To your health

I recently came across a tweet from a professional athlete expressing respect and best wishes for folks trying to make money in the fitness industry. His point was that most people just don’t care about their health, so this kind of work is destined to be a grind.

I agree, but my question is: why?

I asked my wife why people are apathetic about their health. My wife has observed my lifestyle for several years, but doesn’t engage with it. In her opinion, the effects of bad choices accumulate too slowly to push people in the opposite direction. In the moment, it’s just a scoop of ice cream, one more drink, another slice of pizza.

While true, I don’t think that’s the whole story.

I visited a functional medicine doctor recently for IV ozone treatment, and asked him why people don’t care. To him, it’s not just about the creeping nature of poor health. People have been (deliberately) misinformed about everything from nutrition to exercise to blue light exposure, and as a result, their only frame of reference is feeling like crap. The vast majority of people have never experienced the kind of existence that’s possible so they have no incentive to change.

When it comes to public health messaging, I’ve thought a lot about the spring of 2020, and what the experts demanded—for a virus known to target individuals in poor metabolic health with low levels of vitamin D. Instead of what took place, what if the medical establishment urged everyone to go outside for a 30-minute walk in short sleeves three times per week? They could have revolutionized health care and health outcomes in this country.

In reality, we live in a society where rising healthcare spending is associated with increasingly worse health, high profile doctors claim that mammal meat is linked to diabetes, and people avoid coconut oil because they believe it will raise their cholesterol.

Why?