Dr. David L. Katz: 'aging and longevity' :
Somehow, our culture manages to peddle both tanning salons, and wrinkle cream.
We desperately seek longevity, while raising children potentially subject to a shorter life expectancy than their parents.
We hang on every headline hinting at more years in life, and let the established means of adding life to years, and defending our native span, slip through our fingers.
We have known since 1993 at least that fully 80% of all premature death is preventable by means at our disposal.
We have known that lifestyle is the best medicine, and no new Nobel prizes are required to put it to constructive use.
We have known that the master levers of medical destiny are not SPECT scans or surgical robots, but our feet (physical activity), forks (dietary pattern), and fingers (not holding cigarettes).
We have known that by appending to those three just three more priorities- adequate sleep, stress management, and the cultivation of strong social connections (abbreviated as “love”)- we augment further the already incredible potential to promote health and prevent disease.
We have known that the causes of our modern ills, extracting both years from our lives and life from our years, are not really the chronic diseases that populate death certificates - heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes - but the factors ostensibly under our daily controlthat are the causes of these effects.
And we have known for some years as well that even our genes react to the choices we make. In this epigenetic age, we know that DNA is not destiny, while to a meaningful degree - dinner is.
We have known much, but done relatively little. Knowledge is not power if its use is neglected.
~ Be Well.