Living in the western world and living in a 1st World nation has huge fortune and benefits associated with it. We have ready access to the fundamentals of life, the abundance of food, water, power, infrastructure, consumer products and distractions, entertainment and health care. We are at the top of the food chain in terms of access to all the things that we can access to ensure comfortable, long and quality life. With this richness of life has also come the development of western world disease and health conditions. As a developed people the western world has come to induce health conditions that are a result of indulgence, over abundance and inbalance which is a direct result of our lifestyle and choices of lifestyle.
In the western world, we tend to have so much access to dietary factors and choices of abundance that sometimes those choices lead to particular issues such as obesity, cardiovascular disease, cholesterol and type II diabetes. It is natural in a society that starts to develop wealth that the makeup of disease changes from poverty to affluence. Issues such as malnutrition and low caloric dietary intake give way to conditions of increased sugar content, fats and meat that bring with it certain conditions such as higher cholesterol and insulin toxicity. These Diseases of Affluence are a natural progression as a society moves from poverty to wealth.
Western lifestyles have developed to such a point that we have some common factors that determine how our microbiome is responding to our lifestyle choices. The main factors in a western world that influence our system are:
less physical exercise (thought primarily to rely on increased motor vehicle use)
less physical labour/activity (due to increased office vocation)
easy access to low cost food. resulting in…
more food generally
higher consumption of vegetable oils/sugars
higher consumption of meat/dairy
higher consumption of refined flours/grains
increased processed food consumption
greater use of alcohol/tobacco
increased cleanliness (which has an impact on immune development and possible allergen sensitivity)
reduced exposure to infectious agents/diseases of a communicable nature. (results in longer lifespans)
AN interesting situation arises for certain risk groups where the Diseases of Affluence become intermingled with diseases and conditions of less affluent societies or communities. In the case of some immigrant communities, there can be cases of people dealing with an onset of new conditions such as diabetes and heart disease along with malnurition and infectious disease. When cultures collide in this way it can make for a myriad of health concerns that affect these particular minority groups in a very specific way. For example, Vietnam suffers from a high rate of malaria, Tuberculosis and other infectious diseases along with cases of obesity and diabetes. Support and education is vital in these instances to give groups the understanding and knowledge of how to make the right choices when it comes to diet and lifestyle.
In this way it really is about making the right kinds of decisions when it comes to lifestyle choices. Ensuring you choose actions that address the 6 points listed above is a good start to keeping at the top of the bell curve in disease prevention and development of good health. Exercise and physical labour are common place in western environments and the messages are loud and clear. GET SOME. The physical labour aspect may harken back to our pre-industrialized history where our occupations were much more labour intensive, however our increased occupational shift to office space and computer driven vocations means that labour isn’t testing our bodies physically. We need to find ways of increasing our activity in our daily lives and finding a better balance of physicality if we aren’t getting that in our workplace.
if we think creatively, it can be as simple as investing in the home environment. Being active in DIY or property management can be a springboard to more activity - or simply starting a sustainable garden. This trend is becoming ‘the new black’ in a way as communities have been investigating and supporting the return to community gardening and the community economy. Trading your lemons for a dozen eggs was something our grandparents may have done but it’s not far off from being a reality again and I think it’s a brilliant idea. No matter how small a space you have, you can take advantage of home grown produce that surprisingly does have an immediate economic benefit. How often do you buy a bunch of herbs and cast away a brown, dishevelled bag of leftovers at the end of the week? Having a plant with a continual supply of ready made herbs is a gift that keeps giving. Theres so much about this type of approach that is beneficial to our local community and family that it just seems too simple to ignore.
Low cost food is another oft quoted factor in our health decisions. Our ready access to take-out, convenience food, and catered food down the road instead of cooking up our own meals has resulted in the rise of consumption of oils, fats, sugars and the like. Processed food does not have the nutrient rich dosages that fresh food has. Our seeming reliance on this has seen cases of heart disease, bowel disease and even cancers rise across the developed world with statistics across most developed nations citing heart disease as 30% of mortality deaths in any given year. Ingesting food that clogs our arteries and cardiovascular system is not a way to longevity and health. This message is also abundantly clear to most of us via the Department of Health’s campaigning and publications and it is having an impact with figures showing that from 2000 - 2015 our cases of CV disease have dropped significantly. (up to 11%) However the prevalence of childhood obesity is on the rise and this sends a clear message that the information and education needs to be continuous and reinforced for each new generation to ensure we keep the trend of CV disease under control.
Mental illness may not be something that many people would associate with a developed nation or economy but the stark truth is that cases of Alzheimers and dementia are MORE prevalent in affluent nations than impoverished ones. Dementia is the 2nd largest disease linked to death in Australia. in 2016 it was the leading cause of death in females, particuarly amongst our indigenous population. Deaths related to Alzheimers in the US have climbed since 2000 and in 2015, 1 in 3 persons over the age of 65 are likely to die from Alzheimer related conditions. This number has risen partly in an awareness of the conditions in assessment of mortality but the figures are still rising. In 2013, researchers Knapp, Andrews and Fincher in Cambridge University postulated a Hygiene Hypothesis that linked affluent nations to better sanitation and as a result reduced immune stimulation. They summise that advanced economies prevent us from coming into contact with friendly bacteria, microorganisms and viruses that help stimulate our immune system. They claim this may explain the prevalence of Alzheimers cases in developed nations as:" “Decreased microbial exposure leads to immune system that is poorly developed, which exposes the brain to inflammation as is seen in Alzheimer's disease”.
Of course many of the conditions and situations that arise in a developed world economy are interdependent and have an effect on our mortality. Take the obesity epidemic (and I don’t use that word lightly) for example. This can be complicated by our access to poor diet choices such as easy access to alcohol and tobacco. Now whilst tobacco use has dropped dramatically since the 1970’s our alcoholic use hasn’t and heavy drinking is tipped to be a big factor in contributing to our obesity issue (particularly in young adults) as well as conditions such as diabetes and heart conditions.
Perhaps topically, one of the biggest attributes of a developed nations was its access to health care that helped to decrease exposure to infectious agents and communicable diseases. The development and administration of vaccines and antibiotics has been one of the western worlds greatest victories over infectious diseases. However as we are currently experiencing in the midst of a global pandemic, the issue of how easily infectious diseases can spread is a global concern. The successes of the 19th and 20th century have been challenged over the past few decades with HIV and the strains of flus and now COVID presenting to us the problem that we have an uneasy balance in terms of vaccinations and medical interventions over communicable diseases. Our over reliance on antibiotics is now showing us that we need to stay on top of these factors and keep developing new and better ways to combat diseases spreading through our community, especially communities that have a high ability to transmit across continents due to increased travel, immigration and global food consumption. The connected world challenges our managing of infectious conditions and our seemingly fragile victory over diseases of old now make way for new challenges and more varied infections. Our key defences in infectious disease need to be re-designed to combat the new breed of diseases landing at our doorsteps.
Itsno tall doom and gloom though. We are still challenged by our living conditions and we are still very fortunate to live in developed nations with access to the advantages and choices that a developed economy brings us. It is good to be mindful though that every situation brings about it’s own challenges and choices and that we do have an element of control in these. If we stay aware and conscious of the options placed before us and balance our choices with good understanding of the repercussions of indulgence and abundance we still have the incredible opportunity to have longevity and quality of life. It is - in the end up to us to make all the choices for the betterment of our situations and community.
