A healthy lifestyle is not for us

Healthy lifestyle fashion – when will it come to Russia?

Ekaterina Taranova, KM.RU

Someone will say that it has been fashionable for ten years to be "healthy and rich, not poor and sick," but this is not so. After all, even for the rich, one of the reasons for the desire to earn a lot is that for money you can improve your lost health in an elite clinic. The poor, however, earn only to survive, and with what kind of health is the tenth thing.

How and where do Russians "spend" their health? There are a lot of ways! And not only "backbreaking work" is among them. As you know, any holiday in Russia is accompanied by alcohol and so much food that you could easily go on a little trip with the money spent. In the province, and not only at the spare door of every shopping center, you can see girls with a cigarette – having got a job as a sales consultant that is absolutely unpromising in terms of career growth, they have no choice but to fill the working day with frequent smoke breaks. But what about the young people? Those who still do not want to wander the streets with a can of beer in their hands often turn out to be white crows surrounded by peers and even more so - they are afraid to join the army, because there they will be "forced to drink and smoke" – it is well known that those who do not go for a smoke break dig trenches.

Many argue: they say, the increased promotion of a healthy lifestyle from the TV screen and from the pages of print media has already got it. They talk while sitting in front of the TV with a bottle of beer in one hand and flicking the ash from a cigarette in the other. What kind of fashion for a healthy lifestyle can we talk about at all?

Unfortunately, the vast majority of Russians who are busy getting their daily bread remember their health when it has already been lost. Well, our people do not want to live happily ever after. And for good reason: and to what? After all, the pension will be so small that it will only be enough to pay for housing and communal services.

By statute and by factMeanwhile, voices continue to sound from the high stands that "the fashion for a healthy lifestyle has come to Russia."

So, this topic is voiced in the reports of ministers, and they are supported by representatives of government structures, movie stars and celebrities. But if the new fashion, for example, for clothes, is perceived with a bang at least by young people, then the fashion for a healthy lifestyle in our country is still moving forward with difficulty.

Meanwhile, the developed countries of the world have long made a choice in favor of health. If you ask an Englishman or a Japanese what he does in his life for his own health, an exhaustive answer in a detailed form will follow. And what are we doing? Practically nothing!

Health in Russia is still not a public and personal value. Russians are not inclined to think of health as their own precious resource. More than a third of Russians do not care about him at all, and among those who say that they care, most do it only in words. This factor is key for the dynamics of morbidity.

According to the World Health Organization, human health is a social quality, and it consists of such parameters as:

• deduction of the gross national product for healthcare;
• accessibility of primary health care;
• the level of immunization of the population;
• the degree of examination of pregnant women by qualified personnel;
• nutritional status of children;
• average life expectancy;
• hygienic literacy of the population.

On the other hand, each of us may well take a critical look at what condition of life is not observed and how much our health suffers, for example: quality and lifestyle, nutrition. After all, more than half of Russians live in conditions that do not correspond to the average level of social well-being.

Health is laid down in the human genome from parents. But how many children are born completely healthy today? Statistics say: about 25%. So, the rest need to apply a lot of strength to strengthen their health.

According to WHO, the leading risk factors for morbidity in Russia are high blood pressure, high cholesterol, smoking and alcohol.

Finland can be cited as an example of the effectiveness of rehabilitation measures. So, in the early 70s of the last century, there was the highest mortality rate from cardiovascular diseases in Europe. The government sounded the alarm, measures were taken. People realized the problem and changed unhealthy habits. For 25 years, all efforts have been aimed at improving the health of the nation, such as: normalization of nutrition, reduction of smoking and drunkenness. As a result, the mortality rate from cardiovascular diseases in Finland decreased by 65%.

However, examples are examples, but we live in Russia. Smoking in our country is almost the main cause of diseases and premature death of the population. More than 230 billion cigarettes are smoked annually in the country, which makes Russia one of the five leading countries in tobacco consumption. If the trend in the spread of addiction continues in 2030, the contribution of smoking to mortality will reach 70%. At the same time, it is important to remember that everyone is free to choose whether to smoke or not!

Alcohol abuse is also one of the most important causes of disability and mortality in our country. So, Russia has reached one of the first places in the world for its use. At the same time, the true amount of alcohol consumed cannot be estimated – due to the complexity of determining the volume of its artisanal production.

We have a very low level of male life expectancy. The average Russian man lives only 59 years. For comparison, a Japanese man is 79 years old on average. This is because the stereotype of male behavior in our country allows and even encourages alcohol consumption, drug addiction and smoking as a way to overcome stress and an element of image.

Eh, young people...Drug addiction, substance abuse and other vices of modern society affect the demographic situation in the country.

We owe a lot in the current state of things to the generation whose youth fell in the 90s - then the image of a young slightly drunk man with two weeks of stubble was fashionable. Now this generation has grown up. And many of its representatives do not particularly want to work, and after all, maintaining their health is a certain effort and work on themselves. Not to mention the fact that funds are sometimes needed for treatment, too.

Of course, the popularization of a healthy lifestyle may irritate someone. But hardly anyone will argue with the fact that young people who wash their hands in blood on horizontal bars do better than getting a stomach ulcer from addiction to cocktails in jars.

Help yourself!What to do?

You need to start with yourself. It is hardly possible to talk about the educational process when you yourself are a consumer of semi-finished products and have a full set of bad habits. To instill a love for a healthy lifestyle in your child, each of us rethink the principles of our existence.

Most of our compatriots do not attribute the concept of "health" to the category of social prestige, preferring other manifestations of success. But in vain! You can't take a car and a mansion with you to the next world. In addition, there is little joy from material benefits in old age if a person is burdened with a whole bunch of sores. Meanwhile, the main factors determining a healthy lifestyle are unknown, perhaps, only to an infant: the absence of bad habits (alcohol abuse and tobacco smoking); balanced nutrition; physical activity; regular medical examinations; compliance with work and rest.

All these principles are very simple. It remains only to follow them. But here, despite all the propaganda of a healthy lifestyle, people do not want to do even basic things, such as running, hardening and reasonable nutrition. And for this, after all, you only need a little motivation and discipline.

To keep fit, it is better to spend time with friends who are passionate about a healthy lifestyle, Australian scientists have found. So, among other things, you also need to choose the right environment for yourself!

The voice of the peopleOf course, to find out the truth about the fashion for a healthy lifestyle, it is better to ask not the Minister of Health, but ordinary citizens about it.

Here's how people answer the question in blogs: when will the fashion for health come to Russia?

• Only when alcohol is no longer promoted in Russia. In our country, it is believed that the more you drink, the cooler you are... Sorry...
• He (a healthy lifestyle) is already fashionable and popular, even already nauseous from the constant twisting of this topic.
• Hurry up! But only when the vast majority of our population will not survive, but simply live.
• When people realize that there are a million pleasant opportunities to spend money not only on booze and snacks to it.
• If all the beer, vodka and cigarettes run out, then yes! And then hardly…

After reading such answers, I involuntarily recall an anecdote on the topic: if a Russian is asked: "How do you feel?", he answers: "I feel, but it's bad."

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru09.12.2013