Make a change now, it’s never too late
Last year the Heart and Stroke Foundation used “Make Death Wait” as their campaign slogan. A powerful statement that made us pay attention. This year they used “Make Health Last” as their slogan and ran a powerful television ad that also made us take note. It’s the ad where one side of the screen shows an older adult tying up running shoes and heading out for a bike ride. The other side of the screen shows the same older gentleman putting on slippers and being pushed in a wheel chair down the hallway of a nursing home. The message is, will you live your later years enjoying being active with family members or will you lead a lower quality lifestyle due to ill health. The ad states that the average Canadian will spend the last ten years of their life in sickness. The narrator encourages you to view makehealthlast.ca to change your future. I checked, they have plenty of good information there. This heart and stroke web-site shows us 5 ways to make health last. You will also see the cost in years off your life by not following these 5 rules to better health. Inactivity will cost 4 quality years. Poor dietary habits, 3 quality years. Excessive, unmanaged stress, 2 quality years. Smoking 2.5 quality years and excessive drinking 2 quality years. Individually doesn’t seem to bad. Add them up, total cost is 13.5 years.