Keep your body and mind in great shape by following a few basic steps each day to protect health and prevent illness.

If you would like to enjoy better health and a stronger body, there are several things you can do each day that will take little time but render great results. Make minor changes like these to improve your quality of life without coming to depend exclusively on a doctor or medication.

1. Drink pure water. Whether you drink water from a well or the city pipeline, find out whether it is safe and wholesome. The county health department can issue a simple test that will find out if your water contains contaminants like mercury or lead, pollution from local industry, runoff from farmlands, or bacteria and viruses that can cause illness. Even if your water contains only a small amount of these things, over time they can build up in your body to create health problems. If your water is harmful, get a home faucet purifier (about $16.99) that will purify drinking and cooking water for about a month or two, depending on the number of people using it.