I prefer to think in most cases you can delay but not prevent disease. In the case of the 49 year old heart atack, exercise and diet improvements would have helped him delay it or increase chance of surviving but there is still almost certianly an underlying problem such as high LP(a) that would cause a heart atack so young.
It’s hard to be 100 % accurate whether a severe medical condition, such as a heart attack could be prevented or just postponed in the future, but focusing on prevention is the best thing we have.
Prevention is a common term for it but no matter how hard we try we all face an end, hopefully as late and healthy but it's delaying not preventing.
The person having the heart attack at 49 might have delayed it to their 60's with enough exercise, nutrition and smoking and alcohol avoidance but there is something in their genetic make-up that means they are going to get it sooner. Proper treatment might push that 60's to the 70's or later.
High chance and lower risk are equivalent. I think both health and fitness influences and doctors can talk with too much certainty. There may be exceptions, if you don't have the poor luck to be born with type 1 diabetes you can prevent type 2 diabetes with diet and exercise. This does not apply to cancer and heart disease where you can at best delay them. People that exercise and eat just right still get cancer and heat disease but they are more likely to get them later.
It might be the engineer in my but I think promoting preventing these diseases vs promoting reducing the risk is misleading.
If you stop at delay I'm on board, something is eventually going to get you and it's almost certainly heart disease or cancer.
Take the child that dies of cancer before they are 10, could that really have been prevented if he'd skipped a few more treats and tried harder during gym class? Really the only think that could help him is advances in medicine. If we can accept this tragedy has and will happen in the first 10 years for life how can you accept that for the next 70 or 80 years of life you can "prevent all together" cancer.
Very fit otherwise healthy people that do all the right things still get cancer and heart disease and many other diseases. Just as important is winning the genetic lottery. Do the best you can with what you have but also set realistic expectations.
Congratulations on 1000 subscribers! With articles like this one it’s clear you’re delivering quality for your readers.
I work on industrial sites and know of plenty of accidents where a worker’s life changed in an instant. These get a lot of focus of course. At this time it doesn’t seem like companies here in Canada are interested in tackling the food or exercise part of their workers lives, only physical and mental dangers presented by the work itself. Everything else is left totally up to the individual. Like you say, the bill will come due but it will be one or two decades later, so it’s hard to connect action to reaction.
But there is an immediate payoff in increased energy and vitality. It has to be experienced to know the difference.
I had a discussion with a Siemens manager, who is the head of a manufacturing site: He questioned whether we should address topics such as nutrition and exercise or if they are private.
The managing board has been supporting a holistic approach of health promotion, because they believe we make a difference.
It’s our job to distribute and put that into action, but I agree 100 %: it goes against the philosophy of many people who believe it is solely a private topic.
I prefer to think in most cases you can delay but not prevent disease. In the case of the 49 year old heart atack, exercise and diet improvements would have helped him delay it or increase chance of surviving but there is still almost certianly an underlying problem such as high LP(a) that would cause a heart atack so young.
It’s hard to be 100 % accurate whether a severe medical condition, such as a heart attack could be prevented or just postponed in the future, but focusing on prevention is the best thing we have.
Prevention is a common term for it but no matter how hard we try we all face an end, hopefully as late and healthy but it's delaying not preventing.
The person having the heart attack at 49 might have delayed it to their 60's with enough exercise, nutrition and smoking and alcohol avoidance but there is something in their genetic make-up that means they are going to get it sooner. Proper treatment might push that 60's to the 70's or later.
Well yes,
I did not propose eternal life, but prevention of lifestyle based diseases.
With the right system of healthy habits, there’s a high chance they will never happen.
High chance and lower risk are equivalent. I think both health and fitness influences and doctors can talk with too much certainty. There may be exceptions, if you don't have the poor luck to be born with type 1 diabetes you can prevent type 2 diabetes with diet and exercise. This does not apply to cancer and heart disease where you can at best delay them. People that exercise and eat just right still get cancer and heat disease but they are more likely to get them later.
It might be the engineer in my but I think promoting preventing these diseases vs promoting reducing the risk is misleading.
I guess we don’t agree on this 😄
What I found in the research papers is that a healthy lifestyle can both
delay the occurrence of lifestyle based diseases or prevent them altogether.
If you stop at delay I'm on board, something is eventually going to get you and it's almost certainly heart disease or cancer.
Take the child that dies of cancer before they are 10, could that really have been prevented if he'd skipped a few more treats and tried harder during gym class? Really the only think that could help him is advances in medicine. If we can accept this tragedy has and will happen in the first 10 years for life how can you accept that for the next 70 or 80 years of life you can "prevent all together" cancer.
Very fit otherwise healthy people that do all the right things still get cancer and heart disease and many other diseases. Just as important is winning the genetic lottery. Do the best you can with what you have but also set realistic expectations.
Congratulations on 1000 subscribers! With articles like this one it’s clear you’re delivering quality for your readers.
I work on industrial sites and know of plenty of accidents where a worker’s life changed in an instant. These get a lot of focus of course. At this time it doesn’t seem like companies here in Canada are interested in tackling the food or exercise part of their workers lives, only physical and mental dangers presented by the work itself. Everything else is left totally up to the individual. Like you say, the bill will come due but it will be one or two decades later, so it’s hard to connect action to reaction.
But there is an immediate payoff in increased energy and vitality. It has to be experienced to know the difference.
Thank you very much Tim!
I appreciate your constant support.
I had a discussion with a Siemens manager, who is the head of a manufacturing site: He questioned whether we should address topics such as nutrition and exercise or if they are private.
The managing board has been supporting a holistic approach of health promotion, because they believe we make a difference.
It’s our job to distribute and put that into action, but I agree 100 %: it goes against the philosophy of many people who believe it is solely a private topic.
Herzlichen Glückwunsch zu 1000 Newsletter-Abos. Das motiviert! Ich freue mich jede Woche auf deine Email. Viele Grüße
Vielen lieben Dank mein Freund!
Bald endlich persönlich wieder 😉