Blog article

I attended a seminar recently called ’Western Lifestyle and ageing’. This is a summary of the findings. I will continue with more specific information on various diseases in the next newsletter.

Healthy ageing is all about what we do now to help ourselves in our older years.

1. A WHO report from 2010 cites that chronic disease accounts for 90% of deaths in Australia and 92% in New Zealand!! Of these chronic diseases 37-41% were cardio vascular  disease, 29% cancers, 15% other chronic diseases, 6% chronic respiratory disease, 6% Injuries, 3% diabetes, 3% diseases of babies . The Federal government spends 75% of its healthcare dollar on chronic disease and only 0.5% is spent on prevention! I think they may have got this one the wrong way round! After all it is our taxes being spent here!
    
2. Diet is a major factor. As I have mentioned before The Mediterranean diet is a very healthy one to reduce chronic disease. Lots of fish, fresh vegetables and fruit, nuts and olive oil.
    
3. Exercise We can obtain a whopping 30-60% decrease in getting type 2 diabetes compared to a sedentary person if we do 30-60 mins of moderately intense exercise 5-6x per week. This will decrease heart disease a well as diabetes risks e.g brisk walking.

Tips

Choose exercise you enjoy doing, then you are more likely to do it.   Make it part of daily life. Exercise with friends. Add variety so you do not get bored. eg dance, yoga, team sports, swimming, playing with kids. Plan the time. Put out clothes the night before! I know this trick works.

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