Stay Alive and Healthy: 10 Tips to Prevent an Untimely Death
Nearly one million Americans die of premature deaths each year. As much as 40 percent of these deaths are completely preventable diseases. The other half can be attributed to carelessness or bad decisions.
Are you in control of your life? Do you know your health risks? There are ways to prevent an untimely death, but you have to be open to eating a slice of humble pie.
While not all deaths are completely avoidable or even detectable, living a long life is about being prepared for anything. If you want to live to see triple digits, follow these tips and be consistent.
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1 Don’t Smoke
Yes, we’ve all see the commercials on TV that warn you about smoking, but more than 200,000 kids become new regular, daily smokers each year. In states where marijuana is legal, kids may have higher chances of having access to marijuana even though state laws are stringent. Smoking will definitely lead to an untimely death sooner, rather than later. Whether it is heart disease or cancer, smoking will steal many years away from you.
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2 Avoid Street Drugs
To our younger readers out there: you take a risk every time you use street drugs. It doesn’t matter who your supplier is, one bad batch laced with something else can result in a very tragic death.
Getting hooked on hard drugs is another very real risk. Nobody has successfully used hard drugs their entire lives and lived to tell about it. Think about all the successful musicians who have died from overdoses. Don’t follow the footsteps of those singers who died young.
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3 Don’t Binge Drink
Swearing off alcoholic beverages completely isn’t necessary to live a healthy life. In fact, we know that a glass of wine can do good for your health. Where people run into trouble is their lack of self-control.
Binge drinking is a vicious cycle of indulgence, regret, and physical consequences. The toll that binge drinking takes on your liver is so severe, it is often too late by the time most young drinkers reach their 30s. Cirrhosis of the liver is a one-way street.
Being on the list for a liver transplant due to alcoholism is a grim situation. It is very difficult to find a donor before the situation takes a fatal turn.
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4 Don’t Buy a Gun
Buying a gun for protection sounds like a normal and rational choice if one feels unsafe where they live. The problem is that guns don’t deter crime, as multiple studies show. Owning a gun won’t prevent a robbery, it will just make the situation more dangerous.
Thousands of children die from guns each year, thousands die from accidental firing, and improper handling. Take the gun out of the equation and you reduce your risk of dying from one.
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5 Diet and Exercise
It’s hard to emphasize this key to living a long and healthy life any more than you already hear. If you don’t watch what you eat and you don’t get enough exercise, then you’re making your body work harder. When you have that extra stress on you, whether that’s more body fat or muscle atrophy, you feel it.
All your major organs, including your heart, are being stressed. That begins to take years off your life over time and increases chances of disease.
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6 Don’t Live Beyond Your Means
Stress is a huge killer, but it is often a silent killer. When you’re constantly stressed out over bills and responsibilities, it increases your health risks. Your blood pressure stays high and your risk for depression goes higher.
Living a humble life may seem boring on the outside, but on the inside, you are able to enjoy more and worry less. This is especially true for seniors who choose their path to retirement.
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7 Wear Your Seatbelt
There’s nothing more untimely than being ejected from your seat and onto the concrete. Car accident deaths aren’t always preventable, but wearing a seatbelt can and will save your life. Front passengers can decrease their risk of death in an accident by 45% by wearing a seatbelt.
Cars are becoming safer than ever, but all of that goes to waste if your body is not secure.
Seatbelts save tens of thousands of lives each year. Utah lost 102 people from highway crashes, which is up from the previous year.
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8 Don’t Be a Daredevil
Going skydiving or bungee jumping is one thing, risking life for a thrill is another. Adrenaline junkies like to push the envelope and forgo control to venture into the unknown. If you decide to stand on the ledge of a skyscraper, jump into ambiguous waterfall ponds, or climb a cliff without safety ropes, then you must accept potential death.
Are you ready to die for a cheap thrill? Some of us have a lot of life left to live.
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9 Take Your Time
Don’t rush into operating heavy machinery or potentially hazardous situations. Would you jump on an ATV or jetski without any prior experience? If you answered ‘yes’ to that, then you have to realize these vehicles can go haywire.
Losing control of a vehicle that can crush you or knock you unconscious to drown is a pretty terrible way to go.
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10 Never Make Risky Assumptions
Cooking with propane? Messing with electricity? Moving heavy items upstairs? Check and double-check your surroundings and don’t allow an assumption to take your life. There’s a lot of unnecessary risk involved in seemingly pedestrian situations.
Look no further than everyday situations on the road. People walking without looking both ways, drivers making turns without stopping, and speeding down neighborhood streets.
Prevent an Untimely Death
There are a lot of tragic deaths that happen around the world to good people. Avoiding an untimely death is about using all the resources around you to live your healthiest life. Prevention starts with researching the things that you do have control over in your life.
Controlling what you put into your body should be one of your top priorities. If you’re interested in learning some life-changing habits, head over to Get That Right’s health blog. You’ll find plenty of lifehacks, diet secrets, and personal development ideas.
Once you change your outlook on life, you can take the path that leads to prosperity and longevity.
