ABSTRACT
It is a strange paradox that the population of developed countries is living longer
than ever before and life expectancy, at least for the moment, continues to rise,
yet at the same time we are suffering from a serious range of health problems,
especially associated with diet, lack of exercise and poor mental health. This is a
result of our changing lifestyles, where most people are more sedentary than in
earlier times yet consume a similar or greater level of calories, where modern
living places different stresses on us as a result of changing family structures,
travel demands and work-life balances, for example. Obesity levels are increasing
and, with them, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes, while depression, espe-
cially among young people, is being diagnosed more than ever before. In a recent
advertising campaign by the British Heart Foundation, a poster shows young
boys reclining on a sofa surrounded by soft drink bottles and confectionery
wrappers, with each one either talking on their mobile phone, watching television
or playing with a computer game. The caption beneath reads, ‘The early signs of
heart disease’. This image is both hard-hitting and accurate and shows how the
risks associated with this modern lifestyle are not just affecting adults or older
people but start with the young.
