Achieving good health involves many factors. These factors range from genetic makeup to dietary habits and access to health care systems.
For clinical medicine, health is usually understood as absence of disease. However, it is more than this and also requires dispositional elements. The field model of the determinants of health encourages consideration of a wider array of targets for intervention.
Physical Activity
Many studies show that regular physical activity is correlated with a variety of health benefits including decreased risk for many chronic diseases, improved quality of life and increased lifespan. Physical activity can be any movement produced by skeletal muscles and requiring energy expenditure such as walking, running, dancing, hand cycling, swimming or sports. Exercise is a subset of physical activity that is planned, structured, repetitive and has as its ultimate objective the improvement or maintenance of one or more components of physical fitness (Caspersen et al 1985).
It is recommended that adults and children accumulate at least 60 minutes of moderate intensity aerobic and muscle-strengthening physical activities each day. However, many people do not achieve this goal due to a variety of factors including barriers and challenges. To overcome these barriers, it is important for communities to support individuals by providing safe places to walk and cycle; encourage walking to school, work or public places; and build environments that make walking easy.
Healthy Eating
The foods we eat supply us with the nutrients that our bodies need to keep us healthy and strong. These nutrients include protein, carbohydrates, fats, water, vitamins, and minerals. Healthy eating patterns focus on fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fat-free and low-fat dairy, and lean proteins (like fish, poultry, beans and peas, soy products, and eggs). Most people need to eat more foods that are high in dietary fiber, calcium, vitamin D, potassium, and magnesium. They also need to eat less sodium, saturated fat, and added sugars. You can find out more about the healthiness of the foods you eat by looking at the Nutrition Facts label on packaged foods.
Avoid foods with added sugars and limit beverages with added sugar, like soda and juice.
Know Your Family History
A family medical history offers clues to a person’s health risks. It can help doctors identify people with a greater-than-normal chance of developing common disorders such as heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and cancer. It also can indicate the risk of rare diseases caused by single genetic variants such as sickle cell disease and cystic fibrosis.
To gather information about a person’s family history, start with close relatives like parents, full siblings and children. Then branch out to include half-siblings, aunts and uncles, grandparents and cousins. Ideally, the information should be documented and updated regularly, especially when new relatives enter the picture.
A person’s genes influence his or her risk for a health condition, but environment, lifestyle and habits can also play a role. If a family’s medical history suggests an increased risk, a doctor may recommend lifestyle changes, alter preventive screening schedules or even refer a patient for further evaluation like genetic testing.
Work With Your Health Care Provider
A health care provider is a licensed person or organization that provides healthcare services. Some examples include doctors, nurses, therapists, hospitals, clinics, pharmacies and medical supply companies. When you work with your healthcare providers, openly communicate about your needs, goals and concerns.
If you see multiple healthcare professionals, be sure to tell each of them what other treatments and medications you are taking, including over-the-counter medicines. This helps prevent mixed up prescriptions, which can cause harm and reduce effectiveness.
Primary care providers can coordinate your care, serve as a one-stop shop for acute issues and chronic problems and connect you with specialty care when needed. They also stay on top of medical research and community health concerns. In turn, they get to know their patients and can offer them personalized attention, which leads to better outcomes. Many healthcare providers find collaborative care to be very rewarding. They enjoy the camaraderie of working together and feel that they can provide their patients with the best possible care.