Author: Karan Muns

Obesity’s effects on the average American

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The number of obese people have increased 34% since 1960. 34% is a lot. Especially to have a 34% increase over 54 years. There are lots of things to blame the rise in obesity on and the food industry is a big one, as well as genetics. However, generally it is caused by overeating and under exercising. Learn more about that here http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Obesity/Pages/Causes.aspx.

This rise in obesity has caused the average obese man to spend an extra $1,152 a year and the average obese woman spends an extra $3,613 a year according to Forbes link to full article here http://bit.ly/forbesobesity. Now obviously this causes the cost of healthcare insurance to go up for the average person because the company is counting on healthier people buying at a higher rate to cover the cost of the unhealthy (and obese) people that will use the insurance more. It really is an incentive to be healthier because an employer can, under the affordable care act, charge obese employees 30-50% more for what they contribute to paying for healthcare if they refuse to participate in a weight loss program.

Even though obesity is causing healthcare insurance prices to skyrocket that is not the worst thing about obesity. Morbid obesity is six times what it used to be in 1960. SIX TIMES! Morbid obesity is defined as someone with a BMI of 40 or above with significant medical problems that are worsened or caused by their weight. This type of obesity is typically the kind that creates the rise in the cost of health care because obesity itself isn’t what the doctors are treating. They’re treating hypertension, joint problems, heart attacks, strokes, diabetes and a multitude of other issues. All of these illnesses contribute to the rising cost of healthcare for the average American.

Obesity and Health Care

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It is no secret that a ton of Americans are fat. Sorry, but somebody needed to say it (and I’m actually not sorry). This plethora of fat people is adding even more debt to the country. So maybe it is mean to call people fat but it is also mean to unnecessarily make tax rates go up too. 70 percent of adults in the United States are considered overweight, and this is a huge problem. ABC news reported on how the obesity rate increases the cost of health care and rates obesity as one of the leading causes of the overall increase in health care read more here.

Health insurance plans don’t cover obesity, but they do cover the other medical issues that obesity can cause like hypertension, type II diabetes, chronic heart disease, heart attack, and stroke. In 1990, according to fairfoodnetwork.org, the government spent $107.9 billion on Medicare and $43.3 on Medicaid. In 2016 the government spent $589.72 billion dollars on Medicare and $365.525 billion dollars on Medicaid according to whitehouse.gov. This means that government spending on Medicare increased by 446.5% in 16 years, and Medicaid increased by 744.2% over the course of 16 years. Some of this increase came from natural factors that had nothing to do with obesity but some of it has to do with the fact that in 1990 only around 11% of people were obese compared to 2016 and almost one third of the population is obese.

Healthcare in 1990 cost much less and this can be attributed to the fact that now almost one in three Americans is obese. Obesity is not in right now. It is extremely unhealthy and body shaming isn’t real. Obesity is unhealthy and it kills over 300,000 people each year according to wvdhhr.org

How can you run with the gods?

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Running isn’t always a learned and practiced activity. Some people just have an innate talent for running. For those that are not quite so lucky practice, practice, and more practice are really the only things that can shorten a mile time. Read the full article here.

In the article “Running with the Gods” that Kit Fox wrote for the popular running magazine Runners’ World Fox explains that running with Olympians went from being a dream to a reality for some runners. If someone has enough passion and works adamantly achieving goals that seem incredibly far out of reach become attainable over time. This story follows ordinary people that managed to train hard and long and qualify for the Olympic trials.

This is important because it shows that anyone can achieve what most people would say is impossible. Very few people ever get their mile time down to an hour and 20 minutes for men and two hours and 45 minutes for women. The people that this article follows lead pretty normal everyday lives aside from running every chance that they get. The group contains an engineer, a professor, a mother, a video game designer, a geographic specialist and a medical director.

This article is especially inspiring because it makes examples out of each of these exemplary people set. They show that it is a choice they make every day to be extraordinary and chase their dream until they come across a new goal to conquer. Every day people can run with the gods if only they choose to lace up their shoes.

Read more about training for the olympics here.

Bio

Karan MunsLeave a comment

My name is Karan Muns. I am a senior mass communication major at Texas Wesleyan University. I’m interning for the TXWES Marketing & Communications Departement. I’m also the president of the International Association of Business Communicators, the communication chair for Mortar Board, and the TXWES cheer captain. I was on the Rambler staff for two years covering sports and other miscellaneous stories for the student media group.

I have proficient knowledge of Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft publisher, the Adobe Creative Cloud, and final cut. I hope to use these skills to become a public relations professional shortly.

I have experience writing, photographing, and filming news stories, as well as, writing press releases and designing ads, newspaper pages and newsletters.

I enjoy all areas of mass communication; however, my passion is for writing.

I would describe myself as an ambitious, fun-loving person. I love being the center of attention, but I also enjoy helping others shine too. I’m a team player something that I have learned from 15 years of cheerleading, 14 years of dance, and four semesters working as a rambler staff member.

Nine ways to recover after a run

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People need to understand that running is very straining on the body especially for beginners. Everyone can run but not everyone can run and recover well. Recovering is nearly as important as the run itself. Muscles soreness, fatigue, and tired feet are among some of the things that beginning runners and people that don’t prepare for a run properly can encounter.

This article from runners’ world explains nine different ways to recover, how the work, and who uses them. See the full article here here.  It’s pretty cool to recover more quickly from a run than typical and also learn who else uses the same recovery method. Recovering is not going to affect everyone in the same way it’s important to keep trying different methods until a recovery method helps improve whatever problems a runner encounters on everyday runs.

Some things can’t be fixed just by using a different recovery method though. If a runner has joint pain, then it is important to find what is causing the joint pain. A recovery method might help make the pain go away quicker but some things shouldn’t be happening in the first place. A common fix for nearly any running related pain is getting better fitting shoes. However, running style could contribute to running related pain as well. In order to avoid most running related injuries, it is important to stretch, wear well fitted shoes and run with the proper form. Combine all of that with a proper recovery method and running won’t be any more difficult than lacing up your shoes.

For more recovery methods check out this article from Aspetar sports medicine journal here.

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