Preventing Hernias: Lifestyle Choices and Risk Reduction

New parents and people growing old most commonly would like to know how to prevent hernias. This is because young children and older adults are the people who are most susceptible to getting them. While it is not guaranteed that hernia prevention tips can help you completely prevent the condition. They can certainly help you in reducing hernia risk significantly. Additionally, the lifestyle choices used to reduce your risk of any health condition can help you live a healthier and more fulfilling life. So, let’s review the various hernia risk factors and how to follow a healthy lifestyle for hernia prevention.

Hernia Risk Factors & Lifestyle Changes That Can Help You Prevent Them

• Build Core Muscle Strength

Hernia generally affects your abdominal or pelvic wall. If you practice exercises that strengthen the muscles of your abdomen or pelvic floor, it will help you build core strength and reduce the risk of hernia development. Building core muscle strength can also help you build strength of your entire body and help with some of the other risk reduction tips mentioned below.

• Learn Technique Before Heavy Lifting

Even though this tip is to help you prevent hernia, learning the right technique before you lift heavy things is a crucial tip for your general well-being as well. The key is to learn how to lift with your legs and not your back. You may have heard your gym instructor always telling you this, but the reason is mainly because lifting with your back strains the abdominal muscles, which increases your risk of hernia, if you keep doing it constantly. Learn the right technique and it will help you lift better while also allowing you to keep your hernia risk in check.

• Maintain Healthy Body Weight

This is generally good advice for your overall health, but it also has benefits in keeping your hernia risk in check. Maintaining a healthy body weight helps reduce the extra pressure on your abdominal muscles that comes with being overweight and the fat accumulating in your abdominal region. The best way to maintain a healthy body weight is to eat healthy and exercise regularly. You can use a BMI chart to understand if you are obese or overweight and work accordingly to reduce your body weight slowly. You must do it slowly and gradually as you will know in the upcoming points.

• Focus On Your Posture

Lifting, and maintaining a good posture in everyday activities like sitting or standing can also help reduce your hernia risk. When you sit or stand with a bad posture, it increases the pressure on your abdominal muscles, especially when you are sitting and standing for a long time. Fixing your posture allows your body to reduce the unnecessary pressure on your abdominal muscles, which reduces your risk of hernia. Quick note, having a bad posture today won’t generally result in a hernia. However, if you don’t change your habits, over time as your muscles grow weaker, the additional pressure of bad posture on your muscles will increase your hernia risk factors or might even cause them.

• Don’t Lose Or Gain Weight Too Quickly

As mentioned in a previous point, gaining or losing weight too quickly is harmful for your health. This is because rapid weight gain or weight loss puts a lot of stress on your abdominal muscles. It increases your risk of hernia. The key is to sustainably and gradually lose or put on weight. It is also important to note that drastically losing weight can be a sign of underlying health conditions too, so it is important to take that seriously and talk to your doctors about it.

• Quit Smoking

This is again generally good health advice, and it also has benefits in reducing your hernia risk. Smoking weakens the connective tissues in your body and even impairs the blood flow, which increases the risk of hernia development. Smoking can also cause numerous health hazards, which makes it best to quit the habit for good.

• Treat Constipation (if you have it)

If you need to strain during bowel movements that significantly increases your risk of hernia. Constipation over a long time increases the pressure on your muscles, so you should add more fibres to your diet if you are suffering from constipation. If it doesn’t help your situation, you need to seek medical help for your condition. Treating your constipation if you have it, is very important to reduce your hernia risk over time.

• Manage Chronic Cough

Chronic cough is one of the conditions commonly caused by smoking regularly. Even if you are not a smoker, living in an area that’s heavily polluted can also contribute to developing a chronic cough. This condition puts a lot of pressure on your abdominal muscles repeatedly. To mitigate your risk, you need to understand the underlying cause for your chronic cough and fix it. It will help you keep your risk of hernia in check and live a generally healthier life.

• Be Mindful of Your Body

Being mindful of your body requires you to pay attention to any discomfort you may be experiencing. Pain in your abdominal muscles or any unusual bulges in your body need to be checked out by a doctor as soon as they appear. This will help you get an early diagnosis, which is ideal to help you treat any condition. Similarly, if performing any activity is putting a lot of pressure on your muscles, try avoiding that activity or talk to your doctor about the pressure you are experiencing. Often fixing your form or learning better technique in terms of performing such activity can help you relieve the pressure and lower your hernia risk factors.

• Stay Hydrated

Staying hydrated is good for your overall health. In terms of lowering your hernia risk, staying hydrated can help you prevent constipation, which helps reduce your hernia risk. When you are exercising regularly and eating healthy, staying hydrated can help your body maintain itself better and generally help you maintain a healthy body that lowers your hernia risk.

Conclusion

These are some of the most successful hernia prevention tips that can help you reduce your hernia risk factors. Following a healthy lifestyle for hernia prevention is extremely important as hernia requires surgical treatment in most cases, which may be a problem for many patients. Check out our website to learn more about hernia treatment in Delhi. We at MASSH specialise in minimally invasive surgeries that can help you treat every type of hernia with minimal hospital stay and quick recovery. Visit our website or book an appointment with us today and avail our world class medical services.