New Years Eve reflections

On July 20th 1969 I was a second year medical student sitting alone in a cottage in the English countryside. It was the early hours of the morning, but it was also a moment when the world radically changed. Neil Armstrong stepped onto the surface of the moon and said: "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind".

At this particular point in our lives, not just at the end of one year and the beginning of another; but at a time of economic fear and talks of recessions and depressions, it's good to remember what great things, we as humans are really capable of. It's almost 40 years ago now, that those astonishing pictures of our beautiful, blue earth, taken from the surface of the moon against a background of pitch black space, made us realise that literally, we're all in this together, and we all have a part to play.

Back here on earth at the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009, the talk in the media is all about global financial meltdowns with all its consequences. However, from a medical point of view, things are humming along quite nicely thank you very much. Since man landed on the moon we've made great strides in medicine too. For instance, we now have fantastic scanning machines to look inside the human body without having to slice it open. Our understanding and management of cardiovascular disease is very advanced, as a result of which hundreds of thousands of lives have been saved. Sight has been restored with lens implants and laser treatments. Hearing has been restored to the profoundly deaf through cochlear implants. More recently, the advances in cancer treatment have taken a leap forward with the introduction of vaccines to prevent cervical cancer, a common killer of younger women. Childhood leukaemia isn't the death sentence it once used to be, thanks to tremendous results achieved using novel medications and the gift of bone marrow transplants. The list of advances is really impressive, but needless to say, there is still a vast amount of work to do.

Whilst the scientists have been doing a great job, we as individuals still need to do more in our own lives. Why is obesity on the rise? Why so much type II diabetes? Why hasn't smoking gone the way of the Dodo, and why are so many of our indigenous brothers and sisters still living in third world conditions? Lives are still needlessly lost to drink driving, suicide and lifestyle related cancers. Our beaches are still full at this time of the year in the middle of the day, as people chase beauty by burning, ignoring the fact that they increase their risk of sun induced skin cancers.

We are lucky people living in a smart country, but we could do a whole lot better. Perhaps we could turn the coming economic belt tightening to our own good use: by becoming fitter and healthier; by losing weight where appropriate and eating more fresh veggies and fruit; by stopping smoking and cutting down alcohol intake; by not being sucked in by quick fix, "you too can look as beautiful or as rich as me" advertising. Then perhaps we can be a bit more confident in who we are.

Perhaps we can reach out to those who need that extra bit of care and attention. Perhaps by living a healthy life we can reduce our reliance on the health system so that less is needed to treat life-style related health problems, and more can be spent on treating sick kids and those in real need. Perhaps by each one of us taking responsibility for living our own lives as well as we can, then we can really say that we are smart people living in a very lucky country.

Wishing you a very happy healthy and hope-filled New Year.

HBF Health Funds, the largest health insurance provider in Western Australia.