Modern Health Threats Ignored: Awareness Urgently Needed by All!

[Abu-Salman]

Most people ignore the reasons of the dramatic surge of chronic diseases in "developing countries" (such as the diabete epidemy, with a 20 % rate in the UAE) as well as the insidious threats we face on a daily basis in "developed countries", to the point one may legitimately ask to what extent "progress" has really been made.

 

Naively, the health conscious among us thought that food intake precautions coupled with exercice may protect us from cancers and heart diseases, albeit autopsies show that intensive damage has already been done to children organs as young as 10 years.

 

Faced With such an array of more or less subtly hidden threats and uncoherent experts recommendations that are at best diverting, when not doing more harm than good, it urgently becomes worth asking wether a much more traditional lifestyle, devoid of any chemical or processed food, is the only alternative.

 

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

MSBN, CHICAGO - Autopsies of adults who died young of unnatural causes show many already had clogged arteries, U.S. and Canadian researchers said on Monday in a study that suggests heart disease may be on the upswing.

 

The researchers said their findings suggest a four-decade-long trend of declines in heart disease may be about to come to a screeching halt.

 

They studied autopsy reports from younger people in one Minnesota county who died from accidents, suicide and murder and found most had clogged arteries and more than 8 percent had significant disease.

 

"What they observed was a bit shocking," said S. Jay Olshansky of the University of Illinois at Chicago, who wrote an editorial on the research, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

 

"It is the most definitive evidence I've seen suggesting that today's younger and middle-aged generations may be heading for an increase in their risks of heart disease," he said.

 

The researchers from the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and the University of British Columbia in Vancouver looked at autopsy data from residents of Olmsted County, Minnesota, who died between 1981 and 2004 from unnatural causes.

 

During that time, 8.2 percent of 425 people aged 16 to 64 had high-grade disease and 83 percent had the beginnings of coronary artery disease.

 

Mayo's Cynthia Leibson and colleagues found declines in the grade of coronary artery disease ended after 1995 and began to climb after 2000.

 

"Declines in coronary artery disease appear to have ended and there is some suggestion that they might be increasing," Leibson said in a telephone interview.

 

She said it is not yet clear to what extent obesity and diabetes contributed to this, but the researchers plan to study this in the same group of patients.

 

Olshansky, in a telephone interview, said rates of heart disease in the United States climbed steadily in the 20th century until the 1960s, and then began falling, helped by changes in lifestyle and declines in smoking. But then, a confluence of changes occurred.

 

"It was more or less a perfect storm," he said, citing the introduction of computers and a more sedentary lifestyle, the growth of fast-food chains and larger portion sizes, reduced physical education in schools and increased consumption of high-fructose corn syrup.

 

"It led to this explosion of obesity," Olshansky said.

 

A second study in the same journal confirms the trends.

 

Dr. Philip Mellen of the Hattiesburg Clinic in Mississippi analyzed national diet and nutrition data from a large federal study to see if patients with high blood pressure were adhering to a diet known to help control high blood pressure, a known cause of heart attacks and strokes.

[Abu-Salman]

Beware of Trans Fat Substitutes

 

 

There is general agreement by now that trans fats increase the risk of heart disease by raising LDL cholesterol and lowering HDL cholesterol.

 

Legislation has been passed in some cities that prohibits restaurants from using trans fats, and such laws may eventually spread nationwide. But first, replacements must be found for these artery-clogging fats.

 

One easy switch is to use canola or soybean oil for frying some foods. But these oils cannot be used in the preparation of baked goods such as piecrusts, cookies, pastries, and pizza crusts. Another tempting approach is to substitute animal fats like butter or lard, but these contain mostly saturated fats, which are almost as bad for us as trans fats. Animal fats raise LDL cholesterol but do not lower HDL cholesterol.

 

So manufacturers are struggling to find healthy substitutes for trans fats while chefs and food chemists are checking the taste of other naturally occurring and chemically modified fats that can replace trans fats in these products.

 

Even when suitable substitutes are found, growing the necessary crops that contain these fats will take some time, as will determining whether the next generation of fats are really safer than animal fats or trans fats.

 

Meanwhile, don't be misled by food packaging that boasts a product is "trans fat-free" — you must read the label to find out which fat has replaced the trans fats.

 

A trans-fat-free margarine, for example, is still going to be composed almost entirely of fat. And if the trans fats have been replaced by saturated fats, such a margarine can hardly be called heart healthy.

 

© 2007 Johns Hopkins University.

[Abu-Salman]

From omnipresent hydrogenated fats to homogenized milk and other threats:

 

 

Real Safety Guides

[Cara.]

Most people ignore the reasons of the dramatic surge of chronic diseases in "developing countries" (such as the diabete epidemy, with a 20 % rate in the UAE) as well as the insidious threats we face on a daily basis in "developed countries", to the point one may legitimately ask to what extent "progress" has really been made.

You seem to lack perspective...

 

Progress is to die of coronary heart disease at 60 vs dying of dysentery at 6. Of course there are trade-offs in that someone who dies of malaria or malnutrition has a very low risk of developing type 2 diabetes in their 50s. But lets not kid ourselves: if longevity is a measure of health people are far healthier now than ever before.

[Abu-Salman]

Actually, while life expectancy is declining, "premature" deaths linked to heart diseases is a big concern for the NHS as well as in the USA (Both Young Men and Women are affected), besides the rise of mortality of those aged between 40-50 or beyond:

 

 

"Recently researchers have become concerned that the increase in obesity might change history by reversing gains in life expectancy that have been accumulating for more than four hundred years (see panel bottom centre left). Olskanksy et al have estimated that by 2050, obesity will reduce average life expectancy in the United States by 5 years and by inference up to 5 years in the UK" (NHS).

 

 

"It's a common misconception that heart disease is a male problem, yet cardiovascular disease is the biggest cause of premature death in women.

 

Heart disease should be a very real issue for all women, and younger generations must take action now to cut down their risk.

 

CHD mortality rates of those younger than 60 are worse for those born in the early 20th century than for those born in the 19th," according to the British Heart Foundation.

 

 

At the same time, one should not ignore that, alongside sudden death or other serious pathologies, arthritis, asthma and other chronic conditions such as type 2 diabete are serious burdens for societies, that jeopardize quality of life at an even younger age and facilitate other pathologies while keeping health expenditures spiralling out of control, thus creating a vicious cycle.

 

Alzheimer, for instance, has been declared a National Priority in France, where 11% of adults took psychotropic drugs at least once a week and for at least six months in, as found in trough a decade old study by Pr Zarifian, as overconsumption is "actively encouraged" by the pharmaceutical industry and increase each year despite the remarkable results achieved by simple lifestyle changes such as sensible diet, exercice as well as active spirituality and close engagement with the community trough voluntary activities.

 

 

In that light, yes, our forefathers and many other groups may have witnessed or still deal with relatively high child mortality rates (trial with huge rewards Islamically speaking), but those surviving were far less likely to grow senile and handicaped at 40 or younger (rise in sudden deaths also means less opportunities for Tawbah from an Islamic perspective):

 

 

"In many developed and developing countries, life expectancy has greatly increased over the last two decades. However, this seemingly favourable change raises new questions concerning the quality of the years of life gained, particularly in the elderly. Do the individuals who escape death accumulate disabilities, sequelae of accidents or consequences of chronic diseases? The concept of disability-free life expectancy, and more widely that of health expectancy, has been developed in order to answer this question", abstract from "Health expectancies and current research" by Jean-Marie Robine, Isabelle Romieu and Emmanuelle Cambois, Equipe INSERM Démographie et Santé, Montpellier, France, available on Cambridge journals.

 

 

Noteworthy is also the explosion of other sources of violent deaths and injuries to the extent of affecting WHO priorities:

 

 

"With nearly 1.26 million fatalities and over 35 million injured each year, the road is already death cause number one in the world for young people between 16 and 24 years of age and death cause number two for the category 15 - 44 [...].

 

According to the figures of the WHO, traffic will become death cause number three in the world within 15 years, while AIDS will drop to the ninth place on the list of death causes.

 

The road safety crisis can be described as one of the biggest global health catastrophes with an enormous negative impact on the social and economical elements of society" (Institute of Traffic Care).

 

 

In conclusion, for some countries, improved hygiene and sanitation led to a "health revolution" with huge gains, albeit now seriously compromised.

 

Much more insidiously, a host of new, more or less subtle threats have emerged as Western Consumerism tends to be replicated Worldwide, further confusing prevention messages as these are deeply embedded into our socio-economic systems, with wide ranging conflicts of interests keeping an alarming statu quo.

 

For instance, indoor pollution sources which range from carpets and child toys to cosmetics, expose to much more risks to everyone of us than outside pollution, which is already an unmitigated disaster in an increasing number of cities (unbreathable air alongside toxic water and food has decredibilized the Chinese "economic miracle"), perpetuated by a mix of politics, business and corruption.

 

Urgently needed, therefore, is a new paradigm of Health & Healthcare as well as a thorough review of the very concept of "progress" (not least the fundamental yardsticks whereby it is measured), beyond commercial therapies riddled with more or less ignored side-effects and the concomitant selection of resistant pathogens as well as the enduring diversion tactics further compounding irreversible socioenvironmental damage...

[N.O.R.F]

Heart disease and diabities has sky rocketed in the gulf over the past 20/30 years. People are no longer walking and sit in their cars, offices and home all day.