Health and Lifestyle of the Modern World

The average longevity of human beings has increased in the 21st century due to modern medical practices and safe environment. The modern lifestyle has given us health conscious attributes and increased comfort at home. The burden of poor health cannot be shifted on the poor lifestyle. The positive results of modern lifestyle on the health of human beings are discussed in this article.

Health and lifestyle of the modern world
Introduction
The average longevity of human beings has increased in the 21st century. New medical
technologies and prosperity brought from new economic order have increased the average years
of the life of human beings (Seaman, 2013). Various international organizations like the United
Nations and Amnesty International are working for the increase in the number of years the
person lives in each country. Average living years have been increased irrespective of gender.
Though women still have less number of years to live, this section of the population has also
achieved growth from the perspective of longevity. The maternal mortality rate has been reduced
considerably along with less number of wars. Sustainable Development Goals and other
interventions can further increase the number of years human beings live (Shridhar et al., 2015)
It is generally said that the modern lifestyle has led to poor health outcomes seen among human
beings transcending the geographical, age and gender barriers. Sedentary lifestyle of the modern
century has encouraged overconsumption and discourages utilization of calories. Balanced food
intake is very much important as it is directly related to our health. The consumption of calories
must be equal to the total expenditure. Modem methods of comfort and sedentary lifestyle
attribute to poor health outcomes.
Negative impacts of lifestyle on health
It has been proved by many studies that watching television for a long time and less outdoor
activities are related to adverse health impacts. Many cardiovascular problems along with obesity
have a direct relationship with a sedentary lifestyle. The long hours of working on a computer or

playing games lead to adverse health outcomes. Even driving is considered to cause poor health
outcomes as it tests the mental ability and cognitive skills of the persons. It is proved by many
studies that longer driving is directly proportional to increased smoking and alcohol intake and
spending less time with family members (Mjaavatn, 1999).
Modern lifestyle and health outcome relation
Modern lifestyle has been made a monster without paying attention to the fact that longevity has
been increased in the 21st century all the time more. Human beings have the prospect of living
for more years. This contradicts the results obtained by other studies which confirm the modern
lifestyle as a cause of poor health outcomes. The world community was never so much conscious
of the health as it is today. There have been increases in medical facilities and the types of
clinical interventions. The yoga was never so famous thanks to the invention of technologies
(Nichols, 2017).
Controlling ideas
1. Decreasing consumption
Modern lifestyle has been responsible for an increase in the average lifespan of human beings.
So the burden of poor health cannot be shifted on the poor lifestyle. The modernity has given us
health conscious attributes. These attributes were not present in past. There was no gym for the
local population to use. Today, every person wants to have perfect look for which he or she
spends hours in the gym. Never the human beings were so cautious about the look as they are
today. Modern lifestyle has one more advantage viz. increased comfort at home. Air conditioners
are used by the modern man in summers while he uses heaters in winters. So the health problems
related to extremes of temperature have been reduced. The human beings live in comfort and

safe environment though this is not accessible for everyone. The countries which have made
considerable progress economically show the best performance on the health parameters (Egger
&Dixon, 2014).
This is argued that modern air conditioners and heaters are the harbingers of diseases. These
promote the lax attitude in people and encourage a sedentary lifestyle. The world has witnessed
the highest rates of obesity in the recent past and this is going to increase in the future. As
obesity will increase the health problems associated with it. It is said that modern lifestyle
encourages the least expenditure of the calories (Goguen, 2016).
This argument is refuted as it is based on false assumptions. The modern lifestyle is not
attributed to an increase in health problems. There has been less number of cases related to acute
and chronic illness. Medicins frontier and many other international organizations treat the
number of people. These organizations report most of the cases from the region of sectarian wars
(Jackson, 2014).
Sectarian war regions still have the traditional lifestyle as they are not able to develop
economically due to sectarian differences. The Middle-East and some other countries like
Afghanistan have less number of years as far as longevity is concerned. On the other hand,
longevity is increased in developed and emerging countries of the world. The most recent
precedent is China which successes to increase the number of years the person. So there is a need
to remove the causes of overeating, instead of blatantly putting the blame on modernity.
2. Increasing expenditure
Modern lifestyle is not responsible for the outbreak of diseases in any part of the world.
Modernity is associated with prosperity and less number of health implications. There has been a

range of medical facilities which are used by poor people also. Though it has not reached every
stratum of the population, medical facility has been made all the time more accessible to the poor
people. The governments of various countries are planning and implementing programmes to
reduce the number of death due to health problems (Prieto &Kales, 2016). The number of
hospital deliveries and treatment has been increased. There have been the latest technologies to
diagnose and treat the diseases. Along with the IT sector, medical science is scaling new heights.
Many cardiovascular problems which were impossible to treat in past, have been treated at local
hospitals.
It is said that driving is associated with mental and cardiovascular diseases. A number of driving
hours are related to being directly proportional to the vulnerability to diseases. But, looking from
both sides of the coins, modern transportation has ushered the humans into a new era of comfort.
Modern means of transportation saves the person from the vagaries of natural calamities like rain
and snowfall. There have been continuous improvements in the health status of women and
children (Mavrovouniotis, 2012).
Summary of the main ideas
The longevity has been increased in the world due to modern means of medical practices and
safe environment (the person is safe from the vagaries of extreme temperatures). The world has
never witnessed such scale of increase in longevity. The developed, developing and emerging
parts of the world witnessed the increased number of the average lifespan. The average longevity
for men has been increased to 74 and for women to 68. It is to be noted that after world war 2,
the average life years of a person were calculated as 32.

Conclusion
The above discussion stresses the positive results of modern lifestyle on the health of human
beings (Scheffler & Hermanussen, 2014). The world has witnessed the increase in longevity
which does not bode well with the claim that modern lifestyle results in poor health outcomes.
Definitely, there is a need to further explore the topic and provide substantive results.
References
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