Keeping your body healthy during the pandemic should be one of your main goals. Being unhealthy can lead to your body being more vulnerable to diseases, including the virus itself. Being unhealthy can also cause you to perform below your optimal level, affecting your overall mental state. It can lead to depression, anxiety, and sleeping issues. Most of these are common to people living in the U.S.
About 51 million American adults are experiencing some mental illness. That’s a lot when you consider that it’s already about 15% of the overall population. Additionally, about 133 million Americans are suffering from chronic diseases. That’s 40% of the U.S. population. It’s staggering to think that more than 55% of people living in the U.S. have some illness. You can easily be one of these people. And sometimes you can’t do anything about it.
Some of these illnesses are chronic and may come from your family. Diseases like diabetes are part of your genetic line, and you can’t choose whether you get it or not. What you can do is give yourself enough time before it happens, or maybe prevent the disease altogether. Here are some ways you can do that.
Reduce Stress
As you know, too much stress isn’t good for the body. So try to avoid too much stress if you can.
Studies have shown that about 33% of Americans experience extreme stress every year of their lives. 77% have reported that their stress has affected their physical and mental health. It has become a severe obstacle in how they enjoy their lives. In most cases, this isn’t their fault or your fault. Stress comes from an environmental stimulus that advertently tries to make our lives hard than it is. Before, our ancestors get stressed when they know a predator is in their midst. For them, it’s a simple fight or flight response. However, for us, it’s not that simple.
Nowadays, we can’t run away from stress because stress comes in all forms, and we can find it almost anywhere. Sadly, it’s one of the reasons why we get our illnesses. The diathesis-stress model dictates that stress is the main reason why mental illnesses start. A person with a family history of chronic mental illness can eventually manifest the symptoms due to extreme stress.
For example, a person with Alzheimer’s in their family can develop such an illness much faster if they are working in a hostile and stressful environment. Instead of getting Alzheimer’s when they are older, like 50, they can get earlier, like when they are 30. This can be devastating for anyone.
As stated earlier, running away from stress isn’t a real solution in this modern world. Instead, you can resort to mindfulness exercises to help you out. Start doing some breathing exercises and take medication lessons if you can. Also, leave some time for yourself and take a vacation. This will ensure that you keep yourself away from stress.
Get as Many Checkups as You Can
You won’t know when a chronic disease has started in your body. Most likely than not, your body will generally be functioning properly and might only suffer some small inconveniences along the way. It is only when the disease has grown severe you would notice the pain in your body. It would have been too late by then.
Monthly checkups are vital when you have a particular disease in your family. It can help identify whether if the disease has started or if it’s still dormant in your body. But these can be expensive. So you use medical insurance to shoulder its costs. Some companies, such as Utah Integrative Health, offer a variety of services that can help you identify your disease. These companies can also help you treat them. Furthermore, these companies can also help you maintain your body the best way you can. It’s helpful to get as much help as you can when it comes to your health.
Avoid Smoking or Drinking Alcoholic Beverages
Smoking and drinking alcoholic beverages can reduce the efficiency of your immune system, leaving your body open to disease and viruses. Studies have also shown that even light and social smoking can lead to heart diseases. It can even start any latent diseases you might have in your body. Both smoking and alcoholic beverages have addictive properties, so not only can you get physically sick from doing it you can also get addicted to it.
Furthermore, smoking can also affect others in your family. Secondhand smoking is much more dangerous, and it can affect anyone close to you. It can lead to cardiovascular diseases and also respiratory diseases.
There are many reasons you shouldn’t get into these vices. They are detrimental to both your physical and mental health. So avoid them the best way you can.
Here are some things you should know about keeping your body resilient against all kinds of diseases. This is simple knowledge to some people, but executing them can be quite hard. Just make sure to integrate these things with the way you live, and you should be just fine.
