Guidelines to Good Health and Those Who Follow

In the back of the Journal of Chinese Medicine, there is a section called "News, News, News" which is just chock a block full of little tidbits of health studies conducted all over the world. I'm always perusing the literature I receive to report in this blog and also to serve as reference material for my monthly submissions to the Old Town Crier newspaper.

This following study appeared in the October '06 edition of the Journal. Over 153,000 Americans were contacted by telephone to survey how many of them followed the four guidelines for good health: not smoking, maintaining a normal weight, eating five servings of fruits and vegetables daily, and exercising for thirty minutes five times a week. Responses showed that 76 percent of those contacted did not smoke, 40 percent maintained a good weight, 23 percent ate five servings of fruits and vegetables, and 22 percent exercised.

How many followed all four guidelines? Only three percent - a shocking number considering that following all four guidelines has greater benefit for health than anything that medicine can offer and that following these guidelines could eliminate most chronic diseases as stated by the authors of the study which was sponsored by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.