CHAPTER SEVEN: The Path to Better Health and a Longer Life
“To
be fully healthy, sane, and humane is to equally both think of your needs and
wants, while thinking of others’ needs and wants.”
- James P. Buchanan
To be healthy or to be unhealthy
The effect of the sedentary lifestyle was summed-up best by a report released
by the Office of the Surgeon General. The report offers the startling
estimate that, in the United States, about 250,000 deaths per year (that is
about 12% of the annual total) can be attributed to lack of regular physical
exercise. A person who does not exercise on a regular basis runs about
the same risk of a heart attack as a person who smokes two packs of cigarettes
a day. In addition, studies by the U.S. Public Health Service estimate
that more than 300,000 people (or about 14% of the total U.S. deaths) die
prematurely every year due to lack of physical activity combined with a poor
diet.
“Good humor is a tonic for mind and body. It
is the best antidote for anxiety and depression. It is a business asset. It
attracts and keeps friends. It lightens human burdens. It is the direct route
to serenity and contentment.”
- Grenville Kleiser
Moreover, research by physiotherapists has established that adult major muscle
groups, when not exercised regularly, lose 30% of their strength between the
ages of 20 and 70. Additional studies show that beyond preserving muscle
strength, moderate daily exercise, even in several daily ten minute segments,
can reduce the risk of heart attacks by as much as 60%. The Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention has now identified public access to physical
exercise as one of the major health issues of the future.
“A sad soul can be just as lethal as
a germ.”
- John Steinbeck
Where you live, how you work, and what you do in your free time may be big
factors in physical fitness. Residents of rural areas are often more
physically active than those of urban areas. For example, a recent survey
showed that 82 percent of Montana citizens engaged in some form of physical
exercise, while only 40 percent of residents of Washington, District of
Columbia exercised. People who live in cities are more apt to be office
workers and less physically active than they would be in other lines of
work. The growth of the suburbs also has placed more people into cars and
less likely to walk several blocks to a train station or bus stop.
Plainly speaking, obesity is a common problem when people take in more calories
than they burn. A recent article in The New England Journal of Medicine
reported that an estimated twenty‑five to 50 percent of people in the most
affluent societies are either overweight or obese. (However this article
is misleading because most of these overweight or obese people are citizens of
the United States. You would have to travel for three or more days in the
affluent nations of Europe or Asia to see as many overweight or obese people as
you would run across in a short stroll through any American supermarket.)
“He, who has health, has hope; and he
who has hope, has everything.”
- Thomas Carlyle
According to this article, an important factor in becoming obese (which boils
down to excess body fat) and staying that way, is that obese people are not
physically active enough to burn off all their consumed calories.
Sedentary people frequently become obese, even if they don’t eat appreciably
more than the more physically active people. Consequently, anyone wishing
to maintain a more healthy body weight needs to match the amount of calories
they take in; with the amount of calories they burn as body fuel.
According to “Nutrition, Concepts and Controversies,” Second Edition, by
Hamilton and Whitney, “A person who is more than 10 percent above their
desirable weight is considered to be overweight; a person 20 percent or more
above the desirable weight is considered to be obese.”
“Healthy citizens are the greatest
asset any country can have.”
- Winston Churchill
Carrying only 30 percent more than your ideal weight raises your risk of heart
attack by as much as 70 percent. In addition, there are many other
hazards of being obese that show up in middle age. These ailments or
illnesses include conditions such as atherosclerosis, gall bladder problems,
strokes, arthritis, and diabetes. Other ailments or illnesses are
shortness of breath, varicose veins, brain tumors, sterility, and
infertility. According to Dr. C. Everet Koop, former U.S. Surgeon General
and first chairman of Shape Up America said that even though it does not
show on the death certificate, obesity is often the real cause of death for
many Americans. The message that excess body fat kills should be spread
on roadway billboards and television public service announcements across the
nation.
The national annual cost of America’s overweight population, including
everything from medical charges to work days lost due to weight related
illness, has been estimated to exceed one hundred billion. Moreover,
obese people also face numerous social and economic problems. The bitter
truth is that human resource officers hire slender adults more often, for
better positions, while receiving larger starting salaries and get promotions far
more often than their heavier peers.
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