We all know that Health is our greatest Wealth . Everyone wishes for good health but no one pays attention to it. In today’s hectic routine, people do not have time for their health. To earn more money, we have to do many tasks throughout the day but we forget that good health is equally important for our life.
According to WHO, health does not mean just the absence of disease and infirmity. Rather, it is that state of a person when he is in a better condition physically, mentally, intellectually, spiritually and socially as well. When the immunity power of a person is very strong, it is also said to be the hallmark of a healthy person.
Health has been given more importance nowadays because last year, COVID-19 engulfed the whole world, after which crores of people have died due to the virus. So during this tough time, people are encouraged to eat healthy food, exercises and so on so that people should be in good health and their immunity strengthens and ultimately virus will not affect body. Good health plays a very important role in our life. It prolongs life span, allowing us to live longer. By staying healthy, we can lead a happy life. Healthy thoughts have creativity, intensity, and readiness for the development of himself, his family, country and society.
The concept can be more clearly understood with the help of below example-
A cactus plant needs a desert/warm environment to grow, a cherry tree needs a cool environment to grow, a human can live on earth and not on any other planets because there is specific environment (like oxygen, water etc.) for them to sustain. Similarly, we become unhealthy when we create environment for it. Now what is this environment ? For example, a person eating junk foods like pizza, burger etc. or consuming intoxicants like excess alcohol, tobacco ,he is creating a room or the environment in his body for the diseases. The capability of the body to fight with diseases reduces and hence the person becomes unhealthy. On the other hand, what if a person takes proper nutritional food, doing exercise ? By doing all this, a person is strengthening his immunity and not giving space for the diseases to enter the body.
Some other factors which affect health are as follows:-
- Environmental degradation –The air we breathe, water we drink & the food we eat all comes from nature. But nature is degraded due to pollution which causes lung diseases, asthama.
- Modern lifestyle causes many diseases like obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure etc. In the past people doing their homes chores manually and they stay healthy and fit because their body was always busy. Therefore, the ration of diseases at that time was very less as compared to the modern era.
- Income status- The rich and poor will have difference in their health .It is not necessary, however, rich having more money can spend on quality food but it can be vice versa as well.
- Physical environment:- The cleanliness of the place where we live also matters for good health.
- Stress level:- The attitude of a person towards life’s stress and challenges decide the health of them.
There can be multiple other factors responsible for the physical and mental health of people. However, our duty towards health is to prevent them from affecting us by adopting good practices so that we lead a happy and peaceful life.
Blue Zones
There are some parts of the world where people live the longest lives. This was first discovered by a writer named Dan Buettner and he gave a name to these special parts of the world, Blue Zones. In his book, Buettner has mentioned 5 such places, where people live longer and healthier than people living in other parts of the earth. These 5 zones are as follows
Greece’s Icaria Island, Italy’s Ogliastra province , Japan’s Okinawa province, Nicoya Peninsula of Costa Rica, California’s Loma Linda in the USA
- The people living in the Blue Zones do not exercise separately, but their daily activities include a lot of exercise habits, such as working in the fields, walking long distances, cooking and doing household chores etc.
- Most of the people in Blue Zones lead a vegetarian life. Although there are some groups who eat meat up to 5 times a month, but their main diet is vegetarianism and it has been found in many studies that vegetarianism rather than non-vegetarian reduces the risk of heart attack, cancer and death from hundreds of other diseases.
- A habit was also found in people living in Blue Zones that they take fewer calories and keep fast.
- People living in all Blue Zones are those who get enough sound sleep at night.
Below are the practices which one can follow to be physically and mentally fit:-
- Balanced diet
Eating food is just not enough for our body because you need a balanced diet if we want to be healthy. Balanced diet means food in which proteins, vitamins, carbohydrates, fats and fiber are present in proper amount. We must also maintain our diet as per PH value charts (proper alkaline foods and lesser amount of acidic foods)
- Religious method
Many things are used to keep the body healthy. It is recommended to eat green vegetables, to get up early and so on .But apart from all these things, religion and spirituality also play a very important role in keeping the body healthy. Reading any holy book, prayers can keep mind calm & by doing this for a few days, we will know how beneficial it is.
- Yoga
By doing yoga, our body becomes healthy and strong and we also get the power to fight many diseases. Considering the importance of yoga in our life, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi inspired the people and proposed to celebrate yoga day. Approving this proposal, the United Nations officially declared June 21 to be celebrated as World Yoga Day.
- Aerobics exercise
Aerobics exercise not only works on your fitness, but it can be beneficial in promoting heart and mental health as well as keeping the immune system strong. It includes activities that keep all the muscles of the body active such as brisk walking, running, swimming, cycling, playing football .Blood pressure is kept under control by doing aerobics every day. It can also control the risk factors associated with heart diseases like cholesterol, high blood pressure etc.
