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Lifestyle and medicine choices for better healthLifestyle and medicine choices for better health

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Making changes to your lifestyle and the way you use your medicines may improve your health.

Your lifestyle can directly affect your health. Lifestyle changes may help you avoid illness or enable you to reduce the dose and/or the number of medicines that you take.

Regular exercise, a healthy weight, not smoking and alcohol in moderation may improve blood pressure and cholesterol levels and reduce the risk of lifestyle related diseases such as heart disease and diabetes. Depending on your circumstances, it is not always easy to make these changes. Please seek help from a qualified healthcare professional to address underlying factors that are preventing you from changing to a healthy lifestyle.

Quit smoking

Many diseases are caused by smoking, and quitting can have immediate benefits for your body. Nicotine replacement products work for some  people. These include nicotine patches, gums, lozenges, tablets and inhalers. Some prescription medicines can help reduce the urge to smoke. Quitting smoking is tough and often requires additional support. Call the QUITLINE on 131 848 or speak to your doctor or pharmacist.

Eat a balanced diet

Healthy eating is a vital part of good health. A balanced diet means eating a variety of foods to get all the nutrients you need. Eat 5 serves of vegetables and 2 serves of fruit a day.1 Eat wholegrain products (e.g. bread, pasta and cereals), legumes like beans and lentils, lean meats, poultry, fish, and low-fat dairy products. Reduce your intake of salt, sugar and saturated fat. Drink at least 6–8 glasses of water a day.2 For more information, speak to your doctor or a dietician about a balanced diet.

Alcohol in moderation 

Adults should consume 2 or fewer standard drinks on any one day to reduce risk of harm from drinking.3 If you drink alcohol, some alcohol-free days each week may help your body recover from the effects of alcohol.

Alcohol can affect your balance leading to falls and serious injuries. Mixing alcohol and medicines can be harmful or make the medicine less effective.4 It would be safest not to mix alcohol with medicines. Talk to your doctor or pharmacist about the interaction between your medicines and alcohol.

Be active

Physical activity can reduce your likelihood of developing serious conditions such as diabetes and heart disease, and helps prevent a range of other conditions. It is recommended that you do at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity each day, either all at once or in 10 minute sessions. Moderate activity is equal in intensity to a brisk walk.5 Walking and using the stairs are good ways to keep active and maintain muscle strength.

People with chronic conditions such as heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and arthritis can improve these conditions if they exercise safely.5 If you are not currently exercising and are not sure if exercise is safe for you, please speak to your doctor. You can get more information from the Australian Physical Activity Guidelines.6

Maintain a healthy weight

Recent figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics indicate that 1 in 2 Australian adults are overweight.7 Carrying extra weight around your waist increases your risk of developing type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Recommended and risky waist measurements for the above mentioned chronic conditions are in the table below.8


 Male Female
Recommended 
waist measurements		 Below 94 cm Below 80 cm
Increased risk 94–102 cm 80–88 cm
Greatly increased risk Over 102 cm Over 88 cm

For more information, talk to your doctor, community nurses or other healthcare professionals.

Know your medicines

As your health improves through a changed lifestyle, ask your doctor if your medicines should change. You may be able to reduce your dose or stop a medicine altogether.

It is important to know what your medicine is for, how much you take and how often, what times of the day to take it, whether or not to take it with food, what to do if you miss a dose, and possible side effects and interactions with food or other medicines. Ask your doctor or pharmacist for the consumer medicine information (CMI) leaflets for your medicines.

Keep an up-to-date medicines list to help keep track of your medicines. Take your medicines list with you each time you visit your doctor, pharmacist or other healthcare professional.

For more information

Contact the Medicines Line on 1300 888 763, or the National Prescribing Service at www.nps.org.au, or the Consumers’ Health Forum of Australia at www.chf.org.au.

We acknowledge the valuable assistance in the review of this resource by Diabetes Tasmania.

NPS and CHF are partners in the Community Quality Use of Medicines program.CHF_logo

 

 

References

  1. Go for 2 & 5. Australian Government. http://www.gofor2and5.com.au (accessed on 29 September 2008).
  2. Nutrition and healthy eating. Department of Health and Ageing. Australia, July 2008. http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/health-pubhlth-strateg-food-index.htm (accessed on 29 September 2008).
  3. Australian alcohol guidelines for low-risk drinking. National Health and Medical Research Council. Department of Health and Ageing. Australia, February 2009. http://www.nhmrc.gov.au/your_health/healthy/alcohol/index.htm#sum (accessed on 6 March 2009).
  4. Harmful interactions: Mixing alcohol with medicines. National institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. USA, 2007. http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/Medicine/medicine.htm (accessed 6 March 2009).
  5. FamilyDoctor.org. American Academy of Family Physicians. USA, 2009. http://familydoctor.org (accessed on 29 September 2008).
  6. Physical activity guidelines for adults. Australian Better Health Initiative. Australia, October 2008. http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/health-pubhlth-strateg-phys-act-guidelines (accessed 29 September 2008).
  7. Australian Bureau of Statistics. National Health Survey 2004–05: Summary of results. ABS cat.no. 4364.0. Canberra: ABS.
  8. How do you measure up? Australian Better Health Initiative. Australia, December 2008. http://www.measureup.gov.au (accessed on 29 October 2008).

Date published: 2009-04-21 00:00:00

Reasonable care is taken to provide accurate information at the date of creation. This information is not intended as a substitute for medical advice from a qualified health professional. Health professionals should rely on their own expertise and enquiries when providing medical advice or treatment. Where permitted by law, NPS disclaims all liability (including for negligence) for any loss, damage or injury resulting from reliance on or use of this information. Read our full disclaimer.

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