Understand Your Health
Keeping healthy is all about being physically active, eating a variety of nutritious, tasty foods and developing a good understanding of your own body.Regular checks can help you manage the health of both mind and body.The more you are familiar with how your body works, what is considered normal and abnormal, the better you will be able to identify early any potential health challenges and take action.
Everyone looks forward to a long life but no one relishes reduced quality of life. One thing that we can all do from an early age is invest in our bone health.
Bone is living tissue made up of specialised bone cells and, like the rest of the body, it is constantly being broken down and renewed. If you start with a high peak bone mass, your skeleton will withstand the effects of the age related bone loss better.
So developing good diet and lifestyle habits early in life including the daily calcium and exercise needed is a sensible approach.
What you can do
Bone needs weight-bearing exercise to gain strength such as
- walking,
- jogging,
- stair climbing,
- dancing, and
- tennis.
Muscle and bone strengthening also includes weight lifting and other resistive exercises.
Depositing calcium in bones needs Vitamin D. We can manufacture our own Vitamin D in our skin when exposed to sunlight for just 10 – 15 minutes a day. The calcium requirements for men and women do differ. After the teen years men need 800 mg of calcium each day. For women, after the teen years to the mid-fifties the daily requirement is 800 mg. More is needed during the last three months of pregnancy (1100 mg), lactation (1200 mg) and post 54 years (1000 mg).
The cause of heart disease
From early in life fatty, cholesterol deposits (plaques) gradually build up in the walls of arteries. A process exacerbated by many other risk factors for heart disease. Over time this eventually causes narrowing of the blood vessels causing reduced blood flow to the heart muscle and other vital organs including the brain.
These cholesterol plaques can rupture at any time and all of a sudden cause overlying blood clots to form. The acute formation of a blood clot on a cholesterol plaque can cause blockage of an artery leading to chest pain (angina), heart attacks and stroke.
What are the major risk factors for cardiovascular disease?
- family history
(if the relative was under the age of 65yrs when the cardiovascular disease developed).
- high blood pressure
- elevated blood cholesterol
- cigarette smoking
- diabetes
- excess body weight, especially when abdominal fat is increased
- lack of exercise
Heart attack |
Stroke |
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When an artery to the heart muscle becomes completely blocked, an area of heart muscle is starved of oxygen and that part of the muscle dies as a consequence. |
Stroke is blockage or rupture of a blood vessel in the brain causing damage to surrounding brain tissue. |
Symptoms of a heart attack
- Typically, severe crushing central chest pain that does not go away after several minutes.
- Can be associated with pain spreading down the left arm or into the jaw. Anyone experiencing this kind of pain should get to hospital immediately. Early treatment for a heart attack can save your life.
- Even mild chest pain, breathlessness or bouts of unexplained indigestion should be discussed with your doctor to ensure that these symptoms are not indicating underlying heart disease.
- Early treatment can avoid a severe heart attack.
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Symptoms of a stroke
- Sometimes preceded by a severe headache, dizziness and confused speech but often a stroke occurs without warning.
- The symptoms of a stroke depend on which area of the brain has been affected.
- Weakness or paralysis down one side of the body, loss of speech, loss of swallowing reflex and sometimes unconsciousness may occur.
- Hospital treatment is required immediately.
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Reducing your risk
- enjoy a wide variety of healthy food in your everyday diet
- cut out animal (saturated) fats as much as possible, eg choose lean cuts of meat, trim off excess fat, grill rather than fry
- from other sources a little fat is okay. Use mono unsaturated fats, e.g. olive oil for salad dressing and cooking
- choose low fat dairy products - women need 3-4 serves calcium containing foods daily.
- include phytoestrogen foods regularly in your diet, eg soy products, legumes such as chick peas, lentils, red kidney beans etc., rice, grains, nuts and alfalfa. These foods contain chemicals that appear to lower cholesterol and blood pressure and may provide protection against cardiovascular disease. Increase fish consumption to twice a week. Fish is high in omega-3 fatty acids helping to prevent heart disease.
- diets low in salt reduce blood pressure
- have a handful of nuts every day - preferably not roasted in oil/salted. Nuts may reduce cardiovascular disease risk in women
- maintain normal body weight. Seek advice regarding appropriate weight loss programs if you are overweight.
What is diabetes?
Diabetes is a condition in which there is too much glucose (a type of sugar) in the blood because the body's method of converting glucose into energy is not working as it should. Blood glucose levels are controlled by a hormone called insulin.
Type 1 diabetes |
This type of diabetes used to be called Insulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus or Juvenile Onset Diabetes and occurs when the body does not make insulin. It usually affects people under 30 years of age, but can occur at any age.
Type 1 diabetes affects approximately 10 -15 per cent of people with diabetes.
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Type 2 diabetes |
This type of diabetes used to be called Non Insulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus or Mature Age Onset Diabetes. It usually occurs in people who are over the age of 50 years and have a family history of diabetes. Being overweight and inactive also increases your risk.
In people with Type 2 diabetes (85 - 90 per cent of all diabetes) the body does not use insulin properly, does not produce enough insulin or both. |
Gestational Diabetes |
Gestational diabetes can develop during pregnancy and usually disappears after the birth of the baby, but women who have had gestational diabetes are at greater risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. |
Pre-diabetes |
In pre-diabetes (sometimes called impaired glucose tolerance, or impaired fasting glucose) blood glucose levels are higher than normal, but not at the level of diabetes. People with pre-diabetes are at increased risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. |
Diabetes related complications include damage to the blood vessels and nerves that often cause problems to the eyes, kidneys, heart and feet. However, the risk of developing such complications can be minimised
- Managing blood glucose levels
- Managing cholesterol and triglycerides (blood fats)
- Not smoking
- Managing high blood pressure
- Appropriate foot care
- Regular medical reviews to check the backs of eyes, blood pressure, kidney and nerve function.
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