Personal Example Of How Zip Code Affects Health

The Robert Woods Johnson Foundation has been talking about this issue for a while.  Yesterday, they released some great pictures of this within a few cities.

It got me thinking about how where you live influences your health.  Here’s a very personal example from the three houses I’ve lived in as an adult.

• At my first house, all of my neighbors ran so I eventually started running with them leading up to me running three marathons.  
• At my second house, all of my neighbors played poker 1-2 times per month which was a great social activity (although not so great on the calorie count those nights).
• At our new home in Charlotte, I haven’t found a running club or a poker group or even a golf group, but I’ve been invited to play tennis with a group of guys that play “recreational” tennis weekly.  

Each of these are directly influencing several things – activity, diet, sleep, and social interactions.  

I’ll have to hold off judgement on the tennis group since it hasn’t started yet.  I had to ask my kids to start helping me since the last time I played an adult in tennis was in 9th grade with my dad.  I’ve played with my kids for a few years, but they generally play with their opposite hand to prevent beating me too badly.  (which either says something about me or them in terms of play)