WE CARE FOR YOU

What you eat impacts on your energy levels, your mood, your health and your risk of developing serious illnesses.

There is almost too much advice about healthy eating to digest, and the right advice will depend on how heavy you are for your height (as measured by BMI), your health and any medical problems, your activity levels and your age.

However, there are some common principles which apply to most people:

• Avoid too much sugar and salt
• Get plenty of fruit and veg (at least 5 a day)
• Limit high-fat foods like processed meats and pastries

As we get older – over 65 years – we need to be more careful about eating plenty of protein (which is essential to build and maintain muscle strength) and essential vitamins & minerals especially: calcium for healthy bones, folate (folic acid) and vitamin B12 for energy and health.

Vitamin D supplements are also important for healthy bones, muscles and teeth. The UK government recommend that we should all take supplements during the winter although there might also be some benefit during the rest of the year too. The recommended dose is 10micrograms (400 IU) each day. Vitamin D3 is usually best although people following a vegan diet may find vitamin D2 more useful.

Stop smoking
Smoking harms nearly every organ of the body.

It causes lung cancer, respiratory disease and cardiovascular disease, as well as many cancers in other organs including lip, mouth, throat, bladder, kidney, stomach, liver and cervix.

Smoking significantly raises the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, eye disease and dementia. It also affects bone health increasing the risk of osteoporosis, bone fractures, back pain and degenerative disc disease.

Research shows that expert support from a local stop smoking service gives smokers the best chance of quitting for good – this approach is 3 times more effective than trying to quit without any help. You can find out about your local stop smoking service from community pharmacies and GP surgeries. These services are free and offer a choice of one-to-one or group behavioural support from a trained stop smoking advisor, together with prescriptions.

There is a wide range of stop smoking aids available, including:
• nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) products such as patches, sprays, lozenges and gum
• e-cigarettes (vapes) – nicotine-containing E-cigarettes are around twice as effective as NRTs such as patches and gum. Health leaders agree that although e-cigarettes are not risk-free, they are far less harmful than cigarettes because most of the poisonous chemicals contained in tobacco smoke, eg tar and carbon monoxide, are not in e-cigarette vapour
• prescription tablets Varenicline (Champix) and Bupropion (Zyban) – these double your chances of quitting.

Safe drinking
Research shows that some carers use alcohol as a coping mechanism. Although this is understandable in the face of stress and isolation, it is not healthy.

Too much alcohol increases the risk of all sorts of illnesses including cancer, dementia, or stroke.

Excess drinking can also contribute to feelings of depression and anxiety, whilst making stress harder to deal with. Alcohol also contributes to weight gain, generating lots of empty calories.

Recommended levels of “safe drinking” are now the same for men and women – maximum of fourteen units per week. That is the equivalent of 6 pints of average-strength beer, or 6 medium glasses of average strength wine.

As we get older, we have a higher risk of developing conditions like high blood pressure, heart disease, type 2 diabetes and some cancers.

So it becomes increasingly important to attend health checks and screening appointments to ensure that any emerging problems can be diagnosed and managed as soon as possible.

For most medical conditions, prevention really is better than cure.