Oct 19 2011: Personal responsibility is, in my view, the key to health. Many people, myself included, take our health/ wellbeing for granted, until everyday life is interrupted by illness. I've learned through illness that maintaining my health is key to me enjoying and getting the best out of life. It's taken until my 40s for me to learn this lesson even though I'm a healthcare practitioner who has been studying & working in health care for 17 years.
The challenge I see is communicating this effectively to people across the planet. People in societies with more money should have more resources to tackle this but ironically health concerns such as obesity tend to be higher in the developed, economically better off world.
Technology is improving but talk of things like 3d printers coming up with ready made organs sounds like fantasy at present but may become reality- possibly at a huge cost. Healthy solutions need to be cost effective for individuals for them to be feasible for society otherwise there will always be a divide between the haves and have nots.
Prevention agendas, in my experience, tend to focus on preventing particular illnesses, diseases or illness producing behaviours such as smoking which focusses the mind on these illnesses rather than wellness.
There's a lack of focus on the paradox that is both the joy of health and the inevitability of death that can focus peoples awareness on their individual circumstances and responsibility... to themselves and their own futures.
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A comment on Conversation: What is the future of healthcare? How can it become health care vs sickness treatment? What role do technology and innovation play?
The challenge I see is communicating this effectively to people across the planet. People in societies with more money should have more resources to tackle this but ironically health concerns such as obesity tend to be higher in the developed, economically better off world.
Technology is improving but talk of things like 3d printers coming up with ready made organs sounds like fantasy at present but may become reality- possibly at a huge cost. Healthy solutions need to be cost effective for individuals for them to be feasible for society otherwise there will always be a divide between the haves and have nots.
Prevention agendas, in my experience, tend to focus on preventing particular illnesses, diseases or illness producing behaviours such as smoking which focusses the mind on these illnesses rather than wellness.
There's a lack of focus on the paradox that is both the joy of health and the inevitability of death that can focus peoples awareness on their individual circumstances and responsibility... to themselves and their own futures.