LIFE is short, so the saying goes. It is as true in Myanmar as anywhere in the world, with male life expectancy here ranging from 61 to 63 years, and females 63 to 65.

But what should we do to get the most out of our short time here, and hopefully prolong it? Professor Kyi Kyi Thin, the head of the Department of Microbiology at the University of Medicine (1) in Yangon says health is the most important factor in quality of life, an index that measures liveability in a city, region or country.

“If a millionaire is in the bed with chronic disease, he won’t have perfect quality of life. However rich a person may be, they cannot enjoy life without a good health. So if we want to stay happy and healthy, we should work to prevent diseases before they happen,” Dr Kyi Kyi Thin said.

While we can never completely stop the threat of disease there are some simple steps we can take to improve our health and reduce the likelihood of getting sick.

First and foremost of these is diet, Dr Kyi Kyi Thin said. A good diet is balanced, and contains plenty of fresh food, including fruit and vegetables. Fad diets should be avoided, as they often focus on one food group to the neglect of others. There is also no place for smoking and excessive drinking in a healthy lifestyle. While there may be some benefits associated with limited alcohol intake, heavy drinking is often a factor in diseases like cirrhosis and liver cancer.

Earlier this year, researchers at the University of Iowa’s Carver College of Medicine also found a link between smoking and premature aging. “Smoking can accelerate the aging process and shorten the lifespan by an average of more than 10 years,” according to one of the researchers.

Dr Mi Mi Ko, from the Myanmar Medical Association, says unhealthy lifestyle habits, like smoking and drinking, are often picked up when people are relatively young and parents had a responsibility to teach their children proper lifestyle habits, including regular physical exercise.

But health is not the only aspect of quality of life. General physician Dr Saw Win says he believes there are three aspects to quality of life; physical health, mental health and spiritual health. To attain a high quality of life, we should eat nutritious food, should have sufficient sleep and should reduce the stress and strain in our life, he says.

According to news magazine The Economist, health, material wellbeing and political stability are the most important factors in quality of life. These are closely followed by family relations and community life.