Close X
Friday, November 29, 2024
ADVT 
Health

Are You Suffering From Angelina Jolie Syndrome?

Darpan News Desk IANS, 13 Dec, 2015 02:20 PM
    If you pay extra attention to the probability of dangerous diseases that you may suffer in future, you are probably suffering from what is being termed as 'Angelina Jolie syndrome', a study warns.
     
    The politicisation and commercialisation of health issues in today's Western culture have led to growing healthism -- a peremptory idea of self-preserving behaviour.
     
    This approach criticises everything that fails to fit into the glamorous standards of a beautiful, young and slim body.
     
    "But even simple concerns about the 'standards' of physical condition may provoke hypercorrection, such as surgery on a healthy body," said study author Evgenia Golman from National Research University Higher School of Economics, Russia.
     
    More widespread displays of healthism include the boom in diets, fitness, plastic surgery and organic food, as well as the popularity of mobile apps for health monitoring.
     
    "Popular healthcare policy today often shifts the responsibility for health from healthcare institutions to individuals themselves, and shifts the focus from treatment to prevention, including prevention of even purely hypothetical pathologies," Golman wrote in her paper.
     
    Preventive medicine undoubtedly helps prevent many diseases and can save a lot of resources for families and the state.
     
     
    But if 'calculation' of sicknesses and idealisation of beauty and healthy body standards are understood improperly, in a purely commercial way, they can lead to mass neurosis and a social obsession with complying to healthist fashion.
     
    "The most dangerous thing is that such an approach stigmatises everything that doesn't fit in with the model of a 'healthy lifestyle'," the researcher warned.
     
    A young, beautiful and slim body is becoming not just a 'glossy' cult, but a measure for an individual's socio-economic position and even their 'value' for society.
     
    A person not only obsessively monitors every bodily manifestation, but starts detecting signs of imaginary sicknesses.
     
    Everything that doesn't fit into healthist standards (from excessive weight to face features) can become an object for discrimination.
     
    Golman emphasised such sources of healthism as "the politicisation of health" and economic feasibility of lower health care costs, social transformations such as the cult of individualism, as well as "medicalisation of everyday life".
     
    The study was published in the Journal of Social Policy Studies.

    MORE Health ARTICLES

    Stressed, Depressed Women Live Shorter

    Stressed, Depressed Women Live Shorter
    Providing a new possible link between the mind and body, a study says women under chronic stress have significantly lower levels of klotho, a hormone that regulates aging and enhances cognition.

    Stressed, Depressed Women Live Shorter

    Eat Nuts To Cut Cancer Risk: Study

    Eat Nuts To Cut Cancer Risk: Study
    Consuming nuts is associated with a decreased risk of certain types of cancer, but not Type-2 diabetes, says new study.

    Eat Nuts To Cut Cancer Risk: Study

    Canola Oil May Be Key To Healthy Lifestyle, Here Are The Top 5 Benefits

    Canola Oil May Be Key To Healthy Lifestyle, Here Are The Top 5 Benefits
    When you decide to stay fit and adopt a healthy diet, check out the cooking oil you're using as it might hold the key to a healthy lifestyle. 

    Canola Oil May Be Key To Healthy Lifestyle, Here Are The Top 5 Benefits

    Weight-loss Surgery Boosts Sex Life Too

    Weight-loss Surgery Boosts Sex Life Too
    The popular weight-loss surgery not only makes you look fit and healthy but can also bring spark back in your bedroom life, reveals a study.

    Weight-loss Surgery Boosts Sex Life Too

    How To Combat Your Hangover The Natural Way

    How To Combat Your Hangover The Natural Way
    Eat ginger and stay hydrated to get over your hangover naturally. Nutritionist Jacquie Newson doles out tips on how one can remain fine after a few drinks.

    How To Combat Your Hangover The Natural Way

    Here's How To Live Longer Without Cutting Calorie Intake

    Here's How To Live Longer Without Cutting Calorie Intake
    You may get a long and healthy life simply by balancing your protein and carbohydrate intake, without drastically cutting down your calorie intake.

    Here's How To Live Longer Without Cutting Calorie Intake