Living Longer Should Not be the Goal

[talon]

http://pagingdrgupta.blogs.cnn.com/2011/01/27/why-americans-aren%e2%80%99t-living-longer/?hpt=Sbin

Living longer should not be the goal.

Living better, which often translates into living longer, should be the goal.

I am not convinced that the so-called "bad habits" like smoking, eating, drinking, and taking drugs are the primary agents in shortened life spans. I know too many people and of too many people who have lived long lives who have also smoked, imbibed, dosed, and over-eaten. What killed most of them wasn't chronic disease caused by obesity or smoking but allergies, accidents, or acute diseases, often because the doctors wanted so desperately to find some underlying chronic disease to blame they didn't treat the acute illness or injury until too late or manage the allergy well, often telling the patient they'll get better if they'd just lose weight.

Weight loss is not a panacea, and I wish doctors would stop blaming weight for everything and stop telling patients that weight loss will cure all their ills.

Often, weight is a symptom, not a cause, and if they'd treat the cause, the weight would adjust itself. Then, too, there are those who are naturally and normally heavier or thinner. There is no standard "perfect" weight. Doctors just need to get over the weight issue and look at the patient's actual health.

We spend too much time and resources and money chasing health bugaboos and will-o-wisps and too little time actually treating the real issues and that, I believe, is the cause we have a lower life expectancy and a lower over-all health profile.

I know the few times I've had to visit a doctor for a problem, they first blamed my weight (first I was too thin and sick because I needed to gain weight when the real issue was cancer, not my weight, and then they said my tar allergy or strep throat would miraculously disappear if I lost 5 or 10 pounds, or that my injured wrist would spontaneously heal if I just lost a few pounds), and only if I pushed it did they "discover" that weight wasn't the issue at all, but cancer, strep, allergies, or a broken wrist. But first, I had to spend weeks and even months and get sicker and sicker before they looked further than weight.

The goal should be aimed at health overall, and not "stop smoking" or "lose weight". Often, when overall health is the goal, the smoking becomes a minor issue and the weight adjusts itself to where it should be for optimal health - and if that's greater or lesser than the charts say, then so be it.