More People Choose A Pill Over Exercise

I was not surprised by this news from Yale School of Medicine.  A survey of 1,384 US adults, most of whom had high blood pressure, found that more people preferred a pill to exercise for controlling their blood pressure.

Researchers asked participants “how willing they would be to undergo any of four ‘treatments’ to gain an extra month, year or five years of life.”  The choices were to drink a daily cup of tea, exercise, take a pill, or have a periodic (monthly or semi-annual) injection.  Most preferred the pill with 79 percent of respondents saying they would be willing to take a pill for an extra month of life, 90 percent would for an extra year of life and 96 percent would for an extra five years of life.  The tea came in a very close second – they could vote for as many as they wanted.  The exercise option dropped to 63 percent for the extra month of life, and the injection was slightly lower than that.

“Despite not being a popular choice for many in the study, exercise is one of the key prevention methods recommended by the American Heart Association to prevent high blood pressure, which is a leading risk factor for cardiovascular disease.”  They recommend 30 minutes of exercise five days a week and define exercise as “anything that makes you move your body and burn calories.”  They go on to say:  “The simplest, positive change you can make to effectively improve your heart health is to start walking.”

WebMD explains that further studies have shown that if time is a problem, the 30 minutes can be split up into smaller bits for the same benefits.  The conclusion of another study states, “Exercise is a cornerstone therapy for the prevention, treatment and control of hypertension.”

The preference for a pill should not come as a surprise to anyone.  It just reinforces the reality of other failures in the dimension of discipline. Why do the hard work when there is an easier way out?  Notice that the researchers did not say that the pill or the tea or the injection would be equally effective.  They were merely looking for personal preferences.

Advertisers and the much-maligned big drug companies understand this attitude and take advantage of it.  It explains the multitude of “ask your doctor” ads on TV.  We gripe about the greed of “Big-Pharma,” then play right into their hands by running to the doctor for pills where lifestyle changes would be cheaper, more convenient and safer.  After our behavior puts them in the driver’s seat, we are shocked by announcements of high profitability and resent their success. 

This is just one of many little bits of evidence pointing to a serious discipline problems in America that results in problems like various addictions, the obesity epidemic and retirement insecurity.