It’s 20 minutes three times a week. You can choose from hundreds of activities as long as it’s not “sitting on your butt.” You can make all the excuses you want, but it doesn’t change the fact that even a minimally actice lifestyle vastly improves your chances of staying healthy. I do’t care what you do, but you might.
My family always comments on my energy level, with the subtext that “it’s nice to be young.” Middle age hit them hard, as it does most sedentary smokers with bad diets. Screw that. I have energy because I walk, run, bike and dance. I eat well most of the time and save the gooey fried breakfasts, fast food lunches, bags of chips and bottles of sodas for special occassions. I actively chose a non-sedentary career and put a premium on living in walkable areas. A 60 year old who did they same thing would have this energy. It’s use it or lose it.
Sure, I might still get sick and end up in bad shape down the line. But if I don’t take care of myself, I’m going to be in bad shape even if I am not sick. There are 60 year olds in walkers and 60 year olds at the gym. Most people get a lot of choice in what one they end up as.
You must be watching the wrong news shows, or hanging out with the wrong people. The reports I saw mentioned it more as a tiny ray of hope against a terrible disease, not as a “lolz, you must be a fatass if you get Alzheimer’s” fluff piece.
Yeah, I’m not seeing smugness from a lot of “healthy-living” folks.
I have seen the reverse (like the OP), and I get the “you’re so lucky” treatment that even sven does. Yes, I AM lucky. Lucky enough not to be encumbered with a schedule that does not allow for exercise and to be in good enough health to engage in exercise. But while the latter actually is luck/genetics, the former did not just naturally plop into my lap. Carving out two hours out of my day mean sacrificing TV watching time, computer time, going-out-and-shopping-at-the-mall time, and even reading and writing–those last two being things that I actually like doing. I cram in those activities in five minute snatches at work or before I go to bed. But I feel a billion times better about my body and fitness than I did before I started walking, so it’s worth it.
I’ve already resigned myself to not making it into my sixties or seventies (not because of any diagnosis…but because of lack of imagination). But if I can minimize chances of having poor health (like diabetes, arthritis, or heart disease), then I’m going to do it. So that if I do develop these things, then maybe it won’t be so bad.
If I develop lung cancer, I will be sad, but I WILL have a hunch where it came from. Hopefully by then, they can just clone me up a new set of lungs and all will be well.
They have good genetics, congrats to them. The most recent research indicates that if you have worries about Alzheimer’s, perhaps you’d better not bet on that.
Here’s another voice that whole-heartedly agrees with you. I think it’s just a psychological mechanism people use to try to convince themselves that the bad thing that happened to some other guy will never happen to you because you have a “better” lifestyle and would never make the “mistakes” that guy made that caused him to get sick and die. It gives people a false sense of control at the expense of others.
When my husband died of cancer ( and not even lung cancer ) I had to deal with a nasty client that was mad that he didn’t call her back about something. When I told her he had died her first words were " I’m not suprised he had lots of bad habits." I said “Enlighten me, then Suzanne and tell me about these bad habits” and she squirmed a bit and said “Well, he was a smoker, right?”. Nasty.
And personally, I know enough healthy lifestyle freaks that have died of cancer that I wonder if there is a correleation. And the sad part is when they find out they have cancer they are left feeling like all their healthy habits were a waste of happiness and they wish they could go back in time and eat the foods they like and live enjoyably…it’s like they didn’t really like maintaining the healthy lifestyle… it was just a shield… and one that didn’t work, at that.
My mother was the healthiest person I know. She cut out all oils and sodium from her diet. Ate prunes. Kept herself regular. Did yoga daily. Exercise every day. Walked in her job all the time.
She hit retirement age, which she had been SO looking forward to, and was dead three years later from bone cancer. And yes, I know she wished things had been different, at the end.
That’s fucked up. I have a lot of energy, but I also give myself license to be lazy and do what I want, because all too soon it’s going to be over. I let myself enjoy life. I’m not saying healthy lifestyle people don’t…I’m saying she never did.
It’s good to be healthy but I certainly have seen that sense of smugness from healthy people. “Look at me, that’s never going to happen to me.” Well, i certainly hope so…but I only get one life and no way will I spend two hours of my day every day doing exercise! 20-30 minutes, absolutely. See the difference?
You know, it’s not a zero-sum game between “eat everything in sight, never exercise, and be deliriously happy” on one side and “work out constantly, eat sticks and berries, and hate your life” on the other. What’s with the hating on people who enjoy fitness? And also, if there’s a study showing a correlation between moderate exercise/good nutrition and cancer incidence, I’d love to see it.
Of course people shouldn’t say douchey things to someone who has been diagnosed with a disease. I have no idea how you get from there to “healthy people will regret their lives when they are inevitably dying early on their cancer deathbeds.” I mean, WTF?
Edit: this was in reply to Ann Hedonia. I am not intending commentary on Anaamika’s mom!
Somebody once said “I measure my life not in length, but in breadth.” To which I thought, well, if we’re talking geometry, maybe I’m interested in total area. If this or that “vice” has an expected cost in length, does it more than make up for that on the other dimension?
But then, the giving up of vices, the adoption of new health habits, isn’t necessarily the cost in breadth that people assume it to be. Some people discover that they come to actually really like the sticks and berries, as it were. An ex-GF of mine is something of an exercise maven, and the most striking thing I found in reading her was her discussion of the exhilaration she got from it, not just the short-term high but the remaking of her whole life experience.
I run because it’s cheaper than antidepressants. I’m not kidding. If you know a specific person that has sacrificed happiness for fitness, OK. But I don’t think most people who lead a healthy lifestyle feel they’re missing out on the good things in life.
Though again I want to be clear that I am in no way excusing or apologizing people who are douchebags to other people about “your fat gave you cancer!” or whatever.
I do understand the point of the OP. When my brother committed suicide in 1990, I had all sorts of oblivious people wanting to know if he was on drugs, if he had left a note, if he had a history of mental illness. I blame some of that on the false idea people get from suicide prevention education… the fact is that a significant proportion of suicides do not follow the accepted wisdom of giving helpful warning signs before they take action.
People just need a reason why something bad happened to someone, so that they can tell themselves that it won’t happen to them. It’s what lets them sleep at night.
“Of course so and so died of cancer–one time they smoked! Of course that old person got Alzheimer’s–he had a family history. Well obviously that guy had a heart attack–he’s morbidly obese. I’ve never smoked, have no family history of Alzheimer’s and am only slightly overweight, therefore I will never die!”
I don’t get this thread. The OP saw a news report saying that poor diet and lack of exercise might lead to Alzheimers, and that’s got people upset? Why? Is there a question about the validity of the study? Do you think the news is lying to you? Because that’s not the vibe I get from this thread. It seems like people are blaming the dieters and exercisers for obesity leading to Alzheimers. As the OP said:
No one, except causality, is threatening you with anything. Would you prefer that the news not report such studies, on the basis that people might feel bad? That seems counter to the mission statement of this website.
This thread is way dumb. You are feeling guilty or threatened by a fact, so the people who reveal the fact are doing something wrong? Does that actually make sense to you? Do you think that when studies show that some particular thing has an effect on health or longevity it shouldn’t be reported (even if it’s interesting to some people) because it will make you feel bad? Does the world revolve around you much?
Disseminating information that certain steps increase your chances of being healthier or living longer is not stupid or pointless merely because everyone is going to die sooner or later. Suggesting to the contrary is utterly illogical.
Let’s face it, you hate these stories because they reveal a reality you don’t want to know, so you lash out in an embarassingly silly way at the messenger. My four year old does this all the time. Grow up.
