The Evil of Modern Life Is Destroying the Physical and Mental Health of Modern People

A few days ago, one of my gastric cancer patients referred me to the mother of a patient with advanced intestinal cancer. After reading this patient's medical record, I felt deep sorrow. She was a 19-year-old girl who, at such a young age, had already reached the terminal stage of colorectal cancer; she was an excessively obese girl weighing 180 jin (about 90 kg). Last year I treated another patient with advanced colorectal cancer; that patient was 21 years old and also excessively obese.

Looking at children on the streets of Beijing, more than half appear to be overweight or obese, including my own child. This summer, I started taking the whole family on a weight-loss program. We bought three bicycles: two new mountain bikes bought this year, and one Phoenix commuter bike I used to ride.

Every day we ride from home to Xiangshan (Fragrant Hills) and back. A few days ago, I even took my child and his mother on a ride of more than fifty kilometers to the summit of Miaofeng Mountain, and then rode back. That day we rode over a hundred kilometers in total, taking 11 hours; 14 kilometers of that was an uphill trail, which alone took nearly four hours.

Since my child's high-school entrance exams ended, our family has each lost about ten jin. We are still keeping it up. I hope to make this kind of cycling a regular family habit, sustained over the long term.

Children today have stopped loving exercise. I remember that when I was in junior high, hardly any of my classmates were fat. Even through college, my weight was basically around 100 jin (about 50 kg); I was very thin. Back then, nutrition was not as good as today, and our physical exertion was far greater than children's today, so none of us was overweight. I never heard of anyone my age developing terminal colorectal cancer around age twenty. Colorectal cancer is a disease of affluence, strongly linked to overnutrition and insufficient exercise.

This summer vacation, my son's classmates and other children around us who finished their middle-school exams have one after another enrolled in transition cram courses. The cram-school business in Beijing is still booming and seems little affected by COVID-19; anxious parents are terrified that their children will lose out in the competition with their peers. I am stubborn on this point: regardless of whether my child's exam results are good or bad, I refuse to let him attend cram school. I cannot turn him into a learning machine, much less strangle his interests and hobbies. My life experience tells me that children who did not play enough when young find it hard to be happy when grown.

I remember that after finishing both the middle-school and college entrance exams, I played like crazy. The summer after the middle-school exam, I was addicted to chess and fishing, and enjoyed myself immensely. Children not being playful truly goes against human nature. Can an education that distorts human nature produce a healthy, happy person? I deeply doubt it.

None of my schoolmates committed suicide, but today there are far too many middle-school and college students taking their own lives. Several such cases have occurred around me, and the news reports them from time to time. I occasionally reflect: what makes children today so fragile? Why are today's children neither physically nor mentally healthy?

Even we ourselves—our generation of farm boys who leapt out of the rural gate and washed our feet ashore—have gradually grown potbellied. When I was a child, among the elders around forty in my household, almost none had abdominal obesity; but now, among my own contemporaries, hardly anyone lacks a belly.

Along with obesity come diabetes, fatty liver, and cancer. The more cancer patients are treated, the more there seem to be; my work will never be finished. Recent statistics suggest that about one-third of the population in first-tier cities will develop cancer. Because of this, I will never be unemployed in my lifetime. I only worry about not having enough rest; I do not worry about having too few patients.

Diseases like diabetes, fatty liver, and cancer are all strongly related to lifestyle. If we could change our diet, combine mental and physical labor, maintain sufficient exercise, and keep caloric intake roughly equal to caloric expenditure, our bodies and minds would be far healthier.

Unfortunately, we cannot do this. We have grown accustomed to a pampered life, to the competition-based survival model of modern society, and to letting our minds be swayed by every passing trend. Thus the physical and psychological fitness of modern people is in decline.

Western scientists have found through statistics that human physical fitness has already declined from its peak. The generation after World War II was the fittest; over the last two or three decades, overall human fitness has been deteriorating from generation to generation. We always optimistically believe that human society is progressing, but the truth is otherwise.

A few days ago I read an article by an agricultural scientist arguing that modern agriculture is going down an evil road. But it is not only agriculture that has gone evil—our entire modern life has become quite evil. The FAO is calling on humanity to change its diet, and the WHO is urging everyone to maintain sufficient exercise, yet such appeals have little effect on the public. People are walking ever farther down the road of sensual indulgence.

Patients and their families are also growing more short-tempered. The reason is simple: wealth begets arrogance. A Buddhist scripture says, "It is hard for the poor to give charity, and hard for the wealthy to practice the Way." When people are poor, few are willing to give; when people are affluent, few remain humble.

Mr. Russell said that the happy life is manifold. A pluralistic, three-dimensional life is a beautiful life. Unfortunately, the lives of many of us have become highly mechanized and monotonous; most people are growing fond of ease and averse to work. This has been especially true over the last two or three decades. Accordingly, the diseases of affluence in countries around the world have all advanced by leaps and bounds over these decades.