I’m not one to go OTT on the health front. By that I mean, I’m not a total hypochondriac or try to prevent every possible negative health outcome. I mean, life is for living, not obsessing. Even about our health. But our health is very much our wealth. We really have nothing without it. So there’s a balance to be struck between being obsessive and lackadaisical. Sensible seems to be a pretty obvious middle ground and where I think we’d all ideally position ourselves. So, if there are any small changes we can make, with potentially big impacts on our health longevity, they are probably worth considering incorporating into our lives. Having recently attended a talk by Dr Sabine Donnai (a health longevity expert) and spoken to medical friends, here are the three super simple, but potentially high impact, changes that we can all make, without much thought, in the hope of prolonging our years of good health!

Dementia runs in my family. Both my maternal grandmother and mother had vascular dementia, so it’s always been at the back of my mind, especially as a migraine sufferer, that if I could do anything to help prevent this, I should. But equally, in the absence of any treatment for dementia, I’ve never been interested in doing a test to determine my pre-disposition to it. Over Christmas, I found myself discussing my concerns with a relative, who also happens to be a very smart doctor, and they advised that such elaborate and expensive testing isn’t the best route to go down. What every over 40-year old should be doing, is visiting their GP for their free over 40 M.O.T.. This is simply a blood pressure check and blood cholesterol test.  But, both of these can reveal a lot about your health and most concerns raised can be easily and effectively treated with the prescription of a statin. Statins are a class of medication widely used to lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels and subsequently reduce the risk of cardiac events and also dementia. So, these pretty routine tests can actually be fantastically preventative and involve very little intervention. It turned out that my cholesterol was fractionally above the treatment level, but was in fact mainly composed of good cholesterol, so no intervention was required. Simply doing these tests offered quite considerable reassurance and peace of mind, which in itself is priceless. So, if you’ve not already had your over 40 M.O.T, I’d strongly recommend you push it to the top of your to-do-list!  It can pick up potential issues which can be easily treated before they become actual problems. So, I’m sure you’d agree it’s a bit of a no-brainer, to make this a priority, no matter how busy you are. Nothing stops you faster in your tracks than a health emergency!

As I’ve mentioned already, I was fortunate to listen to Dr Sabine speak extensively on health longevity. Something I knew very little about and in which she is a world leader. In the simplest possible terms, it’s not about living forever, but extending the healthy years of life for as long as possible. What an incredibly inciteful, knowledgeable and sensible doctor she is. While there is a whole world of tests and treatments available in this field, there are also some exceptionally simple changes we can all make to benefit from disproportionately high health gains. Such as paying particular attention to our oral hygiene. Unbeknown to me, was the fact that bacteria from gum disease can enter our bloodstream, contribute to inflammation and, amongst others, cause the build-up of plaque in our arteries and increase our risk of strokes and heart attacks. This bacteria has also been linked to some cancers. So a big take away from listening to her speak was then need to invest in a decent toothbrush and some floss too.  Because you really want to avoid gum disease or treat it effectively if you have it. As for toothpaste, well, you’ll probably want to make it a natural one. Using a natural toothpaste helps to reduce our exposure to harsh chemicals, artificial preservatives and dyes. I’m a bit of a teeth brushing freak and love my mouth to be minty fresh, so I really wasn’t sure about this change. While it took a minute to get used to the lack of bubbles, I’m now a convert to Kingfisher Natural Toothpaste. It’s pretty brilliant and 100% nasty free!

In addition to having my eyes opened to the importance of oral hygiene to our general health, I almost choked when Dr Sabine brought the issue of hormone water to the audience’s  attention. Especially as I, and almost certainly you, have been unwittingly consuming this our whole lives. While it was not a great shock to learn that the vast majority of our drinking water is derived from treated sewage, it was a huge surprise to learn that this treatment while essentially effective in removing harmful agents, is entirely ineffective in removing hormones from our drinking water. That is, all the hormones consumed by members of the public on HRT and birth control pills, amongst others. So in addition to any hormones we are supplementing ourselves with, we are also getting a share of the rest of the population’s oestrogen and progesterone, every time we take a drink of tap water. And so are our children, our partners, everyone, which is far from an ideal arrangement!!Excessive hormones are not good news. Fortunately, there is a solution to this. It’s in the form of a Reverse Osmosis Water Filter, available on Amazon and the like. While horrified, I’m not yet able to recommend such a filter as I’ve got to work out the logistics of housing one. Thankfully, in the meantime, glass bottled mineral water is a decent substitute too. Glass bottles avoid micro-plastics and the leaching of other harmful chemicals. So, I’ve been relying on this recently to dilute our hormone water intake. I’ll leave this one with you…

As they say, knowledge is power and this, I felt, was too valuable to keep all to myself. But it’s entirely up to you what you do with it. Because at the end of the day, we all have to live the life we love! But, as I’m sure you’ll agree, it’s far easier to love a life blessed with good health.