Early this year, I attended funerals and or paid condolence calls regarding six people who passed away in a two-month period. Fortunately, most of them were people in their 90s who had lived good, long lives.
But, one was someone my age. It wasn’t someone I was close to, but he was a very nice person who had done good, important work in my community. I don’t know the medical reasons behind his early death, but I couldn’t help but wonder if he had been doing all he could to live a healthy, long life.
He was overweight, and his death freaked me out enough to reach out to a couple of people I’m close with to strongly encourage them to work on their own health. These people know they need to exercise more, they know they need to eat better, but they have known those things for a long time.
I am not a doctor, so I would never recommend Ozempic or other GLP-1s, but a friend of mine lost 60 pounds using one of those meds, is thrilled about, and swears by those interventions.
What I feel strongest about is knowing your numbers. My cousin, who I was very close to, died during the summer of 2022 of a sudden, massive heart attack. He was only 59. It became apparent afterwards he did not know his numbers.
Exercise and eating well are key, but if you don’t know your numbers, you might have a condition you don’t know about – and if it’s one of the many which are highly treatable by a combination of eating better and exercising more, and perhaps with some sort of medication, you will have made a huge mistake not knowing your numbers.
I have had the good fortune of mostly excellent health. My general practitioner has said at various ages that I am the healthiest person that age he knows.
I had one major health battle; a fluky thing that happened when I contracted a bacterial infection which required major surgery.
It was a scary time for my family, but the doctors said my healthy lifestyle would help me get through the surgery. After the surgery, they told me my healthy lifestyle would help in my recovery.
Indeed, I got through the surgery and subsequent recovery with flying colors, and my general practitioner said at my annual physical five months after the surgery that if he didn’t know what had happened to me, he would have no idea I ever had the problem.
Before my health scare, I was already an evangelist for healthy living. Now I’m even more so, having learned the additional reason for healthy lifestyle choices – to get you through challenging health situations if they do occur.
Please…
- Get an annual physical so you can know your numbers.
- Start an exercise routine – even if you start very small.
- Start eating in a healthier way. Start with one, small change. Once that becomes a habit, add another, etc.
Wishing you good health,
David