How do you PREVENT future ill health?

You can understand, that in the nuclear industry it’s critical that there are no “accidents” and there is a plan to PREVENT failures. Moreover, everyone who works there has to understand the plan and be personally committed to the success of the prevention program. If there is an accident, people might die, everyone might lose their jobs, and the industry might get closed down.

Your own health is CRITICAL for YOU. You get one shot at your life, and you have a very similar need to make sure that you have a PLAN for the PREVENTION of future health problems, a Plan for Better Health, rather than just a plan to get better after getting sick.

Since the modern society in which we live, profits both from creating the conditions that make us sick, and from the processes that try to reverse sickness, we can’t expect a change in the systems that dominate our lives, to be very helpful. But we are not helpless either. Better health is possible.

Write Your Own Better Health Plan

You KNOW, how to be more healthy, in a general sort of way, and mostly you try to do that. Even if some of what you know is misinformed, it’s unlikely to be entirely wrong, so that’s a starting point.

You don’t need any vast medical knowledge to begin to write your own health plan. Above are the basic elements, five headings, and under each one write down what you are actually doing NOW.

If you think about that for a short time, I’m sure you can already see that some consistent small changes in what you ACTUALLY DO, can improve your health. Make a plan to do that.

The file below is a .docx file of the page above.

You begin with something a simple as this. A single page that just records what you are trying to do under those five headings. Share this with your important other people, and with your doctor next time you visit. If you are like me in the first few weeks you’ll make many changes. That’s fine. The whole point is that it’s YOUR OWN PLAN. Having written it, you take responsibility for trying to maintain it in a way that reflects what is actually happening in your life.

Some Sensible Extensions

I have a sub-heading “Medical” where I list three things that concern me about my own future health. These are things my doctor and I might talk about.

I am about to add a section called “Medications” where I intend to list my current medications, and the additional supplements I’m taking. I know my doctor has them listed, but it’s easier to talk about them if they are on a paper we can both read.

I have a section called “Eyesight and Hearing” because both are potential problems for me.

I have the ability to take blood pressure readings and breath ketone measurements. Prior to visiting my doctor I can record the results for the last few days, to show that I’m on track. I could record my weight in the same way, but I don’t because it’s very stable.

You will have something in your life that’s very important to your own health, that might warrant a separate sub-heading, allergies, a family history of CVD or dementia or cancer.

There is nothing particularly hard about anything above, and it has the potential to change your life in all sorts of positive ways. I’m running FREE discussions about writing a health plan on Zoom. You can find out about when those session are held on this page.