Your body is your vehicle

In many ways, our bodies are like motor vehicles. They both move us around, they are both more fragile than we realise, and they can both cost us a fortune to get fixed! However there are some ways in which we can prevent them from costing us more later in life, and some ways to get them fixed that will prevent further costs as well.

WOF – Medical Check-up

Your car needs to be safe out there on the roads, so every so often you need to have a warrant of fitness performed on it to ensure that it is roadworthy. While these can be expensive depending on what needs fixing to bring the car up to the required standard, I don’t think there would be many people who would say they are not worthwhile.

As you get older your body needs the same attention. While you may not be putting anyone else at risk if there is an undiagnosed issue with your body, you may be putting yourself at risk. By getting regular check-ups with your GP you can often catch issues before they become serious. GP visits may be pricey these days, but if you can afford them, a small investment now can prevent major health issues later.

Service – Exercise/Mobility

Another expense for vehicle owners is a regular service. This ensures all of the fluids are topped up, and a number of other preventative maintenance activities are performed. This prevents excess wear and tear on the vehicle and ensures it is running effectively and efficiently.

Exercise and flexibility/mobility work is very similar. By putting in the time to exercise you are improving your cardiovascular fitness, maintaining your overall health, and ensuring that as you age your strength levels do not decay too much. By including flexibility in your programme you can improve how efficiently and effectively you move around your environment and can prevent pain and strain from overuse/underuse of your muscles and joints.

Fuel – Nutrition

Fuel provides vehicles with the energy they need to get from “A” to “B”. Without fuel, there would be no way to create the power needed to drive the wheels and move the vehicle. The quality of the fuel you put into your car determines a lot about how it runs. If you use poor quality fuel you may get a loss of power or worse. Higher quality fuel, on the other hand, increases the performance and efficiency of your car.

The same can be said for your nutrition. By viewing food as fuel rather than an indulgence it gives us a whole new perspective on what we eat. If we eat high-quality foods we can, in turn, see an increase in our body’s performance. The quality of food we eat determines how much energy we have to use throughout the day, how quickly we recover from exercise, and much more. It also pays not to overfill the tank with food too!

Accidents – Injuries

Accidents can happen at any time and any place on the road. They may be your fault, or you may have done nothing wrong – either way, they still take a toll on your vehicle. There is often damage done to both the visible bodywork of the car and also sometimes to the inner chassis which needs to be repaired. When we have an accident, we do not hesitate to send our cars to the panel beaters for them to have a look and put things right.

Often however we do not afford our body the same care. What you see on the outside after an injury – bruising, swelling, redness, is often only a fraction of what is going on under the skin. There can be bones, muscles and ligament damage to attend to as well as getting the bruising and swelling down. All too often people neglect to see a physiotherapist or doctor when they have an injury. It is not so much the pain and swelling that they deal with now, but also any chance of future inhibition later. If there is underlying damage that is not repaired you may end up walking around with a damaged chassis, which can cause greater hassles and pain later – get your injuries seen to and prevent this from happening.

Breakdowns – Illness

Vehicles can break down mechanically as well. Sometimes parts just wear out or scheduled maintenance is not performed and things go wrong. When they do there are often signs which can be picked up by a layman, even if we are not able to fix them – the car won’t start, the engine temperature gauge is showing the motor is running too hot, there is a grinding noise when gears are changed and many more. When we pick up these messages we take our cars to a mechanic and they charge us an arm and a leg to fix it – unless you know a guy that is!

Our bodies deserve the same attention but they do not always receive it. Males especially have an aversion to seeing a doctor unless on death's door. However, as I mentioned earlier picking up signs and symptoms of physical health issues early can lead to early detection of long term illness which means better chances of recovery. This may sound very heavy, but for me, I would rather get something checked out and have it be nothing than leaving something and have it be serious down the road.

Look after your body!

As you can see above, there are many ways that our bodies are like motor vehicles, but there are just as many ways in which our cars get better treatment. Don’t you think you owe it to your body to look after it with as much care as you would your car? After all it’s the only one you have, you can’t just trade it in for the latest model when the engine seizes.
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