On World Health Day, 7 April 2021, the whole world will be recognizing International World Health Day. This global event will be focusing on The Year of the Health Care Worker. Why does that matter? Let’s look at what you need to know.
What is World Health Day?
The World Health Organization (WHO) international event first took place back in 1950. Since then, each annual event has shed light on a specific health topic. Previous years themes have included Depression, Diabetes, Food Safety and last year focused on the Nurses and the Midwife.
World Health Day 2021 Theme
Since 2021 is the official International Year of the Health Care Worker, it’s only fitting that this year’s World Health Day theme matches. The day, this year on April 7th will aim, through advocacy activities and campaigns around the world – to shine a light on all the work that these dedicated health professionals do daily.
The World Health Organization has drawn up a list of secondary goals, including:
- Ensure the world’s health and care workers are prioritized for the COVID-19 vaccine in the first 100 days of 2021.
- Recognize and commemorate all health and care workers who have lost their lives during the pandemic.
- Mobilize commitments from Member States, International Financing Institutions, bilateral and philanthropic partners to protect and invest in health and care workers to accelerate the attainment of COVID-19 recovery.
- Engage Member States and all relevant stakeholders in dialogue on a care compact to protect health and care workers’ rights, decent work and practice environments.
How to Get Involved in World Health Day 2021
You can get involved and show some support for World Health Day 2021 in a variety of ways. Here are some world health day event ideas, first, check to see what local events are going on near you, then look at the WHO’s list of simple ways in which you can play your part when April 7th comes around. Here’s a summary of some of the things you might do:
- Send a letter to leaders: Sending letters to politicians could be a good place to start. Asking them how they are helping health care workers could spark real change or at least bring the issue to the forefront of leaders’ minds.
- Say “thank you” to a health care worker: Sometimes, a simple thank you can go a long way. Saying thank you to all of the workers who displayed amazing professionalism in healthcare. It could take the form of sending some flowers to someone in health care who has treated you recently. Alternatively, you can take WHO up on its suggestion to share on social media using the hashtag #SupportHalthcareWorkers.
- Start a petition: If you’re truly passionate about helping health care workers, why not start a petition to support positive change? Use one of the many online services to raise awareness, spread the word, and gather signatures.
- Spend a day in the life of a health care worker: Do you think you could do what a nurse or other health care worker does? Why not see if you can shadow one of these health care professionals for just a day to see what they really do? It’s another of WHO’s suggestions.
How to Protect Your General Health
While World Health Day comes around once a year, you should take care of your wellness the whole year-round. This isn’t easy when you’re busy or stressed, but finding simple ways to look after your general health should be your top priority. Being active and eating well are two good places to start.
Be Active
Do you lead an active lifestyle? If you work in a sedentary job or spend all day sitting down, it could be harmful to your health. The American Society of Cardiology suggests that leading a sedentary life for 20 years can double your risk of early mortality. Although your job role might dictate that you stay seated throughout the day, there are still things you can do to improve your everyday activity levels.
Don’t panic if you’re not naturally inclined to go to the gym. You can exercise without hitting the treadmill. One of the smartest things you can do is to build exercise into your usual routine so that you hardly even notice you’re exercising. Why not find out what is the right exercise for you based upon your dosha or metabolic type.
Eat Well
Eating well means eating a healthy, balanced diet; not eating more food! You’ve no doubt heard the expression, “You are what you eat!” and we know that what you eat can have an impact on your risk for heart disease, auto-immune diseases, and type 2 diabetes. However, it is also a little more nuanced than that. You are also what you can digest. So any digestive problems like gas, bloating, acidity, constipation, heartburn, or IBS-type symptoms is an indicator that you are not able to access all the nutrition in your diet.
For any digestive problems try our 7 Steps to Great Digestion.
Learn About Your Genetic Disease Predispositions and Current Health
Your genetic makeup plays a big part in your health, so if you’re hoping to protect your everyday wellness, learning more about your DNA or biomarkers could make a big difference. One of the easiest ways to do this is by taking a genetic test. In our programs, we do genetic testing so that we can know you down to the molecular level. This knowledge is then combined with the information from an Ayurveda consultation to create a comprehensive Ayurveda wellness plan that meets your specific health needs – Are you eating the right foods in the right seasons? Are you getting up at the right time, going to bed at the right time? Are you doing the right exercises to get the best results for your specific metabolic type? Does your genetic makeup tell us that you may have a predisposition to certain health risks that we need to account for? Does the genetic test tell us that some foods that otherwise seem fine may actually be the cause of things like weight gain, low energy, or stress? It is really important for your health to find the answers to all of the above questions.
The Final Takeaway
World Health Day on April 7th is an important date – so go ahead and put it on your calendar. As COVID-19 has highlighted, some people are able to live healthier lives and have better access to health services than others – entirely due to the conditions in which they are born, grow, live, work, and age. In our communities, some groups struggle to make ends meet with little daily income, have poorer housing conditions and education, fewer employment opportunities, experience greater gender inequality and have little or no access to safe environments, clean water and air, food security, and health services.
Our health care workers are on the front lines and there are lots of ways you can get involved in making health care workers feel more supported and appreciated, which is this year’s theme.
This is also a time that you can take the opportunity to review your personal health, perhaps by taking a DNA test as part of a health program to see what health conditions you could be predisposed to or suffering from. We are becoming more and more aware of just how much-personalized medicine, rather than medicine for the masses, can benefit an individual. It’s the way of the future in health care.
In health,
If you would like to know more about how our personalized programs that include genetics can help you – we invite you to sign up for a free chat with Kerry just to chat about your health challenges and see if this is the right fit for you.
