Working and Healthy: A Health Warning for Office Workers

Author: Wu Liu Xin
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-06-01
Features: This book is specifically written for working professionals and students, as the vast majority of them, although not currently showing obvious physical or mental health issues, or not having a definitive diagnosis during annual physical check-ups conducted by their organizations, or only having certain indicators at the "upper or lower limit" state, are actually in a sub-health or disease stage. This is especially true for middle-aged and young scholars racing against time, educators and scientists, film and television celebrities, corporate leaders, middle-level managers, and journalists. They face increasingly intense competitive environments, physical and mental burdens, and work pressures, struggling to cope. They have no time to rest, no time for leisure, no time to enjoy time with family, no time for health checks and assessments, and no time to communicate with doctors. As a result, the incidence of high blood pressure, diabetes, coronary heart disease, stroke, and malignant tumors among them is increasing at an alarming rate, with younger ages of onset, and even leading to early deaths and sudden deaths.
As members of a specialized institution engaged in human health assessment and sub-health evaluation, my colleagues and I have witnessed over the past 30 years the rise in chronic non-communicable diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and malignant tumors, associated with unhealthy lifestyles in developed Western countries and developing countries like China, alongside rapid advancements in medical diagnosis and treatment technologies: functional imaging, minimally invasive surgery, interventional therapy, new stem cell treatments, drugs, and methods are constantly emerging. Healthcare costs are rising year by year, and the burden of disease is becoming increasingly heavy. According to a survey by China's Ministry of Health on the medical billing of 12 top-tier Grade-A hospitals in Beijing from January to September 2004, the average monthly medical revenue of each hospital was 560 million RMB, with an average of 731,000 outpatient visits. Based on this calculation, nearly 20 million people visit hospitals in Beijing annually, resulting in nearly 20 billion RMB in medical expenses.
Beijing, as the capital of China, boasts highly advanced medical technology and abundant healthcare resources, as well as sophisticated diagnostic methods. However, high-end and expensive medical technologies have not reduced the incidence or mortality rates of chronic non-communicable diseases in the city. Currently, the mortality rates of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and malignant tumors—collectively referred to as "chronic diseases" in Beijing—account for 73.3% of the top 10 causes of death. The phenomena of "early disease, early disability, and early death" are becoming increasingly common. On average, one person in Beijing dies of cardiovascular disease every 20 minutes.
From this perspective, high-end and expensive medical technologies primarily focus on the later stages of illness and downstream health issues, striving to "treat the end" and "plug the gap." This may only delay death and reduce mortality at a certain point in time but cannot prevent new cases from occurring or fundamentally address the "early disease, early disability, and early death" problem. It also fails to effectively curb the spread of risk factors contributing to these diseases.