When we give advice on how to lead a healthy life in our clinic, we know from the faces of the patients most of them know these things, but unfortunately they do not practice these in real life.
The first thing you need to have to have a healthy life is the determination or will power to follow these lifestyle tips. All of us are very busy, we are skipping our meals to attend meetings remaining awake at odd hours but we have got only one life, we need to sometime pause and enjoy the beauty of the nature, feel the warmth of the family and friends. This needs a balance among your enjoyment at work, your relaxation with family, your peace of mind and your health.
Add 14 years to your life by following four very easy principles; don’t smoke, take regular exercise, drink sensibly and eat five portions of fruit and veg a day. These simple steps can have a huge impact on your life expectancy, say scientists from Cambridge University. If you only manage one thing, give up smoking as the study found this had the biggest impact on your health.
Quit Smoking
Easy to advice but difficult for some people to leave this addiction. It can be done, as evidenced by the fact that even the most addicted person will quit when a family catastrophe occurs related to smoking
Quit Tobacco / Gutkha
Chewing any form of tobacco is injurious to health. It increases the risk of various cancers.
Quit Alcohol
Many diseases have been linked to excessive drinking like Cirrhosis, Liver cancer, Chronic Pancreatitis, Acute Pancreatitis etc.
Daily Exercise
Best way to avoid those extra kgs and to keep fit
Diet
Have fruits and vegetables daily in your diet. Avoid junk foods and fried foods as much as possible
Personal Hygiene
Keeping your body and surroundings clean can avoid lot of infectious diseases.
Stress
Keeping a balanced life will reduce the mental and physical fatigue due to stress.
Warning Symptoms
Seek medical help at the earliest if there is unexplained weight loss, low haemoglobin, changes in bowel habits, blood in stool, shortness of breath, sudden headaches, pain abdomen, yellowish eye or urine etc.
Screening
Tests done on normal individuals to detect a disease in its early stage is called screening.
- The American Association of Family Physicians (AAFP) ( March 2014)recommends screening for colorectal cancer using fecal occult blood testing, sigmoidoscopy, or colonscopy, in adults, beginning at age 50 years and continuing until age 75 years.
- The AAFP recommends screening for cervical cancer in women age 21 to 65 years with cytology (Pap smear) every 3 years or, for women age 30 to 65 years who want to lengthen the screening interval, screening with a combination of cytology and human papillomavirus (HPV) testing every 5 years).
- The AAFP recommends biennial (every two years) screening mammography for women between ages 50 and 74.
If you have a family member who has been affected by cancer you should contact your physician to know if you require any screening test.
