In Italy, instead, it is pretty common that every couple of years you get a complete blood analysis just to see if everything is ok and whether you need to change something in your lifestyle.
Additionally, Sardinia (another "blue zone" with great life expectancy) also has a different diet compared to mainland Italy. Loads of seafood and relatively small amounts of livestock proteins.
In Europe, I know a lot of people that still stick to this practice even without practicing Christianity.
Ironically though, the young that do practice Friday fasting are much more likely, demographically, to have children. So I imagine the practice will continue for many centuries.
And even then, it's usually breaded and deep fried. Not sure, I'd qualify it as a healthy alternative to a steak.
most of that's still meat though?
So overall you’re most likely ending up eating less meat, and not just different meat.
https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/red-meat-and-the-risk-...
and
https://progressreport.cancer.gov/prevention/red_meat
I’m not going to single out studies and pretend that I’m in any way into this field.
When I was in Athens, a kilogram of fresh caught sardines ran about 2 euro for a kilo. Thats cheaper than canned!
On Crete, it was a bit more expensive at 4 euro per kilo but I never paid more than 4 euro for a pound of fish. thats cheap enough to make fresh caught fish a daily meal
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-greece-fishing/as-stocks-...
In Sardinia they eat a lot of blue fish (or oily fish), not surprisingly the European pilchard also called "sardine" of the genus "Sardine" has a very similar name to "Sardinia".
According to some recent study Aristotle himself named the fish after the population of Sardinia Island that were the first ones to trade it in ancient Mediterranean markets (looks like the most popular way to prepare it was in salt, as we still do nowadays).
But that's probably not why they are a "blue zone", an important difference is the kind of meat they eat: there is an abundance of sheep meat but much less beef red meat.
But that's probably no it either, Sardinians have genetic markups that protects them from entire classes of diseases, being a quite homogeneous population from the DNA point of view, they passed them on from a generation to the next.
My family doctor asks for a battery of lab tests about once a year (or whenever I get around to scheduling a check-up), including glucose and cholesterol and liver functions and so on. This has been going on since I was twenty something.
Right now there is rightfully pushback against unnecessary testing. Over-medicalization by which people are subjected to treatment without suffering under symptoms is very much a problem. Also the socialized healthcare providers are not happy with this, as you can imagine.
/s in some of this, perhaps all
> “But, unexpectedly, on a per-test basis, we actually found that the main problem was tests being over-ordered during a patient’s initial examination, rather than during repeat tests. This indicates to us that ordering the right test during the initial evaluation may lead to fewer errors and better patient care,” he said.
a. Tests are not accurate, a false positive causes alarm and follow-up examination where none was present.
b. On the inverse: negative tests provide a false sense of security and good-health. [2] discusses this as the prime motivator for patient blood test requests.
c. Economic cost to the insurer or ultimately patient/taxpayer, not of the tests themselves but of the downstream examinations.
As a general rule in medicine: Don't treat a patient without signs or symptoms. When a persons feels healthy, they usually are healthy.
1. https://hms.harvard.edu/news/unnecessary-testing
2. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal...
We cannot keep waiting for randomized experimental research to identify all the ways health may degrade over time. If we can regularly gather data en masse, we regularly over time can identify more predictors and risk factors for poor (and good) health, and evaluate efficacy of treatments received or effects from lack of treatment.
Again, why pay for seatbelts (and get tickets for not having them) in vehicles if I've have no history of accidents, or receive preventative dental care despite no serious current oral issues, etc.
Why do we have heat sensors in vehicles? The vehicles I've driven in life have never overheated.
Somehow we continue to excuse doctors who practice poorly by treating by markers alone rather than the whole picture (including the patients feelings and desires), or despite contraindications for the treatment being considered.
Somehow the only practical solution is to allow health degradation, and then rush to identify and treat and attempt reversal.
Theres room to debate the degree and depth that we would utilize labs and other measures, but a complete non-starter mentality just leaves health outcomes to blind fate and promotes development of complex conditions much more difficult to unwind.
I think the similar reasoning is used in other countries.
If you can read swedish/use Google translate, this page explains it very clearly: https://www.1177.se/fragor--svar/nationellt/behandling--hjal...
I think this is naive: there are a number of reasons people in Sweden don't easily get health-checks, and among these are certainly cost-saving, where the healthcare representatives who you need to contact before speaking to a doctor or nurse act as gatekeepers to the system. This 'rationing' of resources can sometimes have dire consequences, as happened to a former colleague of mine, who was denied the in-person checks he needed and almost died as a consequence.
There's also an enormous amount of peer-pressure in Sweden to be skinny, fit and actively go to the gym several times each week. A fat person is an extreme rarity in Stockholm. Couple this with an ingrained cultural 'guilt-complex' instilled in everyone not to be a 'burden' on anyone else, and the health-service is suddenly transformed into an 'emergency-only' institution.
Naturally that may be seen as a positive - although for some people it may have bad outcomes. It certainly contrasts with my extended family in Spain, who have tests for every possible malady at all times. But otoh that seems to work pretty good too, as one of my uncles died last year at the age of 102.
Uh, high blood pressure is a typical "silent" disease with major effect on health later.
We're currently ranked 16th in the world for longevity, so I doubt regular blood checks is that important - at least, I remember reading previously that there's no evidence regular blood checks are actually useful unless you have an ongoing condition.
My wife OTOH got it done without an issue.
So yeah maybe they don't bother with males or foreigners.
I would consider a blood test every couple of years a default practice among GPs in Switzerland. Among other measures that fall under the "prevention is better than treatment" scheme such as free skin cancer screening or colon cancer screening from a certain age.
I find the described reaction of your doctor to be out of the ordinary, and with relation to the described accusation unacceptable.
I would have switched GP in that case.
Routine checkups never happen where I live. — one visits a healer when one feel sick.
Moreover, some preventable conditions don't show symptoms. High cholesterol, for instance, doesn't show any symptoms until one of your blood vessels is clogged, but chances are that by then is too late and you might suffer a stroke/heart attack.
I don't know how much the average treatment for those costs, but I would say way less than few tens of blood/urine tests. Or even more "stealing" a good heart because you need a transplant due to a preventable condition.
By the way now I circumvent the Swiss reluctance to prevention by going to Italy and paying the analysis out of my pocket. It's still very cheap (~100 Euros every 18 month on average).
I haven't visited a general practitioner in a decade, and when I last went it was indeed because of I noticed the symptoms of of an ear-infection that I indeed suffered.
If there is screening for this specific ailment, then why not for all?
It doesn't strike me as a decision born from strategic thought.
this is the same kind of situation in Denmark, I've lived most of my life outside of Denmark, after I cam back in my early 40s I went to the Doctor and said innocently "well I guess I'm getting to that age now where I should have an annual checkup." There was no explaining the concept to him.
I'm also an American with good health insurance (PPO not HMO if that makes a difference). My GP is at Stanford, although she only seems to practice once a week or something (it can be hard to get an appointment).
I go to the doctor when something's bothering me, but that's about it. It's never been suggested that I go regularly. (I'm not quite 40 yet, so maybe that's the difference?)
My dentist on the other hand, sends me a postcard every 6mo.. :)
If you have fancy / private healthcare, you're also encouraged to have the FULL checkup. That is, running on a trend-mill while a doctor controls your heart rate, etc.
Many vegan friends also requested iron and B12 checkups with blood tests, and doctors had no issue with that.
This sounds like a great idea
However, I believe that by doing so I can avoid preventable conditions later in my life and it's well worth it both for my quality of life and potentially for other people as I might not need that much medical assistance and leave it for those who need it.
Every blood test I've had, has come back with good results. I have low blood pressure, and I don't take anything other than a few dietary vitamins daily. I'm fortunate in that I established good dietary habits back in my early twenties. It can be difficult to break old habits though, so we'll see how I fare now that I've crossed the age where things start going downhill.
My daughter and one-year-old grandson live with me, and ever since he started eating solid food she has been feeding him exclusively homemade, vegetable-centric meals. When preparing the food, especially at first, she referred to guidelines for ri’nyū shoku (“weaning food”) in the Maternal and Child Health Handbook issued by the government for all babies [0, 1] as well as some cookbooks she bought. The emphasis of ri’nyū shoku guidance is on handmade, nonprocessed food; my daughter has yet to buy any commercial babyfood. She hasn't been able to have much interaction with other young parents (for obvious reasons), so I don't know how typical her approach to babyfood is. But my impression is that she is not unusual.
For older children, the government promotes something called shokuiku (food and nutrition education, [2]) that is incorporated into the school curriculum and is coordinated with the food that children actually eat at school. (Most schoolchildren eat school-supplied hot lunches.)
The specific guidelines for ri’nyū shoku and shokuiku seem to reflect both scientific research on nutrition and a nationalist nostalgia for traditional Japanese diet and eating customs.
[0] https://www.med.or.jp/english/journal/pdf/2010_04/259_265.pd...
[1] https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jaih/27/2/27_121/_pdf
[2] https://www.maff.go.jp/e/policies/tech_res/shokuiku.html
I'll readily grant that the universal free school food is a huge improvement on the US swill, although this too has its share on unhealthy practices: mandating that everything served has to be eaten whether you're hungry or not or you like it or not (kids are regularly told that sukikirai, liking/hating foods, is not allowed), and the mandatory milk & milk bun for that sugar kick. At least whale meat has become too expensive to feature regularly anymore.
When you cook it yourself even with very little salt and reasonable spices for a baby, the result is so much better. We can see how much our little one enjoys cooked stuff vs bought ones, so we stopped quickly with those. It takes some time, but covid is actually helping with this particular thing right now. Thank god our kindergarden has proper chef who actually cooks and not just reheats frozen stuff from cheap retailers.
Its a bit sad that even in 2021 we can't really manufacture en masse reasonably processed food that contains just the food ingredients and tastes at least reasonably.
Quite the opposite! Random strangers will stare, and friends and colleagues will make blunt comments in a way that would send them straight to HR in the US: you'll be told to your face you're fat, asked how much you weigh, get poked in the belly, asked if you've tried sumo wrestling, etc.
A random デブちゃん's experience: https://www.tofugu.com/japan/fat-in-japan/
100% of the those that were angry were from the U.S.A. and this was pointed out in the discussion by others that didn't seem to see the problem with stating such a simple thing about my best friend and most of those that were angry relented after chalking it up to a cultural difference.
But apparently it is deeply sensitive in the U.S.A. to remark upon a man's weight being too much.
The last time it happened to me was someone's remarking that I was putting on some weight, and I agreed, so I switched to a diet with more fibres and in mere weeks it was fixed. — it seems quite constructive to me.
Was motivational to stop that weight gain in its tracks! At that level pretty simple diet changes will turn it around.
If people are doing things that are hurtful and they don't care to notice, they aren't your friends, they're just people you know.
It's nothing to do with the wider culture or ethnic environment, or what third parties may or may not be offended by: I don't do things that I know would hurt my friends.
> I don't do things that I know would hurt my friends.
These two statements seem like they could be in conflict with each other. Suppose your friend has a methamphetamine addiction, but they consider it offensive for you to bring it up. Do you not bring it up ever because it's offensive to them?
Furthermore, what someone who isn't me puts in their own body is none of my business.
Edit: by health I meant fitness, obviously many people have health issues that they cannot help.
I'm not hopeful of it. The problem is that it's just such good business to keep people in poor health. Consider all the products that can be sold to them:
- addictive junk food to exacerbate the cycle
- type 2 diabetes medication
- plus-size clothing
- plus-size identity media
- weight loss programs and medications
Now, I'm not saying that all of this is done intentionally. But what I am saying is that strong incentives exist to keep selling these products and keep demand for them high, unless society as a whole agrees that it's wrong to do so, (as it eventually did with tobacco) at least without warning.
All the interesting things in the world compressed into a device that you mostly use while immobile.
Also, cost per calorie has never been lower, so technology has made it super cheap to feed us.
I'm about 100 lbs. heavier now. I know I'm too heavy. And I need to work on it. Incidentally, a large part of my weight problem stems from an anxiety/PTSD problem. Sugary junk food makes me feel better when I'm not doing well mentally.
Yet somehow attempt to make me feel guilty is going to make me more healthy? It's more likely to cause me to have an eating disorder and further hurt my mental health.
I've had co-workers who binge drink regularly and smoke daily try to tell me my lifestyle is unhealthy. I do neither.
It's crazy how entitled people feel to be rude to overweight people.
[1] https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/body-shaming-adverts-...
The issue that it's a very skinny model is pictured alongside the words "Are you beach body read?" This implies that the only people who have 'beach bodies' are those as skinny as that model.
The idea isn't 'OMG, skinny people are offensive' The idea is 'The implication of this ad is that only people who look like that very skinny model are beach body ready. Meaning, only incredibly skinny people are welcome at the beach.'
But that's true isn't it? A beach body = someone who is skinny or has abs. This is how we humans view healthy people.
It's something to aspire to if that's your thing.
Personally when I see images of fit, well-toned men, it reminds me that I need to do more exercise. I don't agree that such images should be removed because not everyone can achieve those things.
In China, it's even more so. If you're an obese person and many will throw "wow you're fat" and "you should really lose some weight" right in your face.
Although it sounds terrible, most of the time they're more concerned about you rather than trying to hurt you intentionally. But it does make people feel more guilty about being fat or eating high-calorie foods.
Insults such as “Get mental help.” are rarely a form of genuine concern, and fly around far more than legitimate concerned advise that one might benefit from such therapy.
Many people feel younger after playing with kids. I wouldn't be surprised if it also affects you on a more chemical level, for example by triggering different methylation and thereby changing gene expressions.
I’d expect the former to cause the latter.
It seems better than "body positive" movements telling us that being overweight is "healthy" despite it being pretty common knowledge that it isn't. To me it's the equivalent of saying that smoking a few cigarettes a day is healthy.
Ah, this explains how the rapey, but criminally attractive, bisyounen love interest in my favorite Japanese love fiction always rushes the protagonist to the infirmary in schools at the slightest cough, missing valuable lessons, and at the approval of the teacher, for merely walking their on one's own ambulance would be too much of a risk, if one have recently caughed.
From what I understand, in the U.S.A. and U.K. schools also have an infirmary and a licensed nurse that works there. — here in the Netherlands, no such thing existed, and a simple cough or headache was certainly not a reason to miss lessons.
But "infirmary"... it's a $25 first aid kit (at best) and like 2 EpiPens. I carry a better medical kit in the trunk of my car just because I like being prepared.
All of it was done by normal teachers that would otherwise teach history or geography and simply had taken a first aid course. I do not have a trained nurse at home either, and I can just as easily be hurt so to crack my head open there, dare I say more easily.
You mau want to reconsider your sources because having a promotional campaign to enhance travel during the midst of the pandemic has made lots of Japanese travel all over the place in crowds and stack in small restaurants. Does not match at all with a supposed fear of COVID.
I'm trying to weigh this over the model in my country where even in private healthcare the doctors tend to downplay the severity of your ailments.
A friend of mine is currently suffering from multiple afflictions and this is his experience.
I've only ever got roped into unnecessary treatments (only affecting aesthetics really), so it was a surprise for me that even those who have all the incentive to look closely at your problems tend to leave it unless it something that can be done quickly.
If you're very obese, you're costing all other taxpayers a substantial amount of money. You're being careless with your health, and everyone collectively pays for it.
It's socially irresponsibly to be unhealthy.
What are you talking about ? They are filled woth old people most of the time because of the large elderly population in Japan. Most salary men are too busy with their jobs to even take a break from office work which is why the OTC market is so large in Japan to treat various ailments without seeing doctors.
As an Italian I wouldn't call it peer pressure, but attention to ones health.
I have a mild condition of high blood pressure, it runs in my family, when my doctor visited me the first thing he said was "you're a bit overweight, let's lose 4-5 kg, it usually helps and if it doesn't we'll work on the drug dosage" (my current intake is a "kids' dose") and it actually worked, I went from a minimum of ~85 to 70 just by losing some weight.
Some body shapes, like being to skinny or too fat, are linked to "not being well".
> but I bet there's a certain mental toll.
We talk about three things in Italy: food, health and weather (and soccer if you are into it, I am not).
There's no real mental toll to it, we just talk about it, but there is no real pressure around it (except those who spread fear for personal or political gain, but that's not different from Trump saying that Mexicans bring 'tremendous infectious disease' to the US).
What's different, I think, it's that we grow up with the notion that "good health begins at the table" meaning that eating well is the most important thing to stay healthy, we keep doing it and teach it to our children.
(This is my understanding after living there for one year and then travelling for a month every other year for ~20 years. I’m not native though so there may be some nuance to mask wearing I’m missing)
TL,DR; After WWII Japan heavily incentivized reforestation to provide cheap domestic timber for industrial and defense purposes, but only with two types of trees, Japanese cedar and Japanese cypress. It turns out that even with this explicit industrial policy, it's cheaper to import timber, so trees weren't being cut down as fast as expected and the forestry industry had a declining workforce that couldn't maintain the forests. The resulting bi-cultural conifer forests grew so thickly that no sunlight reached the forest floor and these forests became devoid of biodiversity. And now all of these trees release a lot of pollen.
10 minute Youtube video explaining all this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VC4gRGPbTqE
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/seasonal-allergies-bla...
In Japan this isn’t really a problem, since the forests are clearly able to breed if they are growing denser, and the streets are mostly not wide enough to have trees except maybe on major roads.
- INSANE peer pressure. If you're skinny as a twig in the US, you're probably considered normal in Japan. If you're actually an obese person (again, in the US standard), people here wouldn't even look at you straight. This kind of environment put a huge pressure for one to stay in shape.
- INSANE obsession for health. I hear that Americans are obsessed with health, but oh boy, have they looked into Japan. Small clinics are everywhere and they're always filled with anxious patients because they have a benign stomach pain or something. Physical checkup is mandatory for most companies. I also read that the fear of COVID in Japan is the strongest in the world, despite a relatively low infection/death number here. People are always talking about their health, and so is the national media. If you watch the Japanese TV, you'll also feel sick, simply because there's so much fear! Maybe this is good for public health overall, but I bet there's a certain mental toll.