They are very busy folks where I work. The price of av gas doesn't seem to bother them much either!
I don't think it's any secret that our children as a population are having health issues , weight, blood presure ,diabetes as well as drug and smoking related issues. I see far too many people much younger that me in Intensive Care Units for me not to believe that our collective health is not as good as it could be.
Living longer because one had triple by-pass does not mean healthier.
Needing and receiving new joints makes for better quality of life but carrying too much weight isn't good for the joints in the first place.
My wife and I are amazed at the number of people on antidepressants.
Just looking around ,making stuff up!
"Today, about one of three American kids and teens are overweight or obese, nearly triple the rate in 1963. Among children today, obesity is causing a broad range of health problems that previously weren’t seen until adulthood. These include high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and elevated blood cholesterol levels. There are also psychological effects. Obese children are more prone to low self-esteem, negative body image and depression.
However, there’s good news: Obesity can be stopped. And it doesn’t take high-tech treatments or cutting-edge medications. The solution begins and ends with the daily decisions we make. The American Heart Association is working to help kids and families live heart-healthy lives."
See my post above about are we actually healthier today than before. With that being said many of the health problems you talk about were not even on the radar screen thirty or forty years ago. We were not doing carotid ultrasounds in the fifties, nor were we checking cholesterol levels. Since the 1980's the landscape of medicine has changed tremendously. Prior to this we had X-rays, EKG's, early ultrasound, nuclear medicine as the gold standard. CT scans were pretty primitive before about 1984 connecting the pixels and took about twenty minutes or more to do. Cholesterol was talked about in biochemistry, but was not treated nor measured. Since then the number of conditions we can screen for and treat has skyrocketed, as has the ways to diagnose them. This has more to do with physician based research than the American Heart Association or other such organizations. Most of the money from research comes from the government or the pharmaceutical companies.
Kids are overweight today because we live in a relatively sedentary society, with highly processed foods. Kids spend more time in front of the computer, and texting friends than they do exercising. When I was a kid we were outside running around til 10 pm every night, we were biking, and rarely watched tv unless it was raining and our antics were too loud for my parents.
As for younger people being in the ICU, I will have to do some research on that but the majority of younger people I see in the ICU are either because of drug related issues, or trauma. This has not changed much since the 80's. The number of younger people in the ICU for strokes, heart attacks, and other chronic conditions has probably not changed much. The number of people including younger people being treated for hypercholesterol, diabetes, hypertension, and the like is probably as much a factor of the advances in screening, and more and more strigent treatment guidelines than anything else.
Has all this emphasis on healthy living, and diet habits, and emphasis on treating conditions earlier and at more stringent levels? I do not know. The people in their 70's and 80's who pretty much will determine life expenctancy figures today grew up long before any of this emphasis on preventive medicine occurred. They were the teenagers of the 50's and they were smoking at much higher levels, and eating foods that today would definitely be considered unhealthy. The difference between them and the kids of today however was activity levels.
Doug
and asked my husband what happened? He said "they sat out alot as kids" I make a point to go to doctors (Dermatologist for an annual skin test I went to the dermatologist for my annual skin test (the doctor checks for suspicious moles and whatnot - last year she found one and it was fine) I recommend if you have health insurance schedule yours today!! It is usually 100% covered as preventative maintenance.) but I'm female and I guess we don't mind going as much as guys. I feel like with all this preventative maintenance I should live to be 100 right? Or is the other stuff in the world (flying/fast food/faster cars) going to kill me just as fast?
