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- March 2, 2010
Vote in This Week’s Poll: How would you grade how healthy you are?
If your doctor graded you on your health, what would you get? According to The GE Better Health Study, it might not be the grade you expect. In the survey, more than 2,000 people answered questions about how they and their health care professionals rate the country's health. What's interesting is the difference between what they thought about their health and what their doctors had to say. You can see evidence of this disconnect in some of their answers: Almost 30% gave themselves an A for managing their health, while almost 92% of doctors gave them a C or lower. More than 50% said other people's health was on the wrong track while just 17% thought the same of their own. About 33% gave themselves an A for healthy eating and exercising, while 92% of doctors gave them a C or lower. Most respondents agreed that having a healthy blood pressure, cholesterol, body mass index, calorie intake and glucose levels (among other numbers) were key to good health. Yet, most didn't actually know these numbers. Most also agreed that getting regular checkups was important, yet 70% found ways to avoid seeing their doctors. In fact, many respondents said they would rather live in pain than visit their doctor. This survey is pretty eye-opening and makes me wonder: Do we see our health the way we see our driving? Ask most people and they'll say they're good drivers, but if that were true, I wouldn't have had to slam on my brakes this morning to avoid a woman backing out of her driveway. Not that I've ever done such a thing. What do you think? How many of us think we're healthy even if we're not? I suspect that, for many of us, it's not just based on what we do but on how we feel. After all, what does high cholesterol or hardening arteries actually feel like? Not much, at least until it leads to a heart attack. For this week's poll, I'd like for you to grade yourself on how healthy you are, keeping in mind that your answer depends on your definition of 'health.' Since I could spend all day trying to define health, let's make it easy by setting some broad parameters: Eating healthfully, exercising regularly, not smoking, being active, getting regular checkups from your doctor, managing stress and getting quality sleep on a regular basis. That clearly doesn't cover it all, so please leave a comment to tell us how you define being healthy and what your grade is all about. <SCRIPT LANGUAGE= "javaScript" SRC="http://guidepolls.about.com/exercise/7465292281/poll.js?linkback="> More About Being Healthy Simple Ways to Live a Healthy Lifestyle Are You Ready to Make a Lifestyle Change? Make Healthy Living Fun 6 Weeks to a Healthier Lifestyle Vote in This Week's Poll: How would you grade how healthy you are? originally appeared on About.com Exercise on Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010 at 05:00:16.Permalink | Comment | Email this
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