We have made great progress in curbing smoking and making it more socially unacceptable. This has had a major impact on the rates of heart disease, emphysema and lung cancer. However, other ‘lifestyle diseases’ are beginning to rise again as we are faced with another epidemic – obesity – leading to increasing rates of diabetes, heart disease and cancer. What should we do about this? Continue pouring more money into research and treatment, or do the sensible thing – learn our lesson from history and tackle the cause?
