World Health Day- April 7th
April 7th every year is celebrated as the World Health Day, an occasion to draw attention to the subject of global health trends, practices and services, and discussing advances in research. On this day, SuVitas takes the opportunity to wish all our readers, a lifetime of health and wellness.
India as a country, for centuries took pride in its nutritious traditional foods, fitness regimes that trickled into everyday living, and folk-tales of people who lived a hundred healthy years. However, as modernization got the better of this farming-based economy, the culture of health transformed drastically too. Today on one hand, people have better resources and skilled professional help; while on the other, lack time and more importantly, motivation to adopt fitness on a daily basis. Fitness, today, has become an ‘activity’.
This change seems more evident in the last couple decades with the socio-economic landscape shifting from laborious agricultural work to laid-back, immobile corporate work Jobs today impose long hours of sitting down, improper work-hours, mental stress and tiredness, resulting directly in health taking a setback. Further, other groups of individuals including middle-aged professionals, housewives, shift-workers and children, fell into the high-risk bracket too, owing to changing food habits, inactivity and high stress.
Specifically, non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, chronic respiratory diseases and cancer are becoming excessively common, creating a medical chaos. What is more disturbing is the fact that the disease profile is rapidly changing and continuing to affect people differently, every day. Yet, as a community, we fail to address this rising need for a course-correction of our high-risk lifestyles. At a much personal level, we observe that fitness resolutions made on the first day of the year, are conveniently forgotten a week later; reincarnating as guilt and frustration. We opine that the root-cause is the fact that, we categorize fitness as an activity.
At SuVitas, we believe that fitness is a habit. We trust that there is every need to promote a healthy way of life amongst our communities, and this can only be done by encouraging small steps in the right direction – one at a time. So, here we bring you a quick list of five simple considerations, thoroughly simplified that are guaranteed to make your life a hearty and healthy one.
1. Stay Hydrated: You could choose to make those rounds to the water-cooler every hour, or carry a funky water-bottle – it is completely your choice, as long as you supply your daily requirement of water to your body. This not only keeps you hydrated, but also helps cleanse your body of toxins and improves the effects of exercise and healthy diets.
2. Eat right: You are what you eat. And no one really enjoys being highly processed, fat-filled, artificially flavoured and coloured junk food. Avoid consumption of tobacco and excessive drinking. Rather, increase intake of fresh fruits, vegetables, cereals, pulses, low-fat meat, eggs and milk. These will nourish you with quality proteins, vitamins and minerals, and help build stamina and immunity.
3. Get ‘physically’ active: Did you know that physical inactivity is one of the top four reasons contributing to risk-factors for illnesses such as diabetes, chronic lung problems and cardio-vascular diseases? Beat the risk; go for a walk. Take the stairs instead of the elevator, park as far away from your office building as possible to take those few extra steps of walk. This will improve your sleep, and ensure that you are fresh the next morning.
4. Reduce mental stress: Leave work at office. Revive your childhood hobbies – paint, sing, dance and play. Take up yoga or a cookery class. Laugh a lot. Get a pet. Get your mind off mundane tasks that tire you out, and find time to enjoy life. It has been proven that the happier you are, the more likely you are to stay fit and disease-free and reducing stress is the first step.
5. Breathe deeply: This is possibly the simplest and yet, the most important habit for one to stay healthy. A large number of ailments occur as a result of us not taking in enough oxygen for our body. So relax, calm down, focus on the air entering and exiting your nostrils and breathe well. Let your body get enough oxygen, and see for yourself how miraculously fit you will feel.
These five tasks could be your mantra to a healthier and happier life. We would really want each one of our readers to try them out and share your success stories with us. Do you know of any other life-hacks for better health that are also lifestyle changes? Do leave your suggestions in the comments below.