How to improve your health with these 5 basics but simple habits.

There is too much information out there about how to improve our health, on how to avoid getting sick, what vitamins and minerals to take to improve our health, a bunch of IV suites around town. I personally did not benefit from going to different doctors just to end up with a high medical bill and no answers to my immunity issues. My main health related goal right now, and I am pretty sure mostly everyone’s concern is just to have a happy, healthy life, for many including like me this would include having a strong immune system. In other words, if I attend crowded event, If I travel overseas or I would like to enjoy going outdoors where there would be other humans around, I wouldn’t be afraid of catching a cold, or COVID or any other contagious disease because my body’s immunity system is perfectly balance and capable of doing it’s task: to protect me from diseases. I know, we are all looking for ways to avoid chronic illness and enjoy better lives for ourselves. What I found in my research about immunity, about living a healthy lifestyle using naturopathy ways is that we could include a few basic and simple habits consistently (at least a year) and daily that could definitely affect our wellness in a positive way:

1. Sleep well.
2. Eat well.
3. Exercise well.
4. Breath well.
5. Reduce levels of stress.

What is to sleep well?

Not only to have the adequate length of time but also, a quality of restful and uninterrupted night’s sleep where you awake energized. The approximate length of daily sleep time decreases with age as follows:

• Newborns (0-3 months) – 14-17 hours.
• Infants (4-12 months) – 12-16 hours
• Children ages 1 to 2 years -11-14 hours
• Preschoolers (ages 3-5) – 10-13 hours
• School age children (6-12 years) – 9-12 hours
• Teens (ages 13-18) –  8-10 hours
• Adults up to age 60 – 7-9 hours
• Senior citizens (60+ years) –  7-8 hours.

And, once you miss the amount of hours needed to sleep, you are only able to catch up those hours in a week.

A study published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine and thereafter at the National Institute of Health indicates that adults who cut back on sleep ( 1.5 hours of sleep) for 6 weeks showed markers of inflammation. The study also showed that sleep can have a protective effect against some conditions like heart disease, cancer and dementia. This takes me to the next point in sleep well, the time of the day that you sleep. The segregation of melatonin start at sunset and peaks at midnight, therefore the importance of sleeping at night and not during the day (a red flag for night workers) except for a short 30 minute nap. Other hormones that are produced during the sleep time are the growth hormone (GH), leptin, Luteinizing hormone (LH).

What is to eat well?

Eat real food, made of natural ingredients, that when you look at the list of ingredients you are able to pronounce them or know what they are. Whenever you walk into the supermarket, the main bulk of your purchases should be from the produce, meat and dairy. If possible buy fruit, vegetables, eggs, butter, and dairy from the local markets.

Have eating windows or fasting windows of a minimum of 13 hours. Preferably intermittent fasting of 24 hrs once a month.

Your plate should be full of color. Green leaves, red tomatoes, orange sweet potatoes and purple blackberries for example. The aim is to add a variety of vitamin, minerals, antioxidants and enzymes found naturally in nature.

Avoid sugary drinks. For example, instead of adding sugar to the coffee, add a pinch of cinnamon and a teaspoon of real butter. It is all a matter of training your taste buds. Cinnamon regulates the sugar in the blood.

Drink more water. Reduce your caffeine (tea, coffee, matcha tea, anything with caffeine) specially in the afternoon. To prepare your body to have a good night sleep and to reduce dehydration.

What is to exercise well?

Having a steady routine. Do not overdue, it is best to establish a dedicated routine of exercise. The recommended guidelines (Mayo Clinic) is 150 minutes (ex. 30 minutes/5 times a week) of moderate exercise or 75 minutes ( 30/45 minutes twice a week) of vigorous activity. To help with weight loss, 300 minutes ( 1 hr/day and over) per week of moderate aerobic activity is necessary. But, the point here is to start somewhere with the basics, adding to your daily routine even if it is low impact light exercise and then increase with time as you start acquiring motivation and strength.

Moderate exercise: brisk walking (can keep a conversation but unable to ex. sing), swimming, biking, mowing the lawn.

Vigorous exercise: swimming laps, running, heavy yard work.

At least twice a week 35 minutes of strength training. And I know many women do not like to strength train, but there are many benefits that include: muscle strength and tone, increase bone density, mood boost, manage back pain, and arthritis.

4. What is to breath well?

Breathing is a way of regulating your stress and your emotions, placing your autonomous nervous system into an off mode in a stressful situation. I was practicing a regular, slow pace breathing exercise when I got a sinus infection and I thought how breathing can really affect your immunity and your relaxation. I was not able to sleep at night due to this exacerbated sinus pressure and then I realized how important it is to breath well to sleep well. After going to an ENT doctor, I learned and probably some of you already know this, but I did not, to rinse my nose with saline solution (Neil MD rinse solution is a very inexpensive way to do this) in the early evenings after coming back from outside or in the morning, not before bed because then you have all that drainage going on while sleep. Also, test your allergies, sometimes we are not only allergic to environmental allergens like pollen, dust, animal dander but we could be allergic to certain foods.

5. Reduce levels of chronic stress.

Long term stress or chronic stress not only increases the chances of a stroke, disrupts the hormones by the increase production of adrenaline over time but also studies have shown that chronic stress can suppress protective immune responses.

How to reduce levels of stress in this ever-changing and challenging life. By finding your ground and finding yourself.

Meditate or pray. The act of praying or meditation produces a sense of inner peace, calming and accepting your thoughts of worry and in turn this relaxes your nervous system creating a change in your mod.

The important thing is to add these basic habits to your daily routine to improve your health.

 

I am not a medical person and I do not give medical advice. These basic steps are taken and proven from my personal experience. Always seek medical advice from your physician.