Day 65 - Good with the bad

I always look for the bright side of any seemingly bad situation. Take high oil prices, they actually do quite a lot to motivate manufacturers that use oil and its products to make new and sometimes miraculous innovations. Now look at the economy, not very pleasant right now but there are some very good by-products.

Christopher Ruhm, an economics professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, has spent more than a decade studying the effects of economic booms and busts on our well-being. He’s examined recession all over the world going back to the 60s and he’s come up with a simple formula: a one point increase in unemployment causes the death rate to fall by half a percent and the overall number of medical problems to fall 1.5%. While not advocating recessions he says that when times are tough and many things are beyond our control, people decide that the only thing they can take charge of is their own health.

When economic output slows, air pollution falls – that helps people with breathing and circulatory problems.

The fewer people with jobs also means emptier roads and so car crashes go down.

Since there is less work, people have more time for exercise.

As budgets tighten, people buy less booze, quit smoking and eat out less often. When work gets busy, we drink and smoke more to unwind and also get fatter.

When people are busy in a good economy, they also take less vacations. Dr. Mel Borins, an associate professor at the University of Toronto’s Department of Family Community medicine and author of Go Away: Just for the Health of It says that people who take regular vacations are less likely to suffer heart attacks.

Of course when the economy does bounce back, health suffers. So in order to be healthy you have to eat right, drink less, and exercise without the stress of your job overpowering you.

Here are my critical stats

BMI: 25.9
Fat Percentage: 16.4%
Height: 160cm
Weight: 94.1kgs
Arm: 38cm
Chest: 113cm
Waist: 94cm
Hips: 95cm
Thigh: 61cm
Resting Heart Rate: 59 bpm

See you soon.