Healthy habits and lifestyle choices are the key to a long life and improving your overall health. Creating healthy habits can immensely benefit you in the long run. Here are five habits that will optimize your long-term health, wellness, and ability to live well into retirement. It is never to early or too late to seek a financial planning specialist. If you have not set up a retirement income you’ll never outlive, there is no time like the present to seek a good financial planner to help you plan your future. Trusted investment advisers can help eliminate the stress that could hinder your health and wellness. The joy of a rich retirement can add years of vibrant living to your life.
Adequate Sleep
Sleep plays a very vital role in promoting general well-being and a healthy lifestyle. Getting adequate deep sleep at night can help renew your mental and physical health, your overall quality of life, and your safety. For added stress reduction that can enhance your sleep, talk to your doctor about how you can achieve more restful sleep.
Sleep deprivation has significant adverse health effects, both in the short and long term. The main effect of sleep deprivation is excessive daytime sleepiness, which can lead to traffic accidents and workplace injuries. Sleep deprivation has both short- and long-term impacts on your health. In otherwise healthy adults, short-term consequences of sleep disruption include increased stress responsivity, somatic pain, strained relationship, reduced quality of life, emotional distress and mood disorders, and cognitive, memory, and decreased performance.
Long-term health consequences of inadequate sleep in otherwise healthy individuals include hypertension, poor quality of life, psychiatric disorders including depression and other mood disorders, cardiovascular disease, weight-related issues, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and colorectal cancer. If the body is not given a break to restore itself from expending energy all day and prepare itself for the energy you will need the following day, your health will certainly suffer. Aiming for between seven and nine hours per night for adults is generally a good rule of thumb.
Physical Activity
Integrating regular physical activity into your life has overwhelming benefits on improving quality of life and long-term health. An active lifestyle or exercise can improve your health and reduce the risk of developing several diseases like type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, weight-related disorders, cancer and cardiovascular disease. The psychological benefits of aerobic exercise have a neurochemical basis. Exercise reduces levels of the body’s stress hormones, such as adrenaline and cortisol. It also stimulates the production of endorphins and enkephalins, neuropeptides in the brain that are the body’s natural painkillers and mood elevators. Endorphins and enkephalins are responsible for the “happy feelings” as well as feelings of relaxation and optimism that accompany many intense workouts. This is the same feeling experienced by opioid users because they are chemically similar. Mental stress can cause many symptoms. Symptoms include insomnia, anger, hostility, irritability, depression, headaches, or neck and back pain.
Exercise and sport also give you a platform to make friends and build a social network. It may help block negative thoughts or distract you from daily life worries. When the body is busy, your mind will be free to think creatively.
As you engage daily in physical activities, your strength and stamina increase, and your self-image and self-confidence will improve. The consistency, determination, and discipline of regular exercise, coupled with your renewed vigor and energy will help you succeed in many tasks and achieve other important long-term goals.
Avoid Taking in Harmful Chemicals as Much as Possible
This involves exposure to cigarettes, alcohol, toxins, carcinogens and hormonal disruptors in beauty and cosmetic products.
Cigarettes contain thousands of toxic chemicals that include tar, carbon monoxide, DDT, arsenic, and formaldehyde. This toxic chemical increases your risk for lung cancer, coronary artery disease, chronic bronchitis, emphysema, heart attack and stroke.
Nicotine found in cigarettes is a mind-altering substance. It is the cause of addition in smokers, which is why smokers find it so difficult to quit. Physical withdrawal from nicotine can cause headaches, sleep disorders, irritability, depression and even impair cognitive functions.
Light drinking is acceptable and offers protective benefits for the heart. However, heavy and binge drinking can lead to a serious health condition. Short-term effects of binge drinking include acute intoxication, poor decision, automobile accidents, nausea, and vomiting. In the long term, heavy alcohol consumption can cause high blood pressure, gastric problems, alcoholic liver, liver cancer, pancreatitis, memory impairment, alcohol dependence and various psychological conditions.
Healthy Eating
Almost everyone knows that people who eat healthy diets tend to lead healthier, longer and productive lives.
A good diet starts with a healthful breakfast. Breakfast is considered the most important meal of the day. Recent scientific studies associate regular breakfast consumption with reduced incidence of chronic degenerating diseases including type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, reduced body mass index, improved memory and concentration, healthier dietary choices, a healthier lifestyle and regular eating and exercise patterns. Skipping breakfast will deprive you of energy needed to kickstart your daily routine
Following a healthy diet helps you maintain a healthy weight. Carrying extra weight makes your body work harder and puts you at risk of heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, arthritis, respiratory disorders such as asthma and other health problems. A healthy meal focuses on fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean protein, and dairy.
Water is also required for a healthful diet, and staying hydrated keeps your energy high. One of the early signs of dehydration is fatigue, so drinking water steadily throughout the day can help prevent
Getting enough vitamins and minerals from fruits and vegetables also helps boost your overall immunity, which makes you less susceptible to colds, infections and other communicable diseases.
Challenge Yourself and Learn New Things
There is so much joy and satisfaction in learning new activities or meeting new people. Trying new things will boost your self-confidence and lead to a higher level of self-esteem, while also reducing boredom and loneliness. This will help drive your personal growth, optimize your health, and promote longevity. Numerous researches have shown learning to play a new musical instrument can offset the cognitive decline, and learning difficult new skills in older age is associated with improved memory. People who dedicate their time to learning new things and who exhibit great curiosity are almost always happier and more socially and professionally. We live in an age of tremendous opportunity for learning and development.
References
Gardner, A. (2011). Your life, your choice. Social Care And Neurodisability, 2(3), 130-137. doi: 10.1108/20420911111172710
Gurwitz, D. (2001). Physical activity: good for your health, very good for your gene expression. Clinical Genetics, 57(4), 249-251. doi: 10.1034/j.1399-0004.2000.570402.2.x
Kafatos, A., & Codrington, C. (1999). Nutrition and diet for healthy lifestyles in Europe: the ‘Eurodiet’ Project. Public Health Nutrition, 2(3a). doi: 10.1017/s1368980099000439
Ross, A., & Melzer, T. (2015). Beliefs as barriers to healthy eating and physical activity. Australian Journal Of Psychology, 68(4), 251-260. doi: 10.1111/ajpy.12103
