Inappropriate diet, smoking, lack of physical exercises and stress- these are the factors that have the most harmful effect on our health. According to Gianis Tundas- a professor in social medicine who has created a program on preventive medicine, people that maintain healthy eating habits, don’t smoke, play sports on regular bases and are able to control stressful situations, gain an average of 10 years to their lives.

A survey conducted all over Greece by “Hellas Health I”, the center of investigation of health institutions to the Athenian University, shows that 34.5% of the men and 44.7% of the women claim no physical activity, and 40% of all Greeks are smokers. More specifically, 49.9% of the men and 30.8% of the women smoke every day.

In addition, Greeks consume more than the permitted level of red meat and sweets, while having removed whole grain foods, fruits and vegetables and fish from their grocery list. As a result, their eating habits are now light years away from the fundamentals of the Mediterranean diet.

These data need to be completed with the fact that 56% of the women haven’t had themselves examined for breast cancer, and 46.2% of the women between the age of 50 and 69 haven’t had the test for the past three years.

More than 70% of the women about to enter menopause haven’t had the exam for bone density that is needed to diagnose osteoporosis in time. On the other hand, 69% of the men between 45 and 54 years of age and 45% of the men over 65 haven’t had tests for prostate cancer early diagnosis.

A lot of people are not even aware that they suffer from a chronic disease, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, etc. 25% of the Greeks have high blood pressure and among them 10% have not been diagnosed, 9% receive no treatment, 66% don’t receive enough treatment, and only 15% are under the appropriate therapy.

The same phenomenon can be observed among people suffering from diabetes. From 900 000 Greeks with diabetes 400 000 receive no treatment and only 250 000 are correctly oriented and fallowing the appropriate therapy. All in all, being ignorant of the factors most dangerously affecting their health, Greeks “gain” to their lives less years than the rest of the Europeans and more to that, they don’t have the tests, needed to determine the risk, done.