When the new QLD Chief Health Officer makes a priority in health that is not even a priority, the health of its citizens is doomed.  Let me explain.

Last September I had the chance to visit and work in an orphanage and community in Uganda.

I was only there 5 days, but it gave me an insight into their life, food, health and the people.

My husband and I sponsor 2 young boys for their food, education and clothing.  We got to meet them both.  One lives with his father but in poverty, the other lives in the orphanage as his father is in jail for selling his older brother to a witch doctor (the brother was beheaded and dismembered) and his mother is barely coping with everyday living.

These two boys for the most part were energetic and happy, they were fed a real food diet.   As part of the mission we are involved in there is a farm and as much food as possible is grown on the farm.  They can’t afford ultra-processed foods.

We had a food day where we fed over 1000 of the community members, the food was broths, some meat, rice and root vegetables with some tropical fruits.  Most families have goats and a garden.

Another day we had a fun day of games, playing and merriment.  The children were appreciative and had a wonderful day.

We also had a medical day.  There were 40 Australians who volunteered as well as about 100 Ugandan medical, dentistry, optometry, pharmacy and triage.  In the day we put through around 2500 medical visits.  It was busy.

My job was to move the people from triage to blood and urine sampling.  I also got to pick up the notes from the haematologists and take them to the doctor.  Testing was done for glucose, HIV, malaria, typhoid and H pylori for the most part.  Sometimes the doctors would send back for further tests but for most people they went through the system of medicine, dentistry or optometry using triage and testing.  What I noticed was that pharmacy was very busy, antibiotics, antimalaria, anti-inflammatory, painkillers and some diabetes medication.  I also noticed that there was no one overweight.

It is in no uncertain terms very different to what you would see in Australia after triage.  We do not have malaria, typhoid and other such diseases but rather more diseases that are self-inflicted through diet and lifestyle.

What Should Queensland Be Concerned About?

Queensland’s new Chief Health Minister Dr Marianne Gale has been one of those doctors in the field as part of Doctors Without Borders.  What I saw in Uganda no doubt she saw in other countries and worked with these people.

Her priorities as Chief Health Officer according to the Courier Mail is to make vaccination rates her number one priority.  She said that this is for prevention and I will give her this, she also said to address diet and movement as prevention.

But perhaps her concerns being a doctor with Doctors Without Borders should not be bought back to Australia but rather address what is really happening here.  The elephant in the room that no one is talking about but kills 90% of people in Australia.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics shows the following

About 515 people die in Australia everyday — that’s around 187,000 per year, which is up nearly 20,000 per year since COVID.  Of those only 1,100 died from the flu, COVID and RSV in 2025. That means only 3 people die from these vaccine-preventable diseases. This hardly seems like a priority to me.

As for childhood vaccine preventable diseases, the death rate is zero in 2025 for diptheria, measles is near zero deaths, whopping cough 2 deaths in 2025.  I would say our coverage of immunisations for these deaths is working.

Therefore to make vaccines a priority doesn’t seem to be addressing what is causing the majority of the 515 deaths every day in Australia.

What Causes The Most Deaths in Australia?

Let’s break it down.

Chronic disease is the leading cause of death in Australia.  90% of all deaths were attributed to chronic disease in 2022 and 85% of the total health burden. The top causes of death are dementia and coronary heart disease with rates higher in remote areas and disadvantaged populations.   

In 2023, 18,000 people died from heart disease that’s approximately 50 people a day.

In 2024, 17,500 people died from dementia that’s approximately 48 people a day.

In 2024, 53,545 people died from cancer (all forms) that’s approximately 147 people a day, lung cancer being the leading cancer in death rate followed by pancreatic cancer.  18,600 cancer deaths were early onset before the age of 50 but after the age of adolescents, that’s 50 people a day of the 147 of total cancer deaths making up 30% of total cancer deaths.  This figure has raised steeply since 2000.

Between 2012 and 2019 over 30,000 people died on the operating table due to a medical mistake, that’s 82 people a day.

In 2023, there were approximately 2300 people who died from prescribed medication and 1300 from road deaths, that’s 6 a day and 3.5 a day respectively.

Here is a summary of approximate deaths.  You will see that it does not add up to the 515 but it gives an idea of what people are dying from and vaccine preventable diseases is the not the issue of the 21^st century in Australia, it is chronic disease.

How Serious Are Chronic Diseases?

The World Health Organisation predicts that by 2048 that the entire world will catch up to Australia with most people around the world dying from a chronic disease, they predict 88-90%, 6% will die from infectious disease and the rest will be accidents.

Australia is in a burden of chronic disease, preventable diseases through what we eat and how we live our lives.  So my plea to our new Chief Health Officer is to think differently and bring diet and lifestyle and chronic disease prevention as your number one priority.

The sick in this country get more benefits than the healthy.

The Australian government has a social health system that benefits the sick but not the healthy.

I am 65 and I don’t use the medical system unless I’m in an emergency. I eat well, I move, sleep, see the sun, ground, connect, have purpose, I don’t take any medications and do everything I can to be someone who will beat the statistics of chronic disease.  But the government does not financially incentivise my health decisions.  Yet someone who does the opposite to me is looked after by social medicine, they have doctors’ appointments, specialists appointments and their medications taken care of or subsidised.  It seems so crazy to me.

We can also compare this to driving a car.  You do everything right on the road, you never get a fine, yet no one gives you a new point on your license for going a year without a fine.  But the minute you have a lapse in concentration and may be speeding through a camera, you are fined and lose points on your license.  Where is the incentive to be good on the road if there is really no incentive to be good, except to be safe for your own safety and the safety of others.

Is it just me or does anyone else think like this?  Perhaps if we put more attention on being healthy and rewarding people for this then we may be able to get more people to do the fundamentals of health to stay healthy.  Now the statistics are if you tell someone to survive they have to change their diet and lifestyle only 1 in 10 will change.  But if the incentive was if you don’t do this then all social medicine and health care will be taken from you.  It’s tough, but Australia and the rest of the world need to make tough choices to change the exceeding over-budgeted gross domestic product that we utilise on sickness care.

How to Be Healthy

The fundamentals to health are easy and most are free.

Real food, movement, grounding, connection, sunshine, sleep, clean water and purpose are the ingredients to a wonderful healthy life.

While the government may not financially incentivise me, my health, energy, and zest for life does.  I do not sit at home on my couch watching mindlessly screens, I’m out living an extraordinary life. 

Make your life extraordinary, start with health and you never know where that energy will take you.

To learn more about how to do this, read my book Lab to Table – this is about the real food you should be eating and the ultra processed foods to stay away from

Study with The Nutrition Academy- either do The Introduction to Nutrition or Functional Nutrition Essentials and begin to not only help you and your family but your community by becoming a certified functional nutrition consultant.

Listen to my podcast – Up For A Chat

Watch my documentary – What’s With Wheat

Education is the key to getting out of a system that statistics include, chronic disease and medication overload.

Cyndi O’Meara

Nutritionist since 1980

If you want to learn more about the mission my husband and I are involved in please go to www.missionabundance.org