Take Care of own Health

[mumbojumbo]

Today a minster announced we should take more responsibility for our health

https://www.theguardian.com/society/201 ... tt-hancock

I see a lot of fat people in our end of town but their habits sustain employment in KFC,Greggs,JFK and McDs,and the VAT payments on such delicacies help fund the NHS. What will happen to the finances if our plump pals reject fast food and adopt jogging?Will it be more dangerous for the pavement cyclist and the pedestrian?

[Mick F]

Cycled into Plymouth today. Took a long-ish route, then went in though the city roads to the centre.
Went up Wolsey Road and the shop that used to be a fruit and veg and general store merchant, is now a Chinese Takeaway.
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@50.39092 ... 312!8i6656

What hope is there?

[661-Pete]

It's not just about eating (and drinking, and smoking) habits.

I still get frequent bouts of depression. How is one supposed to 'take care' of that condition in oneself?

[bovlomov]

Today a minster announced we should take more responsibility for our health

https://www.theguardian.com/society/201 ... tt-hancock

This morning, a few inches along from that article on the Guardian home page, was another story,

Childhood obesity linked to air pollution from vehicles
Research suggests first year ‘critical window’ in which toxic air can increase weight gain

When health problems are so widespread, I think it makes sense to look at the social and environmental factors. It can't simply be individual weakness.

[mumbojumbo]

[list=]Childhood obesity linked to air pollution from vehicles
Research suggests first year ‘critical window’ in which toxic air can increase weight gain[/list]

There may be a link,an association where the two are directly related.However one cannot infer causation from these findings.Poorer people are fatter and live closer to sources of air pollution,such as main roads,factories etc.

[661-Pete]

Also, people who live close to busy main roads are less likely to cycle...

[mjr]

Also, people who live close to busy main roads are less likely to cycle...

Unless it's like mine and has a cycleway along it

[bovlomov]

[list=]Childhood obesity linked to air pollution from vehicles
Research suggests first year ‘critical window’ in which toxic air can increase weight gain[/list]

There may be a link,an association where the two are directly related.However one cannot infer causation from these findings.Poorer people are fatter and live closer to sources of air pollution,such as main roads,factories etc.

Yes, I'm sure it's complex. But government ministers like to blame the individual, because it saves them having to look at other causes. Whether it's about crime, health or education, population level changes are unlikely to be just an accident of individuals acting differently in isolation. Increase in crime is unlikely to be down to nothing more than an increase in wickedness among the perpetrators. Rising levels of obesity are down to more than just individual gluttony.

The minister, in this case, seems to be focusing solely on individual responsibility, without acknowledging the state's role.

[mjr]

Today a minster announced we should take more responsibility for our health

https://www.theguardian.com/society/201 ... tt-hancock

This morning, a few inches along from that article on the Guardian home page, was another story,

Childhood obesity linked to air pollution from vehicles
Research suggests first year ‘critical window’ in which toxic air can increase weight gain

When health problems are so widespread, I think it makes sense to look at the social and environmental factors. It can't simply be individual weakness.

He acknowledges that in the actual speech https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/ ... -to-ianphi but it is weak on detail about cleaning up the environment, I suspect because it's down to the Gove to announce.

[gbnz]

Today a minster announced we should take more responsibility for our health?

It's worth remembering that NHS staff have a vested interest in FORCING medical treatment on the population (Nb. It justifies their employment).

I'm having to fight them off at present, forcing my discharge from hospital 2.5 weeks ago, throwing their drugs in the bin and proceeding with a meeting with representatives of the NHS tomorrow to have the nonsense put on my medical record wiped off

[Flinders]

Medical records can be real flights of fancy, I know. Thankfully the courts don't accept them as gospel any more, as so often lately they have been proved to be mistaken at best, a pack of lies at worst. Trying to get them amended even when you have clear evidence they are wrong is like trying to plait sawdust. And it's no different in the private sector, so this isn't NHS bashing.

The most overweight person I have seen in some time was the member of (in this case NHS) staff who did a routine test on me last week. I thought at the time that the test she was doing would, in her case, be nearly impossible to do because of her weight. Of course, there could be a medical reason for her weight, so I'm not blaming her individually in any way, but that isn't going to be true in all cases. The NHS does need to convince us to be healthy, but that's not an easy message to put over when a significant proportion of your own staff, who would be thought to know how serious excess weight is, are seriously and visibly overweight; they can't all have medical conditions that cause it. More education and support for weight loss would seem to be needed within the NHS as well.

[pwa]

There are grossly overweight people who will never get better unless they do something to help themselves. That is just a fact. But that is not the same as saying that they shouldn't be helped along the way. Very often the overeating has a psychological basis, with the overeaters knowing what they are doing to themselves but unable to deal with their compulsive impulses. So treatment needs outside intervention combined with the individual doing what they can to turn things around.

[francovendee]

My wife and I argue our views on this a lot.
Regarding obesity, she largely blames the food manufacturers. I think the responsibility lies with the individual. I suspect the causes are a mix of these and other factors.
I was a 'fatty' when in my early teens, the taunting and teasing ,whilst cruel, hit the mark and I did something about it. I've never really put it back on but know I could easily if I ate all the 'nice' things.
I get periodic bouts of the blues and find my cure is to get out on the bike for a day.

I think there is a lot to be said for helping yourself rather than looking for sympathy or blaming other factors.

Of course I realise some conditions cannot but need help but I'm not sure if obesity is one or not.

Waiting to be shot at by all the large people who have tried every diet known to man with no effect

[pwa]

My wife and I argue our views on this a lot.
Regarding obesity, she largely blames the food manufacturers. I think the responsibility lies with the individual. I suspect the causes are a mix of these and other factors.
I was a 'fatty' when in my early teens, the taunting and teasing ,whilst cruel, hit the mark and I did something about it. I've never really put it back on but know I could easily if I ate all the 'nice' things.
I get periodic bouts of the blues and find my cure is to get out on the bike for a day.

I think there is a lot to be said for helping yourself rather than looking for sympathy or blaming other factors.

Of course I realise some conditions cannot but need help but I'm not sure if obesity is one or not.

Waiting to be shot at by all the large people who have tried every diet known to man with no effect

I feel you are half right. But you underplay the difficulty of controlling one's irrational impulses. I have known clever people who have overeaten (a lot) and who have blamed nobody but themselves, but struggle to stop eating. For them it is a mental / emotional problem, a bit like self-harming. They cannot be cured without their own effort, but they may also need help.

[meic]

The reward is instantaneous, the penalty is deferred and the cure takes time(as well as restraint).
That is the root of the problem.