appear in the news far too often, tobacco smoke (including second-hand smoke), obesity, inactivity, alcohol consumption and an unhealthy diet.
Its difficult to say what can be done, because if it were simple it would have been done already! One suggestion is that people pay closer attention to their health and make regular health checks in order to spot diseases earlier.
However ultimately I feel it the responsibility of everyone to try and achieve better health. Although this starts with individuals themselves help should come from government (both central and local), charities and employers for example and it must be remembered that certain individuals may need more help than others to either stay healthy or deal with ill health if it arises.
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