Every day we here of great breakthroughs in the treatment of chronic illness such as cancer, aids, etc. but as quickly as these are announced the other side of the coin flips and we hear of flue pandemics, heart disease deaths, obesity on the rise. There are many more too.

What then is the answer which we are able to contribute ourselves? It is obvious in a lot of cases that the rise in illness is due to our lifestyle. The amount of food available which is eaten in great amounts, far more than we need. Lifestyles filled with inactivity as we use our cars, lie around the home watching TV, quick snacks and so on.

In the UK during and after the war the population was fit, slim and healthy. This was because food was eaten in season. People had allotments and used gardens to grow food. They also kept chickens in their gardens. This was because food was scarce due to the war shortages.

This meant using energy to tend the food and chickens and eating fresh healthy vegetables. Some people even went out to shoot their food. Meat was available in local butchers but it was a treat and also rationed. Chickens and rabbit supplemented the home-grown vegetables.

There were no cars to speak of and if people had cars, there was no petrol. Everyone walked or used public transport.

It was a hard, austere life but strangely enough research has shown the UK nation was very healthy at this time. Obviously we don’t want to go back to those days but need to look carefully at why they were more healthy than we are today.

In order to help prevent chronic illness we need to look very closely at our lifestyle today and make a determined effort to change any aspects which will contribute to this in later life.

Of course genetics do play a part. Look at parents and forebears for any chronic conditions which are likely to be inherited. Why smoke when one of your parents died of lung cancer for example?

If there are heart problems in your family or other potentially fatal diseases, then watch how you can avoid these as much as possible. Watch your diet, do plenty of exercise, do not smoke or drink in excess. Taking as many positive precautions to avoid the family genes is vitally important.

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