Catch the signs. Listen to your body
The body is very intelligent and it tells you everything that you need to know if you listen carefully. Think of your body as a machine. If you take care of it, oil it and allow it to rest, it will function optimally. But if you neglect it, don’t take care of it and overuse it, it will malfunction. In other words, your body will serve you long and well, if you take care of it and nourish it. Good health is key.
If you have a stomach ache that has been nagging you for weeks or a headache that refuses to budge or a recurring gum infection, your body is telling you that it needs help. We are so busy with our lives and adhering to our commitments that we let our health take a backseat. We end up ignoring such nagging pains and discomforts. If the pain is interfering with our daily life, we pop a painkiller or an anti-inflammatory, hoping that it will subside. We brush it past us when our family members ask us how we are feeling, and say it’s nothing as we run along from one meeting to the next. This neglect can really cause a lot of harm to our body. It is important to value our wellbeing and take matters into our own hands early by allowing medical practitioners to help. Your body is a very comprehensive system that is giving you signs every day; signs to sleep more, signs to slow down and signs to stress less and you have to follow an intuitive approach and listen to it.
My aunt had a nagging stomach ache and bloating that wouldn’t go away for weeks. Her appetite suffered because she would feel bloated and uncomfortable all the time. Every time I asked her if she wanted to seek medical assistance, she would brush it past her and quickly say it was probably something she ate yesterday. It wasn’t until much later that we all decided to take the matter into our own hands. She lost a lot of weight very quickly which worried all of us. When she went to the doctor, they ran a battery of tests to find that she had ovarian cancer. I only wish she had not ignored the signs so that we could have started her treatment a lot faster.
In modern day society, our bodies are exposed to a host of stressors of the environmental kind (pollution, dust or pollen), food (pesticides, hormones) and daily life situations (traffic or bad weather). Our bodies look at these stressors as stress and the body starts to fire up the fight or flight hormones (adrenaline) to help adapt. However, while short-term stress is not harmful, repeated exposure or chronic stress can predispose the body to innumerable health and lifestyle diseases like cardiac diseases, high blood pressure or hypertension, diabetes and a stroke.
India has earned the notorious reputation of being diabetes and heart disease capital of the world. Naturally, these lifestyle-related diseases can take a toll, financially and emotionally on the family of the patient. Early detection can be a small but crucial step that can help the patient and the family plan for anything that lies ahead. To minimize any unprecedented shocks that may take a toll on the family, it is imperative that you check with your GP on your risk factor and make sure your routine blood work and medicals are up to date. Log onto www.listentobody.com and book your comprehensive health check-up now. Don’t neglect the signs, #listentobody and your body will reward you in the long run.
