Question

Share an experience with health messages. What was the message? How was it communicated to you? Did it impact you? Why or why not? Share a web or video link to the health message if available. please explain, thank you.

Answer 1

I would like to share my recent experience that I had during the lockdown and which I think will last for quite a long time from now. I was working as a permanent employee in a healthcare when a sudden lockdown was announced in March and I was asked to be at home for some days. During that time I thought of making some extra money by doing work online. I started a couple of freelance work which paid well but demanded long hours to spend on the laptop. I really liked to work for hours on the system as they provided a hefty sum of money but what I did not take care of was my meals. I stopped cooking food on my own and started having readymade food items or ordered them everytime from the nearby restraunts and food trucks. There was no physical activity involved in any of my work as I loved to sit and sleep on one place and have everything there. I even took less sleep in order to make more and more money and by the end of three months saved a good enough amount to have a 30 days Europe trip. I was so much involved in making money that I did not even noticed that within a short period of time my weight increased upto 10lbs. But one day while doing the work I felt a sudden head ache and dizziness. I took a pain killer but it didn't go away. At last I have to visit the same hospital where I worked. All the co-workers were surprized to see my condition. I was looking bulky. When my pain was diagnosed, they found a significant rise in the blood pressure. What I didn't mentioned earlier is that I also experienced shortness of breath more than a couple of times which I didn't took seriously at that time. But the physician told me that I have done too much damage to my body in a short span of time that it will take a very long time to get all the conditions normal. Empty carbohydrate in the fast food has altered my body's natural insulin response and spiked my sugar level. My body felt swollen due to high sodium level and fluid retention. Elevated blood pressure and high sodium levels were responsible for causing the headache. The doctor also warned me with the chances of developing congestive heart failure if I don not control my obesity and cholestrol level. In short, I was a happy person all the way and suddenly there was a lot of sadness in life. I was so busy in earning more money that I forgot to even pay my health insurance premium and hence I have to bear all the cost of treatment and medication. Hence, most of the earned money is lost and I have to be dependent on medicine now for most of the time.

So the simple lesson that this experience taught me is that health should always be prioritize over money and it is better to make some effort to make our own meal rather then taking it on our convenience.