If we ask different people what they need to be happy we will receive a variety of answers. Everyone will have a slightly different answer to this particular question. But one of the most frequent answers would be health. Health is so important because it allows us to enjoy the full benefits of the other things that we need to feel happy.
But, like love and money, many people only realize its true value when they lose it. When we have it, we assume that we will have it forever. We rarely consider that we could lose it even though we know that not everybody enjoys health.
So, is there anything we can do to remain healthy? If we believe that our health and life expectancy are completely determined by our DNA then we would conclude that there is little we can do to maintain our health. But, all the evidence indicates that there is a lot we can do to improve and maintain our health.
Over recent years official figures have continued to show that we are living longer than before and that life expectancy continues to grow. Many health professionals assume that this upward trend will continue. The main reasons for this are the advances in medical science and we we would expect this to continue. This has made a tremendous difference to health and life expectancy.
But can we assume that this will continue? As science progresses many of the treatments become increasingly expensive and progressively fewer people may be able to afford it. Also, the current generation has benefited tremendously from antibiotics but their overuse has meant that they are becoming less effective.
Life expectancy statistics are based on historical averages. They do not factor in the increasing health problems that many younger people now have today as these people will not show up in the statistics until years later. The biggest potential issues that we face are the very high proportion of people who are overweight and the medical conditions that this can lead to including diabetes.
Science may be able to help people live longer but most people want to be healthy throughout their whole life. We want to be healthy both physically and mentally. One of the greatest fears of many people is losing their mind to the various dementia related illnesses that increasing numbers of older people suffer from.
If we closely study the data and statistics on life expectancy and health from around the world we can conclude that we can affect our health. The choices that we make make a difference to our health.
