Most of us have had friends, family members or acquaintances who, despite unhealthy habits (smoking, heavy alcohol consumption, a junk-food diet and a lack of aerobic exercise) live long, disease-free lives; having practiced medicine for forty years, I encountered many such individuals. Of course, these persons were saved by a genetic allotment that prevented the consequences of their careless behavior.
Exposure to such individuals tends to make the rest of us fate-oriented and may convince us to abandon efforts to maintain a healthy lifestyle; when one's parents lived to an advanced age despite bad habits, the delusion is especially powerful. However, we each have our own, unique set of genes and until such time that genetic screening is widely available at a reasonable cost (and completely understood by the medical community), it is wise to cut your risk by adhering to healthy life choices. Counting on your genes to protect you is just a game of chance.
Finally, most of us will face serious health issues in the course of our lives and the effort to remain active and healthy beforehand will significantly improve our ability to survive such insults, whether they be accidents or illnesses. We can't change our genes (at least not yet) but we can try to prevent disease by avoiding toxic behaviors, ingesting a healthy diet, engaging in regular aerobic activity and adhering to appropriate screening recommendations.
Exposure to such individuals tends to make the rest of us fate-oriented and may convince us to abandon efforts to maintain a healthy lifestyle; when one's parents lived to an advanced age despite bad habits, the delusion is especially powerful. However, we each have our own, unique set of genes and until such time that genetic screening is widely available at a reasonable cost (and completely understood by the medical community), it is wise to cut your risk by adhering to healthy life choices. Counting on your genes to protect you is just a game of chance.
Finally, most of us will face serious health issues in the course of our lives and the effort to remain active and healthy beforehand will significantly improve our ability to survive such insults, whether they be accidents or illnesses. We can't change our genes (at least not yet) but we can try to prevent disease by avoiding toxic behaviors, ingesting a healthy diet, engaging in regular aerobic activity and adhering to appropriate screening recommendations.
