The current economic climate seems to be doing everything possible to make us feel helpless – and in some cases downright desperate and depressed. The only antidote is to try to be positive and to look at what we can do in the face of it all to regain some control and prove we can change things. One of the most significant challenges for the over 50s is to look after our health particularly in the light of a new blast of publicity showing that record levels of drinking, obesity and sedentary behaviour are causing UK citizens to have the highest proportion of preventable cancers ( in a comparative study with the US, Brazil and China).
According to the report by the World Cancer Research Fund around 78,000 of us (of all ages) develop cancer needlessly each year because of our unhealthy lifestyles. Yet healthy living could prevent 39 per cent of cases of the 12 major cancers – including bowel and breast cancer as well as mouth, pharynx and larynx cancer and cancer of the oesophagus. Even more thought-provoking is that these figures don’t include smoking which accounts for one third of cancer cases.
Although the report recommends government intervention to encourage a switch to healthy foods, the ultimate answer – regardless of how unpalatable – is surely that we all have to start taking more responsibility for ourselves and our future health. As older people (reputedly wiser) we also need to be role models for our children, grandchildren, colleagues and friends. Okay, no one wants to start apportioning blame at the stage where you find you’ve succumbed to cancer (or heart disease, stroke, and other related catastrophic illness) but on the other hand it’s too late then to start wishing you’d looked after your health.
