The idea of health prevention is linked to actions aimed at avoiding diseases . These are measures that seek above all to prevent the outbreak of a disease but, once it appears, they also try to stop its advance and minimize its consequences .
Health prevention, also mentioned as health prevention , aims to promote care of the body and mind. It is important to keep in mind that, according to certain data from the World Health Organization ( WHO ), more than 60% of the deaths that occur each year around the world are due to chronic non-communicable diseases , the progress of which is could stop or slow down with timely medical attention.
In this way, a health prevention program can help minimize the development of chronic respiratory diseases or cardiovascular diseases , for example. For this, doctors are responsible for promoting physical exercise and healthy diets and modifying the patient's harmful habits (such as smoking and a sedentary lifestyle ).
It is common for the notion of health prevention to be confused with the idea of health promotion . In this second case, it refers specifically to activities aimed at improving health and quality of life and providing each individual with greater control over their own health.
Many times the State gives great importance to health prevention as part of public policies. In Mexico , to mention one country, there is the Undersecretary of Prevention and Health Promotion , which has attached units such as the National Center for Preventive Programs and Disease Control and the General Directorate of Health Promotion , among others.
One of the first pieces of advice that we can find within the framework of health prevention is to have medical check-ups with a certain frequency , as recommended by specialists in each field. This point seems simple but takes on a certain degree of complexity when we relate it to factors such as age , clinical history and any other that generate exceptions or particularities in a certain group of individuals compared to others.
For example, the medical check-ups that children must undergo are not the same as those of a person of thirty, fifty or eighty years old. The same happens when certain conditions or chronic diseases come into play, which alter basic needs. Health prevention experts must deal with people who do not care at all about their health (to try to raise awareness), with those who carry this aspect of their lives with a certain balance (to give them advice that helps them improve). and with those who exceed precautions (to teach them the healthiest limits).
Above we mention the importance of physical exercise, another of the pillars of health and well-being in general. What better way to take care of our body than using all its corners, from the brain, for thinking, to the legs, for walking? We all have tastes and preferences, but we should not turn these differences into an excuse to deactivate a large part of our body in pursuit of what interests us most. That we love reading is not a good enough reason not to go for a walk on the beach, and so on.
Immunization against contagious diseases is another of the fundamental points of health prevention. The general regulations of the health system encourage parents to ensure that their children receive the required vaccines , and thus begins one of the immune defense strategies that many maintain until old age. In the case of certain epidemics and pandemics, measures must be extreme to the point of keeping a certain distance from others.