Obesity-TV
This weeks study that watching television could prove as harmful as smoking cigarettes shouldn't come as any surprise to us. Americans created the "Couch Potato Syndrome" as a cute depiction before scientist had shown a "real" syndrome existed known as Syndrome-X(Cardio-Metabolic Syndrome)was put together.The Cardio-Metabolic Syndrome is known to be related to obesity, over-weight status, high cholesterol, high triglyceride, and very high blood glucose.This all lead to a higher morbidity and mortality.
Recently, medical studies have been making the tie in between those of us who watch telivision late night and continue to eat at will also being related to a rise in insomnia and diabetes in our country.
Children are watching a much higher to alarming amount of television as well and guess what- the rate of obesity has nearly tripled in the last 3 decades along with a rise in pediatric heart disease, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and liver disease.
Our culture has come up with numerous convenient "excuses" not to exercise or be active and justify technology's efficacy over bodily expenditure of calories on a regular basis. The computer may now have to answer as much to this "cultural shift" if not more than the television has. This would include hand held devices, game boys, cell phones, ipads,ipods, PDAs and others in this class.
The Cardio-Metabolic Syndrome comes out fully as really being an " Unhealthy Life Styles Syndrome". As technology "assists" us in carrying us in our load such with automobiles(being stressed out in traffic for hours on in smog or taking the elevators and escalators which only conveniently diverts us from the few calories most us don't get a chance to "burn".
So, again is it any surprise that this modern invention has had such an impact on our health and our lives in general? Not at all. The wiring of the human brain and behavior modification has been a valuable tool for industry and may have a secondary impact on how we are actually thinking according to some neuroscientist. The internet may actually be "changing" if not manipulating how we think, talk and behave.
As those social scientist and pioneers of television might say, "there is a "dumbing down" of the populous. But, the computer has "re-invented" language with neologisms that splice abbreviations with slang dialogs.This is all occuring as we become more obese with more heart attacks, cancer and strokes rising.So as I.Q may fall as cognitive skills become less challenge we also get fatter and unhealthier, too.
Now , it is time for the full tie in , that obesity and our general health problems are not just a "medical" or even "healthcare issue" alone, but a social and cultural one that effects our fundamental way of life.We are on the crest of a real monumental health tsunami, the waves which are rising.
In one of Pixtars animated movies, WALL-E, a robot left bhind on earth is transported to a spaceship where humans are awaiting the environmental disaster on the planet to subside. In that movie,all the humans have become extremely obese and reliant on robots even for just about everything from turning them over, ambulating and thinking.
That scenario doesn't appear to be too far off in the course of the modern human path of technology. If that is the future, then I would have to say that we may be already there. That is, the future is "now" and we should stop kidding ourselves about what the state of the matter is.
Prevention as a lifestyle's policy has to be restored and renewed. Not as a specialty of medicine , but as cultivating a "culture of wellness and health". This means along with the health programs and insurance benefits and "once-a-year" checks, a genuine lifestyle's program has to be implemented to see health and healthcare costs reverse.
What does that entail? It means access and availability for regular physical acitivy, nutritional support, prevention education, behavior modification and motivation as well as taking personal awareness and repsonsibility for health indivially and even as a community.
Recently, medical studies have been making the tie in between those of us who watch telivision late night and continue to eat at will also being related to a rise in insomnia and diabetes in our country.
Children are watching a much higher to alarming amount of television as well and guess what- the rate of obesity has nearly tripled in the last 3 decades along with a rise in pediatric heart disease, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and liver disease.
Our culture has come up with numerous convenient "excuses" not to exercise or be active and justify technology's efficacy over bodily expenditure of calories on a regular basis. The computer may now have to answer as much to this "cultural shift" if not more than the television has. This would include hand held devices, game boys, cell phones, ipads,ipods, PDAs and others in this class.
The Cardio-Metabolic Syndrome comes out fully as really being an " Unhealthy Life Styles Syndrome". As technology "assists" us in carrying us in our load such with automobiles(being stressed out in traffic for hours on in smog or taking the elevators and escalators which only conveniently diverts us from the few calories most us don't get a chance to "burn".
So, again is it any surprise that this modern invention has had such an impact on our health and our lives in general? Not at all. The wiring of the human brain and behavior modification has been a valuable tool for industry and may have a secondary impact on how we are actually thinking according to some neuroscientist. The internet may actually be "changing" if not manipulating how we think, talk and behave.
As those social scientist and pioneers of television might say, "there is a "dumbing down" of the populous. But, the computer has "re-invented" language with neologisms that splice abbreviations with slang dialogs.This is all occuring as we become more obese with more heart attacks, cancer and strokes rising.So as I.Q may fall as cognitive skills become less challenge we also get fatter and unhealthier, too.
Now , it is time for the full tie in , that obesity and our general health problems are not just a "medical" or even "healthcare issue" alone, but a social and cultural one that effects our fundamental way of life.We are on the crest of a real monumental health tsunami, the waves which are rising.
In one of Pixtars animated movies, WALL-E, a robot left bhind on earth is transported to a spaceship where humans are awaiting the environmental disaster on the planet to subside. In that movie,all the humans have become extremely obese and reliant on robots even for just about everything from turning them over, ambulating and thinking.
That scenario doesn't appear to be too far off in the course of the modern human path of technology. If that is the future, then I would have to say that we may be already there. That is, the future is "now" and we should stop kidding ourselves about what the state of the matter is.
Prevention as a lifestyle's policy has to be restored and renewed. Not as a specialty of medicine , but as cultivating a "culture of wellness and health". This means along with the health programs and insurance benefits and "once-a-year" checks, a genuine lifestyle's program has to be implemented to see health and healthcare costs reverse.
What does that entail? It means access and availability for regular physical acitivy, nutritional support, prevention education, behavior modification and motivation as well as taking personal awareness and repsonsibility for health indivially and even as a community.
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