How Much We About Health

Recently we found that few people knew they should reduce the amount of fat in their diet or that they could reduce their risk by doing exercise or learning to manage stress better. Although most had had their blood pressure tested, less than half had ever had their cholesterol levels measured and only 5 per cent knew they had high cholesterol levels. Since other surveys suggest that 20 per cent of Australians have high cholesterol levels, the researchers concluded that three out of four people with high cholesterol did not even know it.

Having accurate knowledge about your health and what influences it will help you to set the right health goals for yourself, to know what to do to achieve them and to motivate yourself to keep them.

Healthy lifestyle is not about preventing death, because no one can do that. Although the average life span has tripled, since Roman times, the maximum life span has not increase much, if at all. Some researchers in ageing speculate that in the future it may be possible to extend the maximum life span. But the research focus today is on how to reduce age-related disease and decline, so that more people achieve their maximum life span, and enjoy doing so because of' their good health. That is, healthy lifestyling is about preventing premature, unnecessary death, with the bonuses of also preventing other, non-fatal illnesses and enhancing our participation in enjoyment of life. Let us emphasize that point again: healthy lifestyling is about enjoying life to the maximum.

Heart disease and cancer are still our number one killer.  According to research, $0 percent of cancer in men is caused by our eating and drinking habit. A third of all cancers are related to smoking, and another third are related to obesity, poor diets and lack of exercise - all factors that also contribute to heart disease. Heart disease is very much a lifestyle illness and, as such, a postponable cause of death. To varying extents, all of our major causes of death today can be postponed by moderate changes in our lifestyles.

Healthy lifestyling is not only about living longer by avoiding premature death. It is also about enjoying your life more. Leading a healthy lifestyle is just not about going without all of the enjoyable things in life, while forcing yourself to eat dry lettuce leaves and suffer endless exercise, because few of us would be dedicated or silly enough to do that. A sensible healthy lifestyle is enjoyable in itself, places no unreasonable demands or restrictions on you, and increases your ability to enjoy life. Have you ever imagined how an obese person feels in summer, wearing a 10 or 20 kilogram overcoat of fat that he can't take off? Have you ever listened to a smoker coughing up half her lungs in the morning? Have you ever watched a hung-over person, a delicate shade of grey, twitch as the family cat stamps down the hall? Have you ever found yourself too short of wind to play with your kids or friends? Who is really enjoying life?

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