Our ver y own Dr Sarah has some fantastic, sensible advice for prioritising your health in 2021.
When I first became a GP 30 years ago, my job was almost all about making sick people better. These days, at least half my time is spent helping people prevent disease by improving their lifestyle.
If you’re on regular medication, taking your medicine regularlygy as prescribed, and having blood tests when recommended by your doctor – this takes you a long way towards earning a health gold star from your GP.
The NHS has some of the best national health screening programmes in the world. As a woman, you’re eligible for regular cervical screening until age 65 (every 3 years fro om 25-50, then every 5 ye ears). This picks up cell ch hanges that can be su uccessfully treated and c an actually prevent cancer. c Breast screening – offered every 3 years fr rom 50-70 – is estimated to t save 1800 lives a year in n the UK.
Bowel screening in the form of a home testing kit is offered every 2 years on the NHS to men and women from the age of 50 (in Scotland) or 60-74. Some areas of England also offer a bowel scope screening – a mini-telescope examination – at the age of 55. If everyone took up the offer of screening, it’s estimated we could cut bowel cancer death rates by 15%.
High blood pressure is one of the biggest risk factors for stroke, in addition to increasing your chance of a heart attack. Unless it’s exceptionally high, you’ll have no idea it’s raised unless it’s measured. That’s why we recommend everyone over 40 should have their blood pressure measured at least every five years. If it’s high or you have other risk factors (like diabetes), you should have it measured more often.
Changing your diet – particularly reducing your salt intake – can significantly cut your blood pressure. Ideally we should stick to a total of 6 grams a day of salt (about a teaspoon) – on average as a nation we eat about 8 grams and most salt comes from hidden sources in gravies, pickles, sauces and prepared foods, as well as crisps, nuts etc. Cooking from scratch lets you control how much salt is in your food – flavour with herbs, spices and lemon juice rather than salt. You can try a reduced sodium alternative such as LoSalt if you want the flavour of salt.
Your doctor and nurse will give you a big thumbs-up for switching to a Mediterraneanstyle diet. Lots of veg and fruit, unrefined carbs (wholemeal
IT’S ALMOST TOO LATE FOR THIS YEAR’S FLU JAB BUT YOU MAY BE ELIGIBLE FOR PNEUMONIA OR SHINGLES INJECTIONS
and whole grain), olive oil instead of butter, more nuts and seeds and limited meat tick all the boxes. Include a couple of portions of fish (one oily) a week for heart-healthy omega 3s too.
Your bones need some care and attention too. As you get older, your risk of osteoporosis, or thinning of the bones, rises – in fact, 1 in 3 women and 1 in 5 men will break a bone due to osteoporosis at some point. Bones weaken faster after the menopause but it’s never too late to start protecting them.
Top tips for strong bones include a daily vitamin D supplement of 10 micrograms from October-April (all year if you’re over 65 or don’t get outside much); upping the calcium in your diet from dairy foods, tinned fish with bones or fortified foods; and regular
weight-bearing exercise (basically any exercise except swimming or cycling).
Any form of exercise is good for your heart. The ideal is half an hour of aerobic exercise (the kind that gets your heart pumping and makes you a little short of breath) five times a week.
However, any amount will help – brisk walking, swimming, cycling, exercise classes or dancing all count. As you get older, adding in strength exercises for specific muscle groups is also recommended to reduce risk of falls. Heavy gardening, Pilates, yoga or even carrying heavy shopping are ideal. You may not think weight lifting is for you, but you can do biceps curls or arm stretches with a tin of beans in each hand! NEXT WEEK: Don’t let back pain slow you down