Proper diet, exercise, and avoiding smoking also prevents more than a third of heart problems. It’s safer than blood-pressure or cholesterol medications.
Never mind when I was first diagnosed I was actually underweight because the chronic lack of sleep had completely removed my appetite and that I only drink a couple of times a year.
It also assumes that this advice isn't something my doctor wouldn't have given me if it were appropriate
This isn’t about sleep apnea, but heart disease and stroke from high cholesterol and blood pressure, both of which diet and exercise are the leading cause.
Poor diet alone is linked to half of heart attacks and strokes. Poor diet and exercise has a large negative impact on health. It’s not some made up conspiracy to shame people.
This advice may make sense on the aggregate, but for a truly healthy individual with otherwise low risk factors, this has the potential to do more harm than good.
I do agree that overall this makes sense for most people though - and that a combination of both approaches sounds like really good advice.
Edit: Clarified opinion.
I won't need this pill (I don't think), but there's probably a tremendous number of people who could have extended lifetimes because of this. Yeah, they should improve their health choices, but good luck forcing that on people.
I suppose the downside is taking the pill and thinking you can eat like crap. (Like overeating on low-fat cookies - still an unhealthy choice).
If aimed at society-wide transformations to built space, values, and practices, it could prove highly useful.
We once had environments in which the advice was essentially impossible to not follow. And though there were other health complications, and the issues of cardiac, pulmonary, and malignant diseases existed, they seem to have been somewhat less prevalent, even among otherwise susceptible (largely: elderly) populations.
Everybody can't go gangbusters on healthy diet and ample exercise. But those who can benefit. An environment which makes this integral to everyday routines helps massively. An environment which makes this a stuggle (viz: virtually all modern industrialised countries and practices to some extent or another) is an immense impediment.
you keep just glossing over the costs. "if one has the time". it's an opportunity cost.
Free but very, very hard because it goes against our instincts, yet easier than "stop being poor" because you're changing yourself, not your society.
To quote the site's guidelines:
> Be kind. Don't be snarky. Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive.
It is snarky. It isn't thoughtful or substantive.
They do have a good point, but the discussion is obviously more nuanced than that. People generally know that exercise is good for them, yet many/most people don't engage in it to a healthy degree. So some discussion of other approaches is appropriate. Let's not make "the perfect the enemy of the good" and all that.
And we don't need to be either/or here. For individuals that have even a moderately elevated risk, doing both is probably a great idea (and of course this is already broadly recommended advice). Doing just one would still be better, and most people would choose a pill over exercise. Still a win in my book.
A practical solution would need to involve some compromise because people aren't perfect. The majority of people find it extremely hard to main a clean diet and get in 15 minutes of hard exercise a day.
If this pill can help then great, but I agree it shouldn't be viewed as the ideal solution. Diet and exercise is still the best fix in most cases.
If I had said “great development, [something about how clinical trials need to be disrupted], [summary of article]” I would be upvoted.
My own brand of mildly pessimistic realism has proved reasonably successful here. Though it's involved adaptations. And occasional "what, me worry" parries.