Long sick leave for colds signals poor health later: study

More proof that they have no idea what "healthy" is.

"Employees off sick for long periods -- even for common conditions like flu -- are far more likely to die before their co-workers who do not take such leave, researchers said on Friday.

The study of government workers included people who were healthy to start with and suggested extended sick leave for minor ailments as well as more major ones could point to serious health problems down the road."

Arguably, "people who were healthy to start with" should not be "more likely to die before their co-workers."

And that is one of the major fallacies surrounding "health."

Here is the bottom line:

Health is unknowable.

Health is not the absence of disease.

Health is related to the statistical likelihood of developing certain bad diseases.

You can almost never know whether you are healthy.

As you read this, you may feel great, but, unknown to you, you can have a cancer growing in your pancreas, your blood vessels can be clogging, you can be hypertensive (hypertension is known as the "silent killer" - guess why), etc.

That is why "Fitness is the only real preventive medicine." (tm)

When you are nutritionally fit, i.e., your BMI is between 18.5 and 24.9, your statistical likelihood of developing certain bad diseases is at its lowest.

"Health is a function of participation. Participation is a function of fitness." (tm)

Get fit.

The only way to do that is to avoid following the suggestions of the experts. (see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here, for a few examples)

To learn how to get nutritonally fit, see here, here, here and here.

To learn how to get physically fit, go here.

To become/remain a fitness moron and fail, go here and here, for example.