We're all doomed!

Today's news headline from Sky:

Drinking and smoking damages heart by age 17

Semi-literate, I know, but you get the idea. 

I used to work with a man who managed to put people neatly into categories. One category was: "This man never saw a bandwagon he didn't want to join." That was reserved for the boss, an eejit without an idea in his head but with a nose for sniffing out the fashion of the moment and making sure his minions chased after it. 

The other one I loved was: "Live fast, die young and leave a beautiful corpse." This was normally directed at people who were unable or unwilling to take the slightest risk in work or in life. 

It was this saying that came to mind when I saw the headline above. And for all the wrong reasons. If I'd read on, I'd have seen that it says if you give up smoking and drinking early on your body recovers pretty fast. Well, I knew that anyway. But I have a feeling quite a lot of 17 year-olds don't and, seeing only the headline, would think: "Och, feckit! I'm screwed anyway. Might as well just enjoy life."

A friend of mine started smoking at 19, gave it up at 25 because she wanted to get pregnant. Doesn't drink to excess. Is a great cook but doesn't overeat and doesn't eat rubbish. And still she has inherited heart disease from her West of Scotland family. Now she says: "If I'd known, I'd have had that extra potato."

I'm amazed at the information that health practitioners think will help people turn their lives around. Scaring them doesn't do it. Nor does urging them to take exercise. Schools are inundated with information on healthy eating but, despite the Scottish Government's best efforts, kids still have access to the chip shop outside school. 

Sometimes I wonder if we don't deal with 'body image' because it keeps young people thin. Young people are obsessed with their looks. Have you ever seen so many boys and girls with such thin legs in such tight troosers as there are now? And we know how they fit into these jeans and jeggings: they don't eat. They probably smoke because smoking cuts the appetite. When they drink, it's a binge (usually underage) that leaves them ill for a couple of days. 

And once they get into their 20s, they live their lives on a diet. One that doesn't work, of course. What diseases will the 'binge-starve' culture produce, I wonder? I have asked before now why overpaid models look so miserable in their photos. I'm assured it's because they're starving. 

Not that I have that problem. I follow another West of Scotland cliche: fat kid, fat teenager, started smoking, thin 20 something, had a stroke at 35, fat ever since. 

To quote another saying: 'Whatever doesn't kill you makes you strong.' But we're none of us getting out of here alive.