A Wealthy Lifestyle Can Kill Us

Who could ever have imagined that getting rich was such a terrible thing? According to recent research, a wealthy lifestyle is actually the worst thing that could possible happen to us, so you'd better stop playing the lottery and wish you really didn't get that promotion at work, because living the good life can effectively become life-threatening. And no, I'm not talking James Bond scenarios here – no terrorist kidnappings or any other threat coming from the outside world, just plain old fashioned greediness and an out-of-control, unbalanced lifestyle.

A recent report put together by the World Health Organization showed that conditions linked to rich lifestyles, such as heart disease and strokes, are now the world's main cause of death, having overtaken infectious illnesses. Even worse, the same report warned that by 2030, the list of top ten global killers will only contain one contagious disease, namely HIV/Aids. It may sound slightly odd to begin with, but if you think about it, it makes perfect sense. For many of us, a richer lifestyle means less cooking at home, more eating out (where it's harder to exercise portion and calorie control), traveling almost exclusively by car and an overall more complacent attitude towards healthy living.

Of course, we can't generalize, but it's best if we take the WHO warnings into account. Many western countries, the U.K and the United States being prominent among them, are currently dealing with a veritable epidemic of obesity and a surge in the number of nutritional-related diseases such as diabetes. "Diabetes [...] is on the rise everywhere. Even low-income countries are seeing shocking increases in obesity, especially in urban areas and often starting in childhood", warned WHO director general Dr Margaret Chan. As a result, we'd all better start taking a close look at our lifestyle regime and look for ways to include more exercising and healthier eating habits, as things have never been quite as serious as they are now.


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