Health Secretary highlights risk of lifestyle-related diseases
Andrew Lansley, health secretary, has highlighted the toll that so-called lifestyle-related diseases are having on the world's health in a speech given at the United Nations to members of its General Assembly.Mr Lansley said that obesity, lung disease and alcohol-related diseases threaten the world's mortality and disability.
He said: "With an emphasis on prevention, on physical activity, on personal and corporate responsibility and with unified government action, we can make a big difference."
If action is taken now to help people to lose weight, be more active and make healthier lifestyle choices, he suggested that life expectancy can expect to increase.
Diseases which are brought about by lifestyle choices are as much as a scourge on society as infectious diseases were in their day, he said.
A study by the Department of Health in 2010 suggested that binge drinking and rising obesity rates are fuelling an increase in conditions such as diabetes and liver disease.
