Unhealthy Priorities

In today’s society, being grossly overweight to obese and living an unhealthy lifestyle has become status quo. It’s almost acceptable, with most people generally apathetic about it. But if people don’t change their unhealthy lifestyles, the consequences will cause them to pay dearly for it in more ways than they ever imagined.

The majority of Americans are involved in some very disturbing lifestyle “habit-patterns”.
Frequent and recurring episodes of overeating high fat, high sugar and fast foods on a daily basis, not exercising the prescribed minimum smoking, abusing alcohol, over-the-counter and prescription drugs, speeding, aggressive driving, not wearing a seat belt, and running red lights and stop signs, listening to deafeningly loud music with earphones, leading a rushed, high stress, lack of relaxation/meditation daily schedule.

The bottom line for the average American’s lifestyle? Purely unhealthy.
All the efforts to coax people into healthier lifestyles and all the legislation and programs to change the health delivery system for the better have failed and are still failing.

Americans have been and continue to be grossly negligent about their own health and lifestyles. They have refused to acknowledge that first and foremost, health is their own responsibility, not some health care insurance company's or doctor’s or hospital's responsibility or some pharmaceutical company’s responsibility!

Needless to say, most Americans continue to do the things that make them fat and sick and injure or harm their bodies, and, continue to avoid the activities that are healthy and can prevent illness or injury.

The overall situation has even digressed to the point where “Health Care” in today’s society has actually become nothing more than illness intervention, symptom suppression, condition control and disease determination.
Just look at most Americans. They spend a good deal of time in the battles of illness intervention, symptom suppression and condition control.

This is not health care. This is "crisis care". It is this type of approach to health that has also contributed to the mess we’re in today, both in personal health and in the system of care.

Real health care involves maintaining all activities of daily living and lifestyle in healthy ways.

But most people do not value and do not place a priority on preventive health practices and living a healthy lifestyle. The majority of people value, have the time, money and desire for the pursuit of constant image and entertainment. But when it comes to valuing, spending time, effort and money on preventive health practices and maintaining a healthy lifestyle, the only things people always seem to have are excuses for why they ‘can’t’ or ‘don’t’.

It appears that sloth, gluttony and irresponsible behavior are the favored lifestyle habit-patterns and the following statistics prove it.
• The U S Surgeon General reports that approximately 40% of US adults use tobacco regularly and almost half of teens age 13 - 19 smoke.
• The UCLA RAND Center found that more than 430,000 die each year from smoking related illnesses.
• The USSG reports that about 65% of Americans are overweight to obese.
• The Centers for Disease Control report:
- About 13% of US children ages 8 - 16 are overweight to obese.
- Less than 15% of US adults exercise 60 minutes or more a minimum of 3 times each week.
- More than 300,000 people die each year from illnesses caused by or made worse by obesity.
• Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts reports that 57% of all illness & injury is a direct result of lifestyle.
• World Health Organization:
- Over 72% of all deaths in U.S. are the result of heart disease, lung disease, diabetes & degenerative diseases.
- The very expensive U.S. drug-based system is NOT reducing the rate at which conditions become chronic and continue to plague the U.S.
- Such chronic conditions are preventable for the most part and are primarily resulting from unhealthy practices.

To say there is an urgent need for a change in the priorities and the unhealthy lifestyle issues that most Americans need to address, is an understatement. n