Concern over Disease Prevention is becoming a topic more and more of us think about and try to implement in our lives. Medical scientists have helped us live longer lives and have allowed us to overcome many of the diseases that used to kill many people. The introduction of vaccines helped prevent much illness and death. Diseases like smallpox have been virtually eliminated.



However, we have started to incur a new host of problems and diseases due to the length of our life, the processed foods we eat, the fast paced lives we live and the chemicals that pollute our world.

Heart disease and cancer are two prime examples of diseases that seem to be increasing in our society. Everyday we see new commercials on TV about the next great drug that will make your life better or healthier. But do you actually listen to the list of possible side effects. Are these drugs really helping or just creating different problems.

Remember, no pharmaceutical company ever made money by curing you quickly so you could stop taking their pills.

Why wait until you have symptoms of illness and disease? Many times a doctor will only work on alleviating those symptoms and not on fixing the underlying problem. Why wait until you need a doctor, start down a path of wellness and disease prevention. Avoid the symptoms and the disease.

As the old adage says "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

Of the leading causes of death in the United States , many can be prevented. The likelihood of contracting heart disease, diabetes, and other health issues can be directly impacted by the choices we make every day.

UC Berkeley Medical School did a study on supplements and multivitamins that shows how making the right choice can directly impact your health. It showed how certain supplements could actually reduce the number of prescription drugs people were taking when they reached the age of 65.

Here are some things you can do to increase your wellness and start down the path of disease prevention.

Diet and nutrition

Your diet does a lot in determining your overall health and wellness. What you put into your body does make a difference. "It's easy to buy into some pretty popular nutrition misconceptions -- myths and half-truths that ultimately find us making far fewer healthier food choices than we realize," says New York University nutritionist Samantha Heller, MS, RD. Read labels, don't trust all the advertising and always try to get whole foods and not processed substitutes.

The same goes for your supplements. Get those that are made from natural ingredients and aren't over processed. Every vitamin and mineral and phytochemical in our body works in concert with one another, and it's easy to knock that balance off. Be sure the supplements you are taking are balanced and introduced to your body in a way that they are useable and work together as nature intended.

Some of the things you want to make sure you get enough of in your diet are fiber, antioxidants, soy, and water. These things along with a well balanced nutritional intake of whole foods and supplements can go a long way in reducing disease and increasing wellness.

Weight

Maintaining a healthy weight is critical to preventing disease. You don't have to be as thin as a rail this is actually just as unhealthy as being overweight you just need to keep the excess in check.

It all begins with attitude. Start by changing how you feel about yourself, your body and your eating habits. Change to a can do attitude where you start to do what's right for you. Simple moderate exercise, eating a healthy breakfast (no skipping allowed), reducing your calorie intake by not taking just one more are all small things we can do to get in better health by being at a better weight.

Don't go for the fad diets that don't work or at best get you to lose weight for a while but then just put it back on later. Losing the weight in at a slow and steady pace is much healthier and more permanent. Get plenty of whole foods, protein (quite often a good soy protein can give you what you need without adding fat to your diet) and drink lots of water.

Water is critical to the health and wellness of your body. It helps rid you of toxic build up and it is needed for normal cell processes to work. Another side effect of water is that it can make you feel full without adding the calories so you will eat less.

Exercise

Aerobic exercise is very important to maintaining your health and preventing disease. It has been linked to cancer prevention, reduction of osteoporosis, helping with depression, lowering the risk of heart disease and diabetes, and of course obesity and weight control. It can also help with cognitive functions meaning you can think more clearly and work more efficiently.

Aerobic exercise makes most of us think of joining a gym or having to run several miles everyday. This is just not the case. It doesnt have to be complicated or difficult to achieve results.

Walking is one of the best exercises out there. It is simple, easy on the joints, doesn't cost us a lot of money and it can be done pretty much anywhere. To get a benefit from walking, you just need to make sure that it is aerobic. That means you want to walk at a pace that leaves you feeling "warm and slightly out of breath". One good way to start is the 5 out 5 back plan. Just walk 5 minutes away from the house and then you are force to walk 5 minutes back. Increase the time out as your health and fitness increase.

Stress management

Most of us live with some type of stress everyday. It has just become part of our lives. It has also become one reason we don't always feel our best and why we are susceptible to feeling run down and sick.

Reducing stress can help now and our long term health. Stress keeps our bodies from functioning at their best and slowly wears on us. Find way to relax, to have that me' time where the pressures of the day can be pushed aside.

Try to simplify your life. Our world has become so fast paced and in your face' do it now' that we just don't have time to sit and watch the clouds or the rain or.

One simple way to gain a little sanity is to disconnect from the fast pace, try just turning off the cell phone. Just leave it behind for an hour. But, no matter how much we work on getting rid of the stresses in our life there will always be something that causes us stress. Luckily, there are ways to help us overcome the stress nutritionally.

Avoiding toxins

With all of our advances and science and technology, man has come up with many great things to improve our quality of life. However, we are learning that some of these things that are there to improve actually produce side affects that can hurt us and our health now and in the future.

The EPA has warned that indoor air pollution is more of a concern than the pollution we find outside. Many cleaners as well as skin and beauty products actually contain harmful toxins. Read labels and know what your beauty and cleaning products contain. Contact me if you would like to know more about the many toxins that are out there and where they are found.

One of the best ways to maintain your health is to wash you're your hands. We touch so many different things with our hands; just washing can cut down on many unwanted health effects.

Adequate sleep

Giving your body the sleep it requires is a great way to keep it healthy. During sleep your body regenerates and rejuvenates. It is absolutely imperative to get enough sleep. A good sleep program can improve your life in so many ways.

Quit smoking

Despite the many warnings and the known health risks smoking is still prevalent around the world. Quitting this habit can not only improve your health drastically and improve your chances of preventing future disease; it can relieve you of a financial burden. Just think if you applied all the money you spend on cigarettes on healthy nutritional supplements how much you could increase your health and wellness.

You don't have to go crazy and change everything in your life, just take it a step at a time and change a few little things. Diet and Supplementation are key ingredients in disease prevention.

Be ProActive Don't wait until it's too late. Live your life to the the fullest by being healthy. After all you only get the one.

THINK ABOUT IT!