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I think you are generalizing too much from your own personal experience. Just because you, and many boomers you know, buy "wholesome food" and go to yoga, etc., doesn't necessarily mean most do. The question is what percentage of boomers follow good health practices? And I don't have an answer for that. I can look around at my gym and say, "Gee, these boomers look O.K." but what about the ones I don't see at the gym, the ones sitting at home in front of the TV eating a donut? Don't forget that we all tend to gravitate towards like-minded people. Heavy drinkers have other heavy drinkers as friends (for the most part); that way they can rationalize that it is just "normal" to drink that much, even if that rationalization is not on a conscious level. In other words, they seek a comfort zone.
Agreed, but my point was not that we all take advantage of what's wholesome around us - but that we have greater access to it all than ever before. You'd have to be living under a rock to not get exposure to exercise and wholesome foods that keep weight normal. Our parents and grandparents and way back never saw any of this stuff in magazines, newspapers, TV (esp all those natural doctor shows on PBS), etc. If we're so savvy and aware as a generation, what's gone wrong? We easily have the information we need, why are so many ignoring it? I have several very intelligent, educated friends who have serious illnesses and don't seem to get the connection between food/exercise and health. They are skeptical. These are the same ones that doubt toxins in our environment and foods and water. They just want to go their merry way, running to the doctor and scripting-up for all their ailments. Of course medical treatment is often necessary, but this much as a generation?
Facing a heart operation I dropped 60 pounds. It was easy, I don't eat or drink between meals. People overhydrate by 4 or 5 times as much as they need, that includes water. Food thesse days is really heavy on salt, whether you taste it or not and when you add water you retain the liquid. Now they'll have to catch me to throw me oon that gurney
Boonpa, that is WONDERFUL! Good for you and yes, they'll have to run extremely fast to catch you and make you go under the knife.
It's funny that while each generation has increasingly more free time, what we choose to do with it is not always healthy. How many otherwise able people whine that they can't imagine mowing a 1/4 acre piece of lawn? How many mostly younger people park illegally in handicap parking places because their time is too precious for them to walk 100 ft more? Keeping active is so important (I personally could do better). But the habit of excercising regularly needs to be established early on because it seems so hard to get started. Maybe the best idea is for the active folk to 'grab a friend' and help them on their way.
Excellent points. My mother was cutting her grass with a hand (nonpowered) mower, by choice, till she was 85. I see people everywhere riding these laughably large power mowers for a yard the size of my mother's. My neighbor, only in his late 40s, has a sit-down job and is visibly overweight. Yet he rides his gargantuan power mower rather than push a hand mower. He never bends down to weed, just sprays the h*** out of lawn with Roundup. That's a pretty universal picture of America today.
??? Generally a person who is alive is considered healthier than a person who has died. Even if you are alive and sick, you're still healthier than someone who died.
Are you being serious? That's how you interpreted what I wrote?
Frankly being 65 I see alot more people actually getting diagnoed early with diseases and their being treatment for them. Alos I see alot more pople retiring without pretty much having wornout their body jonts etc than my parents generation.No matter the3 articles conclusion ;people are living to older age than ever.
Interesting statistic, but, as above, it doesn't mean the boomer generation is any more or less healthy than the generation before it.
If obesity is indeed linked to all the diseases in the article I cited, above, and obesity is much more prevalent today than in previous generations (% of population), I kind of think it's a foregone conclusion that the boomer generation is less healthy than the previous gen. As RedJacket astutely points out, we may be living longer, but that's due to medical interventions and prescription drugs. Our generation simply should not be as unhealthy as it is, there is no excuse for it. We are among the wealthiest nations of the world.
[2009 http://aging.senate.gov/crs/aging3.pdf] "Currently, nearly one in eight Americans (12.6%) is age 65 or older. This ratio is expected to jump to one in five (19.7%) by 2030, due in part to longer life expectancies and the aging of the baby boom generation. Because the highest rates of obesity are found among baby boomers, aged 44-62 in 2008, it is likely that the prevalence of obesity among older adults will continue to climb in coming decades as this population ages. By 2010, 37.4% of adults aged 65 and older are anticipated to be obese. If this trajectory continues unabated, it is projected that nearly half of the elderly population will be obese in 2030..."
Hmm. I wonder just how much medical interventions and prescription drugs are making us unhealthy. It is not unusual for today's modern drugs to cause these types of ill health. It's called iatrogenic illness. Maybe for the first time more of our generation are taking these drugs so more of us are suseptable to their side effects.
For example. I was always a normal weight until I had to be on Prednisone. Like many people who have to take this drug, my weight soared. I was unable to lose it. This drug, while it helps with many problems, creates new ones some being a metabolism problem that cannot be corrected. So to look at me now, I appear to be overweight. I keep my BP, cholesterol etc in check with supplements, herbs and some regular meds.
And don't forget, thin people can have high BP, high cholesterol and other metabolic problems we have been taught to associate only with obesity. It is not only over weight people who become ill.
LOL, well I haven't read anything yet that's convinced me the boomer generation is less healthy than the generation before. Fatter, yes. Does that mean less healthy? Well, I guess only time will tell.
Meanwhile, it's a good topic. The alarmists can enjoy alarming themselves, those who like agonizing over what to do can have fun doing that, and those who think it's overblown can add to our daily exercise routine by doing plenty of eyerolling. It's all good.
LOL, well I haven't read anything yet that's convinced me the boomer generation is less healthy than the generation before. Fatter, yes. Does that mean less healthy? Well, I guess only time will tell.
Here it is again, one of many reports (link, above, did not work), perhaps read
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Good for you and yes, they'll have to run extremely fast to catch you and make you go under the knife.
