Posted by
Catmman on Monday, June 08, 2009 7:27:57 PM
Eating right would have done nothing to have kept the parathyroid adenoma from growing in my neck. In fact, taking a "wait and see" attitude or what was euphamistically called "aggressive follow-up" allowed the tumor to grow to the size of a walnut before anyone decided to do anything (and nearly cost me my voice.)
Exercising right did nothing to keep my shoulder from separating from it's socket, causing muscle, tissue and joint damage. In fact, exercising (doing PT) was the very thing which caused the injury to begin with. To be fair, I was playing football at squadron PT, but still.
Of course eating healthy and exercising regularly does do worlds of good for most peoples overall, or general, health. It may assist you in fighting off certain illnesses. It might help you bounce back from illness faster. It might help you to recover quicker from an injury (perhaps help prevent injury depending on circumstances). But doing all of these things is a crap shoot at best.
Every individuals physiology is different and responds to different things. Running is something I have just never been able to do well, even as a child. I have seen people over the years though who are avid runners, who are fast and can seemingly run without effort, finish running a few miles and jump right into a pack of cigarettes, smoking with seemingly no ill health. Indeed, some of the heaviest smokers I have ever known were some of the best, fastest runners I have ever seen. I have never smoked a cigarette in my life, yet could barely break a thirteen minute mile and a half with my best time, ever. But I digress.
It is a fallacy (at least to me) that mandating such things as "sin" taxes on "sweets" or vilifying such things as sodas as "liquid candy" is ridiculous. What is more ridiculous is insisting that somehow reducing the availability of these things in some way will lead to health care savings.
My folks grew up during the depression. They cooked everything in lard. Every meal was comprised of meat (usually pork), biscuits or cornbread, maybe beans (if there was no meat) and some type of greens (collard or mustard usually). Salt was part of everything. Everything was cooked in real butter or lard, even into the late 1970's. I was raised on this very fare when I came around forty years later. My folks smoked like chimneys for over 30 years. My mom passed away in her late 70's. My dad is 86 this year and still going strong. They never ate right, they never exercised. Yes, they developed certain health problems, but my mom lived past current life expectancy, my dad has completely busted the statistic. With today's health "wisdom" they should have never made it past 30.
I have exercised regularly and eaten relatively healthy my entire military career. Yearly "preventative health assessments" however have done nothing to keep me from developing high blood pressure, sever migraines, parathyroid disease (culminating in surgery), appendicitis, or the myriad of other health problems which have popped up over the years.
Eating right and exercising and living "healthy" does have its benefits and everyone should do these things if they are so inclined. If politicians and "health professionals" wish to advocate such a lifestyle on its merits, that's fine. To present "preventative health" as a way to save money on health costs is disingenuous at best, dishonest at worst.