A healthy lifestyle helps improve and maintain the health and well-being of the person. It is a valuable resource for reducing the incidence and impact of health problems, recovery, and coping with the effects of illnesses and medical treatments. It is also a significant resource for healthy ageing and improved quality of life in later years.
We will see the importance of a healthy lifestyle, the factors and habits lifestyle impacts on health, and some health and lifestyle facts an examples.
The Definition of a Healthy Lifestyle
Health refers to the absence of disease or abnormality on a physical, mental and emotional level.
It is also a state of balance and harmony within the body and between the body and its environment.
Lifestyle refers to the patterns of interaction between individuals and their environment, characterised by customs, habits, skills, and values that shape an individual's way of life.
The concept of health and lifestyle are multi-dimensional. Population health considers not only the health of individuals but also the health of populations and communities. This can provide insights into how to prevent or reduce health disparities among different groups.
A healthy lifestyle is defined as a pattern of living that helps maintain or improve one's health.
Some aspects of the flow of healthy living need extra care, attention and refining to achieve balance.
The interaction between an individual with a health condition and their environment is called disability. It encompasses:
- physical and mental impairments associated with body function or structure
- restrictions related to participation/involvement in life situations
- limitations in activity correlating to the difficulty encountered by an individual in executing a task or action
Disability, health, and lifestyle often go hand-in-hand; for example, someone with a disability may have poor health due to inactivity, while someone with a sedentary lifestyle may be at risk for developing obesity or heart disease. Disabilities can also lead to other morbidities.
Morbidity is a term used in medicine to refer to the state of being ill or diseased. It can also refer to the number of sick people in a population.
The Importance of a Healthy Lifestyle
If a person, group or community are not leading a healthy lifestyle, then the body stops functioning within optimal parameters and becomes (more) prone to transmissible and non-transmissible diseases. All bodily systems work together to achieve homeostasis.
Maintaining Homeostasis
The body achieves homeostasis through feedback loops. These feedback loops (systems) detect changes and then take steps to correct them. The systems that maintain homeostasis can be mechanical (temperature) or chemical (acid-base).
Homeostasis is the body's ability to maintain a stable internal environment, such as keeping body temperature, pH levels, and blood sugar constant.
To learn more about Homeostasis and the various processes involved, check out our article!
A summary of homeostasis:
- If the human body temperature drops, the body detects it through thermoreceptors (free nerve endings that sense cold) and starts to generate heat to raise it back to the optimum level.
- If blood sugar levels rise, the body will release insulin to bring them back down.
- The body also regulates its pH levels through acid-base homeostasis, regulating bodily fluids outside cells. This process involves the body producing and using buffers (special substances), which help to maintain a stable pH level.
- The body enables fluid homeostasis through the use of osmotic pressure. This helps to ensure that the body has enough fluid and doesn't become dehydrated.
Without our body's ability to maintain homeostasis, we would all be in trouble because pathogens would more easily hijack our cells. Diseases affect this ability.
Diabetes is a condition that affects homeostasis, specifically, the body's ability to regulate blood sugar levels and insulin. This can lead to a build-up of sugar in the bloodstream, leading to early death or dependence on medication. Similarly, cancer can also affect homeostasis by causing uncontrolled cell growth. This can lead to organ damage and other issues.
Disease
Diseases are conditions that affect the structure or function of a part or all of an organism.
Some transmissible diseases are caused by pathogens, tiny organisms that invade and multiply within the human body. These pathogens include bacteria, viruses, fungi, parasites, and others.
Transmissible is when a disease can be passed on from one organism to another.
Lifestyle factors cause some non-transmissible diseases. To maintain good health, it is vital to adopt a healthy lifestyle. This includes eating a balanced diet, exercising regularly, and avoiding risky behaviours like smoking. However, some non-transmissible aka non-communicable diseases like cancers, diabetes, cardiovascular disease risk, etc., can still be passed down genetically.
Many factors that contribute to a healthy lifestyle are behavioural and genetic but can also be heavily influenced by environmental factors, such as proximity to a source of pollution.
Non-transmissible is a disease that cannot be passed on directly from organism to organism.
Diseases often present complications that shorten lifespans and affect the quality of the "healthspan".
Healthspan Versus Lifespan
Healthspan refers to the length of time a human can live a healthy life. This is in contrast with lifespan, which is the maximum amount of time a human can live.
Healthspan can be measured in several ways but generally includes physical, mental, and social health.
Lifespan can be affected by factors including genetics, lifestyle choices, and access to healthcare.
While lifespan is often used as a measure of overall health, it does not necessarily reflect the quality of an individual's health. Healthspan is a more accurate measure of how long a person can expect to live a healthy life. Therefore, healthspan is a more relevant metric when considering an individual's or population's health.
Given the importance of healthspan over lifespan, it is crucial to focus on strategies to improve healthspan.
Healthy living means a low degree or the absence of impactful morbidities or comorbidities.
Comorbidities refer to more health conditions that a person has or may have simultaneously, as opposed to just one.
When a good balance is achieved, and mortality declines, lifespan increases. They are inversely proportional.
Hormonal Health and Well-being
One of the most prominent mood regulators is hormones. They play a vital role in maintaining homeostasis.
Hormones are chemical messengers that travel through the bloodstream and regulate various body functions.
Glands produce them and are released into the bloodstream in response to changes in the body or the environment.
Some hormones regulate metabolism, reproduction, growth, and sleep in the human body.
As you can see, hormones don't just serve reproductive functions!
The hormone adrenaline is released during stress, preparing the body for fight or flight. When hormones are out of balance, it can lead to feeling anxious, depressed, angry, affect concentration, the aspect of our skin, night-day cycles, and cause us to lose or gain body mass, and this is only a shortlist!
Human Reproductive Hormones
The human body produces several reproductive hormones, including oestrogen, progesterone, testosterone, and human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG). Imbalances in hormone levels can cause various health problems, including infertility, menstrual irregularities, and sexual dysfunction but can also lead to other non-reproductive related issues.
The hormone testosterone is not only essential for reproductive function but also helps to regulate energy levels, bone density, and muscle mass. Similarly, oestrogen plays a role in fertility and helps protect against osteoporosis and heart disease.
Our reproductive hormones affect far more than our reproductive systems.
The hormones that come with menstruation help prepare, stimulate, and maintain the uterus and reproductive health. Understanding fertility can help:
Avoid pregnancy through hormonal and non-hormonal means, but each has its advantages and disadvantages, and none is entirely free of side effects.
Treat infertility through hormonal therapies to improve hormonal functions; they may be expensive or need careful planning, for example, in vitro fertilisation (IVF).
Lifestyle Factors in Health
Health can be assessed at macroscopic (visible to the naked eye), microscopic (visible with a light microscope) and molecular (visible with an electron microscope) scales.
A healthy lifestyle has been shown to reduce the risk of developing chronic diseases, including cancers, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, which are classified as non-communicable diseases. The following table illustrates standard practices that help avoid the emergence of several known chronic conditions:
| Non-communicable disease | Examples of lifestyle prevention methods |
| Diabetes | - reducing refined sugar and refined carbohydrate intake
- shed excess weight with the help of exercise
- avoid smoking tobacco
- use water as the main hydration method
|
| Cancer | - wear sunscreen when sunlight is intense
- avoid smoking and habitually drinking alcohol
- maintain an adequate BMI (body mass index)
- healthy food choices: a complex of vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and amino acids
- get vaccinated and screenings if needed
|
| Cardiovascular diseases | - healthy balanced diet low in saturated fats and refined sugars
- regular exercise
- avoid smoking and alcohol consumption
|
Table 1: Examples of lifestyle habits that help preventing some diseases.
Health and Lifestyle Facts
Early life immunisation and universal healthcare contribute to a global rise in population density and life expectancy.
In 2020, the number of healthy life years at birth was estimated at 64.5 years for women and 63.5 years for men in the EU; this represented approximately 77.6% and 81.9% of the total life expectancy for women and men.1
In the UK, the 2018-20 health expectancy for males and females averaged 63.4 years.
Males born in 1841 could expect to live to only 40.2 years and females to 42.3 years. Improvements in nutrition, hygiene, housing, sanitation, control of infectious diseases and other public health measures have reduced mortality rates, increasing life expectancy to 56 years for males and 59 years for females by 1920.2
There are significant financial costs associated with non-communicable diseases too. According to the WHO (World Health Organisation), non-communicable diseases such as certain forms of cancers and mental health conditions such as Alzheimer's cost billions of pounds yearly.
Only smoking-related diseases still cost the NHS an estimated £2 billion annually.
Some disease treatments are highly invasive or affect other body functions, such as the stomach or liver, influencing one's quality of life, energy levels, nutrient absorption and mood. It is essential to try and prevent disease. An irreversible chronic condition often starts as being reversible.
Before developing diabetes, which is irreversible, people typically go through a reversible stage of pre-diabetes which can last for years.
Awareness of one's genetic predispositions is an efficient disease prevention method!
Healthy Lifestyle Examples
Scotland's national healthy living policy, "Reshaping Health in Scotland: Towards a Healthier Future," outlines some practical methods, including education about healthy eating and physical activity.
In England, there is a healthy food initiative called School Meals, and one called Fruit in School Scheme in Northern Ireland.
Necessary research has been made to assess the health and lifestyle of different human populations.
Now it is recognised that the gut microbiome plays a critical role in body immunity, energy levels and mood.3 Hunter-gatherer societies, such as the Hadza (African indigenous ethnic group), have distinct microbiomes, different from those found in modernised nations. The distinct microbiomes play specific roles in digesting tough plant fibres and integrating the microorganisms ingested from the environment.
Bacterial species considered pathogenic, such as treponema, appear not to be a cause of harm in some studied hunter-gatherer populations. More than 30% of the microbiomes studied presented species that could not be found in modernised nations and may help advance medical knowledge.
Age, sex and other conditions influence lifestyle choices. There are several risky behaviours that pregnant people need to avoid. Smoking, drinking alcohol or taking certain medications can lead to developmental issues and congenital disabilities.
Health and Lifestyle - Key takeaways
A healthy lifestyle must consider personal and group factors, disability, morbidity, behavioural patterns, nutritional patterns, and genetic predispositions.
pH, blood sugar, and body temperature are part of the organism's homeostasis.
Diseases can be transmissible or non-transmissible, but both types are influenced by lifestyle.
Smoking, alcohol intake, lack of exercise and unhealthy weight gain aggravate existing medical conditions or influence their emergence.
Personal hygiene, sanitation, vaccination and all related lifestyle choices are good at encouraging healthy lifestyles. Still, sometimes it can be overdone, for example, when treatments or habits significantly reduce gut microbiota or affect the liver's health.
References
- Healthy life years statistics, EU, 2022, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Healthy_life_years_statistics. Last accessed 30.08.22
- What is happening to life expectancy in England, kingsfund, 2022, https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/publications/whats-happening-life-expectancy-england. Accessed 30.08.22
- The role of gut microbiota in immune homeostasis and autoimmunity, ncbi, 2012, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3337124/. Accessed 10.08.22
Explanations 
Exams 
Magazine 
