Adopting Healthy Lifestyle At An Early Age

JAKARTA, July 21 (Antara) - Adopting healthy habits at an early age can makes it much easier to stick to it, as it can be difficult enough to change them later in life. From kindergarten and continuing through high school, a comprehensive health education on healthy lifestyle should be an important part of the curriculum. The middle years of childhood are extremely sensitive periods in terms of a number of health issues, especially when it comes to adopting health behavior that can have lifelong consequences. Youngsters might be exposed to a variety of health themes in school such as nutrition, disease prevention, physical growth and development, reproduction, mental health, drug and alcohol abuse prevention, consumer health, and safety. The goal of this education is not only to increase the youngsters' health knowledge and to create positive attitudes toward their own well-being but also to promote healthy behavior. Realizing the importance of the aspect of health in children, the Indonesian Healthcare and Social Security Agency (BPJS Kesehatan) has encouraged the elementary school students in Aceh Province to lead a healthy lifestyle to avoid various diseases later in life. "Healthy lifestyles from an early age will prevent our children from catastrophic diseases such as kidney failure, cancer, stroke, heart disease, and other ailments," BPJS Kesehatan Deputy Director of North Sumatra and Aceh Region, Dr. Budi Mohamad Arief, remarked in Banda Aceh. Such diseases are so common and cause emotional and physical pain and disability, but they are preventable at least through lifestyle changes. When blood flow to a part of the heart is blocked, it leads to a heart attack, which is often the result of plaque build-up inside the arteries, which may rupture and form a blood clot that blocks the flood flow. If the blockage is not cleared quickly, a portion of the heart muscle will begin to die and be replaced with scar tissue, which can cause severe problems in the future. However, researchers have found that engaging in healthy lifestyle habits could prevent nearly 80 percent of first-time heart attacks in men. It surprised them to know how powerful a healthy lifestyle could be. Arief explained that practicing healthy lifestyle is very important from an early age in schools to create a healthy generation and prevent a variety of dangerous diseases. According to him, catastrophic diseases tend to occur due to unhealthy living behavior, such as excessive consumption of junk food, lack of exercise, and unbalanced nutrition. He revealed that through promotion and preventive activities conducted simultaneously in all regions in the country, the BPJS Kesehatan provides education to all students on the importance of healthy lifestyle. The activities were greeted enthusiastically by over 800 students in the city of Banda Aceh, representing all the other students in Aceh province. Leading a healthy lifestyle can prevent heart disease that has claimed millions of lives and makes it the leading cause of death in both men and women, according to Toto Sudargo, a nutritionist of the Gajah Mada University's Faculty of Medicine. Heart disease is preventable through lifestyle changes and diet, Sudargo said, while speaking on a talk show on Heart Health and Lifestyle of Modern Society. Studies on heart disease risk factors in many countries around the world found that 90 percent of heart disease cases are completely preventable by modifying diet and lifestyle factors. Unfortunately, most people do not use lifestyle habits such as a healthy diet, physical activities such as walking or cycling for about 40 minutes per day, and exercising an hour a week, moderate alcohol consumption, and no smoking to their advantage, Sudargo remarked. If people want to protect their heart, they need to avoid trans-fat by eliminating all processed foods, which would also include most restaurant foods, he suggested. They also need to address their insulin and leptin resistance, which is the result of eating a diet too high in sugars and grains. To lower the risk of heart disease, people need to consume a healthy diet of whole foods, ideally organic, and replace the grain carbs with a large amount of vegetables and fruits, he pointed out. According to him, people who eat fruit daily will have lower risk of heart disease and death from any cause than those who do not eat them. Fruits can be an excellent source of antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and other phytochemicals, many of which have heart-healthy anti-inflammatory effects. For instance, a research published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) has found that consuming an apple a day might help prevent cardiovascular-related deaths. But it cautioned against eating too much fruit, especially the sweetest fruits that are commonplace today. Many of the most beneficial phytonutrients found in fruits actually have bitter, sour, or astringent taste and are found in the skin and seeds. Still, carefully chosen fruits, such as organic apples, blueberries, or cherries, can certainly be beneficial when eaten in moderation.