Want to avoid a long hospital stay? Then stay thin.
It’s not exactly rocket science, I know, but with healthcare costs on the rise, and an increasing number of employers no longer offering health insurance coverage to their employees, every little bit of information helps with regards to keeping ourselves as healthy as possible – and as financially stable as possible.
According to the American Sociological Association and the sociologists and that took part in the study, they report a “direct link” between how long a person stays in a hospital and what that person’s weight is. On average, an obese person spends about one and a half days longer in a hospital than a thin person does.
The reason couldn’t be more straightforward: The obese are more likely to suffer from other diseases that often complicate the rate of healing. For instance, an obese person is more likely to suffer from heart disease, stroke, diabetes and high blood pressure – nearly 50 percent of all obese people suffer from high blood pressure, in fact! So when the body is operating at a reduced capacity, it can’t “dedicate its forces” to the issue that landed that person in the hospital in the first place. So a person is spending potentially thousands of dollars more for an extra day’s stay.
In a related study done by researchers from the University of Cincinnati in 2005, Dr. David Arterburn and colleagues crunched the healthcare cost numbers and found that medical expenditures for obese people increased depending on how heavy they were. For instance, medical expenditures for the obese were 47 percent more than those of normal weight, and 81 percent more for the morbidly obese!
Overall, $56 billion was spent in healthcare costs for diseases linked to obesity. That represents a 12 percent increase from 1998, just two years prior to that 2000 figure!
In this economic climate, everyone is looking to pinch pennies. I understand that. But I find it frustrating that so many are opting to pinch pennies by abandoning foods that are more expensive (like fresh produce) and embracing foods that are less expensive (like highly processed foods with infinite shelf lives).
Such choices are classic cases of trying to solve a short-term problem by implementing a “solution” that has long-term implications. Sure, they might save some money now, but the chemicals and preservatives used in non-organic food sources can wind up sending the penny-pincher to the poor house due to the creeping obesity that often results from foods containing things like high fructose corn syrup (i.e. the sweetness and chemical make-up of high fructose corn syrup doesn’t satisfy the appetite, it whets it, leading the taste buds and brain to crave more and more).
So to stay financially sound, stay thin. The costs may seem high in the short run, but long term, your belly will be thinner, and your wallet will be fatter.
Sources:
sciencedaily.com
