‘Prevention is better than cure.’ A popular and well-known adage, isn’t it? Yet many of us use this statement as a piece of mere advice or an awareness post on social media without understanding what goes into prevention.
But what exactly is prevention, and how can you prevent a health risk?
To understand prevention, you need to know what makes you unhealthy and how to take care of yourself to live your healthiest, best life. Let me explain a few ways how you can do this:
- Know Yourself –Self-care and self-examination are essential aspects that contribute to good health. Check your weight, BMI, sleep patterns, diet, and mental well-being. Diet changes, physical activity, regular yoga/meditation sessions, proper sleep, and enough hydration can help you build a more robust immune system.
- Know Your Family-Know your familial health conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, coronary artery disease, and cancers. Watch out for signs, age of onset, and lifestyle conditions that contribute to the occurrence and progression of health condition that already runs in the family.
- Know Your Surroundings- Environmental factors plays a vital role in the onset of diseases like dengue, malaria, acute gastroenteritis, and many infectious diseases. In addition, many pulmonary illnesses, such as asthma, bronchitis, and COPD, are related to environmental pollutants and irritants.
- Know Your Habits- Alcohol, smoking, substance abuse, or frequent late nights can eventually cause irreversible injuries to our body systems. Many lifestyle behaviors also contribute to the burden of cancer. Gastric cancers, colon cancers, COPD, lung carcinoma, and liver cirrhosis are common conditions that are caused by our habits and can be fatal.
Now, let me introduce you to the most advanced and accurate mode of knowing yourself – GENES!! Genomics studies a person's genes (the genome), including interactions between those genes and the person's environment. Our genes are vital in deciding our current and future health conditions.
Genetic testing can reveal the genetic markers that may impact our health. It helps identify disease risks, screening, and occasionally for medical therapy. The good news is that these tests are now simpler than ever.
Mapmygenome provides genetic testing solutions – preventive as well as clinical genomics. These tests help you to know what kind of conditions or diseases you might be prone to in the future by assessing our family history, lifestyle, medical history, and personal history. Then, after analyzing with a gene database, the report gives a risk score analysis for more than 100 health conditions. These genetic tests are the most advanced and once-in-a-lifetime test that explains our health in one go!
Mapmygenome provides genetic counselling which is a significant part of genetic testing. Genetic counseling is essential before genetic testing to educate people on the process and potential results of the testing. Counseling is important after receiving your genetic test report. The counselor can explain the results and correlate them with your family health history. You can focus more on the causative factors of a particular condition and alter your lifestyle. As a result, you can delay the progression of the disease and thereby make the disease prognosis better.
So let's start right away with
- Regular medical checks
- Physical activity & stress relief measures
- Adapting a healthy diet & sleep habits
- Maintaining adequate hydration & rest
- Keeping up with hygienic surroundings
- Preventive genetic testing
