These Are the World's Healthiest Nations

[robnplunder]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cpadave US came in at 35. With all the money we spend on healthcare I would have expected to be on top 10.

Glass half empty ... I am surprised that US is ranked so high, home of the McDonalds.

[Nick12]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Walt34 It depends on where you look. Today at the gym out of perhaps 60 people there (including staff) I saw exactly one obese person, and she was a newbie being instructed by one of the staff. Yesterday I was in a Walmart store. There sure are a lot of obese people there! I'll not speculate on why those two environments were so different.

Wal Mart should take over the Sears jingle..

" Where America shops! "

[Nick12]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mdlerth I AM looking around, and I see both overweight people as well as millions of insanely fit exercise fanatics sporting less fat in their whole bodies than I have in my thumb. I assure you it's NOT a uniform distribution.

WOW. An area where millions are like this. My gym rat friends and me would like to vacation at this spot!

[Col. Klink]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Walt34 It depends on where you look. Today at the gym out of perhaps 60 people there (including staff) I saw exactly one obese person, and she was a newbie being instructed by one of the staff. Yesterday I was in a Walmart store. There sure are a lot of obese people there! I'll not speculate on why those two environments were so different.

The place to go to get motivated to diet and exercise is Golden Corral. Just sit in the parking lot and watch the stream of morbidly obese people stream in like pigs to the trough. Makes you want to go home and saute some spinach in olive oil and sea salt, have a nice piece of fish, and perhaps a pinot grigio to overcome the shock and horror you witnessed.

[ShokWaveRider]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mamadogmamacat The cost of healthcare and any solutions to it, will not solve this problem.

This is simply not true. When people have access to HC without having to worry about copayments, coinsurance, insurance, and associated extra costs, they go to the docs when they need to and get attention before really costly solutions are the only options. Most if not all the countries mentioned have some form of socialized medicine. We Americans need to get our blinkers off and go with what really works from a healthcare perspective.

[NW-Bound]

If we agree with what mamadogmamacat wrote, and I quote below, then giving citizens unlimited doctor visits will not solve any problem.

How common are cases where a doctor is able to talk a patient out of drugs, or into successful dieting and exercise?

If seeing doctors frequently can help a person's well being, then we should see people generally getting healthier when they are past the age of 65 when they qualify for Medicare.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mamadogmamacat ... illegal drugs are not the only problem, sugar is highly addictive. Add in the suicides and the way we count infant mortality, and I'm actually surprised we are not even worse than #35...

[MRG]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NW-Bound If we agree with what mamadogmamacat wrote, and I quote below, then giving citizens unlimited doctor visits will not solve any problem. How common are cases where a doctor is able to talk a patient out of drugs, or into successful dieting and exercise? If seeing doctors frequently can help a person's well being, then we should see people generally getting healthier when they are past the age of 65 when they qualify for Medicare.

I know some people will disagree but sugar addiction is nonsense! The notion sells books, makes people feel better, and is an insult to those who suffer from addiction. Yes sugar is enjoyable and you will find eating it can cause cravings, but that is far from physical addiction.

Eat 40 milligrams of oxy for months and tell me about "sugar addiction". When I came off that dosage it was several weeks of reducing the dose, and some white knuckles. Sugar was a decision to quit and done.

A friend committed suicide coming off of opioids, he is not the only person who has done that. How many people kill themselves over sugar?

I walked by a doctor's office yesterday and they had a prominent sign stating "no narcotics are kept here", ever seen one about no candy?

[NW-Bound]

Well, there are different levels of addiction. I used to smoke cigarettes, and told myself that it was not an addiction and I could quit anytime. And I did quit a few times.

I finally kicked the habit in a European trip in 2003 when I ran out of cigarettes, and was about to look for a tobacconist and decided to quit for real. I did not suffer any real pain, but quitting was hard.

Have not smoked any since that day, and I would know the exact date if I look at the travel photos as I remember where I was standing in Monaco when making that decision.

[becca]

Hmmm...not to get political but I can't resist adding that the current leader of the US, is officially obese, eats junk food and doesn't exercise. Definitely not a poster boy for healthy living.

[Nemo2]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NW-Bound I finally kicked the habit in a European trip in 2003 when I ran out of cigarettes, and was about to look for a tobacconist and decided to quit for real. I did not suffer any real pain, but quitting was hard.

Interesting, different physical/psychological reactions people undergo.....DW's daughter's husband successfully quit a few years ago, but he 'had' to utilize patches, etc, to accomplish it, (and this isn't a guy one would classify as 'weak willed').

I stopped smoking ~42 years ago....just tossed half a packet of cigarettes in the waste basket. Never smoked again, and never had a problem.

[NW-Bound]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cpadave US came in at 35. With all the money we spend on healthcare I would have expected to be on top 10...

Yes, the US spends a lot more money on healthcare, but there are many reasons for it.

I have long suspected one factor (out of many), and recently found that researchers have confirmed it. That is the US spends a lot more money on cancer treatments than other developed countries. And the statistics show that cancer survival rates are higher in the US than in other countries.

And we all know how expensive it is to treat cancers, and to keep stage IV patients alive.

Search the Web, and you will see many articles on this subject.

PS. You can spend $1 million to extend the life of a cancer patient by 6 months. That will not bring up the average longevity of the population, if that patient is only 1 out of 100 or more people.

[braumeister]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nemo2 Interesting, different physical reactions people undergo.

Huge individual differences there.
I remember my father simply deciding to quit one day. He stopped smoking, no big deal, end of story.

In my case it was one of the hardest things I ever tried to do, and I tried probably 100 times over quite a few years. What finally did it was a case of double pneumonia where I simply couldn't smoke for about three weeks. When I felt well enough, I just took it one day at a time, but it was still brutal.

[Music Lover]

Regardless of how easy it is to eat bad food and not exercise, the reality is that all the information one needs to eat healthy and get fit is a click away on the internet.

If I look at my 20 closest friends and family, myself and one other couple I know are the only people who exercise regularly. 3 out of 20. A lot of the others eat somewhat healthy and have more or less "normal" weight levels, but none of them do any exercise.

[flintnational]

Quote:

Originally Posted by becca Hmmm...not to get political but I can't resist adding that the current leader of the US, is officially obese, eats junk food and doesn't exercise. Definitely not a poster boy for healthy living.

I prefer to blame our current obesity problem on Captain Kangaroo. If only we had followed the example set by a svelte Mr. Green Jeans instead.

[Music Lover]

Quote:

Originally Posted by becca Hmmm...not to get political but I can't resist adding that the current leader of the US, is officially obese, eats junk food and doesn't exercise. Definitely not a poster boy for healthy living.

If you wanted to be truly non-political you could have said that both candidates failed the "healthy lifestyle" standard.

[MichaelB]

Quote:

Originally Posted by becca Hmmm...not to get political but I can't resist adding that the current leader of the US, is officially obese, eats junk food and doesn't exercise. Definitely not a poster boy for healthy living.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Music Lover If you wanted to be truly non-political you could have said that both candidates failed the "healthy lifestyle" standard.

Both statements are political. What Music Lover suggests would make it non-partisan.

[flintnational]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MichaelB Both statements are political. What Music Lover suggests would make it non-partisan.

Yea, but my Capt. Kangaroo post was non-political and non-partisan. Heck, I don't even know Capt. K's or Mr. GJ's political affiliations. But, from his farmer persona, I highly suspect Mr. GJ was a flyover state Republican.

[haha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by becca Hmmm...not to get political but I can't resist adding that the current leader of the US, is officially obese, eats junk food and doesn't exercise. Definitely not a poster boy for healthy living.

Yet it seems to work for him.

Ha

[NW-Bound]

Luck trumps anything else (pun unintended).

Look at Buffett for example. Has anyone seen him at a gym? He plays bridge 8 hours/week, but I have not seen a photo of him hiking, playing golf, or doing any physical thing. He eats hamburgers, fries, candies, and drinks Coke. I will be glad to be like him if and when I get to that age.

[Alan]

My great grandad, who I knew quite well, went down the coal mines at age 12, signed up with the army in 1914 and spent 4 years in France and Belgium in WWI. We got his army records and confirmed that he was shot in the arm, gassed twice and discharged 60% disabled in 1919. He then went back down the pit and “retired early” in 1939 at age 62 when he fell down a mine shaft and shattered both legs, requiring one to be amputee below the knee. Like all my family he was also a smoker and lived until he was 92.

My Dad was also an underground miner for over 40 years, from age 14 in 1939, and a heavy smoker, and lived to age 84. Like my great granddad he was always slim.

I just hope some of those genes have made their way to me. My brother and 2 sisters are all obese.