healthy living Archives - Nau & Forever

Poor Health Isn't Cheap

I could go on and on about the risks that unhealthy lifestyle choices and habits can have on you. Your wellbeing, your happiness, and your ability to do what you want can all be dictated by the choices you make or avoid making every day. However, your health can have an impact that’s even easier to measure. Poor health isn’t cheap! If hitting your life expectancy isn’t enough, here are some ways it can hit your wallet, too.

Health care isn’t cheap

Let’s get the obvious out of the way first. Every time you have to go to the doctor, get prescribed medication, or undergo treatment, it’s going to cost you. That doesn’t mean you should avoid getting yourself checked out. However, you could have a lot more of an influence over the costs of your healthcare than you imagine. If you’re on insurance, make sure you’re sticking with in-network providers. Avoid unnecessary treatments by asking why a doctor is prescribing so-and-so. See if the generic medication is just as effective and safe as any of the branded alternatives to keep drug costs down. Becoming a much savvier consumer helps in the medical world just as it helps with all other industries.

Chronic conditions = chronic costs

Blaming people for chronic health issues isn’t kind or fair. However, there serious concerns that a great proportion of chronic cases are preventable. The CDC has released stats that changing three bad habits (lack of exercise, bad diet, smoking) would prevent 80% of heart attacks and 80% of type 2 diabetes. All of us should be taking the health measures that could stop us from being diagnosed with a chronic condition and the lifelong costs of medication and treatment that can come with it. Make sure to get your annual physical as well. You may be able to catch the early signs of chronic illness and make the changes that could pull you back from the brink.

The worst habits are the most effective

When talking about those same habits, we should look at an even more direct way that they affect your finances: the costs of the habits themselves. There are lots of quit smoking calculators on the internet that can show you the exact figures (or a great estimate) on how much you would save every year if you didn’t smoke, for instance. Unhealthy junk food is regularly considered “cheap”, but it has been shown time and time again that you can save money by planning your meals more thoroughly with a slim supply of healthy ingredients. Let’s not forget how much it costs to support overconsumption of coffee or alcohol. Without moderation, everything can be harmful, and everything can be costly.

The costs of the unexpected

There will be health concerns that are no fault of your own, including accidents and injuries. These can have long-reaching effects on your finances, especially if they take you out of work. Filing a personal injury claim if it isn’t your fault can help you recover all of the costs. But having more savings to help cope with some of the costs in the interim can be just as important. Taking care of your health won’t just save you money. It can also give you a little more freedom to build up your savings so that you have some extra protection if you’re taken to the hospital by something you couldn’t have expected or prevented.

Your career could use a boost

This is where we get a little more abstract, but the studies are clear on this. Bad health habits, such as inactivity and poor diet, may be causing you to underperform in your career. Nutrition plays a big role in mental health, and exercise is well known to boost your motivation in all parts of your life, not just at the gym. Better health habits give you more energy, too. All of this combined, you could be a lot more engaged, a lot more motivated, and a lot more productive in your career. Bad habits could play some role in keeping you back from reaching the heights that you’re supposed to. You could really be missing the potential you should be unlocking.

Stress can be a big spender

Emotional health should be a serious concern, as well. Chronic levels of stress are getting more common and, just because it’s not always linked to diet and exercise doesn’t mean it’s not worth talking about. Those issues certainly can play a role, but so can sleep, stressful situations, financial distress, and the like. However, there are clear indications that stress can get in the way of our ability to make decisions with our best judgment. We are more prone to taking risks, and more likely to miss important details because of our distracted mindset. If you’re making risky decisions regarding your finances, then it’s obvious how it can cost you in the long-run.

The insurance impact

If you want to make sure you can get treatment, you are most likely going to need health insurance. As mentioned, the costs of health care and the associated insurance are not low. But bad health habits can drive them up even higher. Most insurance providers will need a lot of information about you, including health habits and your weight. Even life insurance can cost you more if you have bad health habits. It might not seem fair or just, but insurance providers will charge you more if they see you as more of a risk. You might be able to find insurance providers who don’t use those criteria, but you will have more luck lowering your costs by addressing what health concerns you can.

Poor Health Isn’t Cheap

You can and shouldn’t blame yourself for everything that goes wrong with your health. If it’s an accident, down to genetics, or because of addictions, blaming yourself does you no good. However, by taking responsibility for your habits, you can at least ensure that your costs aren’t going to be bloated by expenses that could have prevented. Poor health isn’t cheap so make sure that you make your health a priority!

Looking for tips on improving your health? Check out these healthy choices for a happy life.

how to make healthy living more convenient

Sometimes it feels as though you don’t get a moment to yourself. Between work, a hectic social schedule, a thorough exercise regime, and hobbies, it can often feel like you are literally non-stop from morning to night. So, it’s not surprising that the majority of us feel that our health routines tend to fall by the wayside. After all, they tend to demand a whole lot more time than we feel we are able to give. But it’s important that we do prioritize our overall health and wellbeing. We only have one body and we seriously need to take care of it. The key is convenience! Check out ways to make healthy living more convenient.

Medical Consultations

Let’s start with medical consultations. We are all bound to need to consult a medical professional at some point or another in our lives. Now, many of us put these appointments off. We contend that we can’t get the time off work, don’t want to miss a social occasion, or simply don’t have the time to visit a doctor. But this can all be extremely detrimental to our overall health and wellbeing.

It’s also likely to negatively impact you in the long run, as you will allow problems to worsen and find yourself having to take time off of everything in order to recover. The good news is that you don’t necessarily have to meet up with a doctor in person to resolve your problems. Sure, there are certain situations where you will have to meet up for a formal diagnosis. But there are plenty of times when you could make use of telemedicine. Telemedicine involves contacting your doctor over the phone. It means that you don’t have to sit in the waiting room of the doctor’s practice for extended periods of time, and can pick up test results or raise issues or concerns on an immediate basis.

Prescriptions

If you find that you have a health complaint, and your problem has been acknowledged and identified, your doctor is likely to write out a prescription, which is a formal form of instruction to a pharmacist detailing what medicine or equipment you should be provided with in order to become better. However, the majority of the time, you will find yourself spending a whole lot of time visiting the doctor to be granted a prescription and waiting around in the pharmacy for your treatment to be packed up for you. There are ways to reduce this wait!

Repeat Prescriptions

If you have a regular form of medication that you will have to take for the foreseeable future or an extended period of time, you should consider requesting a repeat prescription from your doctor. This means that your prescription will automatically be renewed and reissued when your current medication runs out. This removes the need to book in for an appointment, as the doctor will write your prescription without having to consult you.

Delivered Prescriptions

If you don’t have the time to wait around a pharmacy while your prescription is sourced and packaged, you should consider having your prescription delivered. This service is available for various products, you can even have Finasteride prescription medicine delivered. This means that your tablets can be delivered to you in the comfort of your own home, hassle-free!

Vitamins

We need all sorts of vitamins for our bodies to function well. There are thirteen essential vitamins alone. Vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin D, vitamin E, and vitamin K are relatively easy to remember. However, vitamin B1 (otherwise known as “thiamine”), vitamin B2 (commonly referred to as “riboflavin”), and vitamin B3 (or “niacin”) tend to be trickier to remember, seeing as they go by different names. Then there’s pantothenic acid (B5), biotin (B7), vitamin B6, cyanocobalamin (B12), and folate (otherwise referred to as folic acid or B9). It’s not all too surprising that the majority of us struggle to remember all of these. But there are ways to simplify the incorporation of each into our lifestyle.

Vitamin Tablets

The easiest way to incorporate all of these vitamins into your life without having to dedicate extended periods of time to researching and sourcing them is to simply take vitamin tablets. These will be readily available at your local health store or pharmacy and you can simply knock them back with a glass of water each morning. Most are available in bulk, meaning you need only visit once in a while to top up your supplies.

it’s important that we do prioritize our overall health and wellbeing. We only have one body and we seriously need to take care of it. The key is convenience! Check out ways to make healthy living more convenient

A Habitual Balanced Diet

Now, vitamin tablets are better than nothing. But the best way to get all of your vitamins is generally to consume them as part of a balanced diet. Now, you may feel that you don’t have the time to start coming up with meal plans that will tick all of the boxes when it comes to meeting your body’s needs. However, once you’ve made a plan, you can stick to it indefinitely. Eating well and consuming all of the vitamins you need through meals will quickly become a habit and something that you do without a second thought. At the end of the day, you have to eat to survive, so you might as well make it something healthy!

Make Healthy Living More Convenient

These are just a few different ways that you can make healthy living more convenient. Sure, you may be an extremely busy individual with little spare time on your hands. But there’s no excuse to neglect your health and wellbeing when there are viable ways to streamline the process!

Want more healthy advice? Check out ways to boost your health here.