Seriously, what even is “preventative care”???
To start things off on this blog, I want to talk about preventative care.
You’ve probably heard the phrase “preventative medicine” before, but the definition of that is pretty ambiguous based just on those two words. What this actually refers to is doing things that keep you from getting sick, like eating healthy food, drinking lots of water, and getting lots of sleep. You’re preventing your body from getting sick, even though you’re not sick yet! This is usually a more effective way of staying healthy, as opposed to waiting until you’re already sick and trying to get better by taking medicine, sleeping for 18 hours straight, or converting to a diet of only tea and soup.
Preventative care can be a lot more well defined from a medical standpoint, and there’s lots of great literature out there about that branch specifically.
Aside from sickness, lets talk about BEAUTY!
You can be preventative in a lot of different ways, not just when it comes to getting a cold or a flu. This concept can be applied to something like skincare as well. Rather than waiting for a breakout and having to use crazy harsh chemicals and lots of makeup to try to stop it or cover it up, why not use a gentle cleanser everyday? There’s tons of them out there, for all skin types too. One of my personal favorites is a honey-based facial cleanser, since it leaves your skin feeling clean and smooth every day you use it! A little effort every day for glowing skin is totally worth it rather than having to suddenly scramble for a solution to a nasty breakout!
Aside from beauty, lets talk about HEALTH!
Similar things can be said about aging. A lot of people are really afraid of getting older, which is understandable. Our bodies are constantly changing, but since we see ourselves everyday, we barely notice it. So “getting old” seems like this drastic change, as if one day we’ll have changed so much that we’ll barely recognize ourselves. It’s an odd concept, and it’s so odd that most people reject it, and end up spending lots of time and money trying to “look young” again.
However, there’s actually a lot of preventative care we can take advantage of to make aging less daunting. This can be lots of things like wearing sunscreen (like this fabulous mineral-based sunscreen) or exercising regularly, or even taking supplements or vitamins to help tackle medical problems we’re already facing so they don’t get worse as our bodies get older. All these tiny steps are a little extra work we can put in now to see a huge difference in the future, and a significant decrease in the amount of time any of us might otherwise spend on trying to “look young”.
Firsthand: Preventative care is awesome.
Let me tell you: it is absolutely, always worth it to take the preventative measures. I used to be terrible at making sure I didn’t over work my knees, for example. I have very poor knees, but I love running and lifting weights. For years, I would work out without using any kind of brace or taking vitamins to try and help ease the pain and swelling I would experience in my knees. I would try to stretch more after my workout, or drink a little more water as I was walking home. Nothing seemed to help me though, because after every workout, my knees still hurt.
None of the things I tried would classify as preventative care though. I was trying to solve a problem after it was already negatively impacting my health! Upon realizing this, I got serious about doing things like stretching before my workout, or making sure that I was eating foods that were better for joint health, and trying out supplements like Curamed and other natural-based vitamins. I even started running on an elliptical, to avoid any further impact-related pain. The results were insane, and it’s gotten to a point that my knees rarely cause me problems at the gym anymore.
Basically, take care of yourself. That would be suggestion #1 I have for all my readers, but it’s pretty on the nose. So instead I’ll say: take care of yourself now, so that later you don’t have to think so hard about taking care of yourself. Get into the good habits, be preventative, be proactive! You’ll thank yourself later.