I ’ ve been living in London for 5 1 / 2 years now . When I first came to live here , I ’ ve struggled to keep my immune system strong and got sick several times a year . I had throat , stomach and sinus infections , colds and some infections I have never had before . It was a tough time , tough start here in London . Usually , I had a blocked nose once a year but moving to London challenged my body and its defence forces more than ever before . After a couple of years , I got slowly used to it but I still feel that in a city like London I really have to learn how to best protect myself from all the unhealthy influences . And so do you .
london challenges our HealtH
I ’ ve been living in London for 5 1 / 2 years now . When I first came to live here , I ’ ve struggled to keep my immune system strong and got sick several times a year . I had throat , stomach and sinus infections , colds and some infections I have never had before . It was a tough time , tough start here in London . Usually , I had a blocked nose once a year but moving to London challenged my body and its defence forces more than ever before . After a couple of years , I got slowly used to it but I still feel that in a city like London I really have to learn how to best protect myself from all the unhealthy influences . And so do you .
London exposes us a lot to a great level of pollution , noise and hectic . Our mayor said in an Guardian article : “ It ’ s sickening to know that not a single area of London meets World Health Organisation health standards , but even worse than that , nearly 95 % of the capital is exceeding these guidelines by at least 50 %.”
( 4 Oct 2017 , Guardian : https :// www . theguardian . com / environment / 2017 / oct / 04 / revealed-every-londoner-breathing-dangerous-levels-of-toxic-air-particle )
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Most of my friends who visit me are overwhelmed for the first two days . The adverts , thousands of people , traffic , the fast pace of everything here is resulting in a huge overstimulation . And you need to learn how to handle it without getting stressed and frustrated .
I did this calculation the other day and asked myself , how much time have I spent on the tube ? Let ’ s say I travel two hours each day ( from home to work and back ), I found out that I ’ m spending 20 days a year on the tube . 20 days , hallelujah ! These are 480 hours that I am underground . I could workout all these hours or even work or do something else more productive than being squeezed into a sticky hot tube . After my vacations at the sea I often struggle with the bad air on the tube . I get dizzy very easily . Realising that I ’ m spending 20 days a year with commuting and that doesn ’ t include any delays I came to 108 days in total that I ’ ve been spending so far sitting or standing in the tube trains . What an amount of time . 3.5 months !
I am trying to optimise this time by reading books as often as I can . And I ’ ve learned to spend regular times in green areas like parks to give my breathing organs a bit of fresher air . I have not yet researched what long term damages a city life can cause but I am willing to try my best here and take care of my body as good as I can . London is an amazing place to live in and I would never miss it but I ’ ve come to realise that we all pay a price for it . That ’ s why I have dedicated the first pages to exactly that topic , to how we can manifest a healthier lifestyle here in our megapolis .
Things I recommend that will reduce the stress and the amount of pollution we are exposed to : - Live in a residential area with lots of parks around you . - Live also as close as possible to your work or find a job with flexible hours and possibilities to work from home . - Avoid rush hours which means start working earlier ( but also leave earlier ). - Workout outside , even in winter , go to your local parks . - Walk as often as you can , don ’ t take the escalator or lifts . - Avoid Oxford Street as often as you can . - Live in a street that ’ s quite and doesn ’ t disrupt your sleep for instance ( with noisy drunken people , cars or airplanes flying too low over your house ). - Don ’ t live in a house with old windows ( avoid drafts and noise ) - Have a good diet ( and how that could look like will be mentioned on the next pages ).