Life is full of choices and every choice has a corresponding consequence. This applies also to our health. Our health today was determined by the choices or decisions we made yesterday and consequently our health tomorrow would be as a result of the choices we make today.
Daily choices as regard certain widely recognized factors that are essential to a longer, healthier life would result in the health we do or do not enjoy.
This fact is clearly illustrated in the scenario below;
A 17-year old young man went to his ophthalmologist with what he considered a serious health problem. He said, “every time I smoked marijuana, my eyes got red. I’m really worried. What can you prescribe for my condition?” His doctor told him to stop smoking marijuana but he answered ‘Anything but that’, then turned and walked away.
This young man’s behaviour epitomizes the conscious and unconscious attitude of millions of people towards their health: they want to have clear lungs and fresh breathe but are unwilling to quit smoking, they want to have functionally healthy livers with no cirrhosis but continue to drink alcohol, they want to have a good heart devoid of plagues from cholesterol deposition but refuse to quit eating fresh meats and eating habits which stop the heart before its time, they want to have great bodies and attractive figures with well-built muscles but are not ready to make the much needed time to engage in regular physical exercise.
In short they want to enjoy good health but are not willing to pay the price for the lifestyle that would bring them closer to realizing these worthy goals.
Health is not a coincidence or chance. It is a product of the little decisions or choices we make every day in our lives. This implies that for us to enjoy optimum health, we must be mindful of the choices we make in our daily routine activities.
Simple choices as to what to eat, when to eat, how to eat, when to sleep, when to rest, whether or not to exercise, to drink alcohol or water, to think positively or negatively in the long run determine our health status in most cases. This impact might not be immediate but it is just a matter of time.
Consciously or unconsciously, most people are making sacrifices of some sort. Unfortunately, they often sacrifice health, family, religion or other priceless possessions in order to gain the transitory pleasures of wealth, power, status, or fame.
Most choices are made due to the ignorance of their consequences or apathy to the known consequences of such choices. To enjoy vibrant health we need to consciously make concerted efforts to choose those things that have been proven through science and experience to enhance health.
Hippocrates the father of medicine made this famous comment “let your food be your medicine and your medicine be your food” thus giving credence to the fact that the food we eat has an immense influence on our health.
The relationship between lifestyle choices and health has occupied human minds and been debated for years on both the international and local scenes.
The World Health Organisation in its Alma-Ata Declaration on primary health care as a strategy to achieve Health for All by the year 2000 pointed out, the importance of being responsible for oneself through choices and community participation in promoting health. In the same context, the Lalonde Report, which came out of Canada in 1974, already held that lifestyle and environmental conditions are more significant to the health of individuals than medical care.
In the same vein, the Ministry of Health of the republic of Ghana, under the leadership of the late Major Courage Quashigah introduced the Regenerative Health and Nutrition programme to encourage Ghanaians to make a paradigm shift from curative medicine to preventive or lifestyle medicine to check the tide of non-communicable diseases(NCDs) also called ‘diseases of choice’.
In conclusion, it is obvious from this article that our lifestyle choices surely lead to the state of our health. In other words healthy lifestyle choices would lead to good health whiles poor lifestyle choices would ultimately culminate into poor health. In the subsequent weekly articles, we would examine the various lifestyle choices and their attendant consequences in terms of health and longevity.
‘In life, there are neither rewards nor punishments, just consequences’-Anonymous
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Written By: Austin Gideon Adobasom-Anane For GhanaCelebrities.Com
Executive Director, Optimum Nutrition and Health Consult
Adobasom-Anane holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Community Nutrition from the University for Development Studies. He is currently the Head of Department of the Public Health and Nutrition Department and Chairman of the Public Health Committee at the Seventh-day Adventist Hospital in Tamale.
He is also a candidate for a master of philosophy degree in Community Health and Development at the University for Development Studies.
He doubles as the Executive Director of the Optimum Nutrition and Health Consult. A private consultancy firm on health and nutrition issues for identified groups of people such churches, mosques, organisations and also individuals who require timely and professional guidance in solving their health challenges.
Contact: Email: [email protected]
Tel: +233-208-525248/ +233-242-911340