Moore, WBC is right, work out and eat less and you live longer…most likely.

I don’t disagree that controlling weight and exercising will improve one’s life expectancy. I do, however, disagree with those who imagine that some government program can make that happen, because the evidence is very strong that interventions in this regard fail.

In other words, those who are already working out and maintaining low weight for long periods will probably continue to do so. Those who are not, probably won’t, and the answer isn’t as simple as will power.

And yes, I have struggled with this myself. I went through 5 years of intensive exercise and weekly meetings led by a trained counselor – after losing a huge amount of weight on a very low calorie diet. Guess what – at 1/2 the number of calories per day that my weight and height would dictate, and with lots of exercise (measured and recorded), the weight came back at the same rate as when I didn’t do anything.

So all I am saying is that this is not as simple as those fortunate enough to be on the healthy side imagine.

As for WBC, when he wanders into Yoga and how science is wrong about it because of money – he sounds like every other health crank on the planet. I was primarily responding to that.

John M, the fact that “western science refuses to see it,” meaning benefits of yoga (ETC.) — your generalized statement which simply isn’t true, in the first place — simply means there’s no money in it for them to “see it.”

Yeah, every nut and conspiracy theorist in the country always blames it on the money.

Nobody doubts that yoga has some benefits. However, what you claimed for it is beyond science.

As for treating by statistics – that’s because science can offer little else until genomic medicine gets further advanced. It isn’t about money, contrary to your ravings – it is about evidence. Statistics allows science to weight evidence, and when dealing with as complex a system as a human being, it is hard to get high resolution in the stats.

That leads to several things:

1) lack of specificity in treatment because there is no evidence for more specificity

2) overly restrictive rulings by the FDA, which kill people

3) nuts like you claiming that there’s magic here and magic there, but money is keeping people from seeing it.

In the future, as more research is done, and as genetic sequencing gets much cheaper, it will be possible to be much more accurate and much more specific in treatment. And that will be based on science, not mysticism.

Although, in farirness to your brand of “conservatism”, I guess I’d be pissed off too if the Feds required me to register what passed for my dick.

HOWEVER as I said in the first place, many doctors DO want to study non-traditional medicine and treatments like acupuncture and yoga because empirical evidence shows that they work — particularly in cases of “women’s ailments,” but there are numerous other areas as well.

But I won’t spend a minute more of my time trying to persuade a know-it-all like you that such things don’t work BECAUSE doctors “refuse to study them” in the first place. You KNOW for a fact that treating all of us based on statistical tables cooked up by the insurance industry with the AMA to make it “easy” for doctors to “treat” patients without actually having to treat them as individuals, is the right thing because, even if you did rouse yourself from the couch, NO MATTER WHAT you did, would achieve no more than a 5% success rate. That’s just IDIOTIC and an excuse to do nothing.

Yes, a GREAT message to send people of ANY age, but especially, a great way to discourage the obese or aging from trying to do anything too dramatic “since it won’t matter anyway.” This DIS-incentive for older people and the sheer age discrimination aspect is reprehensible, but figures that it’s the ONLY part that appeals to a rigid rightwing brand of Republican like you.

I made the mistake of trying to be civil to Reggie Boy, but he’s shown that he’s just an asshole so why even try?

LOL

Sorry, but the party whose mascots are the obese Limbaugh whose only moving part is his nasty mouth,

Perhaps you should take another look. Limbaugh is no longer obese. Given the nature of the disorder, he will be again in a few years.

You are tonedeaf to the issue of America’s place in world opinion. The Nobel is clearly a clue, but of course the right has twisted that into some sort of BAD mark, as though being recognized by the world community makes him Un-American.

You are conflating America’s place in world opinion, and Obama’s place. I made the separation quite clear.

As for the Nobel… it really is pathetic that anyone takes that seriously. Some people earned that prize through great sacrifice. Obama got it as a signal from a few rich Norweigans that they like his style.

It is so typical of the modern left to favor style over substance.