How to truly make American healthier

Dear Dr. Roizen,

Your recent column (Sunday, June 15th Colorado Gazette) gave a woefully inadequate solution to America’s health problems.

You are correct that high-income individuals can improve their life expectancy by walking more, eating healthier, and having more social connections. This advice is absurd for the 40% of Americans who spend more than half of their income on housing and food.

For nearly half of all Americans, the “challenges that erode quality of life and shorten lifespans” are scarcity of basic health-giving resources. This includes first and foremost housing and food – or, in the broader context, the scarcity is jobs that pay well enough for people to afford these things.

In her book, Weathering, Arline Geronimus writes, “ . . . healthy aging is a measure not of how well we take care of ourselves but rather of how well society treats and takes care of us.” (emphasis added) As long as our society accepts that some people – even those working full-time -- do not deserve the dignity of these basic goods, we will have the health status we have now. Exercise, diet, and socializing will never cure it.

With your large audience, you have a wonderful opportunity to offer more than “let them eat cake” guidance that applies only to the rich. Please use your platform to educate people on what health really consists of.