Keeping your body healthy will save you from many health ailments. Many sources edify effective steps to stay healthy to boost your body’s metabolism, be sound and safe, and maximize productivity. This post includes necessary steps to stay healthy and alert during childhood, adolescence, and adulthood.
“a stitch in time saves nine.”
You have heard about this “proverb.” This famous idiom was first referred to as a hole in the cloth. This hole would undoubtedly get bigger if not fixed in time. It was recorded in a book way back in 1723. It was referred mainly to fix a small rip with an early stitch to save further efforts, but eventually, this phrase emerged accurate and helpful in many ways. The phrase remains true for our health also. To know more about it, let us see what health means.
“Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”
If any breach occurs in the physical, social, and mental well-being of a person, it may lead to long-term illness and morbidity with no timely efforts to correct them.
How Is Prevention Better?
Every inch gained at the waistline brings you closer to an entity known as “Metabolic Syndrome,” which includes an increase in cholesterol levels, insulin resistance, eventually leading to Diabetes Mellitus coupled with increased risk of Atherosclerotic Heart Disease. Timely efforts to maintain body weight ideal for your height and age can prevent these ill effects. It must be a family practice to stay healthy by eating nutritious food and following healthy habits from childhood.
Common Ailments In Childhood And Prevention
1. Tooth Caries
A common problem starts with bacterial overgrowth over the gums and teeth. The substrate provided is the sticky sugar-containing substances, for example, candies, chips, chocolates, juices, instant noodles, etc. Instead, we can opt for roasted nuts, cut fruits, dates bar, whole wheat vermicelli. Most importantly, cleaning teeth frequently is going to save us from this misery.
2. Pica And Worm Infestation
In early childhood, kids try to eat non-edible things like soil or chalk, making it easy for germs to get in. It majorly happens due to iron and calcium deficiency. A timely effort like in-time weaning and plenty of green leafy vegetables, fruits, milk, and eggs in their diet reduces craving. Adopting these simple steps can prevent various health issues in kids.
The transitional period between childhood and adulthood is adolescent age. Adolescence age provides an opportunity to prepare the body for a healthy and productive life. Simultaneously, the seeds of many adulthood illnesses are sowed in this age if unhealthy habits are not discouraged in time.
Health Deviations During Adolescence
1. Lack Of Iron-rich Diet
In this age group, girls get menarche and face menstrual discomfort with symptoms like headache, malaise, weakness, giddiness, and nausea. Adopting an iron-rich diet like beans, dark green leafy vegetables, dry fruits (like dates), resins, apricot, peas, red meat, and poultry help alleviate it. Diet rich in iron helps preserve general energy, focus, immune system, and body temperature regulation.
2. Lack Of Protein And Amino Acid In The Diet
Besides producing general sluggishness, the protein-deficient state can lead to lack of concentration and inappropriate muscle development, which eventually can lag in academic performance in this sensitive age. Include protein-rich foods in your diet to stay healthy. Few protein-rich foods are milk, cottage cheese, beans, pulses, chicken, eggs, and fish.
Moving Towards Adulthood
It is the period which decides how smooth our old age will go. If we take good care of our body by eating right and doing regular exercise, it will help us. Due to busy life, improper diet, and lack of exercise, one can easily get diseases. Few changes in our day-to-day life can prevent cardiovascular diseases.
1. Dietary Changes
Reduce consumption of salt, red meat, processed food, fatty food, and bakery items. Consume more plant-based food like oatmeal, legumes, fruits and spinach, kale, collard green, walnuts, whole grains, and fatty fish. You can start following a plant-based diet too.
2. Exercise
Without exercise, the body may not be fit. Daily exercising helps keep your body healthy by tackling health issues like excess weight gain. If the extra fat gain isn’t controlled, it will lead to obesity, a serious health problem. 30 mins of moderate-intensity exercise five times a week is enough to keep your body free from these issues.
3. Sleep Regularly
Sleep and health go hand in hand. Sleep is essential for it promotes mental health. Having a proper sleep prevents depression, anxiety, and stress that causes physical problems. Sleep issues are easy to deal with if your body has the proper amount of sleep every day. 7 to 8 hours of sleep per night regularly is recommended to everyone. Also, avoid oversleeping as it also has ill effects on the body.
4. Quit Smoking
Smoking is a dangerous, unhealthy habit, which leads to cancer. Cigarettes have carcinogenic ingredients that weaken your body’s immunity, making it prone to cancerous cells. Therefore, replace this habit with healthy habits to stay healthy.
In Elderly
Most of the time, abdominal hernias occur in older people, primarily because of increased abdominal pressure, mainly due to straining at urine or during defecation, for many years. Tackling at the onset of primary symptoms could save many abdominal surgeries. It is not just about expenses, but all of us deserve healthy and graceful aging.
Infirmity does not appear in a day; it gives us prior intimation before the full-blown disease. It is up to us whether to pick up those signals in time and prevent further damage. As it is said rightly, a stitch in time is going to save nine.
