1 Move to Japan
With the
highest healthy life expectancy in the world, as well as the longest lives for
women (men in Andorra just pip their Japanese counterparts to first place),
Japan is clearly the place to buy a 1LDK (one room apartment with a living,
dining and kitchen area). Space may be limited but a healthy life is not. On
average, Japanese women can expect 75.5 years of good health while men enjoy
70.6 years. In the UK, we get 70.1 years and 67.1 years respectively. It is not
just about sushi and rice, according to Professor Kenji Shibuya and colleagues
at the University of Tokyo, writing in the Lancet in 2011. "Japanese
people give attention to hygiene in all aspects of their daily life," they
said. "This attitude might partly be attributable to a complex interaction
of culture, education, climate [eg humidity, temperature], environment [eg
having plenty of water and being a rice-eating nation] and the old Shinto
tradition of purifying the body and mind before meeting others." (Not
something we can replicate with a little bottle of hand sanitiser on the desk.)
They have regular health checks.
We weren't
designed to sit around – so get running.
2 Get your
blood pressure checked
Like
checking the pressure of the tyres on your car, this is a very good idea. Some
people have high blood pressure in the family. Others eat too much salt, don't
take enough exercise, are overweight, stressed, smoke or drink too much. Most
of this you can do something about, but for those who don't, a trip to the GP,
who will prescribe pills, may prevent a heart attack or stroke. High blood
pressure is the No 1 risk factor for early deaths and years of poor health in
Europe. But if you have low blood pressure and none of the above risk factors,
just a routine check on any visit to the GP for other matters is enough.
3 Eat seeds
– not junk
Curiously,
the Global Burden of Disease lists not only eating too little fruit
(sixth-highest risk factor for early disease and death) but too few nuts and
seeds (not far behind, at eighth). Too few vegetables are 12th, and low omega-3
(in oily fish, not tablet form), high processed meat and low fibre follow in
that order. Too much trans fat is 19th, low calcium is 22nd and low milk
consumption 23rd. So, yes, diet matters a lot and not just because eating too
much makes you fat – high BMI or body mass index has a separate ranking as the
fourth highest risk factor, causing heart disease, strokes, diabetes and
cancers. But on a diet of nuts and seeds it is also pretty difficult to get
overweight.
4 Drink in
moderation
One or two
units a day may help reduce heart disease, but most people drink a lot more and
it is doing us an increasing amount of damage. Alcohol can cause cirrhosis,
which is now the 12th-highest cause of death and ill health in western Europe,
fatty liver disease and liver cancer. It is also implicated in other cancers –
mouth, throat and breast. And then there are all the accidents and fights in
which people get hurt or killed.
5 Get your
running shoes on
We were not
designed to sit around and it's not good for us. The chief medical officer
(CMO) says there are both mental and physical benefits to exercise. It reduces
the risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes, but it also improves our self
esteem and reduces the symptoms of depression and anxiety. Exactly how much
exercise we need is a trickier question. The CMO says adults should be active
every day. Over a week, we should be "moderately active" for a total
of at least two and a half hours, which means brisk walking and cycling at a
pace that warms you up and makes you breathe harder but still allows you to
chat. Thirty minutes for five days of the week would do it. Or you can get
really physical and take 75 minutes (total) of "vigorous activity" in
the week, such as running, swimming or playing football. But we should all be
either using weights or carrying heavy shopping bags to improve our muscle
strength on at least two days a week as well. Got that?
Only half
of long-term smokers see age 70.
6 Don't
smoke
Predictable
but true. Smoking is likely to shorten your life and worse, make you suffer
before you die. It is responsible for the miserable last years of most people
with lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, as well as
triggering one in six cases of heart disease – the biggest killer in the UK.
Only half of long-term smokers live past 70.
7 Stay out
of hospital
Hospitals
are dangerous places. There is always a risk of catching something when you are
there, even though the superbug MRSA and C Difficile rates have come down and
are not so much discussed at the moment. Falls in hospitals are also not
uncommon, because patients can be both unsteady on their feet and uncertain of
where they need to go. Good hospitals try to ship out elderly people as quickly
as possible. Keeping fit and healthy – see smoking, drinking, diet and exercise
above – will keep most of us off the wards for longer.
8 Don't get
stressed
We do
anxiety far too well in the UK. We were 15th worst out of 19 countries in the
Global Burden of Disease tables for years lost to its disabling effects. One
option would be to move to Spain, which scored highest in Europe for long and
healthy lives (70.9 years compared to 68.6 in the UK) and also had the least
anxiety. Remarkable, when you consider their economic woes and the numbers of
people now out of work. Their lives appear to be healthier than ours in a
number of ways – their rates of ischaemic heart disease (where the blood supply
to the heart is reduced because of furred up arteries) are much lower and they
score better on asthma, breast cancer, alcohol misuse and self-harm. Could it
be something to do with sunshine or is it olive oil, tomatoes and fish? Perhaps
both. Alternative ways to reduce stress and anxiety include exercise (see
above), time to yourself and, says the NHS Choices patient website, talking to
the boss about changing your working hours. Oh – and developing a sense
of humour.
9 Take the train
Road
injuries were the 12th-highest cause of years of life lost in the UK in 2010,
but if you take just adults aged 20 to 54, they were fifth – after heart
disease, self-harm, cirrhosis and breast cancer, and just above drug use.
According to the independent Oxford healthcare journal Bandolier, which used
2006-7 data from sources including the World Health Organisation and the
Department for Transport, the lifetime risk of dying before the age of 75 are
one in 976 in a car, one in 54,433 on a plane and one in 131,313 in a train.
Δεν υπάρχουν σχόλια:
Δημοσίευση σχολίου