Letter Persuading a Healthy Lifestyle

Letter Persuading a Healthy Lifestyle

I hope you are doing well as the holiday season approaches! I am writing, not only to check on your health and well being, but to more importantly remind you about how dangerous your lifestyle can be during a period where I know you are undoubtedly going to splurge in excess of the very behaviors that can have such detrimental affects on your health. I know you don't want to hear this, but I think it is important for you to at least hear the truth.

Understandably, I know that this is not exactly what you want to here, especially during the holidays. Still, I believe that you are at a crucial turning point in your life, where your health needs to be placed at a greater priority than you have been assigning it in the past. For as long as we have been acquainted with one another, I have watched you live a life of excess, completely ignoring the need for moderation in the bad habits we all enjoy at one point or another. All the nights of late night fast food runs, and the sedentary days with little physical activity at all -- you are just priming yourself for major health complications later down the road. Your dietary habits are horrendous! I bet that you haven't had a balanced meal in years, and thus your body is lacking the essential nutrients and vitamins it needs to thrive. Not to portray you as lazy, but the long nights of playing PS3 with no regard for your body's physical needs will do nothing but come to harm you later on. These issues are not even the worst of them, either! I know that we all of our vices, but you take many of them to an extreme excess! Smoking like a chimney and drinking like a sailor is going to be the primary factor in determining the quality of your life later on. I know that you hate when people nag, so I am hoping that a little cold hard truth will help make you revaluate those nasty bad habits of yours.

Modern medical discourse is filled with empirical studies and evidence that show just how harmful your lifestyle choices are when taken to the excesses that you take them too. All of your bad habits can cause hear disease, stroke, and many other chronic conditions, including many types of incredibly dangerous cancers (van Dam et al. 1). Many of the serious complications that affect Americans today are essentially caused by a lack of discipline to moderate their lifestyle choices. It is hard to prevent these conditions "because they are caused by unhealthy behaviors that people choose to have," (Strong et al. 4). Yet, these are the conditions that are the major killers of Americans each year. In fact, 35 million people died from such conditions in 2005 alone (Strong et al. 1). Over 30% of individuals who die each year suffer from cardiovascular diseases (Strong et al. 1). The research here also posits that the annual deaths caused by cardiovascular disease and other chronic issues associated with excessive smoking, drinking, and a lack of healthy eating and exercising habits will only continue to rise. Tobacco use is one of the most dangerous personal habits many Americans participate in on a daily basis. Here, the research suggests that "Cigarette smoking greatly increases your risk for heart disease," (Center for Disease Control and Prevention 1). Even worse, heavy alcohol consumption can be especially dangerous in terms of its links to many types of incredibly dangerous cancers (van Dam et al. 1). With more detailed knowledge of what your bad habits can do to you, are you ready to think of some changes?