Many factors influence our health; from biomedical factors such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels, to behavioural factors such as whether we smoke, drink alcohol or get enough exercise. Factors that influence the chance of ill health, disability, disease or death are known as risk factors. Some risk factors are said to be ‘modifiable’ because they can be eliminated or reduced through changing our behaviour, or through changes in our environment. For example, a person who is obese may change their exercise and eating patterns to lose weight.
Lifestyle as defined by Google dictionary is the way in which a person lives; It includes day to day behaviors and functions of individuals in job, activities, fun and diet. Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.
In recent decades, life style as an important factor of health is more interested by researchers. According to WHO, 60% of related factors to individual health and quality of life are correlated to lifestyle.
A lifestyle choice is a personal and conscious decision to perform a behaviour that may increase or decrease the risk of injury or disease. There are so many lifestyle choices that affects our health; these can be positive and negative lifestyle choices.

Some negative lifestyle choices may include;
Not doing enough physical activity,
Being too sedentary i.e. sitting or lying down for long periods
Having an unhealthy diet e.g. eating too much or too little, eating too much fat/sugar/salt
Not getting enough sleep or having erratic sleep patterns
Smoking
Alcohol; drinking too much and/or too often
Too long screen time
These unhealthy lifestyles usually increase stress, trigger depression, results in obesity/being overweight, lead to coronary heart diseases, increase the likelihood of cancer, lead to type II diabetes, results in osteoporosis, create poor muscle tone and posture, result I more falls in older people and reduce life expectancy.

Positive lifestyle choices that can improve your health include:
Drinking enough water to stay hydrated and reduce intake of sugared beverages
Exercise regularly and be physically active
Keeping track of your body weight
Limit unhealthy foods and consider swapping out fast foods for whole grains, lean meat, nuts, fruits and vegetables
Get enough sleep (you can keep your immune system functioning properly by getting 7 to 8 hours sleep each day)
Reduce sitting and screen time; people who spend a lot of time operating computers are at high risk of vision impairment, diabetes, heart diseases and stroke.
Desist from smoking, you deprive your heart and blood of oxygen which is vital for your body functioning. Smoking also ignites the growth of plaque arteries causing blood to cloth.
Generally maintaining a healthy lifestyle will help increase life expectancy, promote confidence and self-esteem, generate happiness, improve memory and concentration. This will as reduce stress/prevent depression and prevent long term illness such as atherosclerosis.

Ajadi Abdullah O.