Is there such a thing as a wonder drug? I was interested to read about Polypill, a cheap five-in-one pill which it is claimed can protect
against heart attacks and stroke.
It seems to be targeted at the over 55s. But how many of our young people today will reach that age?
During a recent visit to my doctor for a routine blood test, I was also screened for diabetes. I was told by the practice nurse that this test was carried out on all patients because the disease was increasingly affecting younger people. Cases are now being diagnosed on people in their 30s and 40s, when previously the usual age was 60s and 70s.
She told me with an air of despondency that our young people today will day young because of their poor diet and lack of exercise. They are signing their own death warrant by their inertia and ignorance.
The latest worrying news for them is that bowel cancer has increased staggeringly by 120% among the under 30s. Obesity and lack of exercise are blamed for this rise in cases reported between 1997 and 2006.
What is totally shocking about this is that our supermarkets are heaving with healthy foods, and we have an abundance of well equipped gyms, both in the private and public sector. The tools are out there for our young people to avoid an early grave.
Could I suggest that school gyms and sports fields are made available to local communities free of charge during evenings, weekends and school holidays to get them moving. At least it’s a start, and I would welcome your bright ideas on this topic…
Health should be a little better nowadays.
I was just watching a video about this at http://www.newsy.com/videos/super_heart_pill/ and I agree that exercise and diet are the answer, and that they should be emphasized more among our youth. I think the stereotype that exercise is for jocks and cheerleaders needs to be broken down if we’re going to make it normal across the board among youth.
What sports fields ? Many were sold off by Nu Lab to property developers.
I notice that my brother and his family are all obese. They are ALL living on benefits. The society of leisure we were promised isn’t anywhere near as glamourous as we were promised.
Children are much more active here in Western Australia. Clearly much of that is down to the better climate. But each day at the primary school the children start out with Fitness – the Year 7s (11 and 12 year olds) take the other classes in activities they have thought up themselves – skipping, assault courses etc on the school field. They do that before they do anything else. Then several afternoons a week they so Phys Ed.
But the main difference I see is that parents are much more relaxed about letting their children play unsupervised (something I do at home – it causes me worry but that is MY job as a parent to worry, not my job to keep them as prisoners in the house to stop me having to worry) and also the lack of obsession with football/soccer. Children play the old ball games I used to play. Soccer puts off a lot of children and splits boys from girls.
At home many children only really do exercise in organised time slots. When I was little I just played out (which is what many children still do here) for hours and hours. There is a limit to how many hours a child can do organised sport either at school or whatever and it is not really enough. Children need to be doing physical exercise for a large part of their day – walking to school, fitness at school and then walking home and an hour or more after school. My boys will happily walk 5 miles a day, swim for 1 hour (solid hard swim training) and still spend an hour playing out on their rollerblades. They can eat whatever they want without putting on any weight at all.
[…] Andy Locke Likes created an interesting post today on "Our young will die early"Here’s a short outline…gyms and sports fields are made available to local communities free of charge during evenings, weekends and school holidays to get them moving. […]
I think you have a good idea there, Ellee. I used to despair when I was teaching and on the bus to school I’d see kids consume 2 or 3 packets of crisps and some chocolate bars. Then they’d do the same again at lunchtime. I’m sure it all affected behaviour patterns.