What can governments do to improve our health?

Scientists at the University of Edinburgh are coming to the conclusion that the notion that individuals are solely responsible for their own health is not a true reflection of people’s lives in general. Exercise and diet will only get you so far in living a long and healthy life, is the main thrust.

What has a much bigger impact on our health and longevity are public health measures relating to matters such as clean air, drinkable water and universal health care, which have far wider effects on our health than any number of workouts at the gym or cabbage smoothies.

So are we wasting our time in looking after ourselves with plenty of exercise and a healthy diet? Of course not! Whatever your circumstance this will boost your longevity and mental and physical wellbeing. It is estimated that some 20 per cent of deaths in high-income countries are due to preventable causes. Living a healthy lifestyle could well keep you out of that unhappy segment.

But people also need to have agency over their own lives. When it comes to aspects such as clean water and air pollution you are at the mercy of where you happen to live and indeed your governing authorities. When we see health improvements at population level this is generally the result of measurement imposed by governments.

Another complicating issue re our public health is social media – the likes of TikTok influencers and celebrity diets being quite possibly given more weight than they deserve with their largely marketing aims. And with so much misinformation out there, for example on vaccines, unfortunately “popularity determines the truth”.

It is postulated that the aim should be to increase life expectancy to between 80 and 100 years for everyone, but with people in good health so as not to overburden healthcare services with an ever-ageing population, along with the ability to live independently. The groundswell of opinion is now indeed that prevention is better (and cheaper) than cure.