Dr Onen’s top tips for preventive care

Prevention is better than cure. Here are Dr Onen’s six tips, based on lifestyle medicine, to prevent ill health.

Physical activity

Try to be active every day. This could simply be a 20-minute walk, ideally in nature. It will improve your cardiovascular health, reduce stress and blood pressure, help burn off excess sugar and reduce cholesterol levels, lowering your risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke and even dementia.

Mental wellbeing

Rest as much as possible. It’s a biological necessity, but a forgotten art. For every four hours of work, we advise one hour of good restorative rest. That doesn’t mean scrolling endlessly. It might be reading a book, chatting with a friend, a gentle stroll, or relaxing in the garden. This helps reduce stress, cortisol levels and blood pressure.

Minimising harmful substances and behaviours

We can’t say it enough: stop smoking and reduce alcohol. But social media and excessive phone use can be harmful too. Try to minimise how much time you spend scrolling, and talk to people or do an activity instead. Your stress levels will improve, which is protective for both your physical and mental health.

Healthy diet

Remember, we are what we eat, and we feel how we eat. If we fill ourselves with poor-quality, ultra-processed foods, our gut microbiome will be adversely affected. By improving the quality of our food, freshly cooked, lower in sugar, fat and salt, and with plenty of variety, we encourage a good, diverse microbiome that protects both our physical and mental health. A statement attributed to Hippocrates is that “all disease begins in the gut”, which may initially seem like an exaggerated claim. However, scientific research has increasingly supported the idea that the gut plays a fundamental role in our overall health and wellbeing, and that its impact on the development of disease is profound.

Sleep

Try to make sure you get enough sleep every night. Adults of working age ideally need seven to nine hours. To achieve this, give yourself the opportunity to have it: wind down earlier in the evening, bring your bedtime forward, and stop using your phone in bed, which we know hugely delays when people turn out the lights. Sleep is the foundation of our health, and we all know how much better we feel after a good night’s rest. It’s an active process during which the body heals and repairs, and it’s key to preventing both physical and mental ill health.

Healthy relationships and fun

Make time for the people around you. Social connection is not a luxury. It’s one of the strongest predictors of long-term health we have. Research suggests loneliness carries a risk to health comparable to smoking around 15 cigarettes a day, and it is linked to higher rates of heart disease, stroke, dementia and depression. So call a friend, eat with your family, join a club, get to know your neighbours.

And finally, have fun. Doing something that gives you joy every day is hugely protective for both your physical and mental health. It lowers stress levels and blood pressure, improves sleep, and makes life a lot more fun. Even 10 to 15 minutes a day can help.