Four lifestyle choices (tobacco, unmanaged stress, physical inactivity, and poor food choices) account for why Americans spent last year over 16% of GDP (all goods and services we produce) on healthcare.
Americans have twice the rate of all chronic diseases and pay twice as much for health care as Europe, Canada, and Asia, according to Dr. Michael R. Roizen, Chief Wellness Officer of the Cleveland Clinic. And, poor lifestyle choices account for over 50% of our entire health care budget, he indicates.
Watch Michael F. Roizen, MD, Chief Wellness Officer, Cleveland Clinic and Chairman, Wellness Institute, address the problem and offer some solutions»
According to studies cited by Dr. Roizen, a 20 minute walk each day can decrease your chances of early death (from any cause) by 40%, and 40 minutes of walking each day can decrease your chances of early death (from any cause) by 54%!
As cited by Dr. Roizen, simply walking can give you all of the following health benefits:
- decrease in blood pressure
- prevention of heart disease
- lowered LDL (bad) cholesterol and increase in HDL (good) cholesterol;
- strengthening of bones, joints, and muscles;
- improvement in your mood (if you walk at least 30 minutes a day).
According to Dr. Roizen, our chronic disease rate could potentially be cut in half, if everyone would simply make four healthy lifestyle choices:
- Be Physically Active — Walk 40 minutes per day;
- Eat Healthy — avoid trans fats, saturated fats, and sugar, and eat 100% whole grains, and lots of vegetables and fruits;
- No Smoking — avoid tobacco;
- Manage Stress Properly.
