Being Healthy Costs More

One of life's little pleasures is NPR. Granted, I don't always agree with their perspective but I almost always learn something new or interesting -- often something that seems worth sharing. Such was the case this afternoon on All Things Considered. It's counterintuitive and, at first glance (well, or at first hearing), seems to go against all the studies touting the benefit of being healthy and maintaining a normal weight.

Study: Healthy People Cost Governments More
(You can listen to the report from the above link.)

All Things Considered, February 5, 2008 · There are a lot of good reasons for people to lose weight and stop smoking — but saving money on lifetime health care costs isn't one of them, according to a study out of the Netherlands.

The researchers found that healthy people cost governments more in the long run because they live years longer: an average of 4.5 years longer than people who are obese, and seven years longer than smokers.

(Van Baal, "Lifetime Medical Costs of Obesity: Prevention No Cure for Increasing Health Expenditure")

Where did this spring weather come from? It was 52° at 5:00am and 74° when I left the office at 5:00pm. Still, a good run this morning -- 5.3 miles at an 8:32 mpm pace. Tomorrow is a tempo run -- Oh, joy!

Run well, y'all,
Bob
Richmond

Rain: It's Both Good and Bad

It is raining this morning. I don't have the running clothes for cool (35°) and rain so I headed to the YMCA and ran repeats on the treadmill. We need the rain so it's good that it's raining; I'd rather run outside so it's bad that it's raining; doing repeats on the treadmill was interesting and disciplined me so it's good that it's raining.

Repeats:

0.2 miles @ 13:20 mpm (walking)
1.3 miles @ 08:57 mpm
0.5 miles @ 06:58 mpm
.25 miles @ 09:31 mpm
0.5 miles @ 06:58 mpm
.25 miles @ 09:14 mpm
0.5 miles @ 06.58 mpm
1.7 miles @ 08:34 mpm

Overall running: 5 miles @ 08:18 mpm

It was a good workout.

January: 146 miles, 23 runs

Kenya is still troubled and it just continues to get more and more complicated. NPR's All Things Considered had a decent story on the situation in Kenya, Tracing the Roots of Ethnic Violence in Kenya. Please continue to pray.

Run well, y'all,
Bob