Posted on 04/20/2007 7:41:00 AM PDT by CompSciGuy
As the first wave of baby boomers edges toward retirement, a growing body of evidence suggests that they may be the first generation to enter their golden years in worse health than their parents. While not definitive, the data sketch a startlingly different picture than the popular image of health-obsessed workout fanatics who know their antioxidants from their trans fats and look 10 years younger than their age.
Continued at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/19/AR2007041902458.html?referrer=emailarticle
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Cheers,
CSG
Probably some of that, some of other things, such as having the cholesterol levels renormed everytime Pfizer shareholders need more dividends. We redefine a significant protion of the population as "Sick and needing intervention". In like manner, the parameters for hypertension have been adjusted downwards as well. This bodes well for the manufacturers of Hydrochlorothiazide and more recent drugs.
Another issue is that by 1950's standards, we are fat pigs, myself included. In the 1950's, it was not uncommon for people to eat food cooked in or with LARD, for heaven's sake, yet where were all the tubbies then?.
Now add to that the ability to get a prescription for Viagra et al, so a creaking relic can drop dead trying to emulate their twenties, and we have a redefinition of "Poor Health" that has generated many profitable industries.
Now add to the mix, the "Never trust anyone under Thirty" ethic we went through, where youth is elevated and age is devalued and suddenly we have an entire generation of sick people, because someone will not accept what the calender says, and demands to be 29, and drops dead jogging.
Ping list for the discussion of the politics and social (and sometimes nostalgic) aspects that directly effects Generation Reagan / Generation-X (Those born from 1965-1981) including all the spending previous generations are doing that Gen-X and Y will end up paying for.
Freep mail me to be added or dropped. See my home page for details and previous articles.
Boomer here!!! I don’t remember the 60’s. Did some stupid things (drugs). I believe this to be true. One heart attack and other medical problems are the proof (to me).
Interesting...can't wait to share this with him ;-)
Abuse your body for hedonistic and narccissitic reasons for 60 years.... and you pay a price for it... pure and simple.
I fit in the boomer generation, and I’m much healthier than my parents were at my age.
I’m in my mid-50s and, so far, healthier than my parents were but you never know; my mother died at 67 but my dad is still around at 91.
And common sense said the world was flat, once upon a time.
There's more in the current epidemic of diabetes and auto-immune troubles that dietary changes can account for.
The 'common sense' is blame-the-victim nonsense. Healthy folks note any difference between them and the sick guy and pin the blame on that - in one fell swoop they feel better because they are doing the 'right thing' and feel superior to the sick guy who is doing the 'wrong thing'. And all without any proof of cause and effect except a mild statistical correlation.
I was felt crappy and tired for a long time, and folks snorted that I needed more exercise. Well, exercise always made me feel worse. Turns out I had sarcoid. And that turns out to be infectious, cured with a long course of antibiotics. Drinking coffee and eating carbs is better than aspirin as a short term fix to the aches of sarcoid, you do it because it lets you get on with the day.
All that common sense had it entirely backwards. The diet didn't cause the disease, it was the other way around.
Cure the sarcoid, and the carb-craving went away, along with the diabetes that developed later.
Our parents grew up on fruits, vegetables, meet, potatoes and milk!! HUGE difference!
Getting fat being caused by infection is not (current) common sense. It would allow for an epidemic of fat, in the classical definition of epidemic.
ep·i·dem·i·cal.
(of a disease) affecting many persons at the same time, and spreading from person to person in a locality where the disease is not permanently prevalent.
BINGO!!!!
The health of subsequent generations have gone south because of the steroids, hormones, nitrates and msg added to the food chain. Even the parents of the baby boomers, of which I am one, have allergies and asthma we never before suffered. Eat only fresh foods and organic meat, milk and eggs is my advice.
Still no one has mentioned the additives and perservatives in virtually all store bought food.
I mean, how good can it be for us to have HFCS and hydrogenated fill-in-the-blank in almost everything we eat that isn’t made from scratch or fresh produce?
“We grew up on Twinkies, donuts, Ho-Ho-s (Am I allowed to say that?), ice cream, KOOL-AID, PB&Js, Coke and Pepsi, potato chips, and not many veggies or fruits!!
Our parents grew up on fruits, vegetables, meet, potatoes and milk!! HUGE difference!”
Plus, boomers sat for hours in front of the boob tube, unlike their parents.
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