The Disease More Lethal Than Swine Flu
May 22, 2009
Here’s a quiz that I made up while I was recovering from my overdose earlier this week. My Swine Flu Media Alert Overdose. (The straw that broke the swine’s back was when NBC pre-empted Kathie Lee and Hoda TWO DAYS IN A ROW for TWENTY minutes to listen to NYC’s Mayor Bloomberg shrug his shoulders.)
Answers are at the end of the article.
1. What is more dangerous?
a. Gaining 5 lbs every decade
b. Traveling through airports without a face mask
c. Not washing your hands every time you pee
d. Wearing white before Memorial Day to a Greenwich Polo Match
2.Which of the following events is more likely to happen to you in your lifetime?
a. You win the New York State PowerBall lottery with a dollar ticket you found in the street.
b. You catch H1N1, the new strain of swine flu
c. You die of an obesity-related disease like heart diease, diabetes, high blood pressure or cancer.
d.You become multi-orgasmic as you approach menopause.
3.Your idea of the most horrible way to die is
a. in your sleep at the ripe age of 90 years old after having beaten your 20 year old grandson in tennis that afternoon.
b. In an preparedness shelter with a handful of other survivors from a recent world-wide plague with no private bathroom, cell phone reception or flat screen TV.
c. In bed after several decades of languishing inactivity and pain related to being obese.
d. From full cardiac arrest directly brought on by the shock of becoming multi-orgasmic as a 60 year old grandmother.
Are you in a panic about Swine Flu? I have a better idea. Instead, panic (if panic you must) about the current pandemic of obesity. The CDC and WHO have both thrown up their (freshly washed) hands, shrugged their health shoulders and confessed to not having much of a clue about what to do about this flu. But statistics should reassure us, about swine flu at least. For example, there are 100 confirmed cases of swine flu where I live in Connecticut. That may sound like a lot but with a population of 3.5 million, Connecticuticans (say that three times fast) are more likely to contract the bubonic plague than to contract swine flu, not to mention that it’s spread is largely beyond our control unless you’ve figured out a way to breathe selective air.
Obesity, on the other hand, is totally within our control and is exponentially more widespread (an appropriate term, I think) than this strain of H1N1 flu bug.
Three in ten Americans are obese with a BMI in excess of 30.0, not to mention that six in every ten citizens is on his or her way to obesity by being just overweight. Childhood obesity in the U.S. has more than tripled in the past two decades and according to the U.S. Surgeon General, obesity is responsible for 300,000 deaths every year. This does not include deaths from obesity-related diseases like heart disease, diabetes and cancer.
Why aren’t we panicked about those extra pounds? Why aren’t we wearing those face masks to keep ourselves from overeating? I think it is because it is not immediate. Dying from diseases related to obesity kills more slowly and is cumulative over the years, unlike H1N1.
It’s only human nature to be more alarmed about what could happen tomorrow (even if the odds are astronomical) than in what is less immediate yet more deadly. But if we could start to view gaining those extra pounds as seriously as we do a flu bug, then we’d all live healthier lives and have a longer, more enjoyable lifespan.
Try this every time you wash your hands and whenever thoughts cross your mind about swine flu; think of one healthy choice you could do right now, like take a walk or plan a healthy dinner.
Then do it. Right now.
SCORING YOUR TEST
1. The correct answer is “a”. Adding gradual pounds as we age is directly related to disease and earlier death
2. The correct answer is “c” although good for you go-getters who answered “d”
3. The correct answer is “c” but at least your family will know where to find you.
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