Study: US Prefers Pills to Healthy Lifestyle Choices
Dr. Dana E. King, professor of family medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina, would give the general US population a C-minus if there were a report card for healthy lifestyles. King says Americans seem more willing today to take pills than make a few simple lifestyle changes that are more potent and powerful than any pills are. As a result, our overall health as a nation has decreased significantly in the last 18 years.
According to King, if Americans abandoned their preference for drugs to treat problems that could be prevented by healthier lifestyle choices, the number of Americans battling high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes would plummet and we’d enjoy more active, vital lives even into our middle and senior years. King’s findings are described in detail in the June issue of the American Journal of Medicine.
King’s research team analyzed data involving more than 15,000 people, between 40 and 74 years of age, who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. About half the people were involved in the survey between 1988 and 1994 and the remainder participated between 2001 and 2006. Some of King’s findings include:
- The rate of obesity rose from 28% to 36% during the 18 years of study
- People exercising 12 times or more each month dropped from 53% to 43%
- People who ate at least five servings of fruits and vegetables every day dropped from 42% to 26%
- The number of smokers stayed about the same over the 18 years, going from 26.9% to 26.1% in 2006
- 51% of the study participants said they drink alcoholic beverages moderately today versus only 40% saying so 18 years ago;
Only 8% of the American adult population today practices all five healthy habits - weight control, exercise, diet, smoking, and alcohol consumption - compared to 15% in 1988. King says there is plenty of room for improvement and that it’s never too late to make healthier choices. He feels getting back to the basics is key to a healthy lifestyle and that looking for health in a pill is a costly, ineffective option.
Commenting on King’s study, Dr. David L. Katz, director of Yale University School of Medicine’s Prevention Research Center, says societal changes fostering healthier lifestyles can reverse this unhealthy trend. He cites a ‘consistent and compelling body of scientific’ evidence that proves how beneficial a few simple lifestyle changes can be. These lifestyle changes produce an overwhelming influence on longevity and quality of life at every age, according to Katz. He describes King’s findings as a disheartening, “if not depressing,” dose of reality.
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If only it were so easy to eat 5 fruits a day and all the veggies. It is not so easy. The veggies give you gas and the fruits are so much you can’t possibly eat them all without gaining weight. Who can cut a fruit in half and store it without it rotting in the frige. Same thing with veggies. So many of them give you wicked gas that you have to live on Beano. There is no easy answer to this. It is difficult to exercise every day and especially when you come home exhausted from a stressful day on the job. People in their 60’s like me find all of this so tiring. We try and do it all but walking on cold miserable days just doesn’t cut it. Sometimes we are just plain tired and long to sit. None of us is perfect. We all would like to have the perfect blood pressure, the perfect body, but sometimes it is just so damn hard we get tired of trying. Medical information on TV scares the hell out of all of us but we need to live our lives and we need to know that the beauty is on the inside where our souls are and this outer covering sometimes requires just too much care. We get tired..we are human..so we are not perfect and…that’s really okay.
25 situps a day will melt a buldging middle. If you can’t do a sit up, 25 abdominal crunches will do the trick. If you have lower back pain and can’t stand straight, it helps that too. If fruit gives you gas, along with other foods, try combinations. I was taught over 60 years ago, it isn’t what you eat, that give you acid and gas, it is what you don’t eat. My wife has a broken back, but it doesn’t slow her down, she adapts and still gets exercise. It is much easier to make excuses than take care of yourself…
Americans have become markedly more fat, lazy, ignorant and indifferent to the basics of good health and more are looking for a medical quick fix to all of their bad behavior. Is this a surprise to anyone with correctable vision and an IQ above 70? The trend is directly correlated with modernization and the ease of aquiring cheap and high calorie food but it is entirely a demise born of personal choice and education (in the case of children).
Other than disease from genetic and congenital disorders, toxic exposure and unknown origins, the basics of good health are long established and readily accessible to all but the poorest Americans. Eat a balanced nutritious diet low in saturated fat, salt, red meat, processed foods and refined flour and sugar and high in fresh fruits and vegetables and whole grains. Stay away for smoking and unnecessary drugs. Make exercise a part of your daily routine and don’t take the lowest physical energy expenditure path in everyday tasks. Match your metabolic rate and calorie expenditure to your calorie intake.
It’s all about personal choices and priorities.
It is sad to realize how many cases of this insidious disease could have been easily prevented. The loss of life, and the pain caused to many families. We need more companies to be care for their employees health, and put safety and health before profit. I realize they are in business, but your business should never needlessly cause loss of life.