Most of what we do to stay well and healthy has little to do with seeing doctors or interacting with the healthcare system.
Most of it is about keeping our bodies in the best shape we can by staying within a normal weight range; staying active; eating well; sleeping well; preventing injury, sexually transmitted infections and unplanned pregnancy; ensuring adequate sun protection; undertaking dental hygiene; and not using substances that are detrimental for us.
It’s also about keeping our minds healthy by having good relationships, keeping our brains active, contributing to society and feeling valued.
In this post we outline some of the things you can do to make and keep yourself healthy, and how you can interact with your GP and the healthcare system to best achieve this.
Physical well being Smoking
We all know that smoking has many harmful effects on many parts of the body.
Some of these harmful effects include many types of cancers, lung disease (such as chronic obstructive airway disease and asthma), cardiovascular disease (such as heart attack and stroke), osteoporosis, decreased fertility and poorer pregnancy outcomes, tooth loss and premature ageing of skin. Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death in Australia and was responsible for the deaths of more than 14,000 Australians in the 2004–05 financial year.
One in two lifetime smokers is predicted to die from a disease caused by their smoking. Smoking is also increasingly known to have harmful effects on those exposed to smoke (secondary or passive smoking), including a developing baby, infants and children.
Australia has made great gains in decreasing its smoking rates. In 1945, 72 per cent of men and 26 per cent of women smoked; in 1976, it was 43 per cent of men and 33 per cent of women; in 1995, 29 per cent of men and 23 per cent of women; and in 2011, 18 per cent of men and 15 per cent of women.
This change has seen a marked reduction in the community of health problems such as lung cancer. The good news is that if you do smoke, quitting smoking is doable and it’s never too late to achieve health benefits. Many harmful effects of smoking begin to decline as soon as a person stops smoking. Some aspects of health return rapidly, and after a long period of cessation some disease risks return to the same level as in people who have never smoked (while others do not).
Although most people find quitting difficult, and it often takes a number of tries, there are more ex-smokers in Australia than there are smokers. So if you smoke, phone a helpline to have a chat and see your doctor.
Alcohol and drugs
Alcohol is the most widely used drug in Australia and it affects people in different ways depending on their gender, age, body weight, other medicine and drugs they may use, their health and the way their body metabolizes alcohol.
Therefore, there is no amount of alcohol that can be said to be safe for everyone. Drinking alcohol to excess can cause heart, liver and brain damage and high blood pressure, and increases the risk of obesity, diabetes and many cancers.
Women who drink alcohol to excess are generally at a greater risk of developing many of these alcohol-related diseases, including some cancers, than men who drink alcohol. It is estimated that between 1996 and 2005, more than 32,000 Australians aged over 15 died from alcohol-related injury and disease.
These health risks from alcohol accumulate over a lifetime – this means that the more you drink over a longer time period, the greater the risk. The more immediate (acute) effects of alcohol on brain function, reasoning and the body also increase the risk of injury and violence through sexual assault, rape, unplanned pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections, road trauma, violence, falls and accidental death. Responsible drinking is about balancing your enjoyment of alcohol with the potential risks and harm that may arise from drinking.
Australian guidelines recommend that: for healthy women and men, drinking no more than two standard drinks on any day reduces the risk of harm from alcohol-related disease or injury over a lifetime, and drinking no more than four standard drinks on a single occasion reduces the risk of alcohol-related injury on that occasion for children and young people under the age of 18, not drinking alcohol is the safest option; children under the age of 15 are at the greatest risk of harm from drinking and for this age group, not drinking alcohol is especially important for young people aged 15–17, the safest option is to delay the initiation of drinking alcohol for as long as possible for women who are pregnant, planning a pregnancy or breastfeeding, not drinking alcohol is the safest option It is important to note that a standard drink contains 10 grams of pure alcohol, but that drink serving sizes in Australia are not standard and there is often more than one standard drink in a glass.
The label on an alcoholic drink container tells you the number of standard drinks in that container. There are also myriad illicit drugs, some of which have been used for many centuries, while others are more recent and evolving ‘designer drugs’. All can cause harmful effects.
Although largely unstudied and unknown, they are likely to cause both long-term and short-term harm. So don’t make the mistake of thinking that because the harms may not be widely known for the drug you choose to use or are considering using, there is little or no harm – many people made that mistake in the 1950s about tobacco use.
These drugs may also be associated with harm in other ways, such as what they are mixed with, how they are administered (e.g. via injection), the activities and groups associated with their obtainment or use, and the effects on communities and people involved in the growing, manufacturing, transport and distribution of these drugs. See chapter 11 for more on alcohol and drugs.
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