the 5 Keys images
Elson Haas, MD
written by
Elson Haas, MD

Apr 06, 2017

Article Tags: 5 Keys | lifestyle

The 5 Keys to Staying Healthy

 How is your health?

Are you happy with your energy and vitality?

Look at yourself honestly and ask – What needs healing in my life?

What changes are needed for this healing or rebalancing to occur?

Am I willing and able to commit to the necessary changes?

 This doesn’t need to be complicated.

Let me make it simple for you.

You can open the door to your vital self with these 5 Keys to Staying Healthy. They are based on some core principles about health and vitality that I have developed during more than forty years of preventive medical practice.

Focus on Staying Healthy

Often we don’t really think about our health until we lose it – we wait until we get sick or feel unwell before we take action. Staying Healthy means more than just prevention; it means working daily to improve our level of wellness, actually elevating our health set- point. This takes being proactive.

How we look and feel is primarily based on how we live

The choices we make each day are at the heart of this principle. This is not just a concept, but a call to action for us to take personal responsibility for our health. Our habits and behavior patterns contribute to almost every health outcome that we experience, for better or worse. Our lifestyle activities are the first areas to assess in our health review, so let’s first consider that if we want a different result, some things in our life will need to change.

Lifestyle first, Natural therapies next, drugs or surgery last.

When we do get sick and need treatment, these are the guidelines that I follow and recommend for my patients. Of course, I suggest them for you as well.

You First! Your health starts with you!

I invite you to use these 5 Keys to look within yourself and begin to identify what issues are underlying the challenges you face in achieving optimal health. If your blood pressure, or cholesterol, or blood sugar levels are starting to rise, there are many things to do before turning to prescription medicines. Are allergies a problem? If so, what are you reacting to? If it’s poor sleep, are you consuming too many stimulants like caffeine, sugar, or “energy” drinks?

Although aspects of this health review may seem complex, requiring some contemplation, as you probe these questions you will find that you actually have knowledge of, and command over, many important areas of your life—such as what you eat, how you manage stress, and whether you exercise or not. You cannot simply count on your doctors and other health practitioners to point these issues out to you. You know yourself better than anyone else knows you.

By examining yourself in this way, you can begin to unlock the potential for optimal health. Most of us require some reprogramming as well as emotional support to make changes in our daily habits. Figuring out how to incorporate these transitions smoothly into your life is crucial to improving your health, lowering medical costs, and preventing disease.

Of course, there are many factors other than lifestyle choices that can contribute to disease. We can do all the right things and still get sick, so we should not feel like failures when we become ill, but embrace illness as a learning process. Health and medical issues can be mysterious, and it can be challenging to figure out causes and treatments, yet for the most part, when we take good care of ourselves, we attain and maintain better health and vitality, and we are less susceptible to disease. This is just a beginning of course, and you can find more detailed discussion of these topics and in my books. As with many things in life, ensuring that you have a solid foundation is a good way to proceed.

Use these 5 Keys and you can add years to your life and life to your years!

 The 5 Keys Self Survey – do this at the beginning of your lifestyle review and again at the end

How do you rate your Health and Habits in each area?  (10 being the best possible)

  • Nutrition: 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10
  • Exercise:   1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10
  • Stress:        1 — 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10
  • Sleep:         1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10
  • Attitude:   1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10

Ideally, we are 7 or above in all of these areas. If not, the low spots are a good place to begin.