Reform Your Own Health Care (part 1)

Listening to the shouting and--in my opinion--utter nonsense being thrown around during town hall meetings discussing health care reform got me revisiting how inextricably interwoven money, politics, and health care have become.

If you lost your job recently, you may not have the great health benefits you once enjoyed and risk facing insurmountable bills should you fall ill. If you're a child with a life-threatening disease and your laid-off parents can't afford health insurance, you're probably receiving state aid to which we all ultimately contribute.

This crisis has an unrelenting ripple effect.

Then I got to thinking (after feeling incredibly helpless): Why can't we deconstruct this colossal beast and try to simplify a complicated, chaotically spiraling system? We can take action to improve and rehabilitate what we know best -- our OWN health. I can't nit-pick the granular here, but I can try to speak to those who want to make visits to their doctors as minimal as possible. Or to those who just want to embark on a healthier lifestyle where they can deal with barking-mad commutes with a bit more clarity.

Here are three simple steps toward a healthier lifestyle AND a healthier life:

Eating well, and sensibly: You've heard it before, "You are what you eat." I never used to believe this but after practicing physical yoga for seven years, I'm a firm believer of this aphorism. Being in twisty and bendy poses makes you consider (or regret) what you put in your intestines the night before. But eating organic isn't always the cure-all solution. You have to be true to yourself by eating what your body needs. Speaking with a nutritionist or family physician can offer insights into eating more healthfully, but doing some of your own exploring into foods and their nutritional value can expand your palette and perceptions of food so you can eat more mindfully.

People think eating a meatless diet is a "clean" one. Carrying out this ideology, however, may work for one person but be lacking for another. I have two friends who both followed a strict raw food diet. One flourished, had sparkly eyes and needed only five hours a sleep a night; the other was sick all the time, hungry for most of the day, lost hair and had lab test results that showed she was dangerously low in Iron and Vitamins B and D. She was malnourished and going bald! Just because something sounds like a "clean" diet, doesn't make it universally so, therefore deeper investigation into a specific and reasonable diet is required. But we all have to agree at some point that the occasional fruit and vegetable can't hurt!

Sleeping: Before the advent of electricity, people got at least 10 hours of sleep a night. Lucky! Now, studies have shown that adults sleep six hours or less a night. It's time to feed the sleep bank. I know we live in an age of ridiculously low attention spans, high stress, and manic depressive retirement accounts, but The Mayo Clinic lists great tips on achieving better sleep habits to help lull all that.

Enjoying life. Forgive the triteness, but it's true. Happier people make their own surroundings more appealing for themselves and for those around them. I'm the last person with answers on achieving the elusive state of inner peace, but experiments have shown that simple meditation and breathing exercises can slow your heart rate and improve thought processes. There's something to be said about doing whatever floats your boat, but consciously applying techniques that enrich your mental and perhaps spiritual states may be more satisfying and rewarding in the long run.

Check back next week for three more tips on how to take charge of your own health care and feel free to post your own health care reforms in the comments below.