One of the biggest challenges our society faces in reversing our disturbing obesity trends is the need to make a case compelling enough to promote action on the part of an increasingly indifferent population. In other words, we need to create a powerful message in order to reach a society that requires a more and more salient message to capture our already bombarded attention. It's not sufficient to simply say obesity makes you unhealthy.
Maybe messages like this will help. When you tell someone that obesity leads to diabetes and heart disease, they might not completely make the connection to the point that they change their deeply ingrained ways. That's because those conditions have traditionally affected a small percentage of the population and many do not understand the poor quality of life (or death) that they cause. However, mentioning that obesity shrinks the brain should raise some eyebrows. An excerpt from the short article:
For the study, the researchers examined brain images of 94 people in their 70s who had taken part in an earlier research that investigated cardiovascular health and cognition. Among the participants, no one had dementia or other forms of cognitive impairments. The participants were monitored for five years, and any of them who developed symptoms of cognitive impairment were not included in the study.
Compared with the brain tissue of people in the normal weight group, the brain tissue of those who were considered clinically obese was 8 percent less, while those considered overweight was 4 percent less.
Those are not insignificant numbers by any stretch of the imagination!
Essentially, if you are obese, you can count on the quality of the latter part of your life being rather poor. This isn't like procrastinating on that book report in school. Every day that goes by in which you do not take care of yourself makes getting back on track that much more difficult. I tend to believe that most of this is cumulative, meaning the later you start improving your lifestyle, the more damage that is already building.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
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Let me preface this by saying that I am not an advocate for Medicare for all.
Good question on Medicare for all. T.R. Reid said that's what Britain has. He uses the argument that because the Government is the payer from cradle to grave they have an incentive to keep you healthy, so in England, they do things like have billboards dedicated to messages on healthy lifestyles etc. My point is the government there has an incentive, our Private insurance companies don't and by the time people get on medicare (when they are 65) it is too late.
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