Just how bad we are

Victor

Eeek!

http://home.eircom.net/content/unison/national/9098773?view=Eircomnet

Shock results of farmers' plough-day health check
From:The Irish Independent
Sunday, 15th October, 2006

JEROME REILLY

IT WAS supposed to be a light-hearted lifestyle promotion - designed to help farmers look after their health.

But the health check tent at the National Ploughing Championships effectively became an emergencyroom filled with people requiring immediate medical intervention.

A staggering 10 per cent of people who wandered into the Pfizer Health check to undergo free health screening required an emergency referral on the same day.

The findings explode the myth that life on the land is healthy and stress-free.

And they strongly indicate that tens of thousands of people in rural Ireland are living on borrowed time - unaware they have sky-high blood pressure and dangerouslevels of artery-cloggingcholesterol.

One farmer in his 60s, apparently in rude good health and who had not visited his GP for more than 20 years was cajoled to undergo the health check by his wife.

The medical technician was so astounded by his high blood pressure level that he believed the testing apparatus had malfunctioned.

But a second test showed the farmer had a shockingly high level of hypertension and he was referred on foremergency assessment witha GP.

And there were dozens more cases of indicators which required urgent medical intervention while nearly half of those who took the tests showed raised levelsof cholesterol and nearly40 per cent had raised blood pressure.

Another worrying phenomenon was that another 10 per cent of people who were checked had raised glucose levels that were highenough to indicate glucoseintolerance or possiblediabetes.

"One would have to be very concerned about these results. In all, 10 per cent required same-day emergency referral, 45 per cent of people screened had raised cholesterol and 39 per cent had raised blood pressure.

"Furthermore, six per cent of people had cardiovascular disease, with 36 per cent claiming to have a family history of the condition," said Dave Shanahan of Pfizer Healthcare.

Labour-saving devices have been cited as a reason for the low levels of exercise reported among farmers.

Mr Shanahan added: "Everyone has a right to a good health status but unfortunately inequalities pervade in society, resulting in certain groups such as farmers having a significantly poorer health status when compared with the overall population.

It is believed that 100,000 people in Ireland have diabetes but are unaware that they have the condition.

The majority of these will only be diagnosed through an acute medical event of the complications of long-term untreated hyperglycemia.

A further 250,000 people have impaired glucose tolerance or "pre-diabetes", of which 50 per cent will develop diabetes in the next five years if lifestyle changes are not made.

In all, 11 per cent of people who presented at the tent for health screenings were smokers. Latest statistics say that smoking takes an average of 10-15 years of life from a smoker.

Smoking is responsible for 95 per cent of all lung cancers and is a major cause of many other cancers, including cancer of the mouth, throat and stomach.

In all, 7,000 deaths each year are smoking-related. Smoking causes 25 per cent of deaths from coronary heart disease and 11 per cent of all deaths from stroke.

Health experts say the figures relating to smoking are now irrefutable. Smoking takes an average 10 to 15 years of life from a smoker.

scuby

And what is always said at the funerals home of Ireland ?
jaysus he was never at the doctors a day in his life !!!
thats why he is in his coffin..............
why don't people believe in check up's !!

DrIndy

people are afraid of doctors and what they will discover. Hence they don't go and often its too late when they come along as the damage is done.