Health – something I didn’t think of much in my twenties, began noticing its effect on the quality of life in my thirties, started pursuing in a haphazard way in my forties, and now in my fifties, I know it’s either do or die.
Studies show that in the recent years lifespan is increasing steadily, bringing with it a slew of chronic illnesses. There have been great innovations in medicine which can help with these conditions. The medicines and the procedures help manage the chronic conditions, but they don’t completely treat them. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, chronic disease is defined as a condition lasting a year or more, requiring ongoing medical care or limiting activities of daily living or both.
The honor of the top chronic conditions goes to:
Heart disease, Cancer, Stroke, Alzheimers, Diabetes, Arthritis, Chronic lung disease, Chronic kidney disease.
And all these conditions have preventable and non-preventable risk factors. Non-preventable ones are age, ethnicity, gender and family history. I cannot do anything about those so will not even go there.
Instead I am going to focus on the preventable causes of chronic disease, after all how many times did I hear/read/say/repeat Prevention is better than Cure. The first recommendation made by a doctor for any condition is to do 3-6 months of lifestyle changes including diet and exercise before trying medications.
So that is the focus of this project.
Good Health is dependent on a balance between the big four- Diet, Sleep/Rest, Exercise/Movement and Mental health/Stress Management. I am going to go through the simplest ways to get better in these areas – get the ‘low hanging fruit’ , keep it simple and then move onto the finer, more specific points of healthcare.
Being healthy is basically having a slew of healthy habits – a series of small actions one does habitually during the day , without putting much thought into them, and over time these actions bring great rewards in the form of a healthy happy life.
So my plan is to take one aspect of the big four and take small steps to improve my overall health. Let’s see how long I can sustain this, because someone once did say, “If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans”
Ciao!!
