Activity Sheffield to be axed, a good way to combat obesity?

[Cyclone]

The single largest cost to the NHS is diabetes, the greatest contributory factor for diabetes is obesity. It's a managed disease, so people live with it for 10, 20, 30, 40 years at huge cost to the country!

A shortened lifespan as a pensioner probably saves the state money, but a shortened lifespan before retirement costs the country money in the lack of contribution to the economy.

[alchresearch]

The single largest cost to the NHS is diabetes, the greatest contributory factor for diabetes is obesity. It's a managed disease, so people live with it for 10, 20, 30, 40 years at huge cost to the country!

A shortened lifespan as a pensioner probably saves the state money, but a shortened lifespan before retirement costs the country money in the lack of contribution to the economy.

 

Spot on:

 

The cost of diabetes to the NHS is over £1.5m an hour or 10% of the NHS budget for England and Wales. This equates to over £25,000 being spent on diabetes every minute.

 

In total, an estimated £14 billion pounds is spent a year on treating diabetes and its complications, with the cost of treating complications representing the much higher cost.

 

The prevalence of diabetes is estimated to rise to 4 million by 2025.

 

http://www.diabetes.co.uk/cost-of-diabetes.html

[999tigger]

Surely a shortened lifespan cuts costs.

 

Interesting point, but I dont think so or at least i dont think it works out like that. If you are in poor health during working life it means less tax revenue. What would tend to happen is they might die a few years earlier, but they need much more care at the time.

[bendix]

I've only been living in Sheffield for the last four months, after nearly two decades working in Asia.

 

I'm stunned by the levels of obesity here; it's an epidemic. And don't get me started on the mass outbreak of mobility scooters? At what point in recent years did handing these out willy nilly seem like a good idea?

 

I've heard the argument that eating healthy is expensive. Utter tosh. I'm amazed at how cheap fresh food is here. It seems to me people can't be bothered to eat healthy - the likes of Heron and Fulton Foods make eating badly far too easy.

 

I've lost two stone since I've been back in country, but then I make a point of walking at least 8-10km a day as a matter of habit.

[Cyclone]

AFAIK obesity levels in Sheffield are at or close to the national average.

[gomgeg]

Cut national government council funds and tell them to increase local council tax to help elderly and disabled.

 

Need more than money to help people be less obese. There will be emotional damage, social pain that cannot be cleaned with money. Drinking, obesity, are only two examples of how many escape their tears, this is not just a financial matter.

 

Exercise may fix the body but that only treats it at a physical level and omits the source of the problem that lays deep inside the emotions that make you eat to ease the pain.

Flopping heck, where did that come from. I always thought people got fat because they eat and drink too much of the wrong stuff and don't move around much.

I saw 'The Jeremy Kyle Show' the other day. ( I know it's sad but it makes me feel better about my own family) most of the people on there are thick as a brick, unemployed and fat. One woman about twenty stone was on worried that her thirty five stone mother was killing herself, she couldn't even see the irony.

I know it's off topic also, but most of them have tattoos, face studs which I imagine they think makes them more attractive, and are fat but quite a lot of them have rotten or no teeth even the young ones.

I thought that dental care was free for people on benefits, so are they even too idle to go to the dentists?

[Cyclone]

Poverty is very strongly correlated with obesity, ill health and shorter lifespan.

It's definitely not as simple as the undeserving poor and the deserving rich (or middle class). Those born into poverty are structurally disadvantaged from the start.

 

So whilst being obese is ultimately down to consuming too much and doing too little, it's far too simplistic to just point a finger of blame and move on.

[bendix]

Those born into poverty are structurally disadvantaged from the start.

 

.

 

 

What structural disadvantages are these, and how do you explain those born into poverty who aren't obese?

 

People need to stop blaming external factors and 'society' for what are essentially personal choices.

[Cyclone]

People need to use google to find out what structural disadvantage is and why obesity is correlated with poverty.

They are personal choice, but to pretend that who we are and what choices we make aren't influenced by how we are raised and the life we experience is to miss the point.

[lindylou53]

People have to start taking responsibility for their health issues - we need to reserve sympathy for those who die an early death from illnesses and diseases that are not their fault. It shouldn't be the state who picks up the tab for obesity-related issues. After all - there weren't any - or very few - overweight people during/after the war when rationing was around. Are we to say there were also no 'emotional' issues around then? Just staying alive was a bonus!