It can be hard to keep up with recommendations on how to protect yourself from diseases and stay healthy. Guidelines for what to eat, what not to eat, how to exercise, and what to engage yourself with change all the time. Moreover, healthcare tips from prominent medical practitioners and organizations may seem conflicting sometimes, leaving you confused.
Before you give up on your pursuit of better health, you should note that the basics of disease prevention aren’t complicated. They are simple tasks and commitments that yield results when carried out. Of course, you may already know some of these steps. However, who says you cannot improve on them?
Below are some invaluable steps, which, when implemented, can safeguard your body from disease, raise your longevity, and enhance your overall physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing.
1. Eat Healthily
Yes! You guessed right. Developing a healthy eating habit is one of the easiest ways to protect yourself from diseases and stay healthy. To do this, you need to inculcate good eating habits. Remember your health is at risk here, so you must be willing to let go of bad eating habits, such as regular intake of sugary drinks, white bread, meat, and junk food. Instead, replace those unhealthy foods with vegetables and fruits, whole grains, seafood, legumes, nuts.
I bet you should have heard of the health benefits of taking fruits and vegetables. If you have, we are here to reaffirm or echo its benefits. Fruits and vegetables are like elixirs that elongate your life expectancy. With that in mind, we expect you to add lots of vegetables and fruits to your diet. And oh, before we forget, don’t joke with water. Though basic, your water intake plays a key role in your health. So while you eat well, ensure you cap it off with enough water.
2. Lose weight if you need to
Are you aware that being overweight or obese is bad for your health? Carrying so much weight leaves you prone to a host of serious diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, stroke, cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure, etc.
In light of the huge risk associated with being overweight, it makes sense to shed excess pounds for the sake of your health. You don’t need to work out to stupor, trying to shed 90% of your weight. You can take things slowly. Provided you are shedding weight regularly and not adding, you are good to go. In fact, losing 5% to 10% of weight can be beneficial to your health.
Rather than lifting 30kg weight, doing squats and other forms of weight-loss exercises, you can begin your journey by swapping processed food for fresh produce. Put differently, ditch the bacon, granola bars, flavored nuts, microwave popcorn, etc. and replace them with bananas, vegetables, berries, watermelon, apples, etc. Furthermore, consider halting your soda intake and other sugary drinks as they cause weight gain.
3. Screening
Screening is an important disease prevention measure that most people ignore. It is the act of determining potential health disorders in individuals who have no symptoms of the disease. Early detection of diseases can make a huge difference in treatment.
For instance, discovering cancerous cells in an individual’s body when it is too late can dent their chances of survival. That said, it is important you go for STD testing, blood testing, eye exams, thyroid test, etc.
While screening tests aren’t entirely correct in all cases, it makes more sense to have one at the right time, as advised by your healthcare provider, than to ignore it completely.
4. Take your medicine
Ditching unhealthy food and replacing them with healthy ones is your first line of defense as far as your battle against disease is concerned. With that done and dusted, you need to contact your doctor. As a professional, your healthcare provider should recommend preventive medications that will assist in keeping illnesses at bay.
Your doctor may recommend a satin if your cholesterol level is on the increase or if you are battling diabetes. What about conditions like high blood pressure? If you notice high blood pressure in your lineage, there is a possibility that you may have to purchase medications to control blood pressure. Before taking any medication, don’t hesitate to contact your healthcare provider.
5. Get immunized
Contrary to what you may think, immunization isn’t designed for children alone. Adults can also get immunized. And according to a current recommendation, everyone 6 months and older ought to get a flu vaccine annually, and a Tdap ( tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis), which needs to be administered every decade. Other vaccines are administered when you attain a certain age. These vaccines include the zoster vaccine to stop shingles, including the pneumococcal vaccine to prevent pneumonia.
6. Be Active
If you care about your health, we advise that you make inactivity one of your greatest enemies. Sitting on your comfy home office chair for 6 hours at intervals and migrating to your bed or sitting room cushion where you relax to watch movies for the rest of the day might seem like enjoyment to you. However, unknown to you, you are putting your health on the line.
Inactivity leads to diseases like diabetes, stroke, cancer (some types), and heart disease. Considering that, it makes sense to include some exercises into your daily or weekly schedule. Healthy exercises include walking, squats, lunges, etc. Taking part in these exercises often will help you control your weight, enhance your mental health and mood, and reduce your risk of some diseases.
7. Abstain from smoking
Smokers are liable to die young. Do you want to die young? If not, then you know what to do. Imagine a stick of cigarette as a lighter and your life a thread. Each time you smoke, the lighter ignites and shortens the span of the thread, which according to this illustration, is your life. So, in a nutshell, you kill yourself gradually when you smoke.
That said, if you want to live a healthy life free from diseases, quit smoking.
Conclusion
Many of us want to live a healthy life, but we aren’t willing to do what it takes to attain optimum health. Make a firm resolve today to prioritize your health at all costs. Commit yourself to a healthy diet. Be active. Go for medical screening regularly and steer clear of whatever is harmful to your health. By doing these things, and take advice from your healthcare provider you’ll live the healthy life you have always desired.
