Heart of the Matter

Only 3% of Americans are healthy!

defining the ‘magic formula' for achieving good health

A study published by a group at my alma mater, Michigan State University, by Matthew Reeves, M.D. defined a healthy lifestyle and measured its impact on health in an article published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

They defined the ‘magic formula' for achieving good health which, if adhered to, reduces the incidence of heart disease, stroke and diabetes by 70% and the incidence of cancer by 30%!  What formula could be this powerful and this magical? How expensive this must be. How strange it must be that we don't know about it for if we did wouldn't we all subscribe to it?

This magic formula is as follows: not smoking, maintaining a normal or near normal weight, eating 5 servings of fruit or vegetable a day and exercising 30 minutes a day.

Amazing isn't it that this formula could be so powerful? Imagine what our health care budget would be like if 70% of the most common and most expensive diseases went away? The only thing I find more astonishing than the magic formula is that only 3% of Americans adhere to these 4 healthy habits! The other 97% are content to risk crippling illness and take ever bigger doses of medicine rather than doing some simple things that we all know well will not only make us feel better but we now know, reduce our disability and make us live longer to boot. It is truly a magic formula but one we can all adhere to at virtually no cost and with no side effects except perhaps more regular bowel movements.

There is a tendency to discount this kind of lifestyle advice, no matter how compelling perhaps because it seems to good to be true or that this kind of adherence is too difficult. With the benefits so dramatic, however, we all should consider this advice more seriously. Save your own life!

My thanks to Monte Ladner, M.D. for his recent lecture on this subject from which much of this information was obtained.  I urge you to visit his website (www.fitness rocks. com) for the complete lecture and for podcasts on a long list of interesting health topics.