Why maintaining a healthy lifestyle is so important? Leading a healthy life does not necessarily mean that you cut down your visits to a health facility.
Being genuinely healthy means that your physical and emotional state is at optimal levels and that you can perform your daily tasks to the best of your ability.
A healthy person would feel confident in himself and his abilities which would directly affect his performance at work and home.
Studies have shown that to lead a healthy lifestyle two factors play a significant role. We will briefly look into these two elements one by one.
Healthy living habits are a forgotten subject in our societies since, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), cardiovascular diseases, directly related to harmful behaviors that affect health, are the leading cause of death in the world and Have a significant impact in the workplace.
These behaviors depend on the action and attitude of people in their daily lives since health depends mostly on food and lifestyle.
According to the Spanish Heart Foundation, cardiovascular diseases (such as myocardial infarction) are responsible for one out of six work-related deaths (over 23,000 affected) and significantly affect the quality of life of those affected.
The relationship between healthy living habits and prevention in the workplace is a very close one.
Every year around 17 million people worldwide die from cardiovascular diseases.
Several experts estimated that every 4 seconds a heart attack occurs and a cerebral vascular infarction occurs every 5 seconds.
They affect both developed and resource-poor countries, as lifestyles and eating habits change.
Specifically, the leading cause of death worldwide is ischemic heart disease (heart attacks, angina, heart attacks) followed by cerebrovascular conditions.
Among the causes, it is possible to emphasize arterial hypertension, because it is related to considerably high mortality rates.
For this reason, it is considered one of the most critical public health problems, especially in developed countries, which affects about one billion people worldwide.
It causes about 51% of deaths from stroke and 45% from coronary heart disease.
The Importance of a Healthy Diet
The first thing people need to consider is their diet. Nowadays we mostly indulge ourselves in ‘junk food’ which has very little nutritional value.
Furthermore, we have significantly limited the use of fruits and vegetables in our daily diet.
Fruits and vegetables provide our body with needed vitamins, minerals and dietary fiber which play a significant role in maintaining a healthy digestive system. Also, we need to realize the importance of physical activities.
If our calorie intake is more than what we burn every day, then we are most like to gain weight. Obesity has become a leading cause for concern for the nutritionists nowadays.
What about our mental health?
What most of us don’t realize is that to be a healthy person, just maintaining a healthy diet and lifestyle is not enough. Your mental state also is of paramount importance.
These days, when competition is at its peak in every line of work, people often feel stressed, burned out or anxious because of the work pressure.
This constant pressure can lead to depression, mental breakdown and other complications.
These people often resort to drugs to get some relief while the number of suicide cases has also gone up in the past few years.
Young adults are the ones that are most prone to mental health problems. That is because of the pressure from the society and the social norms.
Young parenthood, poor performance in studies, peer pressure, poverty and trouble with the law are some of the reasons that can cause severe mental stress to young folk.
And when there seems to be no way out, these people decide to end their lives rather than face all the hardships of life.
Thankfully this problem has been taken into account, and considerable efforts are being made to eradicate this curse. With the advancement in the field of psychology, new methods got developed for the treatment of depression and anxiety.
However, still, only a quarter of the affected people seek help. One thing that must be stressed upon here is that no treatment or doctor can help you unless you make up your mind to make an effort of your own to improve your health.
Heart attacks are one of the leading causes of death in the world. Drinking, drugs, consuming junk food and obesity are some of the significant factors that can cause a heart attack.
So we must refrain from such unhealthy activities and strive for a better state of wellbeing.
We would like to conclude this article by saying that most of the diseases that we experience are preventable. All we need to do is work hard and maintain a healthy lifestyle because we all know that ‘Health is Wealth.’
In Spain, in recent years, there have been a series of changes with food, which are moving away from the Mediterranean Diet:
- The Spanish diet contains more calories than the recommended ones.
- The consumption of food of animal origin has exploded.
- Foods that contain fat have replaced carbohydrates.
- Foods that provide fiber are insufficient.
- Fast food, with a lot of preservatives and high caloric content, moves in Spain 144.600 million euros a year and each Spanish spends 20.85 euros a year on this type of food.
With these data on the table, it seems indispensable to take preventive measures to avoid the bad habits that are becoming trends in our society, and at the same time to promote the healthy practices of life necessary to prevent diseases and pathologies that affect the Family life and work.
At this point, companies can play an important role, providing their workers with information and conducting awareness-raising campaigns on how to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
Health depends heavily on diet and lifestyle, so avoid harmful behaviors such as smoking, alcohol and drugs, lack of exercise, stress and fast food.
It is fundamental for companies to take care of the health of their workers as a preventive strategy to reduce the number of work casualties, spreading and promoting simple guidelines that can have a very positive impact for the organization and its employees, as well as in society.
Keeping healthy habits on a daily basis is an essential aspect of the proper development and well-being of people.