A healthy lifestyle leaves you fit, energetic and at reduced risk for disease, based on the choices you make about your daily habits. Good nutrition, daily exercise and adequate sleep are the foundations for continuing good health. Managing stress in positive ways, instead of through smoking or drinking alcohol, reduces wear and tear on your body at the hormonal level. For a longer and more comfortable life, put together your plan for a healthy lifestyle and live up to it.
Eating
Your cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, immune and other body systems depend on a continual supply of nutrients to feed cell growth and metabolism. To get the dozens of essential forms of protein, vitamins, carbohydrates, minerals and fats, you need to eat a varied diet. Rotate your choices among the USDA grain, vegetable, fruit, dairy and protein food groups to take in diverse nutrition. Limit your portion sizes at meals to control your weight and your risk for cardiovascular and other diseases through your lifestyle.
Exercising
Calories accompany the nutrition in foods, and if you don't expend them all, you'll gain weight. Carrying extra weight increases your risk for heart disease, type 2 diabetes and cancer. Your lifestyle should support a constant healthy weight, so remain active daily. The American Heart Association recommends 30 minutes a day of moderate aerobic exercise to burn calories and build up your heart and lungs. Additional weightlifting or another form of strength training keeps your muscles and bones fit and free from pain, strain and fractures.
Vitamins
Vitamins are organic components in food that are needed in very small amounts for growth and for maintaining good health. The vitamins include vitamin D, vitamin E, vitamin A, and vitamin K, or the fat-soluble vitamins, and folate (folic acid), vitamin B12, biotin, vitamin B6, niacin, thiamin, riboflavin, pantothenic acid, and vitamin C (ascorbic acid), or the water-soluble vitamins. Vitamins are required in the diet in only tiny amounts, in contrast to the energy components of the diet. The energy components of the diet are sugars, starches, fats, and oils, and these occur in relatively large amounts in the diet.
Drugs
A drug, broadly speaking, is any substance that, when absorbed into the body of a living organism, alters normal bodily function.In pharmacology, a drug is "a chemical substance used in the treatment, cure, prevention, or diagnosis of disease or used to otherwise enhance physical or mental well-being." Drugs may be prescribed for a limited duration, or on a regular basis for chronic disorders.
