North American Diseases Go South of the Border
James Hospedales
Patricia Pizarro thought she was a good mother, so she was upset when the pediatrician told her she needed to change how she was raising her son Fernando. She had taken the 12-year-old in for a rash, but the doctor gave her an unexpected diagnosis: the boy was obese and had high blood pressure, and if things didn’t change, he could become diabetic or even worse.
Fernando’s lifestyle, it seems, was the problem. After eating a sandwich each morning for breakfast, he’d snack on sweets at recess and eat just about anything but vegetables at lunch. At home, he spent most of his time watching TV and playing or chatting on the computer, all the while snacking on cookies, potato chips, candy, more sandwiches and sodas. When his parents got home, he’d eat one more time before going to bed.
A daily routine like this is not unusual for a child in Santiago, Chile, or in any other Latin American city today. “Modern” lifestyles are on the rise throughout the hemisphere, and with them chronic non-comunicable diseases (CNCDs). Heart attacks, strokes, diabetes and cancer now cause two out of every three deaths in the Americas and consume by far the largest share of health-care spending.
