Healthy Bytes

In the year Twenty-Thirty

read time: 364 words, under 2 minutes

The CDC just issued a report - The State of Aging and Health in America 2007 – that looks at a number of data points on a State by State basis.

Let’s look at a couple of current data points (this applies to the U.S. population):

• 80% of folks over 65 have one or more chronic diseases that can lead to disability and/or premature death.
• Health care costs are 3 to 5 times greater for the 65+ group as compared to younger adults.

In 2030:

• The 65+ population by the year 2030 - that’s just 23 years from now - will nearly double to 71 million / 20% of the total population.
• Health care costs will increase by another 25%.

The report notes that 35% of deaths in 2000 are attributed to 3 behaviors:
-> smoking
-> poor diet
-> lack of physical activity

Why? These behaviors lead to the top chronic diseases – heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes.

What’s missing in this picture is the impact of excessive weight and obesity. Not because there isn’t one, but because it isn’t showing up in older data. The dramatic increase in obesity has been in the last 10 years. That trend is still in tact.

Chronic conditions take time.
However in the present, snippets like number of weight surgeries (lap band, bariatric) have tripled in teens portend future impact.

Here’s the thing. These are chronic conditions – meaning with you everyday – that develop over time. Diet and lifestyle choices you’re making right now are forming your reality in 2030.

As a culture we have a difficult time “saving for tomorrow”. That’s true in a financial sense as well as a health sense. Unfortunately chronic conditions generally can’t be “fixed” quickly or easily.

What choices are you making today – for yourself and for your children? If we raise our children with good diet and lifestyle habits, they’ll never need to be “re-trained”. And if we start taking care of ourselves immediately, we’ll enjoy better health now and in the year 2030 and beyond.

The CDC report concludes:

If people adopt healthier lifestyles, they will not develop the expensive, chronic diseases that raise health costs sharply, such as diabetes, cancer and heart disease.

This entry was posted on Fri, 9.Mar.2007 at 9:48 am and is filed under Nutrition, Lifestyle, Obesity, Diabetes, Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.