When we hear the word pandemic, our thoughts immediately turn to Covid 19, the virus that rapidly spread across continents and disrupted our lives beyond recognition.
Since the beginning of 2020 when the world went into lockdown, the focus has very much been around health. We learnt early on that being overweight could worsen the outcome of Covid-19.
This proven connection between body weight and the high number of hospital admissions from the virus caused Boris Johnson, Prime Minister of the UK, to commission a £70m fund to fight the war against obesity.
Snapshot of the problem today
Before we explore ways to change lifestyles, it’s important to take note of how bad the obesity pandemic is and how bad it’s going to get if nothing is done.
As Change My Face is UK based, we have taken statistics from the National Health Service (NHS).
Figures reported by the NHS in 2013–14 showed that there were 442,000 “episodes of care” linked to obesity. An episode is when someone has required medical care. Fast forward just four years to 2108–19, and the NHS reported nearly 1.1million episodes. The main reasons for needing hospital intervention when obese are breathing difficulties caused by too much carbon dioxide in the blood, type 2 diabetes and sleep apnoea.
Around two thirds of cases are women with an average age of 54. And the number of younger children requiring care, is alarmingly on the rise too.
The report also suggested that these patient numbers may not be an accurate representation as many hospital admissions are recorded under other categories, while it is probable that the reason for their health conditions, including heart disease and cancer, is down to their weight. The true figure is almost definitely a lot higher.
These statistics do not lie. Societies need to be aware of this pandemic. The time to change is now.
Recognising the problem
The sooner a person identifies that they are losing control over their weight the better. But what stops someone from making changes, even small ones, to improve their health?
Maybe it’s the lack of knowledge, maybe they don’t think they have a problem, maybe it’s the belief that they don’t have time to cook healthily or to take daily exercise, maybe they simply don’t know where to turn to for help. While all this will certainly play a part, the truth is, and this is reflected in the stats, that until a person starts to FEEL the effects, very little or nothing gets done to improve their lifestyle.
But, what if they could SEE the impact of their current lifestyle. This is where the innovative face changing technology of Change Your Face comes in.
Face Changing Technology
Imagine seeing a picture of your future-self, a picture that doesn’t reflect how you want to see yourself. Then imagine being told what you can do to change the future. To rewrite YOUR story.
Visualising our future-selves is a motivation to change. Being given the knowledge to make these changes makes it happen.
To learn more about our technology, head to Change My Face and try the demo.
What we’re doing to help individuals, societies and communities
Our Change My Face services and interactive products have one overarching aim; to inspire and engage individuals through the use of powerful, innovative (and sometimes fun) age progression technology to encourage behavioural change.
Helping both companies and customers
The benefits to an individual are apparent. A healthier lifestyle leads to a healthy mind and body.
But it also benefits our clients too. We have worked with a variety of organisations: corporate wellness, finance and pensions, lifestyle, beauty, gaming, education, research, dental, skin and more.
Recently, we’ve been working with an American health insurance company. They contacted us to support their campaign to identify customers who have pre-diabetes, this being one of the chronic diseases linked closely with obesity and a poor diet.
This campaign is particularly interesting as individuals susceptible to diabetes may not have any signs of being overweight. Obviously, they won’t even think about this disease, as its completely hidden, but given the right information anyone susceptible can recognise the signs and act on it now to massively improve their future health.
The company is now identifying customers by carrying out a simple and quick survey using our interactive technology. This in turn flags up vulnerabilities and provides valuable interventions which encourages a change in behaviours and mindset resulting in a much improved diet.
Flagging up potential diseases before they become irreversible is certainly a win/win for both the health insurance company and their well cared for customers.
Contact us
If you’re looking for a unique and engaging way to promote your next campaign, see how we’ve been helping clients in our case studies.
To learn more, simply contact us to discuss your future plans.
Originally published at https://changemyface.com on March 9, 2021.