BUPA is an Australian company that sells health insurance(and home, life or car insurance). Judging from their media work and advertising, they certainly seem to have realised that running campaigns for healthy living and thereby keeping their customers healthy by means of primary and secondary prevention will eventually benefit their bottom line. I was made aware of this Health Influencer Blog Awards thingy they have going today, but I don’t fancy my chances with the judges, since my blog posts on health issues are sorely lacking in the BUPA wellness lalala body soul feelgood woo happiness energy department(and I’m in the wrong profession too):
Bupa is looking for Australia’s leading Health Influencers in the blogosphere. We will be in search of blogs that express positive health messages over a long period of time and encourage Australians to be healthier.
You don’t have to be a doctor or medical professional to enter. In fact we’d prefer it if you weren’t. We’re just looking for everyday bloggers who try to inspire others to be healthy – whether that be by writing about ways you relieve stress, managing lack of sleep or an overwhelming timetable, or how you discovered the trick to giving the whole family a little extra energy.
One of the judges, a Gemma Sutherland, runs a website called Body & Soul. Yes, it’s that bad(note to Gemma: Souls aren’t really a thing). On their “parenting and pregnancy” page, we find for example this helpful piece of advice for parents of kids with head lice(pediculosis):
Head lice: who cares?
If they’re not a health issue, maybe it’s time to relax about these little suckers invading the scalps of our precious progeny
Sure, let’s relax about head lice and let all the kids have them and share them around. Maybe we could do the same with Scabies, too. It’s only natural, and what’s wrong with a little itch from parasites piercing your skin, sucking your blood and injecting their spit into you, after all? Worked for Egyptians and Neanderthals, didn’t it? Instead we could focus on imaginary illnesses like Pyrrole disorder, which according to BUPA is suffered by an astonishing 10% of the population. Who knew! Sadly this condition seems to be only known to quacks, naturopaths and doctors who specialise in something called “integrative medicine”, at least according to my research on this in the literature, with paediatricians and on Google.
No, BUPA, I’m sorry, but I don’t think I will be entering your Blog Award competition. Way too much woo and pseudo-medicine on your website(and that’s me skimming your site after a long day at work, I dread what I might find if I put some effort into it), something I would prefer not to be associated with.
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Hey BUPA, how about this approach to the Obesity epidemic? Build bigger seats!
