Living A Healthy Lifestyle

Most of us spend the maximum amount of our waking hours at our workplace, whether it is in an office or in a factory or in the open in a field. We take a great deal of care about making our homes a healthy place to live, but do not make enough changes in our working style or in our workplace to improve our health.

Let us have a look at some of the changes which we as individuals can bring in order to improve our health, and maybe also help the people around us.

If you are in a sedentary job, get up and move around often. Adopt a good posture, sit with your feet flat on the floor and do not slouch.

Do not become a coffee addict. Restrict the number of cups to just one a day.

Eat healthy – do not rely on snacks and cafeteria food. Try to take food from home, or eat light food from the cafeteria.

If you feel you are getting stressed over some problem, get up and walk around. It will help to clear your head and for a few minutes take you away from the area of stress.

Give yourself a few minutes every couple of hours, when you can just sit back and think of nothing connected with work. It will help clear the cobwebs and will relax your body.

Declutter your workplace. Organize your table or your work area, at least it will look clean and it will not make you feel like there is too much that needs to be done.

Do you lead a healthy life? Do you follow all the systems and processes which make our existence a healthy one? Or are you like most of us, follow the rules for a few days and then go back to our normal fairly unhealthy life systems.

If you look around you, you will notice that some people not only look healthy, but they also seem to have much more energy than any of the other people in their age group. These are the people who have made living healthy into a habit, not just an occasional process.

There are some habits which if we follow regularly can be of great assistance in our daily routines. These may not seem to be of much use initially, but as time goes on, they help in maintaining a healthy body and mind.

Exercise regularly: We have heard this so often that we tend to ignore it as an old wives tale. But it is by far the most important part of your routine. Either go for a walk or just do some exercises in your home. Make it into a daily routine, and an indispensable part of your morning. Soon you will find that the day you do not exercise you miss it and yearn to find those few free minutes to do at least some of the exercises.

Drink a lot of water: Water, not cold drinks or tea or coffee. Water is the best way to detoxify your digestive systems. It flushes out all the toxins from your system and helps your body move better.

Find time to sit back and relax. Keep some times aside every day for yourself, read a book, watch TV or just listen to music. Do not answer the phone, just sit with a loved one and relax.

Just a few simple steps, but if you make them into a habit, you will reap great rewards.

Stress has become so much a part of our modern day existence that we are beginning to accept it as part of our daily bread. Often we do not realize how much this stress is impacting our lives, and how it influences our reactions, and our metabolism.

It is important to destress ourselves regularly.  It takes a little bit of effort to do so, but it really is time well spent. De-stress systems help to detoxify your body and to calm you down, and make the world seem like a much better place to live in.

Here are some ways of de-stressing yourself:

Take a short nap: It really does work. Your body slows down and all the agitation seems to have vanished when you wake up.

Listen to music: Soft and sensual music, romantic melodies and even pure classical music, listen to any or all of these, in peace and quiet. Let the music be the only sound you hear, and soon you will find yourself more relaxed.

Meditation: This is much simpler than it sounds. Go into a quiet corner of the house, sit on the floor and close your eyes. Let your thoughts wander, in a little while try to stop thinking of anything.  Listen to your own mind. It really is the best way to distress yourself.

Exercise: Go for a long brisk walk, go to the gym, do some yogic asanas in your home, just expend some energy on your body. It will make you healthier and also clear your mind.

Learn to say No: Do not do anything that is beyond your capacity. Set your limits and stick to them. It is important not to take on more than your body can accept.

There are many more ways to distress yourself, find the best method for yourself. Follow it everyday and you will be a much happier person.

Sleep is such an important part of our lives that we spend approximately 1/3rd of our lives sleeping. It is an integral part of our existence, and it is only when we are unable to sleep well, or do not get enough time to sleep, that we realize how much of our well-being depends on it.

Sleep deprivation has been tabulated as being the cause of many accidents. If you are deprived of sleep, you will be tired and drowsy, your reactions will have slowed down and you will be highly stressed out. This will lead to an inability to cope with daily stresses and strains and to an overall feeling of tiredness.

In order to avoid situations like these it is important that you monitor the amount of sleep you are getting. On an average most of us get about 6.5 hours of sleep every day. The recommended amount is 8 to 8.5 hours for an adult.

For your general well being and in order to lead a healthy life, it is essential that you regulate your sleep hours. The body is a slave to routine; it likes to wake up at a certain hour and go to sleep at a certain time. For the sake of your body, it is important that you try and adhere to a consistent timing; do not think that if you miss some sleep today you can make up for it later. That is not likely to happen.

Once you settle into some kind of regulated sleep routines, you will realise how much better you feel, and how you will wake up feeling refreshed and ready to face the world.

When was the last time you visited a medical practitioner, when you did not need to? Most of us go only under duress, when we feel that we will not be able to get any better if we do not get any professional advice.

Nowadays, however, the importance of an annual health check-up has become common knowledge. Almost all corporates have made it mandatory for their employees to undergo one, and in the process it is hoped that even the families will undergo a check-up.

The most important motivation for having regular check ups is to be able to keep a watch on the hidden mechanisms of our body. Many diseases do not have an outward manifestation in the form of pain or fever. Breast cancer is first seen in the form of a very small lump. Uterine cancer is found only by a Pap test.

Regular checkups are also needed in order to keep our blood pressure and blood sugar under control, specially if we are young.

The checkups also help you to keep track of your body parameters and a watch on your vital signs

The basic tests done during a health check :

Medical History: The doctor will ask you questions about your previous history, so that he has some idea of your present health.

Physical Test: These include things like a pap smear, mammography, a treadmill test, and cardio tests.

Lab tests: These include comprehensive blood tests and urine and stool tests. The tests being conducted differ for each age group, ranging from tests for prostrate cancer and bone densitometry for Osteoporosis.

Do not delay it, go and get one done as soon as possible. It will be time and money well spent.

There are many people in this world who believe that they never fall sick. After all, they are such healthy specimens, life has been kind to them and they have never felt the need to visit a doctor or to go and buy a medicine.

This seems like a feasible scenario, but only if it is the truth. Are they really that healthy, or are they just living in a world of illusions? Are they ignoring niggling problems in the hope that they will just go away? Or are they really a picture of health?

If you are really healthy, and honestly, never fall sick, congratulations. You are truly blessed.

But if you are just fooling yourself, that approach is not good for you. The situation can be reversed any day.

Let us have a quick look at how you can harm yourself by having the wrong attitude:

Minor illnesses such as a bad stomach or a headache are good for you – they make you step back from a hectic lifestyle and take a few hours of rest.

If you feel you are immune to catching infectious diseases, you will not take the precaution of avoiding places where these are likely to be in abundance.

Prevention is always better than cure. Do take the precautions needed to avoid illness. Take vitamins supplements, your body needs them as investment for the future. You may feel you do not need them now, but they just help to build up the reserves in your system.

Basically, it all leads up to the fact that an easy going attitude and a belief in your infallibility is the wrong approach to life. Good health is a boon, but do not take it for granted.

The general public often confuses both these disease as being the same, they are similar but they affect the body in different ways. Spondylosis is caused by the degenerative arthritis of the joints between the centra of the spinal vertebrae. Spondilitis is an inflammation of the vertebra.

Both of these problems can cause severe discomfort and can make movement of the body a painful process. They can often cause major changes in the mobility and flexibility of the patients, thereby leading to a sedentary lifestyle.

However, you can make a few changes in your lifestyle to adjust to this situation and thereby make things easier for yourself, and thus lead a relatively healthier life.

• Use a firm mattress and pillow; this will help to alleviate your pain while you are sleeping.
• Do regular exercises, under the supervision of your doctor or physical therapist.
• If you have cervical spondylitis, use a seat belt in the car, and a cervical collar while travelling.
• Do not lift heavy weights.
• Do not sit or lie still for long periods.
• Control your weight. Excess weight aggravates the situation to great extent.
• Place a small cushion behind your back when you are travelling in a car. This helps to maintain a good posture.
• Try physiotherapy to help relieve the pain and the stiffness. It is one of the most effective means of curing spondilitis.

A hot shower in the morning has been known to alleviate the pain to some degree.

All of us believe that we lead very healthy lives, after all we eat well, we occasionally exercise and we feel healthy. However, most of us do not realise that some of these so called healthy living practices that we follow are actually not contributing to our body’s well being and are just part of the global folklore.

1. Vitamins will increase your strength and endurance: Most vitamins just get washed away in the urine before the body can assimilate them. They only work as supplements, and cannot replace the nutrition provided by food.
2. Skipping breakfast is the best way to lose weight :  It is not. A good healthy breakfast will prevent you from snacking later and will give you the energy you need to start the day well.
3. All fat is bad for you: Your body needs fat is some form, so if you cut it out, it will leave no reserves in your body. What is important is to concentrate on the type of fat you eat.
4. Some foods are all bad : This is not true. All foods are not inherently bad, it is how your body adapts to them that is important. Some foods may be good for you, some may not suit you at all. Though it can be said that some foods like processed foods might actually be bad.
5. If you are exercising regularly, you will never be sick: The body had various reasons to fall sick, exercise only helps to keep you healthy and less likely to get minor illnesses
6. Chocolates are bad for you : Not necessarily, they are bad if you eat them in large quantities. A small amount will give you an energy boost.
7. I do not need too much sleep : You may not, but your body does need the sleep. It needs rest.
8. Health check-ups are only needed for the older generation : Wrong, all of us need it no matter how young we are.
9. Fruits and vegetables are only needed for the vegetarians : Once again you have to remember that your body needs all types of food. Do not avoid any.
10. I can cope with the stress, I am healthy : No one can cope with the stress for long periods. It will take its toll somewhere.

A life without parties and without a gathering of friends to drink, eat and be merry?

How can anyone live like that?

Let us enjoy ourselves, but let us all remember some golden rules while doing so.

Drink in moderation:

An age-old moral code, but we tend to forget this when we are out with friends. Excess alcohol can harm you in many ways, and leads to more accidents than anything else.

Watch out – here comes temptation in the form of desserts:

Desserts add more to your girth than any other food. They also raise your sugar levels, cause indigestion and can lead to the all familiar heavy feeling. Eat very small quantities of the desserts, if you must. Cut down on something else if you are planning to eat the dessert.

Keep a watch on the quantity of food you consume:

If you follow one golden rule, you will be much better off. Do not take a second helping! How much can you fill in one plate? Just eat that much and learn not to take a second helping. There are few better ways to control the quantity of food eaten.

Avoid fried foods:

They are the killers, they look good, they taste good and we never know when to stop. So just avoid them, you will do yourself a favour.
Enjoy yourself when you go to a party, but take a little bit of care,  and you will remain healthy and happy.

Just a “slight” pain? Take care – it may be the harbinger of a bigger problem

A slight pain in the leg? A minor ache in the chest? A mild headache?

We have all had these niggling aches and pains and most of the time we have taken an over the counter painkiller and forgotten about them. Often we rely upon a Tylenol or an Ibuprofen for a day or so and hope that the pain will go away.

Usually the pain does go away, sometimes it comes back a few days later and once again we pop in a few more pills and forget about it. We also forget the fact that a few days earlier we had had the same pain and we had taken the same pills.

A light pain which recurs should never be ignored. It could be symptomatic of some problems in the body and the pain may just be an outer manifestation of it. There are many instances of where a recurring pain was the first sign of greater problem.

Pain is a guide, it should neither be suppressed with drugs, nor should it be ignored.

Abdominal pain could be the sign of a digestive problem, or even of a pulled muscle.

A recurring headache could be a migraine problem, or the symptom of a problem with the nerves of the brain.

Pain in the legs could be a sign of arthritis or of sciatica or of swollen blood vessels.

Do not think that every pain is the sign of a major illness; just do not ignore a recurring mild pain.