How to Ease the Burden of Disease in the Elderly

Active Aging and the Burden of Disease

Some countries differ in life expectancy from others for a number of reasons. Some of the reasons are cultural, economical, political and social. For instance, in advanced nations, the cultural lifestyles are bound up in the economic, political and social factors of the country; cleanliness and hygiene are considered high priorities primarily because society has made them more possible through advancements in technology. Wealth is evenly spread around so that the majority of the population in such nations can enjoy greater access to health and prosperity. In other, less developed countries, however, disease can be widespread and social unrest can be a problem that leads to much violence and many deaths.

Yet, even in advanced nations, life expectancy can deteriorate as people become too civilized that they fail to realize the benefit of an active lifestyle. They become complacent and eat foods that are not good for them, suffer from heart disease, or become too stifled in their communities that they feel mentally oppressed and take actions that harm themselves. Sometimes their worldview suffers from a breakdown of meaningful importance: they fail to see anything significant in life at all. Life is not worth living for such people and active aging makes no sense to them.

For example, researchers have shown that "13% of the global burden of disease" is caused by mental health disorders -- more than cancer and more than heart disease (Collins, Patel, Joestl et al., 2011). The range in mental health disease goes from schizophrenia to dementia to drug and alcohol abuse/dependency. It is estimated that as a result of some form of mental disease, 1.5 million people will be committing suicide every year by 2020 and nearly 30 million people will be suicidal (Bertolote, Flieschmann, 2002). These numbers highlight a serious, epidemic-like problem in the world's mental health. What has happened to make people's minds so troubled -- more troubled than their bodies?

The fact is that active aging is something that a morally, socially, economically, and politically healthy society naturally and normally takes part in. When the society is not healthy in these regards, the onset of mental and physical disease can be seen: there is deterioration in the fabric of society that undermines the otherwise natural tendency to actively age, rather than to self-destruct.

As Pallini (n.d.) notes in Latin America "the high prevalence of diabetes" is one indication that the entire world, not just the advanced nations, is picking up the bad habits of the industrialized societies: too many bad foods are making their way into the diets of people all over the world, especially in nations that beforehand had no such problems. People are overweight and obese and are not living natural, normal lifestyles that are simple and healthy. They are seeking too much gratification and leisure and have too easy access to pre-manufactured foods that do not require any effort from them to obtain.