Warning: This contains a huge SPOILER for this week’s episode of of House.
Last night we watched the episode of House that aired on Monday. I have many complaints about the series in general, which are the same as or similar to some of these complaints but I loved the solution of this week’s medical mystery. It turns out that the problem was caused by the patient having been overprotected as a child. Not that I consider House to be a reliable source of health information but I’ve read in more reliable sources that being too germ-phobic can actually make one less healthy and I worry that in the future people will have much weaker constitutions. I think it’s possible that in the relatively near future people in their 60′s and 70′s might actually be healthier than people in their 20′s and 30′s. And even the people who are not germ-phobic may be harmed because the actions of the germ-phobics are creating more resistant bacteria. So please, everyone, for the good of humanity, send your kids out to play in the dirt.
I heard something extremely, hilariously odd on the news last night. It was on ABC news. (Seriously, I watch it strictly for entertainment.) Last night was their, what seems like, thrice weekly story on obesity and someone actually said, “People are not being made aware of the obesity epidemic.” (from memory; possibly not the exact wording) WTF? We are being slammed in the face with this subject constantly. How much more aware do they think we can be?
I am willing to believe that there are more overweight people now than in the past but the current movement to influence people to lose weight obviously isn’t working. So try something else! If you keep saying the same thing over and over again people will shut you out. It’s not that they are not aware; it’s that they are too aware and refuse to listen anymore. Also I think the standards are wrong. It’s too much about appearance and not actual health. Even people who are not at all unhealthy are expected to feel guilty if they don’t look like Nicole Richie.
I think most people would be a lot healthier if everyone would just shut up about health. People want to be healthy and in general I think we already know how to live healthy lives. True, a lot of people refuse to follow health advice. So what? That’s nothing new and if it’s gotten worse it’s because people are tired of hearing health advice. If you look at history realistically, it’s obvious that we are healthier now than we ever have been at any time in history. I do believe it should be easier for people to go to doctors if they want to and everyone should be encouraged to follow their own doctor’s advice not the advice of some doctor or health nut on TV. Otherwise just shut up about health.
November 19th, 2009 - 9:15 am
“People are not being made aware of the obesity epidemic.”
Oh PLEASE, ABC. I almost have a COMPLEX because all I hear on the news is “If you’re fat, YOU DIE SOON! And YOU UGLY!”
I’m not clinically obese but I certainly feel like a pariah for carrying around the extra pounds that I do. I think they are going about it the wrong way. Not that I’m sure there’s a right way. I try to eat healthfully and I exercise an hour most days of the week. And I’m still big. And it’s like, “What more do you expect of me? I am doing my best”
What gets me is just that – that those of us who are TRYING, it is that we are constantly being told NOT GOOD ENOUGH DO MORE. There was a report out a while back saying “90 minutes of exercise a day is really better than 60.” Yeah? So when do we find time for that?
There comes a point where they keep demanding we do MORE where people will just say “forget it” and shut down.
Maybe it’s that the “wrong” people – the ones who are trying to be responsible – are being made over-aware to the point that they come to hate themselves because they’re not “perfect,” but the irresponsible people just keep blithering on without paying attention. And once again, the people who try to be responsible and do the right thing get screwed.
November 19th, 2009 - 3:46 pm
“Health” fills up news broadcasts because there is a constant stream of timely, authoritative-sounding, and most important cheap video, available from Any Source With An Axe To Grind, LLC.
And these days, it’s not so hard to spot that axe: the Feds want to be in the position of handing out brazillions of dollars of health-care funds, and these jerkwads want to be in the position of receiving them.
Rule of Thumb: Television is fiction. Always. No matter what they call it.
November 22nd, 2009 - 1:26 am
Not sure how we can be unaware of the obesity issue. As grade school kids in the 70′s, we were constantly being pestered with propaganda about eating right & exercising.
It’s like claiming that people are unaware that cigarettes aren’t good for you.