Good Health

This topic is more complex than it may seem at first glance. Often it's not the illness itself that harms us, but the anxiety about it. Especially if it's something new you've never had before, something different from a cold. And oddly enough, with age something can more often pinch or ache somewhere. With poor health a person, first, spends more time on treatment, second, spends more money on recovery. All plans and goals of sick people take a back seat.

What factors can have the most direct impact on our health? I would suggest the following:

1. Environment. Living next to a large factory that spews harmful elements into the environment around the clock is clearly not what our body needs. Ideally a large metropolis isn't the best place to live either. In the short term nothing will likely happen to you, but living in such places for decades can seriously affect your body. All information about countries with the cleanest and dirtiest air is readily available online. There are various rankings. For example, I'll use the ranking from IQAir, according to which at the time of writing the countries with the cleanest air are Finland, Australia, Estonia, Iceland, Grenada, Mauritius and New Zealand. The most polluted air is in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Tajikistan. However, these rankings can change from year to year. Besides countries you can also try searching for your own cities and other cities in your country in a similar ranking.
2. Impact of stress. When describing stress, for some reason I immediately want to mention Robert Sapolsky's wonderful book "Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers. The Psychology of Stress". A good book if you want to learn how stress affects our lives. If you want to live longer and be healthy, try to minimise stress in your life or learn to react differently, more gently, to problematic life situations. Note, I didn't say "get rid of it", because in the modern world (and in the Middle Ages too, I think) that's simply impossible.
3. Sleep. During sleep our body recovers. Don't neglect sleep even over the short haul, let alone the long one. Always try to get enough sleep and preferably don't disrupt your schedule, whatever it is: night owl or early bird.
4. Good and proper nutrition. Many people struggle with this point, because people don't always understand what proper nutrition means. Many have rather odd associations when proper nutrition is mentioned. Their logic is primitive and can be roughly summed up as: giving up burgers in favour of porridge. I'll try to describe some alternative views on proper nutrition:
   • Not all cholesterol is "bad" and equally harmful to our health. There's also a direct link with stress here, and you can learn more about it in Sapolsky's book.
   • Better to eat fresh food every day, even if not the healthiest, than to eat porridge prepared in bulk 3–4 days in a row. By then it won't do much good, but food poisoning is quite possible.
   • Food should be balanced. Try to get the right amount of fats, proteins, carbs, fibre, vitamins, minerals and amino acids throughout the day.
   • Meals should preferably be at the same time.
   • The number of meals should fit the concept of breakfast-lunch-dinner, plus possible snacks.
   • Snacks are an even more interesting topic: people give up one full meal in favour of 3–4 snacks of crispbread or "harmless" biscuits. Then such meals end up more caloric than a classic meal, and less satisfying. Snacking every two hours, a person ends up eating more calories than with classic nutrition.
   • Snack-style eating in the form of cucumbers, shop-bought ready tea, crispbread, diet biscuits and the like generally can't lead to weight loss. Watch the film "That Sugar Film" (2014), where a guy trying to eat "harmless" foods for a month gained weight and lost all tone. Remember that when you drink tea without sugar but with a classic glazed cheese dessert, you still consume about 3–5 spoonfuls of sugar at once. So be more careful with fructose.
   • Sufficient fluids.
5. Exercise and walks. This point is clear and needs no further comment, and I've already spoken about the importance of walks in the section on "idleness".
6. Giving up bad habits. Let's leave this point without comment too. Everyone knows that alcohol, smoking and other bad habits are harmful, but far from everyone can give them up due to addiction.

In the first part of the chapter I described what factors have the most direct impact on our health and body as a whole, but simply knowing and following these recommendations isn't enough. Besides following recommendations, it's crucial to regularly have medical tests and check-ups. Let me briefly list what I did at one of my routine check-ups.

Tests:

1. General urine analysis.
2. General blood test.
3. Blood biochemistry.
4. Vitamins (at least vitamin D as one of the main ones).
5. You can also check calcium and phosphorus levels.
6. You can also have hormones tested.
7. You can also check cholesterol level (LDL).

Ultrasound and other examinations:

1. Thyroid ultrasound.
2. Kidney ultrasound (even if they don't hurt, salts can be detected, and if there are salts, urine composition can determine their type and exclude foods that may lead to stone formation).
3. Chest X-ray.
4. Abdominal ultrasound (stomach, spleen and other organs).
5. If your stomach constantly hurts, better have an endoscopy and stool test.
6. Bladder ultrasound (+ part of ureter).
7. Heart ultrasound.
8. Electrocardiogram (ECG).
9. If you often suffer from migraines and headaches, ask for a referral for CT or MRI.
10. Seeing an ENT specialist is never a bad idea.
11. Get cavities treated.
12. If you have many moles, see a dermatologist, or better — an oncologist-dermatologist, so as not to miss malignant mole development.

Those who work in government organisations are required to undergo such medical examinations from time to time. But many people are self-employed or in private business, where there's no requirement to have any tests. That's certainly a plus for job hunting and employment, but still don't neglect this — arrange such check-ups for yourself regularly. At least every few years.

Besides factors and regular check-ups, there's something else that significantly affects a person's health — human folly. I'd include here lack of hand-washing, not following basic precautions outdoors: hold handrails less, don't touch your face, don't touch your eyes and, especially, don't handle food with unwashed hands that you'll then put in your mouth. And my favourite — underestimating the weather and dressing for fashion rather than the weather. Unfortunately I too had to learn from my own, not others', mistakes, because at 20, when I went out in the cold without a hat, I caught such a chill that I got facial nerve palsy. A very unpleasant illness where one side of your face becomes slightly lower than the other. All facial muscles on one side are paralysed: you can't smile symmetrically, can't frown and can't even blink. And when eating soup your mouth doesn't close properly and liquid can simply spill back. It took me about 4–5 months to fully recover. Though in my case it turned out okay, since for some people facial expression recovers at best 50–70%. So if you don't want to learn from your own mistakes — learn from mine. This probably applies both to recent school leavers and the generation that still strives to look 25 despite being closer to 40. Unfortunately most people don't gargle or rinse their nose to prevent viruses and bacteria. Then one fine day they get chilled and come down with severe tonsillitis. And only when the damage is done do they run to the pharmacy for various throat remedies. That's no surprise, since a good share of viruses and germs enter our body through the mouth and nose, with much of it settling in the throat, for example on the tonsils. And you're a walking breeding ground for various bacteria 24/7, just waiting for your body to weaken to make themselves known. So why give them a chance when you can gargle and rinse your nose 1–2 times a week for prevention? You may not get rid of all the viruses that way, but at least you'll reduce their concentration, so when you catch a cold you'll bear it more easily.

It won't hurt to get necessary vaccinations from time to time. Though I mostly don't get them myself, for people with weak immunity it won't hurt. In any case before a vaccination you'd better see a doctor who will clearly say whether you should get it or not. To find out what vaccinations you should have, your national vaccination calendar will help. What it is and why it's needed — I have a separate article on my blog.

Unlike many other chapters of this book, in medicine I'm not an expert who knows better than anyone with a medical education. This is important to remember and not take my advice from this chapter literally. These are merely recommendations that are in any case better than none. Every body is unique, so you'll have to individually put together your medical check-up if you want to get checked regularly, and individually decide what you eat, when you eat and how much you eat. As a last resort see a dietitian who will put together balanced proper nutrition for you.

The message of this chapter is that good health is important not only for life comfort and longevity, but for success in all one's endeavours. When we plan our affairs we never plan our cold days and weeks when we'll lie with a high temperature and do nothing. That's hard to predict and factor into the available time (though at work we tried to figure out average absence due to illness). On the whole, no need to overthink it. If you find the right approach to the listed factors, periodically have medical check-ups and follow hygiene rules, you'll significantly reduce the likelihood of colds, be healthier, and thus live longer and accomplish more of what you set out to do.