NEW YEAR, OLD ME
AS WE look forward to a new year and new opportunities, we often forget what will be one of the limits of what we can hope to accomplish – our ageing bodies. Leon Trotsky aptly described the mental resistance to ageing when he said that old age is the most unexpected of all things that can happen to a man. The invincibility of youth slowly fades. We get tired more easily and take longer to recover from nights out and injuries, and most importantly, we have to start thinking about diseases that are a consequence of ageing. Childbirth and rearing become a race against time. Our beauty begins to fade. Through all of this, we must embrace healthy ageing and accept the inevitability of our own mortality.
As a result of the scourge of chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as obesity and cardiovascular diseases, we are entering an era where the life expectancy of upcoming generations will be lower than that of their parents. This is due to the fact that persons will be getting lifestyle diseases at an earlier age because of their diets and lack of physical activity.
A recent study looking at high schoolers in Jamaica found that approximately 20 per cent of adolescents are overweight and obese. This has serious implications, as childhood obesity is associated with an increased risk of diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease. Our youth are in almost as much trouble as their grandparents.
If we continue along this path, we will see a rapid worsening of the burden of chronic NCDs over the next decade. Adding obesity to the pressures of being an adolescent, a student, and finding your identity can be too much for some minors. We need to take a closer look at this atrisk group and formulate interventions that include psychological support.