What has this to do with brain health and efficient decision making? A lot, I think. Those in society making significant decisions which ultimately influence the lives of many other people are often among the more affluent. (Dictionary.com defines affluence. A more indepth description is found in this Wikipedia paper.)
Disease of affluence are thought to include Type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, peripheral vascular disease, obesity, certain forms of cancer, autoimmune diseases, asthma, alcoholism, depression and possibly a range or majority of other psychiatric illnesses. Causes are thought to include:
--Increased use of the car
--Less strenuous physical exercise
--Easy accessibility in society to large amounts of low-cost food
--Increased leisure time
--Prolonged periods of inactivity
--Greater use of alcohol and tobacco
--Longer life-spans
How many of these apply to you? And what are we doing about our risk factors?
This information was taken from a Wikipedia paper on Diseases of Affluence. Look there for a more complete discussion.