What We Don’t Know, And What We Don’t Change, Are Killing Us!
Think seriously as you read the next 500 words. Your life and happiness could depend on your doing so.
Once in awhile I wish I could sit down with you and share information I have come across that might have a major impact on your health and life expectancy. This is a substitute for some of that conversation.
I want to recommend that you read two magazine articles. They are:
“The Diabetes Epidemic”, pp. 59-69, U. S. News & World Report, June 25, 2001
A 2001 People Magazine, issue having Princess Diana’s photo on the cover, had an excellent article on “Cholesterol” describing the role of LDLs, HDLs, and Triglycerides and what you can do to get the balance optimum to your health.
This morning I read again an AP article of June 26, 2001 on the leading causes of death in the United States in 1999 (then the most current figures). Heart disease, cancer, and stroke topped the list. Cholesterol levels relate to heart disease and stroke. Just as there are many different cancers, there are many different risk factors for all our leading causes of premature death, among them are diet, exercise, smoking, pollutants, and known carcinogens (such as sodium nitrite when found in preserved meats such as hot dogs, cold cuts, etc.---check the ingredients).
Each of the top three causes of death in the U.S. declined in 1999, but deaths related to being overweight/obese were showing dramatic increases as early as 1998
AND, diabetes deaths had increased by 3% in as little as one year; Alzheimer’s deaths were increasing; and, while HIV infection rates were down significantly from 1996 rates, they remained the leading cause of death for black males ages 25-44.
Today most Americans remain increasingly inactive, increasingly overweight, and not coincidentally increasingly prone to diabetes at all ages. More than 180,000 American deaths per year are directly attributable to diabetes! And, the cost to all Americans for the medical care needed by those suffering with heart/circulatory, cancer, stroke, diabetes, HIV infections, and Alzheimer’s diseases would be the entire GNP for most countries!
What can you and I do?
First: be better informed. Again I suggest you find and read the two articles I have mentioned perhaps on the worldwide web which can also lead you to a wealth of today’s current information.
Second: ACT!
Why is it that when we know something is bad for us, we don’t avoid it?
Why is it that when we know something is good for us, we don’t incorporate it into our life?
Yes, “old habits are hard to change.”
Our old habits are killing us. They must be changed.
Ask any person suffering with one of these major diseases what they wish they had changed, and they could educate us from painful, personal experience. If “experience is the best teacher”, why not learn now from their experiences, rather than later from our own tragic experience. Tragic? Yes, because changing old habits can give us longer, happier, more productive lives.
Just a thought from a friend at Whole Sail Living where we always wish that your sails are full of wind and you are cruising along full speed the way you want (and deserve) to live.
