Let the Comparison Begin

I am actually torn about tonight's post. Yesterday I received an article in the mail from a dear friend in Maine. I did not read it closely until just now.
Last night the first news stories were published about the cost of treating obesity (147 billion a year) and out of curiosity I looked up the cost per year that Tobacco Free Kids estimates is spent on tobacco related illnesses (96 billion a year). Obesity has indeed passed tobacco, I expected it would.
And this morning, I read an article about reducing hospital re admissions and got rather frustrated at a lack of personal responsibility in the patients. So all that is on my mind!

The article, ironically, compares Big Tobacco with Big Food and was written by Ellen Goodman. She notes a new film and a new book regarding the food industry's tactics to get us to eat more cheap, fast and harmful food and wonders if the mood of America isn't about to change and say, "Enough." She does note a concern that always frustrates me and that is the controversy over accepting ones weight or size and rallying against obesity. Well, the fact that it is considered a controversy is the problem. I actually had the thought today that maybe our Armageddon is going to be related to our total lack of responsibility in taking care of the body that the creator(s) gave us. Many times it seems a total disregard for health and wellness. An abuse of our very essence... we wouldn't treat our cars or motorcycles this way and expect them to keep running, would we?

I am not without empathy and I do feel that addictions exist and are not something that can be willed away.. however, one has the personal responsibility to adopt a treatment or follow a plan to change what is wrong. In the article I read this morning, a woman with chronic heart failure was dismissed from the hospital after an exacerbation of her illness. She was advised not to eat hot dogs, as the July 4th Holiday was approaching. The patient is quoted as saying that she went to the picnic and said, I am not supposed to have a hot dog, but give me one anyway. She further commented that if she was dead in the morning she would never know. Well, ha ha, isn't that funny. Instead, she was back in the ER and admitted to the hospital because she did NOT do what the doctor's said. Perhaps people need to understand that not taking care of themselves has a ripple effect. Her family would have been worried and strained by this readmission, doctors and nurses would have to care for her and somebody did not get a bed at that hospital because she was in it. Oh, and she is a Medicare patient so premiums for everyone can be effected.

I suppose everyone has a right to go to hell in a hand basket at their whim.. as my friend Tom Brown used to say.. but only if they can do so without wasting the rest of our valuable resources to get there.

So yes, I feel incensed by some of the recent news...