Blog # 10

A major global problem in the world of health and disease is type two diabetes, which leads to huge human cost and cost to the NHS. The number of people diagnosed with the disease in the UK alone has risen be nearly 130,000 in the past year to 2.9 million. Type two diabetes accounts for 90% of all cases and is most common in people that are overweight. Having vascular screening and losing 10% of your weight can reduce your chances of having type two diabetes, but something must be done to reverse if more people are not going to suffer and if diabetes is not going to bankrupt the NHS. The charity said about 10% of NHS spending, or £9bn a year, goes on diabetes and its complications. This disease affects nearly 17 million Americans and is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States. The death rate in patients with diabetes may be 11 times higher than someone without it.

The leading causes in type two diabetes are obesity and lack of physical activity, but the question is why are so many people obtaining this disease at such a fast rate. Why are so many people over weight and why don’t we take part in physical activity? I believe these go hand in hand and directly correlate with each other in such that lack of physical activity leads to obesity and then into type two diabetes. One of the leading causes in lack of physical activity is technology. I believe technology is the source of elimination of physical activity and obesity for several reasons. When we go into a mall or an airport how many people do you see taking the steps or actually walking in that matter, not many? The inventions that we create through technology are meant to make life easier and people lazier. We have escalators, elevators, moving platforms, shuttle cars, etc. I recently went to universal studios in Florida and they had moving platforms taking people around and guess what, not a single person actually walked the 100 feet to the entrance. Next, is the invention of video games and computers. What child wants to ride a bike or run around outside when he can sit and watch a TV screen? I could go on and on but the underling fact is that technology has created a culture of laziness. Not t mention everyone is this world is over worked from school and jobs that they honestly would rather sit around than go out and do something active. If this trend is to change we need to invent some sort of technology that doesn’t make us lazier or just find a cure.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/oct/27/diabetes-health?INTCMP=SRCH