MONITORING YOUR BLOOD PROFILE

About half of us could not care less about checking on our health. These people endanger themselves, not just by an early death, but from years of disease and discomfort before they die. By ignoring what their body could tell them they give up the possibility of the quality and joy of life as they age. And, by the way, they impose an enormous and growing burden on our economies by doing so.

I asked users of the LinkedIn network (the social/business networking site – www. Linkedin.com) what they did about monitoring their blood profiles (lipids, glucose and other key markers) so they could get early warning of disease and so take preventive action, hopefully through adjusting their lifestyles. I thought that this would be something that an overwhelming majority of the LI community (mainly educated middle class professionals) would do routinely. Well…mmmmmh…… not really.

In fact, only a small majority of the LI users that answered my question bother with any kind of health check up and some of those are in the nature of “well maybe once a year”. Roughly half of a sample of folks, all who may be expected to be able to afford regular preventive tests and check-ups and to know their value, simply prefer to ignore the fact that they might fall ill.

Human nature? Fear of knowing the answer? Perhaps. But I find this a depressing result in an age where so many so-called ‘modern” diseases (Type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, cancer) can be dealt with effectively if they are caught early. These diseases also present a massive burden on our industrialized economies – hence the urgent need to reform health care in the USA.

The result of my little survey suggests that selling preventive health care is a real uphill struggle; if this is what so-called educated well-off people think, what on earth about the huge majority who will continue to stuff themselves with beer, donuts and fries and smoke a pack a day? But without preventive medicine - and taking responsibility for our own wellbeing - we are surely in for a major health care crisis in the industrialized economies.

To read the full report on the survey go to The Fitness Papers via the button in the left hand column.