
1 Body
How to sleep, eat, move and use the health system well enough to stay healthy for a long time.
Principle 1. Build your health with small daily habits, and check the risks you cannot feel.
All 16 Body lessons
In Manual order
1.1 · BodyWashing your hands properly
1.2 · BodyGetting water out of your ear
1.3 · BodyBrushing your teeth for two minutes
1.4 · BodyRiding a bike
1.5 · BodyGetting up off the floor without your hands
1.6 · BodySlow breathing to calm down
1.7 · BodyHow to put in a tampon
1.8 · BodyHow often should you wash your hair
1.9 · BodyReading a nutrition label
1.10 · BodySleeping with your phone outside the bedroom
1.11 · BodyDoing 10 full push-ups
1.12 · BodyHow to stretch your hip flexors
1.13 · BodyHow to swaddle a newborn, and when to stop
1.14 · BodyReading a prescription label
1.15 · BodyBooking a doctor's appointment and describing symptoms
1.16 · BodyKnowing your blood pressure
Body topics
All topicsPrinciple 1 and its rules
Numbers are fixed, so you can cite them1. Build your health with small daily habits, and check the risks you cannot feel.
Small daily habits prevent common illness. CDC reports that teaching handwashing in communities cuts the number of people who get sick with diarrhea by 23–40%. Tooth decay is mostly preventable, yet 1 in 5 US adults aged 20 to 64 has at least one untreated cavity. Some of the biggest risks give no warning. About 48% of US adults have high blood pressure, and only about 1 in 4 of them have it under control.
- 1.1Wash your hands with soap for 20 seconds, and brush every surface of your teeth for two minutes, twice a day, with fluoride toothpaste.
- 1.2Protect your sleep and calm your stress: charge your phone outside the bedroom, and slow your breathing on purpose for five minutes when stress rises.
- 1.3Train your muscles at least two days a week, and practise getting down to the floor and back up so you can still do it after a fall.
- 1.4Learn to ride a bike balance first and pedalling second, and wear a fitted helmet on every ride.
- 1.5Read the label: check the serving size on packaged food, and the dose, timing and warnings before you take any new medicine.
- 1.6Know your blood pressure numbers and their category, and go to every appointment with your main concern written down and said first.
- 1.7Match hygiene to your own body rather than a fixed rule, and keep your hips and back moving.
- 1.8Care for a newborn by the safe rules: a snug swaddle with loose hips, back to sleep, head always supported.
























