Habit and Health - (Second Series)

Author: Jiang Zexian
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-05-01
Features: When it comes to the word "habits," many people dismiss it. In the 1950s, the World Health Organization informed humanity that the major diseases threatening human life and consuming medical resources were no longer natural infectious diseases but were closely related to social factors, psychological factors, human lifestyles, and human behavior. The epidemiological model of diseases shifted from the biomedical model to the bio-psycho-social medical model. In the early 20th century, the leading causes of death in the U.S. population were pneumonia, tuberculosis, and gastrointestinal diseases. Today, the main causes are heart disease, cancer, cardiovascular accidents, and accidental injuries (excluding car accidents), followed by pneumonia, influenza, car accidents, diabetes, liver cirrhosis, arteriosclerosis, and suicide. The factors causing these diseases are no longer bacteria and viruses but rather mental stress, overwork, dietary habits (high fat and high salt), and lifestyle habits (lack of exercise, smoking, and alcoholism). For this reason, medical measures have shifted from treatment-focused to prevention-focused, and prevention efforts have shifted from preventing natural epidemics to preventing man-made environmental pollution and harmful lifestyles, with equal attention given to physical and mental health. Habits, ased and consolidated behavioral patterns, possess characteristics such as diversity, fundamental differences, temporal and social regionalism, stability, and variability. Since habits are behaviors, they can be good or bad. Without a doubt, bad habits are of no benefit to society or personal health, and they all fall into the category of correction, change, and elimination. How are habits formed? Which habits are good? Which are bad? What kinds of habits benefit health? What kinds harm health? This is the purpose of writing this book. Although "habits" is a frequently used word in daily life, few people truly understand and recognize them. Do you remember when the SARS pandemic suddenly struck? Posters promoting the change of bad habits were pasted everywhere on the streets. Overnight, people realized how important it was to ventilate windows, wash hands before meals, and wear masks when changing clothes. Thus, it became common to see people wearing masks on the streets, households opening windows and doors, and everyone washing hands before meals, avoiding wild animals. These fully demonstrate that habits can be changed. Two years later, some people's bad habits resurfaced, leading to a renewed hunt for wild animals and a disregard for handwashing and changing clothes. This shows that cultivating good habits and changing bad ones both require a process. In this process, how to establish the connection between habits and health, how to recognize various good habits, and how to cultivate these habits—these are the contents of this book. For you, for your family, and for your descendants, please read this book. Many of the knowledge in it should be practiced in daily life, yet you may have overlooked, forgotten, or been unaware of them. Please make this book your friend—it will tell you everything about habits and health.