Since Ebola was discovered forty years ago, worldwide there have been around 9,000 reported cases of people contracting it. Of those 9,000, approximately 4,500 people have died. According to a study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2005, obesity related diabetes and cardiovascular disorders kill 300,000 people every year.
If you multiply 300,000 by 40 years, you see that there have been 12 million obesity related deaths in that same period of time (and 12 million is severely low-balling it when you consider that this study only factored in deaths from obesity related diabetes and cardiovascular diseases).
If you contract Ebola, your chances of living are about 50/50. Having a Body Mass Index (BMI) of over 30, increases the odds of you lowering your life expectancy by at least five years by 50-100% (the higher your BMI, the higher the percentages climb and the more years are taken off).
Ebola is scary. If I knew I had it, I would go to crazy lengths to rid myself of it. Isolation? Blood transfusions? Ridiculously expensive treatments? Yep - sign me up. But yet many of us not only ignore our obesity problems, we actively and knowingly make choices that make it worse.
In the Bible, Naaman was diagnosed with leprosy…a disease back then that (just like Ebola) was a death sentence and forced you into isolation. The prophet Elisha told him that if he wanted to be healed he needed to go to the Jordan river and dip himself in it seven times. Seemed like a fairly easy task, right? But Naaman was expecting something bigger. He wanted a great sign, a mighty mission, or an exciting test to accomplish in order to receive his healing. Initially, he refused to do the annoyingly small and mundane thing he was asked to do.
Aren’t we the same? Under the right circumstances, we would do just about anything to preserve the lives of ourselves or our loved ones. Everything except the mundane, boring, and relatively easy things like eating right and exercising.
This was my reality check of the day.
If you multiply 300,000 by 40 years, you see that there have been 12 million obesity related deaths in that same period of time (and 12 million is severely low-balling it when you consider that this study only factored in deaths from obesity related diabetes and cardiovascular diseases).
If you contract Ebola, your chances of living are about 50/50. Having a Body Mass Index (BMI) of over 30, increases the odds of you lowering your life expectancy by at least five years by 50-100% (the higher your BMI, the higher the percentages climb and the more years are taken off).
Ebola is scary. If I knew I had it, I would go to crazy lengths to rid myself of it. Isolation? Blood transfusions? Ridiculously expensive treatments? Yep - sign me up. But yet many of us not only ignore our obesity problems, we actively and knowingly make choices that make it worse.
In the Bible, Naaman was diagnosed with leprosy…a disease back then that (just like Ebola) was a death sentence and forced you into isolation. The prophet Elisha told him that if he wanted to be healed he needed to go to the Jordan river and dip himself in it seven times. Seemed like a fairly easy task, right? But Naaman was expecting something bigger. He wanted a great sign, a mighty mission, or an exciting test to accomplish in order to receive his healing. Initially, he refused to do the annoyingly small and mundane thing he was asked to do.
Aren’t we the same? Under the right circumstances, we would do just about anything to preserve the lives of ourselves or our loved ones. Everything except the mundane, boring, and relatively easy things like eating right and exercising.
This was my reality check of the day.
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