Bioquímica do Exercício

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A ONU, com apoio do ACSM, aprova uma campanha contra doenças "silenciosas" com atividade física como destaque.

http://www.informz.net/acsm/archives/archive_1302893.html

ACSM and the Exercise is Medicine® (EIM) global health initiative have worked with global and national organizations, including some of yours, to ensure that the United Nations (U.N.) formally and emphatically recognizes that sedentary lifestyles—and the resulting noncommunicable diseases and conditions to which they give rise—are a growing and soon-to-be catastrophic threat to global health as well as economies and productivity. We have also worked to ensure the U.N. would call on nations around the world to do far more to promote increased physical activity and sports.

Monday, the U.N. General Assembly approved and launched an all-out attack on noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) such as cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. The effort is devoted to curbing the risk factors, including physical inactivity, behind the often preventable scourge that causes 63 percent of all deaths. The overall annual toll of NCDs is estimated at 36 million out of a total of 57 million deaths.

The two-day, high-level General Assembly meeting, attended by heads of state, senior health ministers and other world leaders, adopted a declaration calling for a multi-pronged campaign by governments, industry and civil society to set up by 2013 the plans needed to curb the risk factors behind four groups of NCDs: diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancers and chronic respiratory diseases.

ACSM staged a powerful preconference prior to the U.N. vote on Sunday, making the strongest case possible for the role of physical activity and sports in improving global health. ACSM’s preconference was attended by ministers of health, the U.S. Surgeon General, delegates to the U.N. summit, and leaders from not-for-profit organizations, philanthropies and industry. Key partners were the Pan American Health Organization, the CDC/WHO Collaborating Center on Physical Activity and the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition. A spectrum of organizations worldwide, including public health, physical activity advocates, philanthropies and others, participated. Presentations and comments defined challenges and held up successful programs as best practices to emulate.

The vote at the U.N. summit on Monday came quickly and unanimously. A succession of heads of state and other national leaders followed, making public commitments to doing more to address risk factors for noncommunicable diseases, with a special emphasis being placed on physical activity.

“This will be a massive effort, but I am convinced we can succeed,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the opening session of the landmark summit, only the second ever to deal with health (the first was HIV/AIDS). He noted that more than a quarter of all people who die from NCDs succumb in the prime of their lives, the vast majority of them in developing countries. “Our collaboration is more than a public health necessity,” Ban continued. “Noncommunicable diseases are a threat to development. NCDs hit the poor and vulnerable particularly hard and drive them deeper into poverty.” He described how millions of families pushed into poverty each year when a member becomes too weak to work or when the costs of medicines and treatments overwhelm the family budget.

“The prognosis,” said Ban, “is grim. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), deaths from NCDs will increase by 17 percent in the next decade. In Africa, that number will jump by 24 percent.” The Secretary-General repeatedly cited physical activity as of fundamental importance to global health. He called on governments, individuals, civic groups and businesses to all play their part General Assembly President Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, also noting the importance of physical activity, stressed the need for international cooperation to tackle the problem. “The global community must work together to monitor, reduce exposure to risks, and strengthen health care for people with noncommunicable diseases,” he said.

“The impact of this loss, this tragedy, goes beyond individuals, beyond families,” said Al-Nasser. “NCDs are altering demographics. They are stunting development. And they are impacting economic growth.”

Action needed at all levels

The declaration calls for greater measures at global, regional and national levels to prevent and control NCDs and stresses that about nine million of the deaths occur before the age of 60, with nearly 80 percent of those in developing countries. It cites “the vicious cycle whereby noncommunicable diseases and their risk factors worsen poverty, while poverty contributes to rising rates of noncommunicable diseases.”

Noting that “the rising prevalence, morbidity and mortality” of NCDs can be largely prevented and controlled through collective and multi-sectoral action by all member states and other relevant stakeholders, it highlights the need for universal national health coverage and strengthened international cooperation to provide developing countries with technical assistance and capacity-building. The declaration calls on WHO, as the lead UN specialized agency for health and the vanguard of the global effort, to set up a comprehensive global monitoring framework and prepare recommendations for voluntary global targets before the end of 2012.

ACSM and EIM are working with a worldwide network of organizations on a series of strategies and actions plans that will support the U.N.’s actions. We will keep you posted of any major developments.

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