People often feel guilty about a lack of attention toward their health. But in reality, the situation tends to come down to a feeling of helplessness. Most people grow up hearing about how horrible and unavoidable many medical conditions are. But what they don’t know about are the advancements made since those early stages of life. In fact, some of the most severe medical conditions have fairly easy ways to fight back against them now.
There’s a number of factors responsible for the improvements. Transportation is one which people often forget about. Some specialty companies, such as Pacific BioStorage lab relocation, remove the normal issues from delicate medical transport. This ensures that the common issues of travel don’t impact the far more time sensitive transport of medical materials or equipment. But many of the medical improvements come down to the transportation of information. People can easily find ways to streamline normally difficult medical routines into something which might even be fun. There are a few important examples which can highlight these points.
Weight-related issues
It doesn’t take many extra pounds to dramatically increase people’s chances of major medical issues. Weight can cause anything from minor snoring to heart failure or stroke. And on the less easily noticed side of things, there’s also increased risk of lethargy, sleep problems and difficulties with physical activities.
Right now, 75% of men in the US are overweight or obese. With around 60% of women in the overweight or obese range. This might suggest that it’s a Herculean effort to lose that extra weight, but the main problem comes down to dietary issues.
But just lowering calories and focusing on healthier and more nutrient-dense options can quickly push someone’s weight into the healthy range. And it can go even faster and healthier by replacing a meal with a homemade, healthy smoothie or the like. Other than that the main factor simply comes down to recognizing that the years’ worth of weight will take time to burn off. And if one isn’t overweight, then it simply comes down to watching the relationship between diet, calories, and numbers on the scale.
Alzheimer’s and age-related cognitive decline
Age-related cognitive decline can range from simple forgetfulness to the most severe ends of Alzheimer’s. Sadly, the exact cause is still unknown. Some researchers believe this decline is an inevitable part of aging. Others point to genetics or outside factors as potential catalysts for the most severe aspects.
But even without knowing a root cause, one can still reduce its overall likelihood or severity. There’s a lot of speculation on why these tips work. But in the end, the most important thing is that they’ve been observed to hold off, prevent, or at the very least reduce the severity of age-related cognitive decline.
The most important point is simply to keep up with a love of lifelong learning. The brain isn’t a muscle, but it sure acts like one. Age-related cognitive decline can be seen as a process which whittles away at an overall knowledge base. The more information put into practice, the longer it takes to become severe.
And this includes learning about social activities and the like. Social intelligence and skills, or even things like dancing, or a card game strategy count. It all comes down to keeping mentally active and not letting oneself get into a rut.
Heart attacks
This is one of the scariest for men in particular. If a young man sees a father or uncle die from medical issues early on in life then there’s a good chance it will be from a heart attack. But this is also one of the easiest to prevent.
The first thing to do is talk to a doctor if it appears that heart issues run in the family. Genetic cardiac defects are often treatable with minor surgery. This might sound ominous. But it’s often just a matter of an hour or so for surgery and a good night’s sleep to heal up.
But if one is simply worried about risk factors, then there’s good news. The same advice which helps people lose weight will almost always dramatically reduce the likelihood of heart attack as well. One can improve the odds even more by taking a baby aspirin once per day to aid blood flow. But this too should only be done after consulting with a doctor.
Concerns over the future
Finally, when people improve their health they often worry about how few of their friends or family have done the same. It often seems like our culture just isn’t adapting to new medical discoveries which would save hundreds of thousands of lives. There’s some encouraging news though. A recent story from the New York Times shows that the next generation is making these improvements as well. The next generation is fitter, healthier and learning from the past.