Health Briefs notes that people often take lightly the
choices they make in life, and the bad ones can cost them and society at large
dearly. A research institute in Ontario
has come up with some statistics that add a voice to this idea. Ontario
residents spend some 942,000 days per year as inpatients in hospitals at a cost
of almost two billion dollars because of poor lifestyle choices. Prime culprits are smoking, excessive
drinking, poor diets and lack of exercise.
After tracking 80,000 adults from 2001 to 2010, researchers arrived at
these figures that support ideas that the subjects probably already knew. Usually, those guilty of unhealthy practices
are fully aware of the hazards, but somehow are able to rationalize such risky
behavior in their own minds.
Health Briefs reiterates a common warning about healthy lifestyle choices.
The Health Briefs TV show is not surprised to learn that
smoking is the biggest offender in this study, being responsible for over
500,000 of these "bed days".
The lack of physical activity was deemed the second-most harmful choice,
followed by poor diet in third place. It
was found that a 54-year-old whose choices involved all of the risk categories
will likely spend as much time in a hospital bed as a 74-year-old who practiced
none of these bad behaviors.
Unfortunately, it is difficult, if not impossible, to legislate good
lifestyle choices, a fact learned by the mayor of New York
City when he tried to outlaw oversized soft
drinks. If their own health and safety
is not enough to motivate people to make the right decisions, who knows what
will?
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