Your Most Precious Parts

1. Your Heart

Lose The Tummy
Research has linked fat in the belly, more than in any other area, to hardening of the arteries, which can lead to heart disease. Reduce your waist circumference by avoiding processed food – the trans fatty acids they contain create more belly blubber than other forms of dietary fat.

Know Your Stats
Get your blood pressure and cholesterol checked at least once in your twenties. Your BP shouldn’t be more than 120/80 and your total cholesterol should be less than five millimoles per litre of blood. Left unchecked, high cholesterol and blood pressure can clog your arteries and increase your risk for a heart attack later on.

2. Your Liver

Watch What You Drink
The more cocktails you strain through your liver, the more likely you are to damage its cells. This increases your chances of developing cirrhosis – scar tissue in the liver that can cause liver failure and death. Aim for no more than one drink – where “a drink” is one shot of liquor, a glass of wine or a bottle of beer – a day.

Muscle Up
Fatty deposits in your liver can cause inflammation and scarring, which can contribute to liver cirrhosis and cancer. Add lean muscle to your frame by lifting weights and eating protein with every meal.

Use A Condom
Use your head in bed: hepatitis B and C can be transmitted through unprotected sex.

3. Your Lungs

Stop Smoking
The better shape your airbags are in, the less likely you are to get sick – and to keep them pumping, you need to quit smoking. Ninety percent of lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is directly attributable to smoking.

Slim Down
When you carry extra weight, your respiratory system has to work harder to keep your organs properly oxygenated. A recent study found that losing 10 percent of excess body weight (that’s just two kilograms if you’re 20kg overweight) improves lung capacity by five percent.

4. Your Pancreas

Lead A Healthy Lifestyle
The pancreas creates insulin – the hormone that regulates your blood sugar. The steps you take to care for your other organs – not smoking, maintaining a healthy weight and exercising regularly – will keep your pancreas healthy too.

Load Up On Fibre
Fibre reduces the risk of gallstones – tiny pieces of crystallised cholesterol that can cause pancreatitis, a nasty condition that can lead to pancreatic cancer. One study found that people who ate two or more servings of high-fibre whole grains a day (equal to about a cup of high-fibre cereal) had a 40 percent lower risk of developing pancreatic cancer than those who ate one serving or less daily.

5. Your Brain

Get Enough Shut-Eye
The most important thing you can do for your brain is get enough sleep. Get too little and your memory can be affected, as the brain may not go through enough deep-sleep cycles for the solidification and storage of memories. Eight hours should do the trick.

Work Out
Aerobic exercise can boost the generation of new cells in the memory areas of the brain. You need at least 15 minutes of cardiac exercise three times a week for your brain to reap the benefits.

Eat Right
There is considerable evidence that omega-3 fatty acids help keep the brain healthy and may even slow age-related damage. Try for several servings a week of omega-3-rich food such as salmon, sardines, walnuts and free-range beef.