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Health
Healthy living starts with you
The changing lifestyle of Malaysians
with rapid economic developments
since independence has in fact led to
some unhealthy trends like obesity,
stress and bad habits like smoking
and drinking. From an agrarian
society, which was focused on food
producing and consumption, it has
now become an exporting economy
of food-based products to computer
chips, cars to natural resources like
timber and oil. All these led to massive
construction and booming of towns
and cites with most of the people
involved in white collar jobs and
becoming sedentary while factory
workers were mainly rural based
people with little education and
often misplaced in an urban settings,
leading to alcoholism, gambling, and
other vices. Generally, the lifestyle of
people were deteriorating in terms
of health and diseases like heart
attacks, obesity and others which
contributed to the higher rate of
hospital patients and fatalities.
The Ministry of Health Malaysia has
long advocate healthy lifestyle for
people but majority of people tends
to ignore these guidelines until it
was too late for many of them. The
ministry to address the issues of
healthy lifestyle has carried out many
publications, adverts and public
awareness campaigns but these were
often falling on deaf ears. At least
until recently when more educated
younger population who had been
exposed to these lifestyle guidelines
began to take them seriously and also
helped by the growing awareness
worldwide on going green and
leading a responsible life in relation
to the earth and society. As a result,
more Malaysians are now taking up
healthy living more seriously and also
encouraging others to do so, a trend
that augurs well for the country.
Healthy living is actually quite simple
as it only requires a person to take
up some form of physical activities
on a regular basis while eating
healthy food, managing stress
smartly and not taking up bad habits
like smoking or drinking. Physical
activities need not take up a lot of
time too as these can involve walking
up stairs instead of taking the lift,
stretching exercises while at work,
walking regularly or even breathing
deeply 5-10 times within two hours.
It is even better if you were to take up
lessons or classes in physical exercises
with instructors to ensure that your
body stays in top condition.
Malaysians are a spoilt lot when it
comes to food, as the variety available
is enormous; choosing the right
ones is the key to healthy eating
habits. Varieties of food is good in
moderation, especially based on the
Malaysian Food pyramid while less
consumption of fried and fatty ones
is encouraged as well as less intake
of sugar. It is essentially true that you
are what you eat – the healthier your
food intake, the healthier you will be
and vice-versa. At the same time, the
smoking and drinking habits should
also be cut off.
Working can lead to stress in some
environment, especially if there is no
social support in the workplace. The
best ways to reduce stress while at
work are to practice rational and
positive thinking, communicate
effectively while managing criticism
sensibly. Anger should be acknowledged
and managed with the correct
relaxation techniques while one
should always practice effective time
management. After all there is only
24hours in a day and no matter how
efficient the person is there is simply
not enough time to do everything
so prioritising work is important for
workaholics. In almost all workplaces
stress is always present and overcoming
it is the key to a successful work
environment.
For further enquiries, please call Sarawak Health Department at Jalan Tun Abang Haji Openg,
93590 Kuching, Sarawak. Tel: (6) 082 256566 Fax: (6) 082 424959
Email: sarawakhealth@moh.gov.my or you may also visit website at jknsarawak.moh.gov.my
Apr-Jun2010BorneoTalk | 43