10 tips for a healthy new year

Don’t neglect any pain, make sure to visit your doctor on a regular basis, receive vaccination, maintain a well-balanced diet and don't take to heart. Here are 10 tips to make 5769 a much healthier year
Yedioth Ahronoth reporters

A new year, a new beginning and a wonderful opportunity to change some habits. Some of Israel's leading experts have come up with 10 pointers to help you bid farewell to those damaging elements and start doing what you always wanted. Have a healthy, tasteful and happy year.

1. Take care of your heart, which is the No. 1 cause of death and diseases in the Western world. The arteriosclerosis process which leads to heart attacks and strokes essentially begins in childhood and is often caused due to a high-fat diet. A healthy lifestyle and routine checkups can reduce heart diseases.

2. Make sure to undergo regular checkups. Your blood pressure should be measured once every five years from the age of 20, once every three years from the age of 30, once every two years from the age of 40, and once a year from the age of 50. Your cholesterol and fat levels should be checked once every five years from the age of 65.

Doctor examination – a matter of routine (Photo: Photos)

3. In order to detect colorectal cancer before it's too late, undergo a colonoscopy once every 10 years starting at the age of 50, and a fecal occult blood test once a year. A mammography for early detection of breast cancer must be performed once every two years starting at the age of 50.

4. Receive flu vaccination. The Health Ministry laboratories have already detected influenza viruses among Israeli patients, indicating that winter is already here. As for those who are skeptic, let us just remind you that the vaccination is given to millions of people across the world, it's safe to use, and despite concerns, it does not cause a heart attack.

5. In order to avoid transmitting infections, make sure to sneeze into your elbow rather than into the palm of your hand which you might give to another person.

6. Make sure to wash your hands with soap after using the bathroom and after tending to a sick child.

7. Don’t drink or eat from public or shared dishes.

8. In order to take care of your back, refrain from standing for more than two hours in a row. Get up at least once an hour, move your hands and legs and then sit down again.

9. When lifting a heavy load, bend your knees rather than your back.

10. Don't neglect pain. Pain is your body's way of telling you that something is wrong. For example, lower back pains may point to changes in the spinal column or disc fractures. Headaches may indicate an additional problem, starting from blood disruption all the way to eyesight or brain damage.

Dr. Itay Gal, Shir-Lee Golan, Ariela Ayalon and Noam Barkan contributed to this report