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Thanks for the link, but posting the same report a second time isn't going to change the opinion I got after you posted it the first time. Some people think this issue is worth hand wringing, others think that reaction is a bit overblown--posting a link a second time or even multiple times won't change that. If you want my honest opinion, I think chronic hand wringing is what will kill people in our generation faster than anything else.
I posted the link again because the first time I did, it did not connect. If you read it, you cannot say you have not read anything about the notion of senior obesity being a solid issue for the boomers as we age.
Regardless of whether senior health problems including those that are obesity-related affect you or your next door neighbor or me, it still remains one of the biggest issues facing our generation as we age. With one in five (at best) of us afflicted with obesity, this situation affects our family and friends and may well drive new healthcare/insurance national policy and escalating costs that may turn out to be not so favorable to retirees/seniors. So I think we can say it’s an issue for us as a generation.
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.
Finally someone has made the connection! My weight was fine until my doctor started prescribing meds for me (which I probably shouldn't have taken) ... used to walk a mile and a half to 2 miles each morning after working a 12 hour shift .... but the combination of working those 12 hour night shifts, sleeping 3 to 4 hours a day and the meds did it for me ... eventually I had no energy left .. couldn't walk more than a quarter mile .. then stopped completely .... I eat less now than ever but without that little exercise that I did the weight just started adding up ... (didn't help that I have spinal stenosis and osteoarthritis) ... I hate how I look ... am ashamed to even be seen anymore ...
I suspect that a lot of us 'older' people are on meds that are making us live longer but also making us gain all that weight ... and the doctors don't really seem to care about the weight gain (I know mine doesn't) ... but with that weight gain the heart has to work harder and the docs prescribe even stronger meds .. can't win ...
Obviously we are getting more unhealthy because we are aging. DUH!!! We need to take responsibility for our own health by researching prescribed meds and then making OUR OWN intelligent descisions about what we will take for our maladies and what we will not. Our body chemistys vary and you cannot expect doctors to know and understand everything about everyone and all the meds that are out there. Everything is a trade off. So..... eat right, not much, exercise the best you can, stop whinning and get with it. I mean seriously - what else CAN we do????
I was one of the very first among the boomers to get into whole, natural foods and good diet (back in 1968) at which time you could not walk into any store on earth and find items like soymilk, nut milks, tofu, whole grain products, or anything wholesome like what you see in the stores today, you had to make absolutely everything yourself from scratch, including yogurt, etc.
These days, all this wholesome food is at everyone's fingertips. There's at least one yoga and pilate studio in most cities and towns, and Y's in most cities. We have access today to medical doctors who subscribe to whole foods diets and alternative medicines. Most boomers are affluent enough to afford much of all this.
As a society, entire generations have been "assimilated" into the culture created by the marketing of processed foods by the giant food manufacturers. Convenience rules and people would never think of eating wholesome natural foods because they can quickly eat something out of a box and feel some instant satisfaction. Entire generations of Americans after the baby boomers (who were the first) have grown up this way so in many families, there is no thought or consideration given to the healthiness of their diet, only how it tastes and they go on like that for decades from the time they're children. The result of the the large amounts of sat fats, sodium, nitrites, etc along with the lack of fiber, whole grains, fruits, vegetables, & exercise has led to massive numbers of obese people, across all ages.
IOW, it would seem that they don't know any better nor do they care.
Obviously we are getting more unhealthy because we are aging. DUH!!! We need to take responsibility for our own health by researching prescribed meds and then making OUR OWN intelligent descisions about what we will take for our maladies and what we will not. Our body chemistys vary and you cannot expect doctors to know and understand everything about everyone and all the meds that are out there. Everything is a trade off. So..... eat right, not much, exercise the best you can, stop whinning and get with it. I mean seriously - what else CAN we do????
Aging does not have to mean unhealthy, where is that written?
I always have to chuckle when I see women cruising the parking lot looking for the parking space close to the gym! And hiring a cleaning lady so they can go work out....sometimes I wonder
People hire maids because they don't like to clean and don't wish to expose themselves to nasty things. My grandmother and mother were at most 10% overweight and always had maids. My eldest aunt and my late wife were if any thing underweight and had maids. Needless to say, I have a maid. It seems that when I was a boy everyone did.
Aging does not have to mean unhealthy, where is that written?
It ain't! But sometimes it happens anyway. By the way, we still make our own yogurt which we can sweeten with a bit of agave nectar and to which we sometimes add some unsweetened, homemade granola.
I posted the link again because the first time I did, it did not connect. If you read it, you cannot say you have not read anything about the notion of senior obesity being a solid issue for the boomers as we age.
I was able to follow the link the first time around but if you were simply repairing a broken link that would explain the second posting and I apologize for getting annoyed that you were posting it twice.
I think we may be arguing two different issues. I never said that obesity is not an issue for our generation. I said that I have not read anything that supports the argument that our generation is in worse shape than the previous generation. Very different issues. Every generation has its health issues; IMO obesity is a challenge for us but it's no worse than the health challenges that faced earlier generations, and in fact I think it's less life threatening than the challenges that faced previous generations.
That doesn't mean we are in perfect shape, or that we won't have health issues as we get older. Like it or not, most of us will develop serious health conditions and all of us all die from something eventually. I do think overall we are in better physical shape than previous generations, however, and I do think obesity is easier to conquer than the challenges other generations faced. I appreciate that others may feel differently.
Aging doesn't necessarily mean unhealthy but some people just have better genetics, an easier life, you name it. Others, like myself, have led a much TOO active physical life and damaged our bodies. It IS a combination of things. It's the old adage: If I knew I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself.
Aging doesn't necessarily mean unhealthy but some people just have better genetics, an easier life, you name it. Others, like myself, have led a much TOO active physical life and damaged our bodies. It IS a combination of things. It's the old adage: If I knew I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself.
Or as the bard wrote, "Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;..."
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