Re: pusuading people to improve their health.

[Guest guest]

Rodney: of course she's wrong. Although the numbers are small, we have the

evidence here on this board that some people do try to improve their health.

Sometimes it takes a big scare (like cancer or a heart attack).

on 10/15/2003 9:11 AM, Rodney at perspect1111@... wrote:

> According to my doctor the idea that people should want to do

> anything to improve their health or extend their lifespan is

> considered strange by (almost) everyone. She has told me that: " you

> cannot persuade ANYONE to change ANYTHING about their lifestyle to

> improve their health " .

[Guest guest]

I have a slightly different slant on this. When she said: " you

cannot persuade ANYONE to change ANYTHING about their lifestyle to

improve their health " . She may have hit the nail squarely on the head

without realizing it.

Perhaps the key word is " persuade " . Few people like being told what

to do and when a doctor tells his/her patient 'what to do' they

likely resent it.

No one told me what to do. I tripped over this stuff (health and

nutrition generally, not CRON of course) by accident in the early

1970s. So it was ME (or so I like to think) that originated this

effort, and I have pursued it ever since, gradually evolving as more

information comes to light. No one told me what I should be doing,

without my voluntarily looking for their opinion - such as going to

the library to find B120YD, for example. Since I initiated that

sequence of events I was open minded to the content. Perhaps I would

have been less open to it if someone (my doctor!) had told me to do

it.

I wonder how many others here also became involved in nutrition in

a 'self-motivated' way? Did any of us get here because someone 'told

us what to do'?

Gone for today.

>

> > According to my doctor the idea that people should want to do

> > anything to improve their health or extend their lifespan is

> > considered strange by (almost) everyone. She has told me

that: " you

> > cannot persuade ANYONE to change ANYTHING about their lifestyle to

> > improve their health " .

[Guest guest]

You might say that when I read Walford, I was 'pursuaded " and he " told me

what to do " . So in that sense, it was both " self-motivated " and pursuasion.

It all depends (at least for me) on who is doing the " pursuading " and what

their evidence is.

on 10/15/2003 1:01 PM, Rodney at perspect1111@... wrote:

> I wonder how many others here also became involved in nutrition in

> a 'self-motivated' way? Did any of us get here because someone 'told

> us what to do'?

[Guest guest]

Given the current obesity and diabetes statistics, it is fairly easy

to see how a physician who is concerned about these issues (and of

course many of them need to take the " heal thyself " route first) will

believe that almost no one is willing to take any serious steps to

improve their health.

Those on this list are of course the exception, but we are a very

small minority.

Iris