Hypochondria

I've been reading the paper religiously for a couple of weeks now. And more than gaining awareness of current events and the like, I've found out all the different diseases and illnesses that can afflict me even if I'm as careful as I could possibly be!

Everyday there are at least 3 articles spread casually throughout the paper extolling the virtues of some or the other lifestyle. And they all seem to contradict each other! I've been brought up to avoid alcohol but now they say that a little bit of drink does you good, protects you from heart disease and blah blah. I've started 'a handful' of an assortment of comestible substances so that I live to be healthy when I grow old.

I'm really fond of chicken except meat is supposed to be bad for you. It clogs up the system, has unhealthy fats and is often fried which makes it worse. Fine. So I won't eat fried chicken (sigh!). But no! Grilled chicken is not an option because it contains carcinogens! And oily fish is supposed to be good for you! The oilier the better! How in the world are we to decide what to eat?

The papers don't just stop there in their never ending quest to scare me into a gibbering, anxious fanatic who sees threats to his and his family's health at every turn. I'm worried about lead exposure from fillings causing brain damage to my kids. Afraid that with all the pollution we're breathing, their tiny little lungs will be fried. Frantic that all the exposure to radio waves is gonna render me impotent and I'll never have to worry about my children!

Each day as I go through the paper, I add another couple of items to my list of things to avoid, keep away from and just generally steer clear of as soon as I spot them miles away. It is really exhausting to be this worried all the time that I'm going to contract carpal tunnel syndrome from blogging too much or that not being careful about bugs could kill me and that there are diseases around, closer than I'd like to think, that are horrible, incurable and best not pictured.

Sometimes, maybe, ignorance is bliss.

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