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How can we as individuals become more healthy?
How can we as individuals become more healthy?
The three basics are
food, sleep and exercise, though the balance depends on age. Metabolism slows with age; so we become less active. You wish to keep your health and even improve it. Take food. The temptation is to overeat. Stop when you stop feeling hungry. When this is socially difficult go without the next meal. What to eat? Try to avoid “convenience” foods; keep the intake of carbohydrates, fats and sugar low protein builds the body without thickening the waistline. All this of course assumes that a balanced and varied diet is available. And don’t forget ladies, that you also need food. Too much slimming can destroy appetite and lead to the downward spiral of starvation; anorexia. Sleep is even more crucial than food. A medium to hard bed and circulating fresh air make the deepest sleep. Most experts advise going to bed reasonably early, say not much after 11p.m. a reasonable amount of exercise is essential to everybody. Exercise keeps the body in tune and sets up the kind of strength and stamina which pays dividends I later life in health. It is a mistake to give up activity when we exchange studentship for employment. All too quickly the body runs to fat. Any normally healthy person sticking to the above regime will get healthier and stay that way. Yet there are three final points.
The first is to try to learn to kill needless anxiety, to adopt a positive approach to life. Nobody can predict the future, so ‘day to day’ living with an overall plan is required. Worry and depression, i.e. prychological weakness, can be detrimental to healthy.
The second is to practice normal hygiene. Cleanliness, especially in food preparation, is essential. Yet nobody can create a totally sterile environment. Most of us have more built in resistance disease, however than we can imagine. Thirdly, smoking and alcohol. If you have never started, don’t. However, and despite the pressure lobbies, moderation in both has never been finally proved harmful. Field Marshal Montgomery once boasted to Sir Winston Churchill, “I never smoke nor drink, I am 100 % fit.” Churchill replied, “ I do bath and I am 200% fit.”
Published: February 12, 2008
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