5 ways to improve your health today

Nobody wants to be sick? Illness brings about unexpected spending of cash and inconvenience. You will not only feel bad, but you may not be able to work or attend school, or look after your family. In some cases, you may need someone to look after you, you will also have to pay for the expensive medicines and treatment.

It has been severally said that “prevention is better than cure”. Many illness cannot be avoided, but there is still some things that can be done to slow down or prevent the manifestation of such illness in our body. You will have to consider five things that will set you on the road for a healthier life.

Practice Good Hygiene

One of the safe way to avoid sickness and spreading illness is to form a habit of always washing your hands. The cheapest way to catch cold or influenza is to rub your nose or eyes when your hands have been contaminated by germs. Good hygiene can also prevent the spread of more serious conditions, such as pneumonia and diarrhea diseases, which every year cause the death of over two million children under the age of five. The spread of diseases like the deadly Ebola can be minimized by the simple habit of always washing hands at all time.      

Hand washing is particularly very important to protect our health and others as well.

You should always wash your hands

Ø  Immediately you use the toilet.

Ø  After attending to a sick person.

Ø  Before and after treating a wound or a cut.

Ø  Before preparing, serving, or eating food.

Ø  After sneezing, coughing, or blowing your nose.

Ø  After touching an animal or animal waste.

Ø  After handling garbage.

You must not take any of these for granted. Cleaning your hands is very essential to a healthy life.

Use a Safe Water Supply

Good water is very essential for humans to keep a healthy life. Obtaining sufficient clean water for one’s family is a regular chore in some countries. Yet, access to clean water can become a concern in any part of the world when a main supply that is usually good to drink becomes contaminated as a result of flood, a storm, a pipe break, or some other issue. If water does not come from a safe source or is not stored correctly, it can cause parasite infestation, as well as cholera, life-threatening diarrhea, typhoid, hepatitis, and other infections. Unsafe drinking water is one of the causes of an estimated 1.7 billion cases of diarrhea disease every year.

Cholera is most often contacted when a person drinks water or eats food that is contaminated with fecal matter from infected people.

How do we protect ourselves from contacting these disease? Below are some steps on how to prevent yourself from contaminating these diseases.

1.       Always use quality water filters, if available and affordable.

2.       Always store treated water in clean, covered containers to protect it from possible re-contamination.

3.       Ensure that any vessel used to take water from your supply, such as a ladle is clean.

4.       Handle water containers with clean hands, and do not dip your hands or fingers into water used for drinking.

5.       In some cases where there is no water-treatment products available, add household bleach, two drops per liter of water, mix well, and then let the water stand for 30 minutes before using it.

6.       Always Ensure that all your drinking water-including the water used for brushing teeth, making ice, washing food and dishes, or cooking-comes from safe source, such as an adequately treated public supply or sealed bottles from a reputable firm.

Watch What You Eat

Good health begins with good nutrition, and a good nutrition begins with balanced diet. You may also want to consider our intake of salt, fats, and sugar. Always include fruits and vegetables in your diet, and vary what you eat. Make sure you read the packaging, it will help you to select whole-grain foods when buying bread, cereals, pasta, or rice.

If you consume too many sugars and solid fats, you risk becoming overweight. To minimize the risk, drink water instead of sweet beverages. Eat more fruit instead of sugary desserts.

Too much salt, or sodium, in the diet can raise your blood pressure to an unhealthy level. If this is your problem, use the information on the food packaging to keep your sodium intake low.

How much you can eat is as important as to what you can eat. So, while enjoying your food, do not keep eating after you are no longer hungry.

Any food can poison you if it is not prepared and stored properly. Every year, 1 out of every 6 Americans falls sick from food poisoning. Most recover without lasting ill effects, but some die from it. What can you do to minimize the risk?

1.       Since vegetables grow in the soil that may have been treated with manure, so wash these items carefully before preparing them.

2.       Make sure you cook your food till it reach the right temperature, and promptly refrigerate any perishable items that are not going to be eaten immediately.

3.       Discard perishable items left at room temperature for more than two hours or one hour if air temperature exceeds 32 degrees Celsius.

4.       Wash your hands, cutting board, utensils, dishes and counter tops with hot soapy water before preparing each item.

Stay Physically Active

Regardless of your age, you need regular physical activity to stay in good shape. Most people today do not exercise enough. Why exercise is important? Staying physically active can help you to:
Ø  Sleep well.
Ø  Stay mobile.
Ø  Maintain strong bones and muscles.
Ø  Maintain or achieve a healthy weight.
Ø  Lower your risk of premature death.
Ø  Lower your risk of suffering from depression.

     But if you do not stay physically active, you are more likely to:
Ø  Suffer from heart disease.
Ø  Suffer from type 2 diabetes.
Ø  Develop high blood pressure.
Ø  Develop high cholesterol.
Ø  Suffer a stroke.

Choose an activity that is fun. You might consider basketball, tennis, soccer, brisk walking, cycling, gardening, chopping wood, swimming, canoeing, jogging or other aerobic exercise. How can you tell whether an activity is moderate or vigorous? A general guide would be that moderate activity makes you sweat, but more vigorous exercise makes it hard for you to hold a conversation while doing it.

Get Enough Sleep

The amount of sleep we need varies from person to person. Most newborns sleep for 16 to 18 hours a day, toddlers about 14 hours, and preschoolers about 11 or 12. School-age children generally need at least 10 hours of sleep, adolescents perhaps 9 to 10 hours, and adults from 7 to 8 hours.

Getting the right amount of rest should not be considered optional. According to experts, sufficient sleep is important for:
Ø  Growth and development in children and teenagers.
Ø  Learning and retention of new information.
Ø  Maintaining the right balance of hormones that impact metabolism and weight.
Ø  Cardiovascular health.
Ø  Disease prevention.

Insufficient sleep has been linked to obesity, depression, heart disease, diabetes, and tragic accidents. Surely these give us good reason to want to get enough rest.

So, what can you do if you realize that you have a problem getting enough sleep?
Ø  Try to go bed and get up at the same time every day.
Ø  Make your bedroom quiet, dark, relaxing, and neither too warm nor too cold.
Ø  Do not watch TV or use gadgets while in bed.
Ø  Make your bed as comfortable as possible.
Ø  Avoid heavy meals, caffeine, and alcohol before bedtime.
Ø  If after applying these suggestions you still suffer from insomnia or other sleep disorders-such as excessive daytime sleepiness or gasping for breath while sleeping you may want to consult a qualified health care professional.