After today’s lab session, I grabbed a water for my sprint-walk home. As I was paying, I saw a sign below the cigarettes that read, “Ministry of Health Warning: Smoking May Be Hazardous to Your Health.”
Fair enough.
Cigarette smoking increases your risk of myriad diseases, ranging from stroke to certain cancers. My smoking friends will be psyched to read that smoking actually decreases your risk of Parkinson’s disease. I’m betting it’s due to the fact that people are smoking instead of overeating. After all, insulin insensitivity has peer-reviewed support as a major risk factor for neurological diseases.
This begs the question: If the obesity pandemic runs rampant, then why are health hazard warnings absent on junk food? And chairs? And escalators?
The failure to be insulin efficient/sensitive is at the root of all diseases killing us on the worldwide level. As developed countries take on the American (read: gluttonous/processed/lazy) way of living, these countries’ obesity rates – and disease rates – are rising.
And man, do folks like to put the smack-down on smokers! One can’t smoke in public anywhere in NYC, where cigarettes are $12 per pack. (You read that correctly.)
But when are we going to put the smack-down on what is making us sick on the global level?
After seeing that hazard sign, I got fired up. I wanted to put a “Health Hazard” stamp on all the junk that store was selling and on every chair I passed. Maybe I will create a “Dooley Noted: Health Hazard” sticker and start placing it all over the world’s junk food, chairs, and escalators.
It’s your choice what you do to your body, right? But it’s not correct to single out smoking, when foul and copious food and laziness are doing an excellent job of killing us.
So, next time you judge that smoker you pass, take a look at what you are putting in your own mouth. Also look at how often and how much you’re doing it. While you’re at it, watch how many times you skip the stairs and take the escalator, or circle the lot for a closer parking space.
Smoking and obesity need equal attention as health hazards. You’ve been warned.
– Dr. Kathy Dooley