Obesity burden ‘outweighs smoking’ –
More people are now falling ill through their couch potato lifestyle than through smoking, suggest Europe-wide figures.
The figures, compiled by the Swedish Institute for Public Health, and revealed at the European Society of Cardiology annual meeting in Berlin on Monday, were accompanied by a call for governments to encourage people to take more exercise.
The study suggests that smoking can be blamed for 9% of all chronic diseases in the EU.
As well as lung cancer, long-term smoking also causes or contributes to heart disease and other serious lung problems such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
However, a combination of sedentary lifestyles and fat-laden diets mean that obesity is an increasing problem for Europe.
In addition, smoking rates have been falling generally in many European countries.
The research suggested that 9.7% of chronic disease could be blamed on lifestyle factors such as diet and exercise.
How should we interpret these data? First, smoking is clearly a greater individual risk factor than the ‘couch potato’ lifestyle. The day one stops smoking, the risk of cardiac events decreases (by eliminating carbon monoxide). Smoking probably puts others at some risk.
Fortunately, smoking addiction is decreasing in the US and Europe. Unfortunately, obesity, poor diet and lack of exercise are increasing. The prevlance of the latter has far surpassed the prevalence of smoking. Thus the ‘couch potato’ lifestyle has a similar total effect as smoking. I provide this article as ‘food for thought’. (Yes that was a deliberate pun)
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1 Response to Obesity a greater risk than smoking?
Anonymous
September 6th, 2002 at 10:20 pm
“More people are now falling ill through their couch potato lifestyle than through smoking, suggest Europe-wide figures.”
As people stop taking up smoking, but do replace farming and hauling around 500-pound pots of molten metal (my first thought was actually lobster pots, I have read that a single crew member is expected to handle a pot on an Alaskan boat after “King Crab” – at 700lbs empty), this is no big suprise. Smallpox deaths used to outnumber influenza death, now the reverse is true – now, could that have something to do with near-elimination of smallpox? Statistics are funny that way…