A healthy lifestyle and the pharmaceutical industry

With the exams coming up, my resolution of taking better care of myself, that combined with a little bit of laziness, I haven't done any posting lately. But to let you guys know I'm still around I thought it would be a fun thing to show you my presentation for the English exams this year.

I'm following the study to become a pharmaceutical assistant and that's why the assignment was to give a presentation about a subject that has something to do with the pharmacy or medicine. Almost everyone from my class was going to talk about their internship from last year, since it's pretty easy to talk about something that you've experienced yourself. But I wanted to challenge myself some more, so I decided to choose a different subject: A healthy lifestyle and what it has to do with the pharmaceutical industry.

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1. What does nutritious mean?

All of you probably know that vegetables and fruit are better for your health than cookies and fries. But not every product is as nutritious as the other one. In general, nutritious or nutrient-rich means that the product contains a lot of vitamins, minerals, fibers, carbohydrates, proteins, (healthy) fats and water. Unfortunately, there isn’t a product that contains all of these, so that’s why it’s important to have a varied diet with a lot of different, preferably non processed, foods.

2. Examples of highly nutritious foods/products.

As I said, it’s important to take in all of these different nutrients so that your body can function properly. To give you an idea of what kind of foods you have to eat to be or to get healthy, I will give some examples (of course, there are many more options than just these).

Vitamins and minerals:

• Kale > vitamin A, B6, C and K1
• Blueberries > vitamin C and E
• Dark chocolate > fiber, iron, magnesium and copper

Protein:

• Eggs
• Nuts > almonds and pistachios
• Oats

Healthy fats:

• Salmon
• Shellfish
• Avocado

Carbohydrates:

• Buckwheat
• Bananas
• Sweet potatoes

And last but not least, our bodies consist out of water for 60% so that’s why it’s important to drink approximately 2 liters of water or tea a day.

3. A healthy diet and the impact on the human body.

I think it’s clear for everyone that too much or to less food isn’t good for our bodies. Because when you take in too much you can become overweight and when you take in too less you can become underweight or undernourished. Besides the weight issue, you can also develop all kinds of diseases and conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure and heart diseases. The main cause for those diseases is obesity. Eating foods that are loaded with sugar, fats and calories can add extra weight to your body, which makes your organs have to work harder. Also, when your cholesterol level is too high your blood won’t be flowing as smooth as it normally would, because the fat in your blood will make your veins more narrow, which eventually can lead to heart diseases.

Unfortunately. getting a disease isn’t excluded when you follow a healthy lifestyle but it definitely can decrease this risk.

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4. A healthy diet and the pharmaceutical industry.

People who suffer from an illness often use a lot of medication. Sometimes it’s necessary, for example for someone with cancer because that person won’t survive without a treatment. But in some cases a healthy diet and exercise can do a lot for a patient. Studies have shown that a person that suffers from diabetes profits from a healthy lifestyle, which sometimes makes the medication unnecessary for them.

But when general practitioners or doctors don’t point that out to patients, they continue to take in those unnecessary medicine. Which is a good thing for the pharmaceutical industry, because they earn money because of that, but it’s often to the disadvantage of patients because medicine always have side-effects.

5. Is medication the easy way?

I did some research for my presentation and I found out that only 1% of the general practitioner study in the Netherlands is about lifestyle. That’s a bad thing in my opinion, because why would you put chemicals in someone’s body if they can heal themselves with food?

Nevertheless, I think the whole healthcare system is under a lot of pressure and it takes a lot of effort, from both the doctor and the patient, to change someone’s lifestyle. So yes, I think medicine are often the easy way because both sides don’t want to put in the energy, time and/or money.

6. Two positive and two negative points about highly nutritious food.

Positive:

• It’s a good thing that a healthy lifestyle and a healthy diet are more promoted these days and I think that if the environment supports it well enough it really can prevent people from getting sick.
• Another positive thing I think is that you can heal yourself with food.

Negative:

• A negative thing is that medicine are very easily prescribed when people suffer from something, especially when it’s a problem which could be solved by a healthier lifestyle.
• I feel like highly nutritious food and a healthy lifestyle are over-promoted sometimes. It’s a good thing to be aware of what you consume, but I think it's 'healthy' to consume something unhealthy now and then as well.

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In ten days I will hear if I passed the exam and what grade I've got, so lets hope for the best!

Did you enjoy being a teacher for 5 minutes? I hope you did:D

Lots of love,
Dymph