Do as I say, not as I do!

Jane Brody is one of our favorites. She brings up a number of interesting points in her article in the NYT Tuesday April 11,2017, called “Our Parents’ Health Mistakes”.

The article really made me think about the differences in health care in today’s world vs the 40s and 50s.

My mother and father smoked. Today, in America, many smokers are ostracized.

My mother and father ate packaged deli meats filled with nitrates. And they loved hot dogs, scotch, gin and ice cream.

My mother and father ate white bread until the 70’s when they got smart reading Adele Davis and bought whole wheat.

These two athletes  played tennis and golf regularly, then gave the sports up when work and family intervened.

My mother in particular started walking the beach regularly after her first heart problem.

My father gave up drinking after the first cancer and never missed it.

In the 70s my mother and father changed their eating habits and became hippies. They made granola, gave up whole milk, bought organic meats and fish. They stopped smoking.

It was too late. The damage was done.

No wonder they died of heart disease and cancer! No wonder they both had high cholesterol!

We now know that “ smoking… increases the risk of heart disease, raises blood pressure, diminishes exercise tolerance, decreases HDL cholesterol and increases the blood’s tendency to clot”.

Heart disease is the number one killer of women in the US.  We have a long way to go to eradicate it. Now we treat the consequences and ignore the prevention . Expensive procedures like stents and valve replacements could be avoided by diet, exercise and taking an inexpensive statin.

Jane feels we can take our cue from the South Americans known as the Tsimane. “They have a “forager/horticulturalist” life style. Tsimane men are active for 7 hours a day accumulating 17,000 steps. Women average 15,000 steps a day. Smoking is rare. “ The Tsimane diet is high in fiber and unprocessed carbs with foods like corn, brown rice, nuts and fruits. Protein is important and comes from animal meat low in saturated fat. They are not vegetarians.

How do we modify our lifestyle? Only 20% of  Americans get 30 minutes of physical activity a day and most do not do anything meaningful for their health in terms of exercise. Michelle Obama was not wrong that we need to get moving!

5 days a week of 30 minute exercise is mandated.

OK senior couch potatoes, get your podcast app on your phone and listen while you walk!

We have to keep our numbers up, Baby Boomers, so the Gen X and Millennials don’t vote to replace our Medicare!

 MOVE!!