Good points. It’s a trap even I fall into, thinking that someone who is unhealthy (physically or mentally) just needs to run more. It works on some level for me, but that doesn’t mean it’s the same thing.
But actually, looking at the individual choices alone is a trap as well.
See there have been studies by many epidemiologists that point to a more social issue at play. In other words, it matters little about the individual actions, statistically speaking, we’re going to get worse outcomes no matter what, if the society is sick.
And make no mistake, this society is just that.
And what’s the main driver for this situation? Income inequality. Pure and simple. So all the other listicles or how-tos on how to improve your life or health are essentially looking at singular symptoms and saying that they work instead of looking at the base driver of said bad health.
Don’t believe me? Read Inner Level a look at how increasing inequality does affect mental health (from the debilitating kind to other forms of it). Inequality is expressed in many forms of domination and subjugation (racial and otherwise, in our country) but they exist and should be countered if you want a country with less mental health issues.
This goes for the physical health aspect of things as well (both related, of course).
Suicides are going up, people are turning to drugs and our life expectancy is going down.
This should be front page news, but it isn’t. The stock market is.
Fun.
The answer isn’t throwing more money at our health system, though universal care would help. The answer is looking at income inequality. Researchers like Ichiro Kawachi [1] have shown how one is related to another.
Note that though the people at the bottom get it the worst, the people up top also end up being less healthy than their counterparts with the same amount of money in more equal countries.
In other words, income inequality hurts everyone.
So instead of telling people to spend time working on some individual aspect of their life, we should tell them to create unions and work to increase progressive tax rates and make society less unequal.
That, though, is hard to say and so we end up in the same circle.
