Alvy, 6F

Science Week 2 : Healthy Living

The Evening Mirror

Healthy Lifestyles: Why They're Important

People are being urged, more than ever, to lead a healthier lifestyle, writes Tom Cruesdale, journalist of the 'Evening Mirror'. It has of course been widely known for sometime now that healthy eating and living is essential but scientists and doctors feel not enough work is being done.

Living a healthy life includes not only eating the right foods (protein, carbohydrates, vegetables and fruit are the essentials) but has many other equally important branches to it. For example, lack of sleep can have a huge impact on your day and cause you to be less enthusiastic. Additionally, there is a much higher chance of you losing your temper and it guarantees a miserable day ahead.

Not only that, but drugs can also create an unhealthy lifestyle. Primarily, they are used to cure and help tackle an illness; however, other drugs known as recreational drugs don't have such a positive impact. They may cause illnesses - furthermore, they are very addictive, so once you start taking them it is hard to stop. These recreational drugs include alcohol, caffeine, cigarettes and so on.

On top of drugs, sleep deprivation and unhealthy foods, bad health can also be caused by a drought of physical exercise. Lack of physical activity has clearly been shown to be a risk factor for cardiovascular disease and other conditions: less active and less fit people have a greater risk of developing high blood pressure. Physical activity can reduce your risk for type 2 diabetes, not to mention bad posture.

The examples of bad health listed above are only a few of the negative ways of life that cause health problems in terms of obesity, cancer and alertness. However, these aspects of health cause not only those results, but they can also cause other things as well: you're less likely to be proud of who you are if you're doing any of the above and you're likely to have a shorter life. And so that is why everybody is being strongly advised to lead a healthier life and take more care of themselves.