19 February - Healthy Lifestyle Awareness Day

Your doctor is concerned about your health and says you need to make some changes in your life: Start a healthy diet, exercise a little, stop smoking, and more. You also walked away from your appointment with him with some medication to take. Perhaps you're wondering: Why can't medicine alone do the trick? Does lifestyle really make a difference?

Friday 19 February is Healthy Lifestyles Awareness Day and as part of the Government Employees Medical Scheme's (GEMS) ongoing effort to educate our members and future members on a range of healthcare topics, we would like to provide you with a few healthy lifestyle tips!

For starters, it's likely that some aspects of your lifestyle may have put you at risk for health problems such as diabetes, heart disease and a range of others. These are called risk factors. Below is a list of common risk factors:

• Smoking tobacco
• Having high blood pressure
• Being overweight
• Having unhealthy blood fat and cholesterol levels
• Having diabetes
• Being physically inactive
• Having family members who had heart disease or a heart attack early in life: under 55 for your father or brother; under 65 for your mother or sister

Some disease risk factors you can't control, such as your age or the health problems of your parents. However, some risk factors are related to your lifestyle, such as smoking, being overweight, and having an unhealthy diet. These lifestyle factors may contribute towards putting your overall health at risk.

Luckily, the opposite is true as well. Adopting a healthier lifestyle can improve your health and general wellbeing.

Choosing a healthy diet and lifestyle can even help your medications work more effectively. In some cases you might even be able to reduce or eliminate some medications.

But what exactly is a healthy lifestyle? And how do you get started in making changes toward one? Let's take a closer look at the lifestyle areas where changes can make a huge difference to your heart health:

• Smoking
• Body weight
• Diet
• Exercise
• Stress control

Smoking
Let's get right to the bad news you probably already know: Smoking hurts your heart and blood vessels - not to mention your lungs. Here's how:

• Nicotine from cigarettes tightens your blood vessels, which causes your blood pressure to rise and makes your heart work harder.
• Smoking lowers the amount of oxygen and increases the amount of poisonous carbon monoxide in your blood. Your heart ends up needing more oxygen but has less ability to get it. This increases the chances of having a heart attack.

You might think you're safe if you use low-tar or low-nicotine cigarettes. Even if you're not a smoker but breathe in smoke from those around you (second hand smoke), you're at risk.

Your only healthy solution is to quit. That may be easier said than done, but just because it's hard doesn't mean it's impossible. Most people attempt to quit several times before they are successful. If you're persistent, you will achieve success, too.

Talk to your doctor about medications that reduce your craving for nicotine. Also, you can find programmes and support groups through many organisations, your medical scheme, and maybe even at your workplace.

Within a few days of quitting, you'll benefit in these ways:

• Your blood pressure will start to go down.
• The oxygen levels in your blood will return to normal.
• The carbon monoxide levels in your blood will return to normal.

And within a year, you're likely to notice these advantages:

• Coughing will decrease
• Shortness of breath will decrease
• Your breathing will improve
• Your blood flow will improve
• Maintain a healthy weight
• By itself, being overweight is a risk factor for diabetes.  People who are overweight are also more likely to have sleep apnoea, a medical condition in which you stop breathing for short times frequently throughout sleep. Sleep apnoea puts you at risk for heart attack, stroke, high blood pressure, and congestive heart failure.

On the other hand, taking steps to get back toward your ideal weight range can reduce your risk of heart problems. Even a small weight loss of 5% to 10% of your current weight can have these heart-healthy benefits:

• Lower your blood pressure
• Lower your risk of heart attack
• Lower your LDL bad cholesterol and raise your HDL good cholesterol blood levels
• Lower your triglyceride blood levels
• Lower your risk for other serious health problems that can affect your health, such as diabetes or sleep apnoea

What is your ideal weight? Your doctor can help you determine this. Most health professionals use the BMI (body mass index) - based on the relationship between your height and weight to determine if you are overweight. A healthy BMI for most people is between 18.5 and 25.

Once you know your BMI and what it should be, it's time to work toward that goal. Weight loss is easiest to achieve and maintain when you do it slowly and gradually, losing no more than one to two kilograms per week. Your best bet is to combine these two strategies:

• Eat about 500 to 1,000 fewer calories each day. Make sure to follow a healthy diet. A great way to reduce calories is to cut back on the amount of fat you eat.
• Get more exercise, at least 30 minutes a day.

Exercise
Getting even as little as 30 minutes of moderate exercise on most days can have the following benefits:

• Help you lose weight
• Reduce heart disease complications
• Reduce your chances of stroke
• Lower your blood pressure four to nine points
• Reduce your risk for diabetes, another heart disease risk factor
• Lower your chances of developing other serious medical problems

What qualifies as "moderate" activity? Take a look at these examples:

• Brisk walking
• Dancing
• Light weightlifting
• Outdoor chores such as car washing, gardening, or raking leaves
• Indoor chores such as housecleaning

And about those 30 minutes - you can split them up into three 10-minute periods if you need to. Your goal is to reach at least 30 minutes for the day.

Before you start, check with your doctor to see if there are activities that aren't appropriate for you. Then select activities that you enjoy and that you can work into your day. You don't have to do the same thing every day. You might find that it's easier to stay motivated if you involve friends or family members in your activities.

Stress control
Dealing with stress in healthy ways can accomplish great things for your overall health and wellbeing. 

Some techniques that can help you manage stress in healthy ways include:

• Getting regular physical activity.
• Attending stress-management programmes.
• Having close relationships with people who can support you.

Talk to your doctor about ways to manage your stress.

Steps for making healthy lifestyle changes
How do you start to make the changes?

People make changes in all different ways. A few brave people see a problem, stop what they're doing, and jump right into a whole new way of living. On the other hand, many people feel so overwhelmed by a long list of what they need to do that they do nothing at all.

Your goal is to get past that feeling of being overwhelmed and begin - slowly - to make changes that will benefit your overall health. These five steps can help:

1. Assess yourself and create your overall heart-healthy plan.
2. Pick one heart healthy-lifestyle area to start with.
3. Line up your resources and supporters.
4. Start with a few small healthy changes and make them part of your routine.
5. Reward yourself and keep at it.

What might at first have seemed overwhelming can end up becoming an enjoyable, new way of living. And the benefits are well worth your effort.

Remember, your health is your responsibility.

If you would like to know how GEMS can assist you to obtain more information about your health related questions, you can phone the GEMS call centre on 0860 00 4367 or send a SMS to 083 450 4367. GEMS will assist you in every way possible to ensure your health and well-being.

Source used: http://www.webmd.com