Wednesday 22 November 2017

Book review of "Epic Measures" by Jeremy N. Smith

Picked up this book while reading another in Woodlands Regional Library. This book describes the Journey of Chris Murray. He began the Global Burden of Disease study .

http://www.healthdata.org/singapore

The guy in this video wrote the book and fleshed out the idea : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqEJmM27_pU

From chapter 15 : " You could solve humanity's most pressing problems once you recognised them. Tell them what their worst problems are, how to find the best solutions , and what progress they are making in improving their health It would help to turn information into evidence , evidence into action , and action into result. "

in a nutshell , WHO's standard of measure doesn't seem to be adequate for decision makers today. Various health agencies measures and administers aid. Over reporting occurs.

Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation serves as a academic body that provides an independent insight / measurement that covers not just things that kill you , but things that disables you too.

Key concept : if a stroke killed you at age seventy , you had lost ten years of potential life to early death.
 If pneumonia killed you on your first birthday , you had lost seventy nine years.
In terms of potential years of life lost , then the case of childhood pneumonia was almost eight times worse than stroke. simply counting deaths is not enough.

The second part of the sum concerned non fatal health problems e.g. hit by a car while crossing the street.
"if someone dies of cancer at age seventy -five , maybe the disease has taken five years of life," (years of life lost - YLLs) "if he dies of a car crash at twenty-five , that's fifty-five years. If he survives the car crash but has severe spinal injury , then dies at age sixty , that's both twenty years of life lost ( YLLs) and thirty five intervening years life with disability. (years lived with disability- YLDs )
Quantity of life lost (YLLs) + Quality of life lost ( YLDs) = Total years of healthy life lost ( DALY - Disability adjusted life years)

 How to live a longer and healthier life according to the Global Burden of Disease
1) Beat the reaper
Ideal diet , increasing physical activity , lowering body weight ( 21 - 23 BMI) , no smoking.
2) stay strong to the end
to prevent back and neck pain , take regular stretching breaks at work , exercise with a focus on core strength and consult guides to improve your posture.
3) change what risks you can.
what was good for the world's population in general might not be true for individual e.g. lactose intolerant shouldn't be drinking milk

Diet : 300 g of fruit (daily)
400 g of vegetables (daily)
125 g of whole grain (daily)
115 g of nut/seed/ peanut butter (weekly)
not more than 100 g of red meat (weekly)
0 processed meat (bacon , salami , sausages , deli style ham , turkey and pastrami) 0 sugar sweetened beverages poly unsaturated fatty acids from liquid vegetable oils
250mg of omega - 3 daily clean water / cooking fuels

4) support public action
5) get smart (even if you can't get rich)
educating women is an especially wise health investment on two fronts : first , it makes them better advocates and decision makers for themselves and their families during times of medical need; second , it leads women to delay the onset of motherhood and have fewer life risking pregnancies overall.
6) Be born in Japan - Or Switzerland , Or Singapore , Or ...
7) get risk in France - Italy or San Marino