We all know what took out the Titanic, right? “Iceberg, right ahead!” The great ship was taken down by something right in front of it, mostly due to the fact that everyone thought the Titanic was invincible and unsinkable. How often do we think of our health in this same manner. We tend to think we are unstoppable! The good news is that we can actually be more unstoppable then we currently are, but it takes a small shift in thinking. We need to stop thinking about the unstoppable ship and draw our attention to the metaphor of an iceberg. What I mean by this, is that when we see an iceberg we are only seeing a small portion of it and the rest is below the surface. Applying this to our health means, we have to stop believing how we feel is the only measure of health. There is a whole world of health that is functioning below the surface and it is the biggest measure of how healthy we can be and potentially how long we could live. Remember most of the diseases that kill us are not visible to the eye. They happen in places we cannot see. You see most of the diseases that kill us are lifestyle related. This means, you are in the driver seat. You don’t have to be a victim. You don’t have to sit back and wait for a disaster, a bad diagnosis, or terrible health reports, that rise from the below the surface unexpectedly. You can take control of your health and greatly improve your long term health picture.
Some of the most common preventable diseases are diabetes, some cancers, stroke, heart disease, and lung disease. That’s not to say, that in some cases, these diseases can occur and were unpreventable. That can happen. It does mean, however, all your risk of these issues can be improved with certain lifestyle choices. Here are some easy ways to potentially decrease your risks of the common preventable diseases:
- Stop smoking: shouldn’t this be obvious now? Save money and save your health.
- Lose weight: this can help with your risk of heart disease, diabetes, certain cancers, and stroke. Simply put, we all need to move daily and focus on eating more fruits/veggies and less processed food.
- Decrease stress: exercise, daily writing in a journal, and daily prayer/mediation have all been thought to help with stress, which is a factor in depression, hypertension, and even heart disease.
- Visit you chiropractor: A common complaint I hear in our offices when first meeting someone is that back pain prevents them from daily exercise. Movement helps control weight, decrease stress, and decreases depression. If you feel good, you can move more. More than that, chiropractic improves how your nerve system functions, which is essential is total health. In fact, it’s the biggest benefit of chiropractic. It’s also why people get adjusted even when they feel good….it’s to stay good and to have the nervous system function at it’s highest level!
- Drink more water: I think most people are dehydrated. Your body doesn’t run well like this. Try drinking at least 64 ounces daily and, depending on your activity level or your body size, you may need more.
Don’t wait for your health to fail. I’d love to be invincible, but we are not. There is no free lunch, and when it comes to our health, each choice we make today is helping inform what our future looks like. My advice to all of us, is to do your best, realize the health is not only how you feel/look and to take your best shot and stack the odds in your favor by making good lifestyle choices today that create life long good health.