Taking Action Offers Shelter From the Storm
The poor health of Canadians recently made significant headlines with the Heart and Stroke Foundation releasing a report titled “A Perfect Storm of Heart Disease Looming on Our Horizon” on January 25th. The report focused on the broadening impact of cardiovascular disease due to unhealthy lifestyles. The report’s findings are alarming. Especially, the rates of increase in cardiovascular disease risk factors for young people.
The road to cardiovascular disease is the same regardless of one’s age. There should be no expectation that being younger offers any protection. A sedentary lifestyle, poor diet and negative lifestyle factors have cumulative effects that add up fast. Are we surprised to learn about young people and more women being affected by cardiovascular disease? No. Are we frightened by it? Yes. The implications of large scale advanced disease management are shared by all society in terms of a loss of quality of life and then having to fund that state of life.
It’s fundamental that each of us take responsibility for promoting and managing our own health. It’s unthinkable that massive government intervention will turn things around by itself. People need to care about their health and vote with their actions that show how important health is. There is always opportunity to create a healthier life.
The link to the full Heart and Stroke Foundation Report is below:
http://www.heartandstroke.com/atf/cf/%7B99452D8B-E7F1-4BD6-A57D-B136CE6C95BF%7D/Jan23_EN_ReportCard.pdf
