One of the pillars is to avoid anything can damage our health, prevention is better than cure essentially. I don’t want to preach so this is information about alcohol, smoking, drug use, etc and not a sermon. You can read this, take it on board and maybe make a few tweaks if you think that is helpful. Or you can ignore it completely and carry on as before. Of course if you already don’t drink, smoke, take drugs or gamble then you are already bossing one of the 6 Pillars already. Woo hoo! 👏😀

For a bit of background this is what the British Society of Lifestyle Medicine say:

Lifestyle Medicine facts: harmful substance misuse

  • 24% of adults in the UK regularly drink over recommended guidelines

  • Alcohol is responsible for 4% of disease globally. Contributing to more than 60 different medical conditions

  • Smoking kills five million people worldwide every year

  • 16% of all accidental deaths involve alcohol

  • 7/10 people in professional occupations drink over guidelines compared to 5/10 of those in manual occupations

Alcohol

I saw recently that low level drinking is still harmful and can increase our risk of developing cancer and cardiovascular disease. And that there is a debate on whether to add health warnings to labels on alcohol to help people make better choices. Would that work? I’m not sure that it would but for some people it might.

I think that instead we need to be better aware of what we are doing. I am of the age where in my 20’s and 30’s I wasn’t having fun unless I was hammered. And the limits of how many units were ‘safe’ (and how much is an actual unit anyway?) was higher than it is deemed now. So knowledge of how much I was drinking was guesswork at best. And would I have cared or changed then? Probably not, I was having way too much fun. I can’t drink like that anymore, my body just doesn’t like it. However, I am sure there are still people in my generation and older who are drinking more than they realise.

So what is a unit?

I’m sure we all know that one pub shot of a spirit is 1 unit. One pint of lower strength beer/lager (3.6%) is 2 units, but if higher strength (5%) it’s 3 units. And a standard glass of wine is 2 units, not one like I thought… 😳 Check your favourite tipple on the NHS website so you can be sure of what you are drinking. Are you regularly drinking more than 14 units a week, or all 14 in one weekend? If so, you can make an informed decision on what you drink from now on. If not, well done!

Smoking

I don’t really need to say much about this other than, if you smoke, I would highly recommend that you get help to stop immediately. There is no safe level of smoking. Whenever I read or listen to anything about living a long and healthy life and avoiding heart disease, the number one thing on the list is always: Don’t Smoke. There is growing talk of vaping being almost as damaging. So as a route to stopping the fags, great, but don’t replace smoking with long term vaping. If you need to, you can get help from the NHS and it’s all free.

Other Harmful Behaviours

Use of recreational drugs, excessive internet use and gambling are also addictive. They may make us feel good temporarily but long term are harmful.

Replacing Harmful with Positive Behaviours

Replace unhealthy ways to “feel good” and manage stress with healthier options like exercise, spending time in nature, getting enough sleep, eating nutritious foods and looking after your gut health, meditating, enjoying music, and building better social connections. Of course, I would say exercise but it really does give a feel good factor that last’s longer and gives you a helping hand in every day life.