In the News

Today we actually had one set tuned to some news, and one item caught my attention. It was a report taken from the New England Journal of Medicine about something called "metabolic syndrome." OK, thought I, that's interesting. The reporter went on about how blah-bl-blah-bl-blah may lead to diabetes and heart disease blah blah. Then at the end she added that researchers believe metabolic syndrome is caused by large food intake and little exercise.

Which is when the red lights started to go off in my head. Duh. It's not that I think everybody with a weight problem sits around eating cookies in front of the teevee all day long; I know that's not true, but I think it's wrong for a medical community to stick a disease- sounding name for things that are lifestyle choices. An adult human being's food choices are just those: choices. Likewise, in most cases people could exercise but they don't and telling them that starting to exercise and watching their diets could prevent heart disease and diabetes will not make very many people change. Who doesn't know this already?

I did some reading, and I tried to find some justification for the news coverage, but it looks to this cynical observer like "metabolic syndrome" could be more aptly described as "lazy-ass American syndrome."

It's not that I'm on some crazy fitness kick. I could certainly improve my own diet and spend less time at activities that involve either sitting or laying down. My point is that the problem of the basic American diet and activity level is dangerous, and sticking fancy names on it isn't going to help. We don't have "metabolic syndrome;" what we have is a national crisis that isn't going anywhere while we're overfed and underworked.

Yes, I think it's a problem, but I also think that leaving individuals to solve the problem more or less alone is wrong. Where's HHS on this kind of thing? I'm thinking that instead of concentrating on making sure kids can do N situps in gym class--remember that nightmare?--the physical fitness establishment ought to give people the tools to help them live healthy lives.

In other news, I started with the Pilates trainer today. I did all right, and if you want to do Pilates, you owe it to yourself to start one-on-one with a trainer. My trainer's name is Jill. She has a nose ring, a mod haircut, and she made sure I didn't fall off the apparatus when I was sure I was going to. I knew I was not very balanced, but I did not realize how much unbalance there was in my body. I felt uncoordinated, but not hopelessly so. I guess that's a good sign.

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