What can we do for a healthy life?

Health is given to most of us at the beginning, so we only understand its value when we lose it. We may start life with an advantage, but we may lose this advantage over time. Those of us who start life with a disadvantage can invest in their health and become stronger over time. Although starting life healthily may seem like an advantage, we realize over time that this advantage must be protected. Throughout history, the conditions that affect human health and the management of these conditions have shown that health is a dynamic process. While the average life expectancy in the 1700s was only 30 years, today this period has reached approximately 80 years. This impressive increase has been achieved thanks to the improvement of living conditions and advances in medicine and science.

A healthy start to life refers to the child growing and developing in the best conditions physically, mentally and emotionally in the early stages of his life, starting from before birth. This process forms a basic foundation for the child to live a healthy life and be resistant to diseases in later ages. Correct management of this process is not something that only the mother can do alone; both family support and the influence of health care providers are very important in this process. Health should be meticulously monitored before, during and after birth.

Starting life disadvantaged means children born with physical, mental or sensory disabilities, premature or low birth weight babies, children born with chronic diseases or genetic disorders. These children may face inadequate access to appropriate health and education services. Due to various social, economic, geographical and physical conditions, they may have difficulty accessing basic health, education, security and welfare services in the early stages of their lives. Equal health policies should definitely be implemented for children who start life disadvantaged, and programs should be run for children with disabilities and special needs.

Starting life advantageously or disadvantageously is not in our hands. However, we should not forget that health is not a fixed situation and that health is a continuous development process for both those who come into the world with advantages and disadvantages. Although the idea that we can write our own destiny is not a very realistic idea, we can do our best. At this point, our individual efforts are of great importance. We should see health as a process and invest in our lifestyle. The cornerstones of a healthy life include regular physical activity, balanced nutrition, adequate sleep and stress management. Although these may seem like small steps, they make big differences in the long run.

In the 1700s, people's health concerns were closely related to the living conditions, medical knowledge and hygiene of the time. Medical knowledge was inadequate; the causes of most diseases were unknown. Treatments often relied on herbal medicines, bloodletting and leeching. Vaccines were just beginning to be developed. Chronic diseases such as rheumatism, gout and dental diseases were common, but there were no effective treatments.

Today, the most important health problems arise from a combination of modern lifestyle, environmental effects and genetic factors. These health problems can generally be examined in two main groups: chronic diseases such as non-communicable cardiovascular diseases, respiratory diseases, diabetes and cancer, as well as pandemics, infectious diseases that cannot be treated due to antibiotic resistance and infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS.

Non-communicable diseases killed at least 43 million people in 2021, and caused 18 million people to die before the age of 70 in 2021. 82% of these premature deaths occurred in low- and middle-income countries. In 2021, cardiovascular diseases ranked first among non-communicable diseases with 19 million, followed by cancers with 10 million, chronic respiratory diseases with 4 million, and diabetes, including kidney disease deaths caused by diabetes, with 2 million.

These figures published by the World Health Organization (WHO) indicate why we need to adopt a balanced lifestyle to be healthy throughout our lives, despite the fact that life expectancy has increased by an average of 50 years in the last 300 years. The increase in chronic diseases, immune system diseases, and mental health-related diseases reveals how important it is to support our physical, mental, and spiritual health in a balanced way. A sedentary lifestyle, excessive consumption of processed foods, and stress-related insomnia are the main factors that threaten the health of industrialized people.

Although developments in medicine and science have provided significant success in treating diseases, the importance of preventing chronic diseases before they occur is increasingly understood as it is impossible to treat them. Today, there is strong scientific evidence on the potential of lifestyle changes that will allow us to live healthier lives as a result of extended life expectancy, to prevent chronic diseases. Steps such as developing a balanced diet, doing regular physical activity, focusing on stress management and getting enough sleep can positively affect our health process.

In addition, these steps can help us support both our physical and mental health by combining modern medicine with natural methods.

References:

https://www.who.int/health-topics/noncommunicable-diseases#tab=tab_1

https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/noncommunicable-diseases