Shame, shame. There’s a shortage of flu vaccines, so what happens? Do we all try to gather together and figure out a solution? No, of course not. Instead, the shortage has become an ideal way for someone to reap a fortune.

Price gouging. How pathetic can you get? Really, this is one of the sorriest things that I have ever heard of. But yet, sad but true.

Reports are coming in that 10-dose vials are selling for as much as $1,000, 10 times the normal price. I’ve seen this story in several different newspapers across the nation, that drug distribution companies are offering the vaccine at hugely inflated prices.

But then, why should I even be mildly surprised? In 2001, vaccine prices also skyrocketed after a shortage was announced then. And when disasters hit, and people are rushing to buy bottled water and other supplies, those prices instantly skyrocket as well. Is this the American way? Should we be proud of ourselves for ripping eachother off?

I started reading a book today called the Okinawa Diet Plan. I don’t really need to lose weight, and I already eat fairly healthy–at least, healthy compared to most other people I know. It’s been better than 20 years since I’ve set foot inside a McDonald’s, to do anything other than use the bathroom, and the smell emanating from a Kentucky Fried Chicken store makes me positively nauseous.

Anyway, this book did intrigue me because Okinawans have an incredible rate of longevity, and I believe the highest concentration of centurians in the world. But most important, these people aren’t just being kept alive, they are living active and healthy lifestyles. Like working in the fields at 105, cooking a feast for friends and family at age 103–that sort of thing. They have bodies that remain unriddled by arthritis, heart disease, obesity, senility, dementia, cancer, osteoporosis, etc. All those things that we think are part of getting to be an old geezer, are absent from this group of people.

And it’s not genetics. Please, it is so irritating everytime I see the blame put on, “Well it’s just my genes that I weight 6,000 pounds. It runs in my family. It has nothing to do with my steady diet of super meals from McD’s, or the dozen Krispy Kremes that I have for dessert on a daily basis. Exercise? Well of course I exercise. I get in and out of my car.”

In the brief portion of the book that I read, genes are not responsible for the traditional Okinawan long healthy life. The researchers, who have been studying this population for 25 years, also looked at 1st, 2nd and 3rd generation Okinawans who were living in Brazil and who had also abandoned their traditional food and lifestyle. Turns out that there was no difference between the Brazilians and the Okinawan Brazilians. As soon as the diet changed, so did their ability to live long, disease-free lives.

I have read of similar studies in the U.S., especially among Japanese women who emigrate to this country. Japan has a much lower rate of breast cancer than the U.S., so again, genes is automatically the magic word. But as soon as Japanese women adopt the US lifestyle and diet, the breast cancer rates rapidly become equal. There is no protective barrier in being Japanese. It is almost entirely a matter of what you eat, drink, and how much activity you care to include in your life.

I am curious if anyone has tried this diet. It looks like it’s full of foods that I will enjoy, since do I eat a lot of Asian-type foods anyway. I surely wouldn’t mind getting to be 105, looking 40 years younger, and remaining independent, mentality sound, and in good health.

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