Day two of the
European Summit on Chronic Disease took place at the European Commission
building in the heart of the EU area of Brussels. The day was held many interesting addresses from Health Ministers from around Europe. Including
those from the home nations in the UK. There were also some great diabetes
discussions going on at the sidelines of the conference too.
The conference began
with a welcome address from Tonio Borg – the European Commissioner for Health.
He talked about combating the burden that chronic illness puts on the people
living with conditions, such as diabetes within Europe. Borg described that one
of the things to remember in wanting to increase people’s life expectancy, is
that their extended life should be a healthy one. Not plagued with chronic
illness throughout the years, which of course is a risk when people are living
longer. He also mentioned the economic benefits of having a longer life expectancy
for a population, is that there are financial and economic benefits to having a
healthier work force for the country they live in.
The European
Commissioner mentioned that the rise of diabetes within the EU could also be
linked to the growing rise in obesity amongst the population too. With the problem
sometimes resultant from a lack of physical activity, it could help both those
at risk and also those already diagnosed to improve their quality of life by
participating. Which I wholeheartedly agree with in terms of mass involvement in
physical activity, and this was a key message reiterated from many of the other
European Health Ministers as well. Physical activity is a massive focus for the
future for everyone, whether you have a healthy body but need to avoid chronic
illness or if you have an ailment but need to improve your quality of life-
exercise should be a key consideration.
Tackling the cause of
disease as well as treating the symptoms was a key statement, especially in
terms of child obesity. As it has been proven in studies around Europe that
obese children have high levels of insulin in their bodies putting them at risk
of Type 2 diabetes in later life. There was a very consistent message between
the Health Ministers when they all addressed the assembly. Which can only be
good for the future of chronic illness in Europe. It was clear that Tonio Borg believed
greatly in sharing best practices in order to improve the treatment and
management of chronic illness across all member nations, to hopefully result in
better quality of life leading to many economic benefits.
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