Healthy life-style ‘con,’ according to research

Press, 25 January 1988, Page 7

Healthy life-style ‘con,’ according to research

By

STUART PARKER

NZPA-AAP Perth

Forget regular exercise, non-fatty food and giving up smoking — they won’t help you live longer.

That is the advice of a Perth physiologist who says the Western world’s current health kick is nothing more than a con. Dr Ray Johnstone, of the University of Western Australia, says major world studies have shown that a slob who eats junk food and smokes has a life expectancy just as high as any muesli-eating jogger.

He accuses health organisations of cynical exploitation of the public in continuing to urge people to live a so-called

healthy lifestyle.

Dr Johnstone has collated the results of nine major comparative health studies carried out over the last 20 years, costing a total of sAustl billion and involving thousands of subjects. Each study compared the life expectancy of a group of “unhealthy” people with a group who increased exercise, changed their diet to reduce fat intake, or stopped smoking. “In eight of the nine studies there was no improvement in life expectancy and no reduction in deaths from cancer or heart disease,” Dr Johnstone said.

In one study, an anti-

coronary survey in New York, the life expectancy of those on an “improved” diet was actually lower, although Dr Johnstone believes this result was an aberration. He said that one British study, one of the only surveys into the effects of giving up smoking, showed no change in cancer mortality.

Dr Johnstone said other studies had looked at the effects of drugs designed to reduce blood pressure and lower cholesterol levels. “These had to be stopped because so many people died,” said Dr Johnstone, who expects to publish his results in the next few months.

Yet in spite of these major findings, health organisations continued to advise people to reduce their fat intake, exercise more and stop smoking. He believed many organisations were cynically exploiting the public to protect their own jobs.

Dr Johnstone said he had been accused of irresponsibility for his work. But he said he found it extraordinary that people should change their diet to try to live longer.

“We all have to die of something. What do they want to die of?

“I see nothing wrong with dying of a heart attack or cancer. If you live long enough you will get them.”