Quote:
Originally Posted by Villages PL
I think it needs to be taken on a case by case basis. The elderly and the obese are often in the same age group. The elderly are often overweight and suffering from cardiovascular disease. Why should the government or medicare spend any money on by pass surgery when it has been known for decades that cardiovascular disease can be reversed through diet, exercise and stress control? I suppose one could call it rationing, but if by pass surgery was no longer paid for by the government or medicare, people would simply have to make a choice. 1) they could pay for it themselves 2) they could reverse it by changing their lifestyle or 3) they could do nothing and risk dying from a heart attack or stroke.
In the end, the answer is that we need to get back to personal responsibility.
|
I'm tired of these encyclicals of yours that say that a person has total control over the dreaded diseases that can overcome us, by "simply" eating right and exercising.
There are hoards of people across the nation who HAVE eaten properly and exercised religiously, have NOT smoked,
have reduced their fat intake and have kept their weight at better than average levels.....and they
still get clogged arteries because of their
genetics!!!
Or they get cancer because of unknown reasons, having no significant risk factors beforehand.
Or some get juvenile diabetes at age 16 when all the way up to that time, they have been star athletes who've practiced and lifted weights and run for 20 hours a week and were already being scouted by universities and pre-olympic training scouts.
Or some lead healthy lifestyles and work out like Olympic gold medalist swimmer Michael Phelps, and yet they have Marfan Syndrome which leads to aortic rupture.
:: National Marfan Foundation ::
Stop blaming people for getting dreaded disease when they are NOT living a risky lifestyle that's conducive for it to form.
The bottom line is that often, people get these diseases because "Sh*t happens." Period.
And we sure as heck don't want
you being judge and jury, deciding that we self-inflicted it and therefore are undeserving of treatment in a
theocracy in which the religion is Righteous Eating.
"for people who restrict or who make an attempt, the attention given to calories, fat or carbohydrate grams, weight loss or gain, and exercise-rituals often give a sense of control, order, and meaning. Foods are categorized into “good” and “bad,” much like the precepts of religions. People can judge themselves as better or worse depending on their food choices, which, even when punishing, can be reassuring to someone who craves certainty. People who are starved are known to make elaborate rituals of eating, stretching very little food into long meals. Because the rest of their lives, time, attention and activities are shrinking while the eating disorder takes precedence, the sequence and “ceremony” of the eating disorder gradually become the only meaningful source of ritual and purpose.
An eating disorder thus becomes a perverse sort of religion: one’s ideas about food and weight are the dogma; the allowance of calories or carbohydrate the commandments; and the familiar routine of eating disorder behaviors the ritual.
A low weight on the scale might elevate one to a momentary heaven of certainty, while a higher weight plunges one into a hell of terror......"
"Eating Disorders as a Source of Meaning, Religion, and Ritual"
Eating Disorders Newsletters - Eating Disorders as a Source of Meaning, Religion, and Ritual
Rise in 'orthorexic eating disorders sparked by healthy food obsession' - Telegraph