WHEN BEING NORMAL
SHOULD NOT BE YOUR GOAL
IF WE TREATED MACHINERY LIKE WE TREAT THE HUMAN BODY, THERE WOULD BE BREAKDOWNS ALL THE TIME. OUR AUTOMOBILES WOULD BREAK DOWN ALL THE TIME IF WE TREATED THEM LIKE WE TREAT OUR BODIES. NORMAL for people over 65 is to consume four prescribed medicines plus three over-the-counter. It is reported that one-third of these will at at some point have a adverse reaction requiring a hospital visit. In seniors, ten to fifteen percent of visits to emergency rooms are the result of reactions to medications. No one really knows what happens when one takes multiple drugs at the same time. It would be almost impossible to determine the effect as the number of possible side effects is impossible to calculate. OBESITY Two-thirds of the population is either overweight or obese. It has been estimated that 36 percent of the adults in the U.S. were obese in 2010; 33 percent were overweight. Over six percent were an unbelievable 100 pounds or more over recommended weight amounts. At current rates we will have 42 percent of the population classified as obese by 2030. DIABETES One-third of the adults are either diabetics or pre-diabetic. Even worse, half of the population in the U.S. over 65 have pre-diabetes. Type 2 diabetes has increased over 750 percent from 1935 to 1996. Corn syrup was introduced in 1960 and the trend has been onward and upward ever since. HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE One out of every three adults has high blood pressure. Another one-third of the population either has pre-hypertension blood pressure (but not yet in the high blood pressure range). That amounts to 66 percent of the population with some form of blood pressure problem. CHRONIC BACK/NECK PAIN More than one-third of people over 50 report having chronic back/neck pain. In addition almost as many report chronic knee or leg pain. DIGESTIVE DISORDERS affect over 90 million people in the U.S. MENTAL HEALTH DISORDERS Reported to have been diagnosed by over 25 percent of those 18 and older. Depression alone is reported by almost 10 percent of the population. INSOMNIA It is estimated that almost 50 percent of adults have some issue with insomnia. Half of those are said to have a chronic problem. CHRONIC CONDITIONS 125 million (more than one-third of the population) have at least one chronic condition. Reference is to health issues such as diabetes, cancer, glaucoma, or heart disease, kidney disease and more. ARE YOU NORMAL? It no longer appears to be such a good thing to be normal. |