By John Fike 

Death and illness rates due to cancer, heart disease, obesity, stress and malnutrition today are absolutely ghastly. But how do you guard your health in today’s world?

Here’s a list of 27 ways you can improve or maintain your health so that you can live life to the fullest:

1. Quit smoking

According to the American Lung Association, smoking is directly responsible for 90% of lung cancer deaths and 80-90% of deaths related to emphysema and chronic bronchitis.

Additionally, for every person who dies from a smoking-related disease, there are 20 more people who suffer a serious illness because of smoking, including cancer, heart disease and strokes.

2. Maintain a healthy body fat level

Obesity is directly linked to numerous problems including insulin resistance, adult-onset diabetes, heart attack and cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure and cholesterol, cancer, and back pain.

Decreasing your weight by as little as 5% to 10% can improve health significantly and lower your risk for diabetes and heart disease.

3. Monitor your cholesterol level & blood pressure

These are the two largest indicators for risk of heart disease. Keep them within safe levels through lifestyle changes mentioned in this article or with medication prescribed by your doctor.

4. Reduce caffeine consumption

Caffeine may give you a temporary energy boost, but over time the amount required to achieve that boost increases, making it very addictive.

Caffeine is a stimulant and is linked to increased stress, restless sleep, heartburn, hypertension, high blood pressure, irregular heart beat (increases risk of heart attack), strokes, ulcers, osteoporosis, adrenal gland exhaustion and more. It is also know to cause loss of vitamins in the body, including vitamins B and C, calcium, zinc and iron.

5. Limit alcohol consumption

More than 100,000 people die in the United States each year due to excessive alcohol consumption. In addition to drinking-related accidents, prolonged and heavy use of alcohol can also cause cirrhosis of the liver, cancer and stroke. It’s also linked to malnutrition, sexual dysfunctions, and high blood pressure.

6. Exercise for at least 15 minutes every morning

Morning exercise boosts your metabolism for the day, which leads to increased weight loss. It also increases your energy level and keeps muscles flexible and strong, including the heart.

7. Get a good workout of weight lifting and cardio three to four times a week

The body adjusts to accommodate the level of physical activity that it experiences regularly. So, if you never get more exercise than walking from your car to your house or office, you become prone to injury or disease. A workout of 45-60 minutes three times a week will strengthen all aspect of your body and decrease your risk of injury and illness.

8. Get lots of fresh air

The air in your home and office gets recycled numerous times, especially in the winter when windows remain locked tight. This promotes illness and allergies. Getting fresh air from outdoors will help clean your lungs and improve overall health.

9. Reduce stress

On an average day, an estimated 1 million American workers are absent from their jobs because of stress-related problems. Stress increases risk and severity of every disease and health problem and it decreases your body’s ability to fight illness.

10. Relax and do nothing for 20 minutes at least once a day

Doing nothing for 20 minutes gives the body and mind a chance to re-energize and return to normal—kind of like rebooting your computer when the programs freeze up.

11. Get enough sleep

Most adults need 7 to 9 hours of sleep each night to be healthy. The accumulated sleep debt that results from getting less than that leads to or contributes to high anxiety, decreased work performance, obesity, high blood pressure, moodiness, and increased risk of injury and accidents.

12. Find a hobby

A hobby allows your body and mind to take a break from the usual rigors of the day, thus reducing stress and anxiety while still exercising the mind. Hobbies also increase self-esteem and confidence from the sense of achievement often experienced.

13. Spend time with people you love

Nothing is more healing than the power of love. Humans are social creatures and we need to experience loving, being loved and interacting on positive low-stress levels with other people.

14. Become an optimist

Numerous studies have shown that a positive outlook on life significantly reduces stress and all its accompanying health issues. There is also strong evidence that we attract circumstances that reflect our attitudes, including career and life success.

15. Do something nice for someone

Doing nice things for other people promotes a sense of purpose in our lives. That, in turn, increases self-esteem, develops positive attitudes and decreases stress.

16. Eat more fruits and vegetables

Fruits and vegetables are the best natural source of vitamins and minerals. A deficiency of vitamins and minerals contributes to low energy and numerous health issues.

17. Eat a good, satisfying meal of your favorite foods at least twice a month

Feeling good about yourself and life is key to reducing stress and avoiding health problems. So go ahead and enjoy yourself once in a while—your diet won’t suffer that much.

18. Pray

People who pray are known to feel better about themselves, have more positive attitudes and have less stress. Prayer is also known to increase recovery from illness and disease, including cancer.

19. Get a job/career you enjoy

A job you don’t enjoy is a constant source of stress. Considering all the ways stress contributes to poor health, a job or career you enjoy is worth its weight in gold even if it doesn’t pay as much as a job you don’t enjoy.

20. Spend time each day being quiet in a quiet place

From screaming children at home to street noise, radios and television, noise at work and noise at play, we are constantly bombarded with noise. This creates an overload on our sensory nerves, causing stress and anxiety. Taking time to be quiet in a quiet place gives your nervous system an opportunity to power down reduce anxiety.

21. Read a pleasurable book

Reading a book for pleasure gets your mind off stressful matters, helps you to relax and gets your brain out of its usual rut, which is refreshing and opens your mind to seeing new perspectives. Pleasure reading is part of enjoying life, which you are meant to do.

22. Have lots of sex with someone you love

Sex is a better tranquilizer than any drug and releases endorphins similar to eating lots of chocolate. It also exercises most of your muscles and your cardiovascular system. Sex is enjoyable and relaxing, thus contributes to reduced stress and a more pleasurable life.

23. Don’t bring work home with you

You need to break from your work day or else you will get in a mental and emotional rut that leads to high stress and anxiety and all the health problems that go along with them. Even exercise is unhealthy if you do the same thing every day for too long. Just as your body needs a variety of activities to stay healthy, so do your mind and emotions.

24. Don’t over-commit yourself

Learn to say, “No.” Over commitment is a common source of stress and anxiety among Americans. It eventually leads to unfulfilled promises and decreased self-esteem as a result of emotional guilt.

25. Breathe deeply

Your body needs oxygen for nearly all its biological functions. Breathing deeply increases oxygen supply and lowers heart rate, because the blood doesn’t have to circulate as fast to keep up with oxygen demand. Breathing deeply also helps eliminate contaminants in your respiratory system.

26. Turn off the TV

Television may be entertaining or informative, but it is also taxing on the nervous system because of the auditory and visual stimulation. It can also impact your outlook on life and most television programs have a very negative outlook.

27. Take a multi-vitamin every day

In the modern age of processed and mass-produced foods, it can be difficult to get the amount of vitamins and minerals your body requires each day. A multi-vitamin combined with a healthy diet can help ensure your body gets what it needs.