An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure
It’s not easy to explain why one person gets ill and another doesn’t. But there are general patterns to figure out what things we do or eat that can increase our chances of getting ill.
A risk factor is something that increases your chance of getting ill or developing a disease. Protective factors are those that decrease your chances. Some of the risk factors for a disease can be avoided, and some can’t. Although you can choose what your diet consists of, you can’t chose what genes you inherited.
Although many risk factors are avoidable (such as smoking cigarettes), avoiding risk factors won’t guarantee you will not get ill. Also, those with inherited risk factors for a certain disease won’t necessarily get the disease.
The only thing you have control over is lowering your risk factors, and increasing your protective factors. That is no easy task, as many of our diets and lifestyle habits can be improved. But do what you can, that’s all that matters.
- Lea
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