How can we as individuals become more healthy?
The three basics are food, sleep and exercise, though the balance depends on age. As we get older we tend to need less of all three. Metabolism slows with age, so we feel less hungry; with age we become less active and therefore need less sleep However, all three basics are required at any age if we are to remain relatively young and healthy throughout our allotted span.
For the purpose of this essay, let us assume that you are a young man or woman of about eighteen years. You have an interest in sport as well as in academic work, preparatory to employment. You look forward to a long, active trouble-free, healthy life. No doubt you have been inoculated against the common killers such as typhoid, tetanus, diphteria etc. Let us also assume that you have been born with healthy genes and have both a normal resistance to disease and a good recovery rate. You were not born with any physical defects or handicaps which require special medical treatment. You have an average to good health record. You wish to keep your health, even improve it.
Take food. The temptation is to overeat. Stop when you stop feeling hungry. When this is socially difficult go without the next meal. What to eat ? Try to avoid ‘convenience’ foods; keep the intake of carbohydrates, fats and sugar low. Protein builds the body without thickening the waistline. All this of course assumes that a balanced and varied diet is available. Nobody could lecture the Ethiopian or the refugee or the very poor on this subject. When to eat ? Three meals a day should be enough for a young man; one too many for an old man. Eating sweets, chocolates, ice creams, cakes etc between meals can undo all your good intentions. fresh vegetables, not over-cooked, are excellent. If you can obtain fresh food in variety, good. Eat according to the rules, and forget food ! And don’t forget, ladies, that you also need food. Too much slimming can destroy appetite and lead to the downward spiral of starvation; anorexia.
Sleep is even more crucial than food. Eight hours per night for the young person, six to seven for the elderly. A medium to hard bed and circulating fresh air make for the deepest sleep. Most experts advise going to bed reasonably early, say not much after 11 p.m. The late-night film or disco should be the exception.
A reasonable amount of exercise is essential to everybody. Most young people play sport, often team games, football, basketball etc and this, plus walking, running and cycling keeps the body in tune and sets up the kind of strength and stamina which pays dividends in later life in health. It is a mistake to give up activity when we exchange studentship for employment. All too quickly the body runs to fat. Some sedentary workers are out of breath after climbing one flight of stairs. Strenuous exercise in youth, phased down to walking, golf and swimming in later years, goes a long way to prevent heart and respiratory problems.
Any normally healthy person, sticking to the above regime, will get healthier and stay that way. Yet there are three final points.
The first is to try to learn to kill needless anxiety, and to adopt a positive approach to life. Nobody can predict the future, so ‘day by day’ living, albeit with an overall plan, is required. Worry and depression, i.e. psychological weakness, can be very detrimental to health.
The second is to practice normal hygiene. Cleanliness, especially in food preparation, is essential. Yet nobody can create a totally sterile environment. Most of us have more built-in resistance to disease, however, than we imagine.
Thirdly, smoking and alcohol. If you have never started, don’t. However, and despite the pressure lobbies, moderation in both has never been finally proved harmful. Field Marshal Montgomery once boasted to Sir Winston Churchhill, ‘I neither smoke nor drink, and I am 100% fit’. Churchill replied, ‘I do both, and I am 200% fit.’
Churchill outlived Monty by many years.
