ELSI in Detail: Health

Health Includes: Medicine, food, sports, healthy environments, safety, shelter Reflects on: Longevity, nutrition, food access, obesity, life patterns, access to nature, environmental toxicity, aging, healing environments This is the area that deals with our physical health and those aspects in our environment that affect it. We’re increasingly concerned with our personal health, but this is not a new development. Throughout history we’ve seen flurries of health concern, some based on truth, some on superstition, and this is still the case today. Physical health and mental health are, as science continues to prove, closely interlinked. The Health and Happiness aspects of ELSI are therefore operating in close relation with one another. For example, stress, a decidedly mental factor, greatly affects physical health, and vice versa. Leading causes of death The leading cause of death, and rising, is Ischemic heart disease, also called coronary artery disease. Besides hereditary and gender related influences, the highest impact on these are diet (high cholesterol), cigarettes, blood pressure (stress), and lack of physical activity. Clearly, some of the greatest health issues of our age are related to nutrition and a sedentary lifestyle. In our industrialized societies there is plenty of processed food available everywhere, but fresh food has become hard to come by in many areas. It’s either expensive or it’s simply not there. The result is malnutrition, obesity, associated depression, and a plethora of related societal issues mostly in the disenfranchised layers of society (there’s poverty again). The greatest threat to a human being isn’t working environments, car crashes or war, but heart disease. There are colluding drivers for things like obesity, such as car-oriented culture, gaps in education and increasing commercial pressure to buy particular brand products (e.g.fast food chains, soft drinks), competing with affordable healthy products. Fighting for control of one’s own health While historically the individual has mostly been held accountable for making healthy life choices, it’s increasingly understood that there are systemic drivers that disallow or strongly disincentivize this. Not one individual can fight the power of uncountable corporations wanting to sell their product (often at all and any cost). Carefully analyzing everything you buy and consume, and understanding their net effect on your own health, let alone on the planet and others’ health, is simply impossible. Health and nutrition are responsibilities that are as much shared as they are personal, and to effectively confront them can benefit greatly from systemic approaches. Outside of the western world, access to fresh water is still one of the major health concerns. 1.5 million people still die of diarrhoeal diseases each year, linked directly to poor sanitation and access to clean water. These are similar numbers as those perishing from HIV/AIDS. While globally diarrhoeal diseases have been on the decline, with increasing scarcity of fresh water, we should ensure it does not revert. As people move more into cities, with the resulting increase in density and size of urban environments, so does the rise of air and noise pollution. In an increasing number of global capitals air pollution is the number one negative health factor. Measures to improve air quality are constantly implemented, but since they tend to be performed on an object-level they rarely beat the curve of rising pollutuon. Air pollution continues to threaten the lives of billions of people in the world. As we gain increasing understanding in the effects of smaller particles, this problem seems to rise on the priority ladder. Associated to air pollution is noise. Noise (and vibration) is associated with increases in stress levels and subsequently developmental disorders and even cancer. On a related note, living in cities, with less access to nature and a higher pace of living, is one of the reasons stress levels around the world are increasing. This is combined with mental factors, but physical stress associated with long working hours, high brain activity from processing the increased stimuli and messages we are confronted with are related to stress related illnesses. No wonder that there’s increasing interest in health related aspects in our daily lives. Healthy offices and living environments, healthy hobbies such as yoga and health diets and resorts, are increasingly gaining traction in the western world. Silver society At the same time, on average, we are increasingly living longer lives. This is good news for most people, and largely due to improvements in public health, nutrition and medicine. It also means that our population is aging. The ‘silver age’ is becoming a major societal challenge. How will we enable a flourishing society while a majority of us is no longer working? How do we develop environments in which we can live meaningful lives and can contribute, even after we’ve stopped working? How do we deal with the increasing pressure on our medical systems? Long term planning and innovation for the silver age affect nearly all developments, but they are not yet taken into account enough. Things are things to put on the radar.