Synopsis: Chronic diseases place the biggest demand on the tertiary health care system in Hong Kong and other post-industrial countries, as well as growing problems in developing countries. It is not the acute manifestations of these diseases but the disability they cause that present the greatest problem.

Particularly important are Type 2 diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases such as angina pectoris (AP), acute myocardial infarction (AMI), stroke, peripheral vascular disease (PVD), and dyslipidemias.

This lecture looks at a different way of thinking about these problems: as manifestations, complications in fact, of the pandemic of over-nutrition and inactivity which now besets people planet-wide.

This lecture considers the prevalence of related complications, and the barriers that exist to preventing these complications that represent this complex of disorders.

As you will see, these complications are largely avoidable. Why, therefore, are they so common?