The article about healthy lifestyle The combination of healthy lifestyle has become a habit for a long time – it was heard by any schoolboy, it is used by speakers, politicians, teachers, parents.

But does everybody fully understand what we are talking about?

Definition of the concept of a healthy lifestyle the phrase healthy lifestyle consists of two concepts: lifestyle and health. Therefore, let’s start with their definition. What are the components of a lifestyle? Lifestyle is a general concept and includes it:

The specifics of working life (including working conditions)

characteristics of household activities:

type of dwelling, living conditions, availability of necessary space, effort and time to perform household duties;

satisfaction of the need for rest and recuperation; the scope and severity of responsibilities for caring for other people (children, elderly parents, sick relatives, etc.);

Relationships between members of the same family; medical and social mood, including a focus on a healthy lifestyle, attitude to hygienic standards and medicine;

Behavioral characteristics and social status.

Lifestyle is not only the result of the will of a particular person. As a rule, lifestyle does not depend entirely on the aspirations of the individual.

Lifestyle formation is influenced by: – the level and quality of life, usually determined by income and material security;

lifestyle, which is the result of a person’s own attitudes and influence of his family; way of life, typical for a given ethnic group and in the conditions of existence of a concrete state.

Simply put, our way of life is influenced by our income, personal attitudes and attitudes of our family, as well as generally accepted patterns of behavior.

What is health?

No matter how trivial the question may seem at first glance, there is something to talk about.

The most common understanding of the word “health” is based on the absence of disease. Of course, such an approach has a right to exist, but at present it will have to be considered obsolete and insufficient.

The World Health Organization (WHO), which is the undisputed authority on health issues, in addition to the absence of disease, includes in the concept of health “full physical, mental and social well-being”, as well as the ability and capacity to “lead a socially and economically productive life”.

Take the liberty of imagining a healthy person who is consistent with this model: an active, positive person, satisfied with his or her career, social status and family status, with sufficient income to meet healthy needs.

The formula presented by experts from the same WHO to determine the importance of factors affecting human health will be interesting – that’s what it looks like in the form of a diagram.

Thus, about half the quality of our health depends directly on our desire to change our way of life for the better. Unfortunately, we are not always in a position to significantly improve our material well-being, which, as we have found out, has an impact on lifestyle, but at almost any level of prosperity we can achieve significant success in improving our health.

Thus, a healthy lifestyle can be defined as behavior based on sound scientific standards and aimed at preserving and improving health, including the activation of protective forces, maintaining a high level of productive activity and achieving longevity. Note the clarification regarding sound scientific standards. Despite the fact that these standards are changeable, they are the right reference point.

The inclusion of this reference point in the definition of a healthy lifestyle is explained by the prevalence of various “recovery programmes”, sometimes created by completely ignorant people and at the same time gathering many followers. Unfortunately, such “programs” often lead to the opposite effect – instead of recovery a person gets a whole bunch of new health problems.

Relevance of the problem

Why is it that healthy lifestyles are increasingly being talked about with more and more vigor and awareness of the importance of the problem? Here we can highlight a few major factors that have contributed to the adverse change in the health of modern man. Changes in a person’s motor activity. It is no longer necessary to move actively to provide for oneself and one’s family, as it was a century ago.

Office work, computer technologies, automation of production, movement by car significantly reduce the need for movement. Technogenic and environmental aspects of modern life. Political and military nuances of public life. Features of the psychological status of modern man.

Increased requirements imposed on a person by society, lead to increased psychological tension. In fact, a person is in a state of constant stress, which requires from his or her body the maximum tension of adaptation mechanisms.

Investigating the causes of mortality, one involuntarily comes to the conclusion that a considerable part of diseases from the list of these causes has the violation of rules of a healthy way of life as a significant risk factor. In order not to be unsubstantiated, let’s look at the group of diseases leading among all causes of death – cardiovascular pathology.

Arterial hypertension, ischemic heart disease (angina and heart attack), acute cerebral circulation disorder (stroke) – the main diseases of this group – are the basis for an incorrect lifestyle. Over-eating, predominance of refractory fats in the diet, hypodynamy, smoking are confirmed risk factors for the emergence and further development of these conditions.

Interesting data is provided by the WHO on alcohol abuse: alcohol-related diseases and injuries kill about 2.5 million people each year, more than the total number of deaths in armed conflicts and deaths from AIDS and tuberculosis.

The situation in Russia and some countries of the former USSR is the most catastrophic: here about 20% of deaths are connected with alcohol abuse (cirrhosis of the liver, poisoning, vascular catastrophes against the background of alcohol intoxication, alcoholic lesions of the central nervous system, accidents involving drunk drivers and pedestrians, etc.).

Many types of cancer can be safely attributed to wrong lifestyle: they include lung cancer (in smokers), liver cancer (alcoholism or cardiovascular disease), some localization of genital cancer associated with human sexually transmitted papillomavirus.

However, despite all the above facts being obvious, the public health situation remains deplorable.

Why is this happening?

Ignoring the problem is often the reason why there is no interest in meeting basic hygiene standards.

Denial of the importance of the negative impact on health of certain factors. For example, you can often hear denial of the harm of smoking of this kind: “My neighbor smoked all his life and lived to 80 years.

Low motivation and underestimation of the importance of their health is a characteristic phenomenon for our compatriots. Excessive employment, which, however, is combined with the previous factor – even the most busy person, aware of the true value of their health and life, will find time for gymnastics and normalization of their diet.

Low material security

This factor, undoubtedly, reduces the possibility of maintaining a healthy lifestyle (the cost of a number of products desirable in a healthy diet, the lack of funds to visit swimming pools, fitness, gym, the inability to allocate funds for tourist trips, spa procedures, etc.).

However, in the hands of poor people there are many simple methods of maintaining health – physical activity in the form of home exercises or work on the estate, the use of simple healthy products (beetroot, carrots, cabbage, vegetable oil, inexpensive varieties of fish, seasonal fruits, etc.), the organization of recreation in nature.

Healthy lifestyle components

A healthy lifestyle is actually aimed at eliminating or reducing the negative impact of disease risk factors.

In the case of hypertension, for example, it is possible to reduce the risk of hypertension by eliminating factors such as smoking, hypodynamy and unbalanced diet. Almost any component of a person’s lifestyle affects their health, and the characteristics of each component will depend on the age group of the person.

For example, dairy consumption rates vary considerably from age to age. The same is true for the desired intensity of physical activity, characteristics of the daily routine, features of intrafamily and labor relations. Balanced regular nutrition.

Rational physical activity. Work and rest mode (including sleep mode). Strengthening the body’s defenses (e.g. hardening). Abandonment of harmful habits. Personal hygiene.

Medical literacy, which implies not only and not so much awareness of the manifestations of various diseases, but also an understanding of the need for basic medical measures (examinations, vaccinations, FLH, etc.).

Optimization of interpersonal relations, including the most important component of family relations. Harmonious relationships between family members are the foundation of mental health for all ages and genders. For adults, an aspect of sexual relationships is also important.

The development of positive thinking, which implies an increase in the adaptive psychological forces. In conclusion, I would like to mention two different approaches in defining the criteria for a healthy lifestyle. The first, traditional, implies the same universal criteria for all.