For many people learning about how our health habits early
in life can affect our health in later life can be shocking. Americans tend to
live life in the present and try not to worry about the future. Americans as a
whole do not live by the motto short term pain for long term gain. While this
is not true for all, most do not know or do not want to know what affects smoking
a pack of cigarettes a day is going to have on their body in 20 years. People
think that you are going to be old and have health problems no matter what you
do in life, and that is not true. Hillier and Barrow (2011) state, “Though
people tend to assume that old age brings sickness, this is not necessarily
true. Most major health problems of old age result from pathology—the presence
of disease, most of the causes of which lie outside the aging process. Poor
living habits established early in life… cause many of the “diseases of old age”.
Heart disease, cancer, and strokes are not caused by “disease of old age” but
by personal health habits. This of course can be prevented by eating right,
exercising routinely, and having decent mental health. If people would do this then
they would be significantly less likely to experience these painful side
effects. Ultimately, it would lead to a less painful and more peaceful death.
There are still factors that you cannot control, as in accidents and genetics,
but overall, good self-care will lead to happier, longer lives.
Americans do live for the now and think little about future problems with today’s choices. Americans often feel as though being unaware or uneducated on products or choices, then negative consequences will not appear or happen. It is agreed that people have thoughts that growing old comes with issues and there is nothing to prevent issue when growing older. Growing old while taking care of your self can prevent certain illnesses or issues in the future. Diet and exercise are key actions to help make the growing old process more pleasurable. Diet and exercise helps build a stronger body and mind to help fight against illness and to feel better overall. As a social worker, it is helpful to encourage diet and exercise to build the body as a strong temple. This chapter is interesting because it describes the process at which your body begins to age.
ReplyDeleteI love what you said about "short term pain for long term gain", it is so true! So many people don't believe that taking care of themselves by putting a little effort in now can help them greatly in the future. A lot of people in our generation also tend to think of "old age" as its own illness, whereas, you're right, smoking, drinking, and being hard on your body at a young age is what makes the old body so much more fragile. If there was a way to bring recognition to this cause to the greater youthful population, I think we would see a dramatic change as generations age, instead I feel our society is going the opposite direction. Fast food, quick fixes such as diet pills, and medical advances are making it easier for people to be unhealthy and out of shape, rather than putting in the extra effort to maintain good health. It will be interesting to see over time if people begin to pick up on this concept of healthy aging, you are correct when saying the side effects of painful aging would dramatically decrease if people would indeed do so.
ReplyDeleteI agree with all of you. Although you may not enjoy doing it now, in the long run you will feel better, happier, and healthier about yourself. Choices we make now can hurt us so much in the future but whenever we start to make them, we're not even thinking about our future 30 or even 40 years later and realize how badly it may effect us. And like Melissa said with all of fast food, diet pills, and medical advances people are more unhealthy and although the last two can burn fat, they can also cause further health problems such as heart problems, bad reactions, stomach pain, nausea, vomiting. Just because something is fast and convienient does not always mean its the right and safe choice. And as Ashley pointed out we are a "live for now" generation and we do not think about all the unsafe stuff we do not could very much possibly effect us in the future. I think if people took time to decide to do something you can look at the long term effects and make a safer choice and in turn during your aging process it will make you happier.
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