Although statistics are showing that we are living longer, they also show that we are living our last 12 years on average in very poor health. In fact the Office of National Statistics in the UK show that those last 12 years are potentially with a chronic disease state or in a state of disability. That really isn’t good news, but on top of that we then have the issue that those with better means tend to live longer than those who are poorer so what you also earn can matter.
With Teresa May calling for a stop in lunches for primary school children, and the increase in children using food banks over the past few years, from my perspective we are setting up a child population who are potentially going to be one of the statistics who are spending their last 12 years in poor health. But we need to take responsibility and look after our health each and every day, and we need to start this as young as we can by ensuring that are children are properly fed and understand what good health should look like so that they can emulate it.
I believe most people don’t actually know what good health looks or feels like anymore because so many people around us are either ill or their health is just average. I’m continually told that the health someone has is just part of aging, but that doesn’t have to be the case, I know that because a few years ago I was walking my dog with a lady who told me that I would feel like that when I got to her age. I asked her how old she was and she was 3 years younger than me, I ran off like a mad teenager. Recently as you know I spent a morning dancing in a tiger suit, when I took it off a guy who had been watching said, I thought you would be younger, now I could take that in 2 ways, but from all the energy I was showing he thought I was going to be not the age I obviously look LOL.
Firstly we need to reduce some of the risk factors that help to create ill health or reduce our health to mediocre:
Smoking, the wording on the packet says it all! It kills…..mind you not that its stopping people from buying them, there is a lot to be said for reverse psychology that drives people to continue to do something despite how bad they know it can be. I still see children walking to and from schools and smoking sadly.
Managing your blood pressure, this from my perspective is driven by stress, drinking too caffeine, not having enough fruit and vegetables in your diet, not being hydrated, too much salt from processed foods to mention a few things that can change it.
Being overweight, the higher the BMI the higher the likelihood of chronic health issues the research shows, but it’s important to me that you are happy! Natural foods tend to allow the body to come into its own natural balance, but we are surrounded by a lot of temptation which has other ideas in mind, that is designed to be eaten, and eaten! Choose natural and make your own from scratch then you can control what you are putting into your body.
Sitting is the new smoking, we are seated for longer than ever, our children spend hours sat in classrooms, and in front of screens. As adults we are not much better, statistics are frightening, but nothing it better than looking at your own, get a Fitbit or equivalent and start to monitor your activity or lack of it. If that doesn’t get you moving, find a friend who will help you, or someone to compete against, mine is Lily she’s running rings around me, but when I see her stats on the Fitbit it tends to get me up and out.
Manage your blood sugar, blood sugar implicates so many areas of health, we only tend to do something about it when we have a diagnosis of diabetes. But blood sugar is impacted by stress, hydration levels, diet, not eating all day, smoking, and it not only changes our weight but it affects our mental health as well as the physical.
High cholesterol is a risk, but statins are not the answer, look at your lifestyle, your alcohol intake, caffeine, stress levels, processed foods, sugar intake, and change your diet and lifestyle because cholesterol is a response to something happening in the body and you are able to change that response and bring it naturally under your control.
Alcohol usage is much higher than when I was younger, and the drink each evening that most people are having is sending up their weight, blood sugar, and affecting sleeping patterns. Let’s not even go into binge drinking!
Drugs, just say no! Funnily enough, I experience more happiness now without drinking and drugs than I ever did with them and a lot of my friends who live a natural clean life say the same.
We have a lot of our health that we can take responsibility for and make changes with, mostly we think our health is out of our hands but it really isn’t. Small changes can make a big difference.
