I’m sure by now we’ve all heard and/or have seen the great sinkhole of I-93 north, in Concord. I did not see the hole in person, but the pictures were absolutely stunning. To imagine that the road was normal in appearance and in a matter of minutes it underwent dramatic changes is startling. It was a stark reminder that an average day, can be changed rather dramatically and unexpectedly. Further, it can change and there may be nothing we can do about it. That is truly a concept, that I find frightening. The thing about sinkholes is that while they seem to occur suddenly, they often have long underlying histories. The NH DOT said that this sinkhole was probably caused by a culvert letting go that dates back to the 1950s.
My question is this: are we aware that our health can function in a very similar way. Normal one minute and less than ideal the next. Or do we live as if we are invincible? Like we will never be sick and we will never slow down? The truth is that our health, if not looked after properly, can be much like a sinkhole. Meaning: many illnesses, diseases, and health issues appear to crop up instantly or surprisingly, but most have a long running underlying cause. The difference between your health and a sinkhole, is that you are not helpless in your health concerns.
Most diseases that kill us, do take awhile to form, but most are also 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. You don’t have to have your own personal sinkhole. 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 journaling, 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: Chiropractic is not a treatment of those preventable diseases. However, 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.
- 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 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, take your best shot and stack the odds in your favor by making good choices today that create life long good health.
In Health,
Dr. Graham