Prevention Is Better Than Cure
- Aug 6, 2016
- 2 min read
When it comes to protecting our health from heart diseases, prevention is better than cure. Due to bad choices/ habits, or UNAVOIDABLE health risk factors people will develop heart disease.
Heart disease is a cardiovascular disease(CVD), it is a non-communicable disease(NCD).
To enjoy good health and vitality and prevent premature deaths we must take care of our heart health through Self Care.
Self Care for heart disease includes two levels of care:
Preventative care
Disease management
Prevention
With preventative care, the aim is to prevent disease. Health care must start at home before symptoms of disease develop. This this type of health care is called Self Care.
To provide adequate self care to prevent heart disease we need to be educated. Just as a medical doctor prepares himself through medical education, we must prepare ourselves through consumer health education. This article like many others is doing that.
Prevention will therefore start with consumer health knowledge, followed by taking action. Taking action will be required throughout the lifespan, eventually becoming part of one's lifestyle.
The preventative actions will involve developing healthy habits that will REMOVE the avoidable health risk factors and REDUCE the risks due to unavoidable risk factors.
The avoidable risk factors to remove from our lives are:
Unhealthy eating
Physical inactivity
Smoking
Overweight/Obesity
Air pollution
Abuse of alcohol
Taking action to be free from these risk factors must be our Self Care Goal. Success with reaching these goals will give us good health and longevity; it will PREVENT the disease.
Disease Management
Some people will develop heart disease due to unavoidable risk factors that they could not control. Some may develop heart disease due to unhealthy lifestyle habits. When disease develops we must provide Self Care to:
-Manage the disease
-Improve quality of life
-Prevent premature death
-Prevent complications of the disease
Once symptoms of disease develop and a diagnosis of heart disease is made, we will have to work harder to maintain a satisfactory lifestyle. \
Disease management would involve any one or more of the following:
Visiting a health professional from time to time
Seeing a specialist
Keeping appointments
Taking prescribed medication and treatment
Medication monitoring
Reporting of side effects
Medical tests.
For those individuals who develop heart disease, the preventative actions must be incorporated with disease management. Self care must continue at home after medical intervention and must include medical follow up.
The best deal in life is prevention.
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