Diseases of affluence used to be called diseases of rich people. After some years of research and observations, scientists have come up with a list of medical conditions which they associated with the kinds of lifestyles commonly linked with well‑off people living in highly developed Western countries. The increasing wealth in those societies and the alternations in the aspects of life, such as quality and quantity of calorie intake, physical activity patterns and amount and type of leisure, are linked with the growing prevalence of the ailments in this group. This trend has been on the rise since World War II. Most of the conditions grouped under the label of diseases of affluence are so called non‑communicable diseases, which means that one cannot get infected with them through contact with a patient. It does not mean, however, that they are any less dangerous.

Studies show that the supply of food in affluent countries exceeds the demand. It can be tracked down to individual households, where plenty of food is wasted every day. That’s one negative aspect of the changes that the growth of wealth in society has caused. The other one is the fact that people in industrialised nations reach for ultra‑processed foods much more than the inhabitants of less developed regions of the world. The effects of such nutrition has been looked into by scientists for some time now, and the conclusions they have drawn so far clearly show the link with a certain group of diseases. What’s more, the quality of unprocessed produce has changed too. Studies show that, nowadays, fruit and vegetables are not as nutritious as those 60 to 70 years ago. They often lack the vitamins and microelements we need to live healthy lives. They might be bigger and more resistant to pests, but we cannot get as many nutrients from them as our grandparents did. Vitamin and microelements deficiencies, unfortunately, often lead to diseases.

Wealthy people in highly developed countries have become obsessed with cleanliness. They clean, wash and tidy their living spaces passionately. An impeccable household is often considered to be a sign of high standards. The whole industry producing a huge array of products dedicated to cleaning various surfaces has grown around our exorbitant focus on keeping our living spaces free of germs of all sorts. Advertising has convinced us that we also need a diversity of products to make ourselves clean, fresh and nicely smelling. Hence soaps, mouthwashes, hygiene sprays and deodorants found their way into our bathrooms. The bad news is that by wiping out all microorganisms around us, we also annihilate those which we need to function normally. We’ve been observing an increase in allergies and autoimmune diseases, which scientists have started to connect with excessive sterility of the environment we live in.

People’s longevity has been increasing exponentially for the last several decades. From an average lifespan of 35 at the beginning of the 1900s, we have already reached more than 70 in developed countries. We must remember, though, that it varies across different countries. According to statistics published by the Our World in Data website, in 2019, the country with the lowest life expectancy was the Central African Republic with 53 years. By comparison, people in Japan could expect to live 30 years longer than that. The problem is, however, that the longer we live the more likely we are to develop degenerative conditions which used to be scarce or even non‑existent in the past. We still have to figure out how to deal with old age ailments and how to tackle taking care of the elderly in ageing societies.

The increase of material wealth seems to have a high psychological cost. Obviously, stress is something that afflicts everybody, no matter what their place of domicile or standard of living is. However, individuals living in the fast‑paced environments of contemporary highly developed societies turn out to be especially exposed to high levels of prolonged stress. This, in turn, causes outbreaks of cancer, diseases of the respiratory and cardiovascular systems, diabetes and mental disorders. Too much stress stops having a motivating effect on people. It is debilitating and causes high levels of inflammation in the body.

Recent studies show that children of affluent backgrounds also pay a price for their seemingly comfortable and stressless upbringing. They seem to be more prone to conditions, such as substance use, anxiety and depression. The sources of these problems were tracked to pressures to achieve and isolation from parents. First of all, children in wealthy families are often supposed to be high‑achievers, no matter what their actual cognitive abilities are. Large sums of money are invested in their education and the return on investment is expected almost immediately. This is connected with the second factor, as kids are frequently isolated from their parents either as a result of being placed in boarding schools far away from home or through the fact that the adults work so much that they hardly ever have time to spend it with kids.