Health Tips!
It is that time of year where many of us have the resolution to become healthier. While a great goal to strive towards it can become a place of stress for many. It is not uncommon for us to make vast changes to life with the goal of health in mind. However, what most commonly happens is too much change too quickly leads to something unsustainable. In this short blog I will touch on 3 ways to enhance health without changing everything all at once.
As discussed in previous posts, we at Orange County Chiropractic are quite fond of the power of walking. It has been rigorously studied for decades and each year more research is released showing the efficacy of something as simple as walking. In years past there has been a huge push towards the almighty daily step number of 10,000. While this is a great goal to achieve it may be tough to conquer at first. Recent research shows that something as simple as 5 minutes of walking every 30 minutes throughout your work day can be effective at lowering blood glucose levels and improving metabolic health (1).
There is also the confusing world of nutrition to be discussed when it comes to health goals. In our fast paced fight or flight world we constantly find ourselves without time to prepare a meaningful meal. This has led us to flock to easier and quicker solutions to nutrition. In this new year many of us are going to go on a number of diets all claiming to do the same thing. Lose weight. Losing weight is horribly daunting for some people and can come with a phone book’s size of complications and caveats. So, instead of going in all or nothing towards a diet that may or may not work for you and your physiology, why don’t you start with smaller goals like these: eat less processed/packaged food - decrease the amount of refined sugar (most junk food) - eat more fruits and vegetables (2). There are thousands of opinions when talking about nutrition so take them all, including mine, with a grain of salt.
Lastly, let's talk about sleep. As is true with nutrition, the same can be said for sleep. Sleep is one of the most complicated aspects of health. It can be affected by nearly everything (just kidding, but maybe not) like stress, diet, exercise, medications, and disease just to name a few. While I am not a sleep doctor there are a few accepted methods to remedying certain sleep ailments. The first step is setting up a consistent sleep schedule. Your body operates on a circadian rhythm with “rhythm” being the key term. It is best to go to bed and rise around the same times every day. Secondly, it is thought to be best to receive sunlight through the eyes within one hour of rising (3). If this is not possible then one should look into SAD lamps as this could be a less alternative. Lastly, do your best to avoid caffeine around six hours before bed as this can affect falling asleep.
Yates, T., Edwardson, C. L., Celis-Morales, C., Biddle, S. J. H., Bodicoat, D., Davies, M. J., Esliger, D., Henson, J., Kazi, A., Khunti, K., Sattar, N., Sinclair, A. J., Rowlands, A., Velayudhan, L., Zaccardi, F., & Gill, J. M. R. (2020). Metabolic Effects of Breaking Prolonged Sitting With Standing or Light Walking in Older South Asians and White Europeans: A Randomized Acute Study. The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences, 75(1), 139–146. https://doi.org/10.1093/gerona/gly252
Wang, D. D., Li, Y., Bhupathiraju, S. N., Rosner, B. A., Sun, Q., Giovannucci, E. L., Rimm, E. B., Manson, J. E., Willett, W. C., Stampfer, M. J., & Hu, F. B. (2021). Fruit and Vegetable Intake and Mortality: Results From 2 Prospective Cohort Studies of US Men and Women and a Meta-Analysis of 26 Cohort Studies. Circulation, 143(17), 1642–1654. https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.120.048996
Crowley, S. J., & Eastman, C. I. (2015). Phase advancing human circadian rhythms with morning bright light, afternoon melatonin, and gradually shifted sleep: can we reduce morning bright-light duration?. Sleep medicine, 16(2), 288–297. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleep.2014.12.004
