Feeling Hale And Hearty? Lucky You
Sydney Morning Herald
Friday April 18, 2003
KERRYN Phelps, the hyperactive president of the AMA, has been felled by serious illness. And I sympathise. The newspaper report mentioned blood clots on the lungs. And it mentioned, too, that the illness was a ``huge shock to Dr Phelps, given the attention she paid to diet and exercise".
Many of us know the feeling. We thought being good would keep us well. We thought yoga, jogging and the gym would provide immunity from the illnesses that beset the sloths. We thought tofu and tuna would preserve us.
But we were wrong. Being good is a flawed health policy. It offers limited protection.
In this era of superwomen and supermen, it comes as a shock to learn we are at the mercy of genes, environment and luck.
I am all for preventive health and taking personal responsibility. In any case, for me being good is an ingrained habit. Deep-fried chicken nauseates me. And I'm addicted to the endorphin rush I get at the gym. But since I was diagnosed with breast cancer six years ago, I no longer suffer the false pride of the well. I have travelled to the land of serious illness, as Phelps has done, and I am more humble. I know bad things happen to good people on low-fat diets.
Don't get me wrong. A person who eats well and exercises regularly is sensible. Such good behaviour reduces the likelihood of afflictions such as heart disease, strokes and diabetes. But people go too far and bestow on exercise and diet magical properties they don't possess. Against myriad cancers, being good is no defence. A host of weird afflictions, such as blood clots in the lung, seem to strike sausage- eaters and tofu-eaters indiscriminately.
Personal effort goes only so far in the game of life. When I was recovering from chemotherapy, nothing irritated me more than the implication that my cancer was self-inflicted due to a careless lifestyle. Perhaps I had eaten six servings of fruit and vegetables a day instead of seven, it was suggested; or perhaps stress, the all-purpose rationale, was to blame.
Now that we accord so much faith to diet and exercise, it is too easy to blame the victim and for patients to blame themselves. Joggers ask in amazement ``Why me?" when the bad diagnosis is delivered. Vegetarians are outraged. I often wonder how my yoga teacher felt when the doctor delivered the bad news to him: that life wasn't fair?
It isn't.
I remember reading that the diet guru Adelle Davis was mortified when diagnosed with cancer, believing her life to have been wasted. It wasn't wasted. Some of her recipes were delicious. But they were not magic potions. The running guru, James Fixx , died prematurely after having inspired half the Western world to don joggers. His genes were shockers.
Even worse than the self-blame are the pressures on the sick to be cheerful in the face of life-threatening illness. Putting on a happy face is supposed to save your life. Being gloomy will take you straight to hell. Visitors and family prefer the seriously ill to be pleasant rather than angry, frightened or sorrowful.
Like exercise and diet, having a positive disposition in life is a boon. But the right attitude is unlikely to make the crucial difference between living and dying. Too much is made of it. Just as too much is made of patients ``battling" their cancer as if they have special weapons they can bring to the contest, as if it is a matter of character and will.
A generation that puts too much faith in diet, exercise and attitude forgets to ask the hard questions. If we invest individuals with unrealistic powers over their health, we fail to look for the real causes of serious afflictions. These are more likely to be found in the environment than in personal defects and lifestyle.
What has been dumped in our water, air and soil by industry is more likely to hold the clue to cancer than a failure of the citizenry to jog.
As I said, exercise and good diet are important in reducing the risk of certain diseases. And they make you feel terrific. Being active rather than passive in managing one's health and illness is sensible. But the world holds too many health Nazis. Too many of the arrogant believe they are in control rather than just lucky, and look down on the less fortunate.
When you have experienced the limits of personal responsibility, it makes you feel more vulnerable, but also more part of the messy herd of humanity. Instead of asking ``Why me?", I now ask ``Why not me?" That's not pessimism, just realism.
I hope Kerryn Phelps has a speedy recovery. Life is much more fun when you can run and swim, and eat real food instead of hospital jelly.
© 2003 Sydney Morning Herald