Louis Pasteur said, "Whenever meditating over a disease, I never think of finding a remedy for it, but instead, a means of preventing it". Staying healthy is synonymous with preventing disease but unfortunately we rely so much on curative medical care than preventive healthcare in the world today. Researchers are busy looking for cures while little effort is being made to teach the public the rules that guide the safe use of their bodies.
We all try to read manuals that come with machinery so that we will not misuse them and enjoy them for as long as they are designed to last but the reason why we endeavor to treat these machinery right is because manufacturers place emphasis on publishing rules guiding proper use, troubleshooting and the price to pay for misuse in their manuals instead of emphasizing repairs. That way, damage to machinery is not taken as an act of God and users pay attention to precautions and rules.
Epidemiologists, who study and research the incidence, distribution and control of disease in a population do not communicate the rules guiding the proper use of the human body and how improper use translates to disease directly to the public. Instead, they publish their findings about disease in journals and voluminous academic textbooks that the public do not read. Also, Medical Professionals, especially Doctors and Physiotherapists who are in the best position to educate patients and the public how unhealthy lifestyles cause disease are more interested in treatment prescription than preventive education. That way, people use their bodies how they want to or how people around them feel they should because there is no manual from the experts.
As a result, the public end up blaming disease on everything but the medical system that has failed to inform them adequately and help them formulate sustainable healthy, disease-preventing lifestyles. They usually blame civilization, ageing, stress, poverty, and in Africa, Satan and the spiritual forces of evil remain the biggest culprits.
Diseases of Civilization or lifestyle are the now biggest public health burden. Some members of this group which include Cancer, Heart disease, Diabetes, Stroke, Hypertension, Chronic Obstructive Lung disease and degenerative joint diseases to mention a few are the biggest killers in the world today. The name, diseases of civilization given to this group, which are largely caused by ignorance or disobedience of health rules, seems to suggest that they can never be prevented unless we abandon our civilized life for the primitive ways of Homo erectus.
We mislead the public when we refer to these diseases by a name which blames diseases which could better be called "diseases of unhealthy lifestyle" on civilization. How could we be so unkind and blame the only good thing that has continued to improve the life of man since he learnt to clothe himself and cook his meals? Civilization has saved us from the infectious diseases and other ills that killed people in large numbers in earlier times. The eradication of a lot of diseases and the cure for those that have not is the product of civilization and it is only through our civilization that we can communicate the message of hope that the world needs to hear:"Diseases of Unhealthy lifestyle like cancer are preventable when sustainable healthy lifestyle patterns are taught by medical professionals".
To help people stay healthy, we have to teach how their bodies work and how to treat them right so that disease will not develop. All disease are the product of cells getting injured repeatedly by harmful chemicals, excessive heat, excessive cold, inadequate blood flow, excessive mechanical pressure and other harmful stimuli. Cells respond to these injuries by a process known as inflammation which is recognized by the following signs; swelling, redness, and heat which are easily noticed in injuries to surface tissues such as the skin, pain and a fifth sign, loss of function.
Loss of function is quickly seen when the injured tissues are superficial tissues affected by movement of the joints such as tendons, ligaments and muscles but loss of function in internal organ may be undetected for years until the disease process has become irreversible. That is why you may think you are healthy but in reality, you only appear to be healthy because you don't see what's going on inside you.
The response of cells to injury by inflammation is in a bid for the body to repair itself and is also a warning that there is something hurting the body that you must avoid. If instead of prevention of disease by changing that unhealthy habit of yours, you keep taking medicines to treat these warning symptoms and the injuries continue without end, the body exhausts its capacity to repair itself and disease occurs. The earlier you stop introducing the harmful substances/ conditions and start introducing the beneficial substances/ conditions to your body, the better your chances of preventing diseases like Cancer.
Mentioned below are some rules that medical research has shown to help people stay healthy and prevent disease.
Exercise every day of your life: At least 45mins of jogging and at least 15mins of strengthening.1 hour very early in the morning or late at night will not make you uncivilized and will save you from years of invasive medical treatment and early death. Use the stair-case instead of the elevator when not in a hurry and exercise parts of your body like your neck, back, shoulders, pelvic floor and legs etc during breaks.
Exercise helps to keep your blood flowing at a healthy rate through your blood vessels. This will reduce the likelihood of substances like fat in the blood getting deposited in the inner layer of the arteries and narrowing the space in them, a condition known as Atherosclerosis and prevents blood clots forming within this space, a condition known as Thrombosis. The narrowed space means the flow of blood becomes turbulent instead of smooth which damages the wall of the arteries. Repeated injuries and attempts at healing lead to abnormal thickening and hardening of the wall of the arteries called Arteriosclerosis. The above explains the origin of Hypertension and Heart disease known collectively as cardiovascular disease. Poor supply of blood to the heart will cause Heart disease, poor supply of blood to the brain will cause Stroke and blood supply to other organs or parts of the body will definitely cause disease in them.
Exercise also expands your lungs and helps you remove secretions that obstruct the entry of air. This will reduce your chances of Chronic Obstructive Lung disease and other smoking or air pollution-related diseases. The combination of aerobic exercise with cessation of smoking, reduction of exposure to smoke and other pollutants increases your chances of preventing Lung and Cardiovascular disease.
Exercise improves the entry of nutrients and oxygen into your muscles, bones etc strengthening them and prevents stiffness in the joints and this will reduce your chances of degenerative joint diseases. The more exercised and the stronger muscles like the calf muscles get, the lower your chances of a venous thrombosis and varicose veins.
The metabolic demand for glucose by muscles is largely due to exercise. Without exercise, the body needs insulin for uptake of even a small amount of sugar from the blood by muscles, Insulin is the hormone that is supposed to helps remove excess sugar from the blood by communicating with muscles which should not occur all the time if you exercise regularly. Abuse of insulin by eating too much of carbohydrates and not exercising soon leads to the muscles cells becoming insensitive to insulin even in the face of excess glucose in the blood. This leads to the disease known as Non-insulin-dependent Diabetes which means that the more than normal amount of sugar in the blood is not because the body doesn't produce Insulin; it is because the use of insulin has been abused through lack of exercise.
Exercise through improved blood flow washes away pain-causing substances, improves the immune system's ability to fight disease-causing organisms, improves mood, induces relaxation and improves sleep. This means we won't need all those analgesics, sedatives, and antibiotics if we exercise daily. These are drugs that have adverse effects on the body and their long-term use will definitely cause chemical damage which will contribute to disease.
Drink not less than 8 glasses of water daily to compensate for water lost from your body through urine, sweating and breathing. A practical way is to drink 2 glasses of water while eating each of the three major meals and at least a glass of water between breakfast and lunch and between lunch and dinner. Failure to drink enough water makes your blood thicker than it should be and reduces its speed of flow. This result is blood clots and narrowed arteries which increases the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Eat a lot of live fruits everyday especially citruses and apples, lots of vegetables especially green vegetables and whole grains. Fruits and vegetables and grains are great sources of vitamins, the deficiency of which reduces the ability of the body to fight against disease causing organisms and to repair its own self following injury.
In addition, in combination at every meal, they fill you up by absorbing a lot of the at least 2 glasses of water you drink, thus reducing the amount of Carbohydrate- and fat- laden food you consume at each meal. This helps you reduce your weight without starvation which is a dangerous and ineffective way to lose weight.
By absorbing a large amount of water, they make the flow of food through your digestive tract faster and prevent digestive problems meaning you don't need all those heartburn and constipation medications. By reducing the time food spends in your intestines, they minimize the absorption of fat and the exposure of your colon to harmful substances that are abundant in processed food thereby minimizing your risk of colon cancer.
There are many more rules but start with these today to stay healthy and disease-free or even reverse an already developing disease process.
