by Jims Vincent Capuno
Most parents tell their children what things they should not do. But the children do the opposite. If a mother tells her daughter, “I will allow you to attend the party, but please to go home early.” Sure, she’s home early – early in the morning.
Today, many people don’t care anymore about rules. They do what they want to do. They give reasons for doing so. The same is true concerning their health; they gamble with it. “Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow you may die” seems to be their motto.
“Give them what they want,” a television network executive told his reporters. “If our viewers want rape, gore, violence and even death, then that’s what you should report. Don’t worry about those good news, only a few people watch them.”
For a change, here are eight ways by which to die younger. The pointers here will surely give you an edge of not dying older. You won’t have the problem of getting arthritis, osteoporosis, or even Alzheimer’s disease.
1. Eat what you want. You are what you eat. Since your concern is to die younger, eat anything, especially those cholesterol-laden foods. Major dietary sources of cholesterol include cheese, egg yolks, beef, pork, chicken, and shrimp. Cholesterol is not present in plant-based food sources unless it has been added during the food’s preparation.
Excess cholesterol settles along arterial walls, and that excess can clog arteries and restrict blood flow, leading to angina pain, heart attack or stroke. Cholesterol is also a leading cause of gallstones.
Also, enjoy eating those foods saturated heavily with salt. According to the World Health Organization, salt is the major contributing factor to high blood pressure. “If we could only reduce our salt consumption by even six grams, it would reduce deaths from strokes by nearly 25 percent,” it said. “This level of reduction would also reduce heart disease by nearly 20 percent.”
Health disease, though, isn’t only the disease which worsens by the presence of salt. Excessive salt intake is also associated with an increased risk of osteoporosis, asthma, obesity, and cancer of the stomach.
2. Drink like there’s no tomorrow. Alcohol drinking is a big part of the Filipino merry-making activities. Beer is an essential part of fiestas, birthdays, and parties. Even when there is no special occasion, many Filipinos hang out together in the streets, in front of their houses and convenience stores drinking gin with tonic, which is a considerably cheaper alcoholic concoction.
According to the 1997 Family Income and Expenditure Survey, an average Filipino family spends one per cent of its income on alcoholic beverages. Unknowingly, drinking alcohol is a serious health issue and among the physical health effects associated with alcohol consumption may include cirrhosis of the liver, pancreatitis, epilepsy, polyneuropathy, alcoholic dementia, heart disease, increased chance of cancer, nutritional deficiencies, sexual dysfunction, and even death.
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step,” so goes a Chinese proverb. And drunkenness begins with the first drink. It is estimated that 40 percent of those who started drinking became problem drinkers.
3. Drive like crazy. “If you drive, don’t drink. If you drink, don’t drive.” But in a country where drunk driving is tolerated, that caution is irrelevant. “Perhaps this is one of the reasons why foreigners love to stay in our country,” one Filipino wrote in his blog. “Here, they can drink as much as they want and drive without any fear.”
It is a known fact that driving while intoxicated or drunk is dangerous. In the United States, for example, alcohol is estimated to play a role in 39 percent of vehicle-related deaths and to cost $51 billion annually.
Drivers with high blood alcohol content endanger not only themselves but other people on the road. While laws against driving under the influence or drunk driving was already implemented by other countries like England since 1897, the Philippines, where numerous cases of road accidents involving intoxicated or drunk drivers, is still following an “obsolete” law against drunken driving.
4. Have a smoke every now and then. “A custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs” was how James I of England described smoking in the sixteenth century. Today, there is 100 percent proof that smoking is indeed harmful.
Smoking causes lung cancer, emphysema, heart attacks, osteoporosis, peptic ulcer and reproductive problems like impotence. Wherever smoke passes, it spreads its deadly trademark: starting from the mouth where it causes oral cancer, then cancer of the vocal chords, then cancer of the esophagus and finally lung cancer. Recent additional diseases attributable to smoking: leukemia and cancers of the cervix, kidney, pancreas and stomach, abdominal aortic aneurysm, cataracts, periodontitis and pneumonia.
The United National health agency reports that smoking related-diseases kill one in 10 adults globally, or cause four million deaths. “Every eight seconds, someone dies from tobacco use,” it points out.
By 2030, if current trends continue, smoking will kill one in six people. In the Philippines, there are about 20,000 smoking-related deaths every year. Someone once quipped, “Hundreds of Filipinos stop smoking every day – by dying!”
5. Disregard regular medical check-ups. There are several medical check-ups that a person should undergo to maintain well-being. For medical history, vital statistics are height, weight, blood pressure, heart rate, breathing rate. Routine blood and urine tests are done to check for things like cholesterol and blood sugar levels. Heart examination is conducted to check heart rate while breathing test is carried out to check lung capacity which can be affected by smoking, asthma or other conditions.
Two tests that men under the age of 40 should undergo are prostate examinations (to check for signs of prostate cancer) and testicular examinations (to check for abnormal swellings which may be a sign of testicular cancer).
For women, the two most often recommended tests are breast cancer screening and pap smear (to detect early signs of cancer of the cervix).
“Check-ups are done yearly,” says Dr. Willie T. Ong, a cardiologist at Manila Doctors Hospital and Makati Medical Center. “It will not cost much and it will add years to your life. Life is short and let us not make it shorter by our stubbornness and fear of doctors.”
6. Stop thinking about physical exercise. “Those who think they have no time for bodily exercise will sooner or later find time for illness,” said Edward Stanley. A study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine reported that 30 minutes of walking daily brings as much risk reduction for heart attacks as a high-intensity exercise program.
According to the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, one to three hours of exercise a week over a woman’s reproductive lifetime may bring a 20 to 30 percent reduction in the risk of breast cancer. A study from U.S. Consumer Reports ranks single tennis as one of the top five-calorie blasting workouts. The study said that an average 140-pound person can burn about 254 calories in thirty minutes.
There are more benefits you can get from exercise. It can prevent you staying away from chronic illnesses such as diabetes and even some cancers. It does stabilize your blood pressure and cholesterol level. Also, exercise can excrete the toxic wastes from your body through sweating.
7. Keep yourself awake at all times. Recent studies have also shown that getting a good night’s rest is more important than you can ever imagine. According to the National Sleep Foundation (NSF), the amount you sleep can contribute to your overall health.
For instance, women who responded to the poll which NSF conducted reported that those who were in “poor health” also experienced daytime sleepiness a few days a week, have missed work due to sleepiness, and are more likely to have used a sleep aid than those who categorized themselves as in “excellent health.”
On the other hand, research in Japan has shown that men who sleep five hours or less a night are more than twice as likely to suffer a heart attack as men who sleep eight hours. And according to Neil Stanley, chairman of the British Sleep Society, “Night workers – or anyone who works on a shift – have been shown to have an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.”
Dr. Rafael Castillo, a consultant cardiologist at the Manila Doctors Hospital, agrees. “Sleep deprivation may potentially increase risk for the development of cardiovascular problems,” he points out. A study done by Columbia University found that sleeping less than five hours doubled the risk of high blood pressure.
8. Greet stress with gladness. If you’ve been sick lately, suspect stress. Some doctors say that as many as nine of ten visits to the doctor may be related to stress. That includes everything from allergies and asthma to herpes and heart disease.
Now if that little bit of news isn’t stressing enough, there are also those angst-inducing traffic jams and long lines, jerky bosses and inept workers, too much to do and too little time to do it. And don’t forget unemployment, pollution, crime and separation.
Stress is a biological term which refers to the consequences of the failure of a person to respond appropriately to emotional or physical threats, whether actual or imagined. Maybe this sounds a little overdramatic, but the reality is that excessive, untreated stress can actually kill you.
Dr. Peter Taggart, of the University College London’s Centre for Cardiology pointed this out: “Some people are at risk of sudden death from stress, mainly people who already have heart disease. In these cases the combination of heart and brain irregularities means that heart failure could occur during a stressful or emotional event like a family gathering or even a boisterous New Year party.”
Now, if you want to live longer, do exactly the opposite.
