The Hidden Crisis Gaining Speed
The world has spent years preparing and managing pandemics, yet another even more daunting crisis has been advancing steadily and largely unnoticed due to its slow incremental nature. We are referring to chronic diseases that are quickly becoming the dominant health challenge of our time. Conditions such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and mental health struggles are not isolated problems. They can affect anybody, reinforce one another, creating what Marc Ronez describes as a dangerous flywheel effect, where the forces of poor diets, sedentary lifestyles, constant stress and environmental toxins accelerate a cycle of health decline that is more and more difficult to stop.
Why Treatment Alone Cannot Keep Up
In his latest blog post on The Risk Management Paradox, Marc highlights how much of society’s effort on heath issues has been placed on treatment rather than prevention. Healthcare systems continue to absorb vast resources into drugs development and treatment, yet the root causes are left unchecked and untreated.
The imbalance is leading to mounting costs for governments and businesses, increasing strain on healthcare providers, and declining well-being across communities.
Life expectancy, once assumed to be on a steady rise, is now showing signs of stalling or even reversing in some countries.
A Call for Preventive Action
Marc calls for a fundamental change in how societies approach health risks. An holistic approach focusing on prevention must take center stage, with reforms to food systems, stronger safeguards against harmful products, workplace and urban designs that promote healthier living, and policies that encourage proactive wellness at every level. These measures are not only about improving individual health. They are about reducing systemic risk that threatens long-term sustainability of human societies, much like the risks posed by climate change or disruptive technologies.
Breaking the Flywheel
The rise of chronic disease is a wake-up call that demands urgent attention and action. To break the flywheel and reclaim our future, prevention has to become a shared priority for policymakers, organizations and individuals alike.
For the full article and deeper analysis, visit Marc’s blog Confronting the Looming Global Health Crisis A Flywheel of Chronic Diseases Getting Out of Control?
Marc Ronez is the lead of ARiMI’s learning practice and author of The Risk Management Paradox blog.