“If I’d known I was gonna live this long, I’d have taken better care of myself.”
— Attributed to jazz musician Eubie Blake (1887-1983)
“You can live to be a hundred if you give up all the things that make you want to live to be a hundred.”
— Comedian and filmmaker Woody Allen (1935-)
v: spread: To cover with a layer: spread a cracker with butter; To prepare (a table) for eating; To arrange (food or a meal) on a table
n: middle-age spread: Extension or enlargement as a result of all of the above
First, the good news: Death from heart disease has been on the decline since 1986 in B.C., according to the province’s vital statistics bureau. Cancer remains the leading cause of death here, but rates of that pernicious evil, too, have levelled off or decreased for everything but non-Hodgkins lymphoma and melanoma. The incidence of emphysema is also down, as more and more people butt out. In fact, statistics compiled in 2011 show that, with an average life expectancy of 82, we continue to walk this mortal coil quite a bit longer than other Canadians.
I’m such a sweet talker.
The bad news: Reformed smokers can take well-deserved credit for some of these changes. The rest of us? Not so much. New and better medical practices have a lot to do with our longevity — not how we care for ourselves. In fact, all evidence suggests that even though we boomers are living longer than our parents, we’re in worse health. That was the conclusion of a recent American study conducted at the West Virginia University School of Medicine and the Medical University of South Carolina — and there’s no reason to believe results would be any different on this side of the 49th parallel.
The study found that boomers had more diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity than the previous generation. Nearly three-quarters of those in our age bracket had high cholesterol, compared with just 34 per cent of those who have gone before us. And — get this — twice as many boomers were disabled and needed a cane or walker to get around. As well, more than half said they were couch potatoes — or words to that effect — compared with just 17 per cent of the older group at the same age.
“That’s an astonishing change in just one generation,” said lead researcher Dana E. King. I’ll say.
Consider this: Nineteen per cent of the adult population in B.C. is obese and another 40 per cent is overweight, according to something called the Obesity Reduction Strategy Task Force of B.C., which submitted a detailed report to the Ministry of Health a couple of years back. And Cardiac Services B.C., an offshoot of the Provincial Health Services Authority, warns that “rates of cardiovascular disease will go up over the next 20 years as more people develop age-related risk factors like high blood pressure and diabetes.” So what we’ve gained in better treatment, we’re likely to give back because of our lifestyles.
Those funsters at the Heart and Stroke Foundation have more to add. In a survey, the group found that nearly 85 per cent of respondents weren’t eating enough fruits and vegetables and 40 per cent didn’t exercise nearly enough. One in five smoked and 11 qualified as heavy drinkers.
So much for sweet talk.
If I sound like I’m hectoring, forgive me. Truly, I’m lecturing myself. Blessed with remarkable well-being, I’ve been too smug for too long. How could I be at risk now? Surely, I’ve been far more health-conscious than my parents, who smoked and drank like mad men, ever were. Yet over the past year, my sweet tooth has taken over my whole mouth. I seem to crave calories, and it’s showing. I’ve watched middle-age spread form like a jelly mould around my abdomen. I convince myself that a nightly stroll around a short block with my languid mutt constitutes exercise.
Turns out that being health conscious isn’t the same as being healthy. I talk the talk, but I don’t walk the walk. That’s part of the problem, in fact. I don’t walk nearly enough.
Apparently, I’m not alone.
