Image Credit: Sabrina_Ripke_Fotografie from Pixabay.

Everyone wants to be healthy, but few people actually know how to stay healthy. While quite a few people put effort into dieting and exercising, not enough do. Even those that do put effort into this mightn’t do enough to have as much of an impact as they’d like.

Staying healthy long-term doesn’t need to be as complicated as you could think, however. With a few practical tips and tricks, it can be quite straightforward.

How To Stay Healthy: 3 Quick Options

1. Get Regular Checkups

Regular checkups are vital to staying healthy long term. As people age, their risks of particular diseases goes up. With regular checkups, you’re able to catch these early if and when they develop. Early diagnosis can often be integral to treatment, making these checkups paramount.

You shouldn’t focus on just your overall health with this, however. You’ll also need to consider your sexual health. If you’re sexually active, then you should visit a sexual health clinic regularly. Some diseases - like overall diseases - may not present symptoms for weeks or months at a time.

Make sure to diagnose and treat any conditions as quickly as possible. By doing so, you’ll be better able to stay healthy long term.

2. Wash Your Hands Regularly

Germs are one of the main ways people can get sick. When you’re figuring out how to stay healthy, keeping yourself free from as many of these germs as possible is recommended. That means washing your hands regularly. These can be picked up anytime you interact with an object or the environment.

As a result, you can end up bringing them with you and spreading them elsewhere. Not only does that mean you put yourself at risk of getting sick, but getting other people sick. Using soap is recommended during this process, as that’ll kill more of the germs on your hands.

Make sure to do this before and after eating any meals. 

3. Eat More Plants

Everyone knows that a healthy and balanced diet is vital to staying healthy. Many people could struggle with figuring out what comprises a healthy diet, however. Plant-based foods are well-recommended, thanks to the nutrients the vast majority of them maintain.

Increasing your plant intake while reducing your meat consumption reduces your risk of multiple diseases, including:

• Obesity

• Heart Disease

• Type 2 Diabetes

• Multiple Types Of Cancer

When you’re eating plants, it’s best to keep them in as natural a state as possible. Choose apples instead of apple juice, for example. The more refined a food is, the fewer healthy fibers it has. Whole food plants are also high in protein, which has notable health benefits and helps promote muscle growth.

How To Stay Healthy: Wrapping Up

Figuring out how to stay healthy long-term doesn’t need to be as complicated or time-consuming as you could think. While you could need to make a few adjustments, these should be relatively minor.

With a bit of time and effort, you’ll see the impact they’ll have. What’s stopping you from getting and staying healthy?

 When it comes to eye injuries, it’s usually a type of injury that is thankfully not so common. Sure, there are some things that you simply cannot prevent such as debris flowing in your eye, a stye infection, or maybe as you get older, something like Cataract Implants may very well be needed. Since some things are honestly more difficult to prevent, it’s important to know that there are things that can very well be prevented. Just like other injury prevention tips, the eyes have plenty as well. So, let’s dive right in on some of the best eye prevention injury tips!

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What are the Most Common Causes of Eye Injury?

Eye injuries are a common and serious problem. Injuries to the eyes can be caused by many things such as chemicals, drugs, radiation, smoke, and even from playing sports. The leading cause of eye injury is chemical exposure. Eye injuries are also caused by physical trauma such as falls or other types of physical trauma around the eyes. 

Some things can be easily avoided such as being around harsh chemicals, but others, such as physical injuries (think something like a car accident or a fall) could be more difficult. While it’s important to increase your overall wellness for the better of your body, just know that some things can be difficult to control.

Basic Tips to Protect Your Eyes

There are many ways to protect your eyes during sports, work, and activities. Some of them are more effective than others. Here's a brief list of some ways to protect your eyes from injuries:

1) Wear sunglasses or goggles

2) Use a visor that blocks the sun during sunny days

3) Do not wear contacts while playing sports

4) Use eye drops before and after play

5) Avoid wearing contacts while sleeping

6) Wear protective eyewear when debris may potentially fly into your eyes

7) Stay open to wearing sunglasses when it’s sunny or very snowy

8) Avoid harsh bright lights, even when it’s blue screens such as phones and computers

While these may only be 8 tips, they can be incredibly helpful for you when it comes to your eye health.

Lifestyle Habits That Trigger Eye Strain and Injuries

Not all eye-related injuries are from chemicals and physical trauma. Sometimes, even lifestyle habits can cause this too. A sedentary lifestyle is one of the top triggers of eye strain. Screen time is not always bad. It can be beneficial for some tasks, especially when using a computer monitor. This includes spending long hours in front of the computer screen and not getting enough sleep at night. Other triggers include reading or using a smartphone or tablet for extended periods of time. While there aren’t any physical injuries, the strain, fatigue, and possible blurred vision can be issues.

The risk of eye injuries can be minimized by following these guidelines:

-Set up your monitor at the right distance from your eyes: 20-23 inches

-Set up your monitor at the right brightness level: 100-130 cd/m2

-Use blue light blocking glasses to reduce the amount of blue light emitted from your screen

-Take breaks every hour to give your eyes a break

In general, you shouldn’t neglect any of this. It’s crucial that you take care of your eyes and keep up with healthy lifestyle habits. 

 What Support Do Caregivers Need? 

Caregivers are very special people indeed. These are the ones who look after loved ones and friends who need assistance, and this can very often mean that their own lives become somewhat limited and difficult. Yet without these people, more and more people would have to go into long-term care, so they are crucial in many ways. 

If you know a caregiver, you should know that they are going to need support. They may not want to admit it, they may not even realize it, but they will need some help at some point along the way. Here are some of the things that caregivers are going to need assistance with and how you can help if possible. 

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio

Give Them A Break 

Depending on the level of care required, a caregiver may be ‘on call’ 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This means that they never really get any rest, and they’re not able to do their own thing or take any time for themselves. They don’t get to meet up with friends, go to the store, have a meal out, or simply go for a walk or to the gym. 

If you can step in for a little while and sit with the person they are caring for so that they can go out, leave the house, and re-set their mental state, you could be helping them hugely. Going on for too long without a break can easily lead to physical exhaustion as well as mental issues like depression. 

Help With Caring 

Caregivers are often untrained and have no medical experience, and although they do what they do out of love, depending on the condition of the person they are caring for, additional medical help could be needed as well. 

It might be that a nurse needs to come in once or twice a day, for example, or that a physical therapist visits to do work that the carer is unqualified to do. A CD program can help with these needs, and it’s worth investigating them further. 

Help With Household Chores

Caring can certainly be a full-time job, and that can mean that household chores go unattended because there is just no time to clean up and make things look nice when there is a patient to care for. 

Having someone come in to put the vacuum cleaner around, to dust, to clean the kitchen and the bathroom, or perhaps to cook meals (or bring round home-cooked meals that can be frozen and heated up when needed) is a wonderful way to help out a busy carer. You can hire professionals to do the job, or you – and perhaps a few other friends – can visit and take on the task yourself. 

Someone To Talk To

Sometimes the caregiver simply needs someone to talk to. It’s a hard life, and although they are mostly happy to do the work, that doesn’t mean that they won’t want to rant and express their feelings once in a while. Being there to listen and to offer advice if required can be the very best support you can offer.