Living a Healthy Life

Introduction

In today’s world, many of us are not caring about our body health. Everyone wishes to have a happy and peaceful life and we always plan for more and more properties to be owned in the forms of lands, buildings, jewellery, bank balance, vehicles, etc.  In this process, we are totally engaged with various tasks that are related to our profession, our family, our relatives, our friends and society. We hardly find time to listen to our physique unless otherwise, it endangers us to visit a physician. Majority of us have not realized that our body is the only wealth that is going to last with us in all the situations, whatever it may be, till our last day of life in this world. We can see many people saying that they have skipped or have taken their food in a hurry to run behind some important task(s) and had failed to understand that the thing we are neglecting is the one which is essential to run behind several tasks with more energy and complete the same in less time. That too as a student every one of us has definitely experienced this kind of excuses in one situation or the other. Still, the students believe that preparing the subjects for the whole night without sleep will make them earn more marks in the examination. But the reality is our body metabolism gets affected with this and our brain cannot actively support in relating our understandings and reduce the coordination between our brain and the hands that results in making errors while writing the answer. There is an old saying which goes like this “You can’t do your paintings without the wall” meaning, what so ever skills an artist possesses can be brought out or made known to the world only if he or she is provided with the necessary support.  Here the wall is representing one’s health and the paintings refer to all those things the person wants to attain in the lifetime.

Maintaining good health from childhood is very important. One should be very conscious about his/her health every day. It was not uncommon to see the slogan near battery storage of heavy vehicles stating “Have a look into me daily”. This can also be adopted in maintaining body health.

Responding to the Signals

One has to respond to any kind of symptoms, our body produces at the initial stage itself. For example, we suffer from a cough, cold, sneezing, throat irritation, stomach pain, fever, headache, etc like indications whenever a foreign body enters into our body. On getting such a signal, one has to think of the change he or she has undergone in the regular activities and/or intakes in recent times. It may be due to a new dish, too cold drinks, new water source, too much of concentration on work, insufficient sleep, insufficient quantity of drinking water, visiting patients, drinking water immediately after exposure to hot condition for a long duration, and so on. This will not only give us a rough understanding of the reason for such symptoms, but it will also reduce our fear about the illness. Remedial action can be planned in appropriate to the reasoning that was made. At first instant, if the severity of the illness is manageable, the natural way of curing can be tried with. But one must be sure enough that such medicinal attempt(s) is very common and is/are not going to cause any negative effect. Examples: Taking a hot cup of tea or sleeping for an hour to get rid of severe headache. Drinking hot water added with herbals like tulsi or taking hot milk mixed with pepper powder and applying vaporab to get relief from a cold/cough. A medical practitioner can then be approached if the methods haven’t made a remarkable recovery within a reasonable time.

Health monitoring

One simple way of understanding our physique is through body mass index (BMI). BMI is obtained by relating a person’s mass with his/her height. It is computed using the following relation:

BMI (in kg/m²) = Weight of the person in kg / (Height of the person in m)².

The following table shows the global standard used in classifying a person based on BMI value.

To consider an example, let us assume an adult who is 170 cm tall is weighing 75 kg.

The BMI of that person = 75 kg / (1.70 m* 1.70 m) = 25.95 kg/m².

According to the BMI standard, this person has a BMI of 25.95 falls in the region of overweight. For such a person, regular physical exercising and controlled dieting may help in reducing the BMI to fit in the normal range in the due course of time.

Figure 1

The interpretation of BMI for an athlete may be different than from a non-athlete. For aged, it may vary from the younger ones. For children and teens falling in the range of 2 – 20 years is given in the above charts (Figure 1) with an example of how to interpret the values for a 10-year-old child.

After understanding our BMI necessary changes in our daily life can be planned for and to be followed rigorously.

Ways to improve our body health

There are many ways available to maintain or improve good health. One can adopt at least a few things to feel fit always. The do’s and don’ts regarding health body are given below:

Do’s

• Taking balanced and timely food
• Eating fruits and vegetables
• Drinking water as and when thirsty
• Exercising regularly (Even going by walk to the nearby places may be practised)
• Practising  meditation or Yoga
• Having adequate sleep
• Hearing to favourite music
• Participating in sports
• Maintaining body cleanliness
• Planning well before starting an action

 Don’ts

• Taking more food with rich in carbohydrates content
• Consuming drugs and alcohols
• Smoking
• Taking junk foods
• Taking or skipping food in a hurry
• Following improper timings in routine duties like responding to physical needs, eating, sleeping, etc

Benefits of being healthy

Being fit will make us feel good. It will maintain enthusiasm throughout the day and provide clarity in our thoughts. Positive thinking will dominate and makes one enjoy real happiness. It is worth to mention that savings made in eliminating the medical expenses, can make remarkable contributions in procuring essential things for our better life.

Conclusion

Human life is a wonderful gift, the almighty has given to all of us. A healthy body is the only property one can own forever until the last day of our living on this earth. Standing at the doctor’s doorstep at the final stage or depending completely on medicines will not only affect our physical strength, but it also affects our mental strength too. The important message the author wants to convey through this is that ‘caring for one’s own health is the prime duty of everyone’.