Fall, with a blast of crisp air, is upon us. If you were in the Lakes Region last week that crisp air also carried some snow! Even so, this is easily my favorite season of the year. Autumn trappings like foliage, corn mazes, apple picking and of course football (but no pumpkin spice for me, thanks). The highlight of the fall for my kids is Halloween. Costumes, trick or treat, and being little scared or do a little scaring. Being scared or having a little startle can be fun occasionally, thus the popularity of scary movies, haunted houses and hay rack rides.
Obviously, that’s all silly scariness and fun. When it comes to the real fear people experience the spectrum ranges from very serious stuff like death to stuff maybe you don’t need to be so scared of like nomophobia (the irrational fear of being without your mobile phone, I did not make this up). One thing you should have less fear of is disease and sickness. I say this for two reasons: 1) some people become so scared of their health that they actually avoid their doctor and 2) the most common killers today are lifestyle related, so you have some degree of control.
First if you have health concerns, seriously it is better to know than to stay in the dark. If you really do have an issue that needs to be dealt with, the longer you wait to get a check up, the more difficult things typically are to deal with. So truly don’t wait, get proactive. Better yet, view your health through the lens of prevention instead of reaction.
As far as lifestyle disease goes, the medical journal, The Lancet, released the results of a study called The Global Burden of Disease Study 2010, which features a large group of expert scientist. The findings were pretty amazing. 20 years ago more people suffered from maternal and child illness, malnutrition, and infectious disease. Now, however, less people deal with these issues and more deal with heart disease and cancers, which often have lifestyle factors involved. In fact, smoking and alcohol use have surpassed malnutrition as risk factors for disease. The conclusions are pretty commonsense: many of our most feared diseases like heart disease, cancer, and diabetes can be avoided or have their risk decreased via simple lifestyle choices.
These lifestyle choices are the things you’ve always known you should do, but may not be doing. Simply, start exercising, make healthy food choices (including enough water), calm your mind with meditation/prayer, use alcohol in moderation, quit using tobacco (seriously), and get plenty of sleep. Get and follow through on appointments with your healthcare providers whether medical, dental, chiropractic, etc. These are really simple things. You can definitely do it.
If you are avoiding them, stop thinking about the short term and start looking long term. If you are avoiding them because of money, stop because most positive lifestyle changes save money now (how much are smokes?) and will definitely save money in long term health costs. If you don’t make lifestyle choices due to lack of time as your excuse/I’m too busy, look past that excuse, it’s completely false. Everyone can find 30 minutes to exercise and grabbing a water instead of a soda is simple. Don’t be scared to make changes. Don’t be scared to face your health. Hiding from your health status does nothing but make things worse. This Halloween keep the scary stuff fun and safe and most of all know that when it comes to your health you don’t have to be scared, you simply need to be proactive.