What you can expect from a healthy lifestyle
When several health risk or health-enhancing factors are present, their effect is usually more than additive; their effect usually changes exponentially. For example, a high cholesterol level by itself or a high blood pressure by itself might double heart disease risk. But if a person had both high cholesterol and high blood pressure, the increased risk for heart disease would likely be increased not by four times, but by six times or more. If that person also smoked, a third risk factor, the risk could increase more than 20-times.

Optimizing your health is not just about preventing disease; lifestyle changes can also be therapeutic and reverse some disease conditions. However, this blog is to help you avoid disease and illness, not diagnose and treat disease—you need a doctor or other health care professional for that.

Fortunately, the principles of healthy living are not complicated or difficult to learn. The main principles are simple:

Maintain a normal weight; adopt a diet low in added sugar and saturated fat, and high in natural unrefined whole plant-based foods, (fruits, vegetables, legumes, soy and whole grains); get enough sleep and physical activity; manage stress; and avoid high risk behaviors like misuse of drugs, alcohol and tobacco.

By adopting a healthy lifestyle, you can substantially increase your chances of:
• Losing weight
• Getting physically active and in shape
• Looking better
• Feeling more energetic
• Sleeping better
• Better sex life
• Avoiding major illness like heart attack, cancer, and stroke
• Avoiding physical pain and disability
• Avoiding mental disability from depression, a stroke or dementia
• Long life
• Contributing to humane farming practices and greener living

There are no guarantees, but the odds of reaching all of these desirable objectives go up when you adopt an optimal healthy lifestyle based on sound science. Most of us will need to change our behavior and adopt a healthier lifestyle. Your doctor can’t make the needed changes for you—it will be up to you.

This blog presents opinions and ideas and is intended to provide helpful general information. I am not engaged in rendering advice or services to the individual reader. The ideas, procedures and suggestions in that are presented are not in any way a substitute for the advice and care of the reader’s own physician or other medical professional based on the reader’s own individual conditions, symptoms or concerns. If the reader needs personal medical, health, dietary, exercise or other assistance or advice the reader should consult a physician and/or other qualified health professionals. The author specifically disclaims all responsibility for any injury, damage or loss that the reader may incur as a direct or indirect consequence of following any directions or suggestions given in the book or participating in any programs described in this blog or in the book, The Building Blocks of Health––How to Optimize Wellness with a Lifestyle Checklist. References for most of the health related information in this blog can be found in the book, The Building Blocks of Health now available on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Building-Blocks-Health-Lifestyle-Checklist-ebook/dp/B08RC3XRCY/. Copyright 2020 by J. Joseph Speidel.