Two ways to avoid heartache Now it's official - exercise really is taxing You all know how I feel about exercise. Not that I have anything against playing sports, moderate weightlifting, or hiking up a mountain, if that's your thing. It's just that exercising to extremes simply for the sake of exercising - or from the misguided belief that it'll benefit your health - is simply ludicrous. So, in a way, it makes perfect sense that our ass-backward government may soon be trying to force us into more of the heart-straining, joint-murdering lunacy that the exercise-crazy American mainstream's been embracing for years - while at the same time getting progressively fatter and less healthy, I might add. How are they going to do this? By "incentivizing" employers to offer exercise options as part of employee benefits. That's right: It seems the "Fools on The Hill" are cooking up a tax incentive bill that would grant a subsidy to any employer offering membership in a fitness club or similar organization. Ostensibly designed to promote health (but most likely aimed at cutting healthcare costs, however wrong-headedly), this legislation - now before Congress - is gathering support, and seems likely to pass into law in the near future. But my questions are these: Would the real-world effect of this bill actually be to increase health and fitness - or simply to increase tax revenues from the health clubs whose membership rolls would soar as a result? Also, wouldn't this incentive give employers an opportunity to cut corners on salaries (and raises) by calculating the "value" of the monthly health-club dues - subsidized by tax dollars, remember - as part of an employee's total compensation? To me, this sounds like a win-win situation for both big government and big business. And as is usually the case with "tax incentives," ordinary, hard-working employees will be the losers - both in take-home pay and in health. Especially if they buy into the bull and start exercising themselves to death simply because the company's paying for it (instead of paying them more money)! Bottom line: If the government really wanted to use the country's revenue code to promote health, there'd be a hefty "lifestyle surtax" for vegetarianism and jogging - and a nice fat write-off for people who consume beef, eggs, and fatty fish at least three times weekly. ************************* Ease her blood pressure - and make your life easier at the same time
There's an old truism about how men and women relate. It goes like this: A man marries a woman hoping that she will never change, and she does. A woman marries a man hoping that he will change, and he doesn't.
Funny, isn't it? Now, before you accuse me of perpetuating unhealthy stereotypes, know this: There is research out there showing that in a typical marriage, the female desires more change from her partner than does the male. And believe it or not, this fact of married life is putting some women at risk of higher blood pressure. According to a recent Reuters online article, new research shows that during heated arguments between spouses, blood pressure levels are much more likely to spike - and to spike higher - in the person looking for his or her partner to change. And like I said before, the person in that position within a typical marriage is the woman. (Sorry, it's a fact.)
I know what you're thinking - that I'm going to try to leverage these findings into an argument for wives keeping their mouths shut instead of nagging husbands about their shortcomings. But nothing could be farther from the truth (wink, wink). Seriously, though, I'm bringing this research to your attention as an appeal to husbands everywhere to bend a little bit and make a few changes that your wives really want - so they won't have to suffer spikes in blood pressure that could end up tragically. Really, do any of you want to carry around the guilt of knowing that your wife's heart condition may have been because you never learned to put the toilet seat down? So listen to her, and make some long-overdue changes, boys. It's an easy thing to do - and nothing will make her seem like the girl you married (and hoped would never change) more than keeping her happy. Never too old to change,
William Campbell Douglass II, MD
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