City of Cape Town Link

Staying healthy

A healthy society is the foundation of a healthy city. We work closely with all our communities to ensure Capetonians have access to environments, facilities and treatment centres that can help create healthy lifestyles.

Start with the basics

By being aware of our physical and mental health, we can create the foundation for a healthy, vibrant society.

Basic foundations for good general health:

Educating yourself on health issues that affect you, your family and community
Understanding your health profile (e.g. your family health history)
Making healthy lifestyle habits
Getting the right treatment when you are sick

The five pillars of good health

Your lifestyle affects your health! Here are five lifestyle guidelines which can help you feel more energised, more positive and in charge of your health. With simple changes, you’ll be taking a giant step towards preventing lifestyle diseases.

**The five pillars of good health**

Pillar 1: Eat a balanced diet	A healthy diet involves eating lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, choosing whole grains over processed foods, avoiding junk food, limiting sugar, salt and alcohol, and drinking lots of water. It also means quitting smoking! A healthy, balanced diet helps us to get all the nutrients our bodies need, giving us energy.
Pillar 2: Exercise regularly	Moving is good for the body and for the mind – and it increases your energy levels. Limit the amount of inactive hours in your day and make exercise a fun part of your daily routine. Choose an activity you enjoy, or join a team sport. Even a brisk daily walk of 30 minutes makes a big difference.
Pillar 3: Stay positive	Research suggests that thinking positively boosts the immune system. This helps fight diseases. Being positive involves setting goals in life, believing in yourself, looking at the bright side of a situation, spending time with positive people, doing activities/hobbies you enjoy and reaching out to someone when you are feeling down or unhappy.
Pillar 4: Reduce stress	Ongoing (chronic) stress affects your physical and mental health significantly. Lower your stress levels with different relaxation techniques like deep breathing or meditation. Make time for fun and laughter, and try to avoid stressful situations. It’s best not to manage your stress with substances like cigarettes, alcohol or drugs.
Pillar 5: Maintain a healthy weight	This will be much easier to do if the pillars above are strong. If you need to lose weight and are struggling, speak to a health care worker at your nearest clinic. Losing weight is much easier when you have support!

PDFfive pillars of health

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Environmental health risks

Our home and local environment can pose health risks unless managed responsibly. By identifying environmental risks and learning how to avoid them, we can ensure a safer and healthier environment at home and in the community.

Find out more about common environmental health risks.

Visit a treatment facility

City Health aims to maintain and improve the health of all communities in Cape Town by providing free and professional primary healthcare services.

Working closely with our local and provincial partners, we pay special attention to the most common infectious illnesses in our city, like TB and HIV, as well as chronic illnesses like diabetes and hypertension.

If you are sick, you can visit one of our clinics for primary care. Our clinics can give you a referral if you need specialised or secondary care.

You can also go straight to a provincial health centre if you have a health concern. You can find a full list of hospitals and treatment centres in the Western Cape on the Western Cape Government’s website.

How the Healthcare system is categorised

Primary health care is the most basic kind of science-based health care a person can get. It refers to the work done by health professionals who act as a first point of consultation for patients.
If your primary health care practitioner refers you to a specialist, this is an example of secondary health care.
Tertiary health care refers to advanced medical care usually taking place when a patient is already in hospital, such as cancer management or neurosurgery.

Document downloads

1. Five Pillars of Health Poster
  01/01/2016, Poster,Infographic - 617.7 KB
2. Salt Awareness Notice
  12/03/2024, Notice - 192.2 KB

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