I have three things that I could tell you that could very easily, in fact are highly likely to stop you dying or being killed.
One’s something to do. One’s something not to do and one is a mixture of do’s and don’ts.
If doing all or even one of them doesn’t save your life, worst case it could stop you being one of the millions of people chronically disabled or sick for years before dying.
Ok, I’ll tell you the first that most of you probably already know and will be doing.
This is something simple to do while you’re doing something dangerous that conservative estimates say has saved 1 million lives and avoided 10’s of millions more serious injuries.
So my life saving point 1 is - always wear a seat belt.
I hear you groan but stay with me I promise we’re going somewhere here.
Second point. This one’s a biggie, and is responsible globally for 6 million deaths per year and if you’re exposed to this regularly can almost guarantee some form of disability and 2 in 3 probability that it will kill you.
Any idea what this epidemic plague that festers still untreated in 2018 is – DON'T SMOKE
My points here aren’t supposed to be glib or judgemental it’s to shine a light on a basic human nature and that’s just by knowing the facts doesn’t mean we’ll do anything about them. Let me explain:
In the case of the seatbelt - invented in the form we now all have in our cars - the 3 point Y inertia reel - by Nils Bohlin at Volvo in 1959. Volvo immediately saw the enormous impact it would have on road safety and so altruistically gave the patent freely to the automotive industry - only the Swedes right. Even despite Jimmy Saville telling us to “Clunk Click every trip” through the 70’s, it wasn’t until it was made compulsory in the UK in 1983 that people actually did start to wear them and the numbers of deaths and injuries dramatically reduced really quickly. That’s 25 years after the invention.
Next cigarettes, the initial research into the harmful effects of smoking was carried out by two epidemiological academics, Doll and Hill, in 1954 after a research survey they carried out on Doctors – who at that time all smoked because basically everyone smoked.
This showed what people had sort of suspected but never actually proved, namely - that there was a hugely increased rate of cancer and heart attacks if you smoke. But this was quite difficult to see because... everyone smoked.
Despite this piece of properly ground-breaking research the population didn’t give up smoking in any considerable numbers until the 80’s. Big reason that rates dropped then was that this was when the doctors, who were dishing out the advice to stop, actually stopped themselves. Plus a ban on sexy advertising and then in 2006 the smoke free public space legislation.
Yet now still 60 years after Doll and Hill initial research 20% of our adult population still smoke and young people still start.
But I had three things – and trust me the next ones as big if not bigger than the other two.
But the truth is I’m not sure I’m going to tell you.
And it’s not that I want money for you to hear it or for you take out a life-long subscription to get this once in a lifetime save your life offer.
It’s because I’ve a pretty good idea that it’s not going to make any difference and that it what I want to do – make a difference to your health.
It’s not that I don’t think you’ll understand it - I don’t think you’re going to die of stupid. But I know because of seatbelts and smoking… and alcohol and heroin and having guns and lots of other examples. People don’t do what’s good for them just because they know. And that significant medical breakthroughs take 10-20 years to reach the mainstream and then are only taken up with varying degrees of success usually of the back of a compulsory law.
It’s also not that you’re an exception to these rules or a special case. That actually is the point - you're just like everyone else. You’re like me, we’re all the same.
And I think almost that that is the most important thing to understand here. There’s nothing wrong with us, we’re not wilfully self destructive or weak. We’re programmed to reflexly act on primitive urges with no thought or logic and overriding other things. These urges and reflexes have developed over millions of years and are there for our survival. They’re deeply unconscious which is why they're really difficult to overrule.
But today in the 21st century, these reflexes and urges that were born in a dangerous world where food was scarce, are misplaced and in our state of safety and abundance are actually acting to do the opposite of protecting and preserving us – they’re killing us.
You already know what I’m going to say the third thing on the list is. It’s that our diets and lifestyles are killing us. And the statistics say in epidemic proportions that are actually, year on year, getting worse.
And this is an actual global catastrophe according to the WHO - probably in the scale of 75% of all deaths in developed worlds being premature in the order of 10-20 years. Plus they're usually accompanied by an amount of unnecessary suffering before the very end. Not a great picture
The truth now is that over nourishment kills more people than famine.
But where does that leave us? Firstly I don’t want you to do or change anything. I just want you to think about things. Because the right frame of mind here is a really big feature of whether we’re going to succeed or fail in this adventure.
So what I’m proposing firstly is for you to look brutally honestly at where you, what you are eating and how you are living are see that is not promoting good health now or for your future.
I don’t want you to be harsh or cruel to yourself for this because remember it’s not your fault it’s a result of our human nature. Just a simple acceptance of where you are now not good not bad it’s just where you are.
And if you think that you’re not in a place that you want to be with your health I want you to make a commitment to yourself that you want to do something about it.
We’re not looking for action here we are just looking for a decision.
And knowing that will-power is powerless against changing these deep habits, the decision you need to make comes with an agreement that you are going to be open to trying other things and see how they work.
There is a way to overrule these powerful urges but to make them stick it’s got to be slow and gentle.
So sit up and keep an open mind for readiness into your great adventure.
Come forth into the light of things let nature be thy teacher. – Wordsworth