exercise

How to Strengthen Your Immunity

May 7, 2020 by Martha Minniti

A new study from researchers at the University of Bath supports the theory that keeping up regular, daily exercise plays an important role in helping you to maintain a healthy immune system.

Protecting our immune system is something we all want to take care not only during the normal flu and cold season but even more so now that we have been experiencing a global pandemic.

They reported that there is limited reliable evidence that exercise suppresses immunity, Instead they found that exercise is beneficial for your immune function.

Exercise can help your immune system find and deal with pathogens, and in the long term, regular exercise slows down changes that happen to your immune system with ageing, therefore reducing your risk of infections.

They conclude that infections are more likely to be linked to inadequate diet, psychological stress, insufficient sleep, travel and importantly, pathogen exposure at social gathering events like marathons — rather than the act of exercising itself.

Make time for fitness

Engaging in regular physical activity is one of the best ways to help manage stress and maintain your immune system.

According to the National Library of Medicine, people who engage in regular physical activity have a lower incidence of infection compared to inactive and sedentary individuals.

This supports both their research and the study from the University of bath.

What’s more, being physically active and lowering your weight helps to strengthen your immune system and lower your risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

Find creative ways to get moving at home and if at all possible get out outside and take a walk. It can be as simple as walking the stairs, jumping rope or turning on the music and dancing.

Practice Meditation

If you haven’t tried mediation, now might be a good time to start. Studies were done where they held 20 randomized, controlled trials including more than 1,600 participants and the findings supported that meditation helped to keep immune systems functioning optimally.

Neuroscience experts, such as Dr Joe Dispenza have huge followings and international researchers who study participants in his events measuring brain wave and heart coherence to see the effects of meditation on the body. Many of his followers/participants have reported improved health from chronic conditions after practicing his style of meditation.

Manage Your Stress Levels

Research from the past 25+ years revealed that psychological stress increases susceptibility to the common cold

Being exposed to prolonged or chronic stress can negatively impact your immune system by reducing your body’s ability to defend against viruses and bacteria.

And when we find ourselves under stress we tend to engage in coping strategies such as unhealthy eating, drinking more alcohol, smoking cigarettes, finding difficulty getting to sleep, all of which have a negative impact on your immune system.

Stay Connected

It’s okay to acknowledge that you feel stressed, anxious and afraid. But look for better ways to care for yourself. Staying connected during times of stress with friends and loved ones is a good way to help yourself feel like you aren’t all alone.

Email, call or FaceTime relatives, get creative and have live-streaming virtual get togethers with your friends.

Get Your Beauty Rest

Don’t skimp on sleep. Ideally you want to get seven to eight hours of sleep each night. If you find that it is hard to get your full night’s rest, be okay to fill in the deficit with a (or two) nap during the day.

Just make sure you don’t sleep too long during the day or too late as that will disrupt your sleep cycle. Just a short 20-30 minute nap can work wonders for your body.

7 Habits to Have a Healthier Lifestyle

September 19, 2019 by Martha Minniti

Embracing a healthy lifestyle is not as challenging as a lot of people would think of it. If you want to make a revamp with your life, you do not need to go to the extremes of making drastic changes to your current routine.

Small changes matter, especially if they are done with consistency. If you are planning to change your lifestyle, these habits will help you in this journey:

1. Put standing in your routine

Of course, you are well aware that our bodies are meant to move all the time. So if you have been sitting in your chair for quite a long time now, you need to stand up and move around.

Sitting has adverse effects on the quality of your work and life, such as inflammation and the reduction of good cholesterol that may increase your chances of having a heart attack.

Standing and walking around allows you to move your muscles to promote proper digestion of sugars and fats. In a study by Dr. James Levine, standing up for about 90 seconds activates the muscular and cellular systems responsible for the production of triglycerides, blood sugar, and cholesterol.

Less sitting means more chances of living a healthier life.

2. Get the right amount of sleep

Sleep was never a luxury. To keep your body. Exceptionally your brain healthy, you have to acquire at least 7 hours of sleep.

Having a good sleep enhances your performance on a day to day basis. Those who cannot acquire the right amount of hours are not fully recharged to face and endure the day that is ahead of them.

While there are people who can function with just having 6 hours of sleep or even more, an average adult should have 7.5 to 8 hours of sleep per day, according to WebMD.

Having the right amount of sleep improves your memory and cognition, reduces stress, and keeps you fit. It also alleviates depression.

If you want to change your sleeping habits, a personal assessment would be excellent to cater to your needs.

3. Just keep moving!

A sedentary lifestyle is not a good idea if you want to develop healthier habits. You need to move around even just for about 30 minutes.

Moving around has benefits for your body, mind, and even your waistline. Exercising enhances your confidence and boosts your energy. It also helps you battle with stress.

You can do the basic exercises in the morning for starters. Do some stretching or walk around your neighborhood.

If you are too busy to hit the gym, you can always do squats and burpees at home, or run up and down the stairs to keep your body moving all the time.

4. Always drink water.

For sure, you are all so crazy about diet soda, but nothing will ever compare to water. You release fluids every single day, and you have to drink lots of water for you to replace them.

Keeping yourself hydrated all the time enhances your metabolism and replenishes your body. It also helps you burn more calories and aids in your digestion.

Make drinking water a part of your health routine, and it sure will boost your chances of living.

5. Start opening your windows

When you open your windows, you are also allowing fresh air to go inside your home. And of course, you need this.

Your home has pollutants and particles that are very harmful. With this, opening the window helps air everything out.

Who knows? Your house might have more air pollution than you’d ever thought. Pollutants may come with the form of candles, fumes, hairspray, etc. As these may not be harmful to you, mixing these things all together in the air might raise blood pressure, harden your arteries, and cause inflammation.

Keep your room ventilated at times as this conserves energy and promotes better health.

6. Eat nuts

When you aim to keep yourself healthy, choosing an excellent and healthy snack is a good idea since it makes you feel better.

Ditch the crackers and potato chips and indulge yourself in eating nuts instead. With its omega-3 component, nuts are known to be good for the heart and even your waistline. They also have healthy unsaturated fats to reduce inflammation and cholesterol and avoid the dangers of having cancer or heart disease.

7. Remove clutter from your life

You need to declutter. You must get rid of the things you don’t need and use.

Having too much clutter around you prevents you from getting focused on things. Decluttering allows you to keep your house clean and remove the unnecessary items inside your home. You also get to make your area spacious if you start eliminating clutter around you.

Decluttering does not apply to things or stuff at home. It may also mean people. If you start eliminating people who you don’t need and are toxic to you, you will begin to feel more relieved and energized. It does help your emotional health, too!

Having A Healthier Lifestyle

In a study, it has been found out that healthier habits can add more years to a person’s life.

If you are up for the challenge of embracing a healthier you, choose the habits that you think will suit you well. Never pick something you cannot handle.

Learn to appreciate the small changes that you witness every day since lifestyle change is a process. You are never too slow or fast, but you keep on moving forward.

Having a healthier lifestyle might be tedious, but it does not mean it is not doable. It may take time, but all the sacrifices will surely be worth it. Everything will work the way you want them to be.

Good for Senior Health: Swimming, Rebounding, and Walking

September 5, 2019 by Martha Minniti

When you are in your golden years, you will start experiencing a lot of unpleasant effects. The great thing is, exercising can help you get rid of those. Aside from fun and enjoyment, swimming, rebounding, and walking can keep your blood pumping, make you healthier, and give more strength to your body and mind.

Consequences of Not Exercising

Living a sedentary life has its own set of health complications for anyone.

In a 2019 study reported conducted by the U.S. Physical Activity Council, it was found out that Americans have been living a sedentary life after more than 10,000 individuals were surveyed by their frequency, type of exercise, and level. Increased inactivity has also been shown for people aging 65 years old and above between 2013 and 2018.

Inactivity has a significant effect on seniors, especially on their balance and muscular strength. According to a report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the musculoskeletal system weakens when there is a lack of physical activity. Seniors may experience a higher risk of falls, lower muscle strength, and a higher possibility of bone loss due to inactivity. It is evident that out of four seniors, one of them would most likely suffer a fall. Thus, an increase of 30% in the deaths of elder Americans due to falls by 2007 to 2016.

The good news is reducing mortality among seniors can be achieved if they have high levels of recreational physical activity, according to the National Institute of Aging.

Just Keep Swimming!

Due to the changes in reaction time, vision, overall muscle mass, and bone density that seniors are experiencing, they are more prone to the risks of falling. In a study, it has been found out that swimming helps reduce the chances of falling among elders.

A study led by Dafna Merom of the University of Western Sydney in Australia was done by surveying 1,700 men aging 70 years old and above to compare the rate of falls and the types of exercise they are engaged in for four years. In the research, men who were into swimming were 33% less likely to experience the risk of falls.

Remember: When you are swimming in a pool, try to avoid one that makes use of bromide and chlorine products for cleaning. These chemicals have harmful side effects. A saltwater pool would be your safest choice!

Bounce Up to A Healthier You with Rebounding

Around 10 million Americans have been reported to have suffered from lymphatic diseases as published by the Lymphatic Education and Research Network. Elder Americans have undergone treatments that have helped them a lot. Rebounding, for these people, is a way to go.

Movement makes it possible for lymph fluid to circulate throughout the body. Exercising, such as rebounding, stimulates muscular contractions. These allow the lymph fluid to move. As a fantastic aerobic workout, rebounding promotes strength training and helps you with balance, blood circulation, and muscle development.

People who have issues with their hips or knees can resort to rebounding for healing. This type of exercise is quite similar to walking, yet it does not put so much stress on your joints. In research conducted by the University of Kentucky with NASA, rebounding with its ability to build muscles has been considered an excellent exercise for astronauts who just came from space.

Since it has a higher level of oxygen uptake and does not require much effort, rebounding has been better than running on a treadmill. One may have an extended time working out without experiencing fatigue.

Rebounding, in a study found in the Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics, allows people to shift their weight properly and gets them back to the appropriate body position and balance.

Walking Boosts Your Health

This may come out of the ordinary but walking is an essential exercise as you get older. We do this every day and out of habit. But truth be told, it does have lots of health benefits according to various research.

Walking may not be the ideal form of exercise, but surely, it keeps you on the right track. If you are too tired to swim, you can always stroll around your neighborhood every morning or afternoon.

Walking is the foundation that will help you gain balancing and strength building skills necessary for the two other forms of exercise mentioned in this article earlier. Another thing is walking gives you some peace of mind. Depression, anger, confusion, anxiety, and fatigue are reduced if you take a walk, especially in areas with views of nature, as reported by a 2012 Korean research.

Do not feel sad if you realize one day that you are already in your golden years. Celebrate your life and be grateful to your body. Do whatever it takes to make yourself come around. Go swimming, take rebounding sessions, or enjoy the beauty of nature while walking around. As long as these exercises bring benefits to your body, you are doing the right thing.

How to Stay Fit Despite Your Age

May 30, 2019 by Martha Minniti

Exercising will improve your health especially as you age. Not only that it will keep your body in better shape making it easier to get around especially in your 70’s and beyond.

Being consistent and taking the time to exercise pays off by helping you to reduce the risks of having heart diseases, cancers, and diabetes. As you get older, what you are capable of doing changes.

Your age determines the amount and type of exercise you should be doing.

We’ve created this simple guide to help you figure this out:

Childhood and adolescence:

For children, regular amounts of exercise and activity will help build healthy bones, give kids more self-confidence, controls weight, and keeps kids in healthy sleep patterns.

Children should be active for at least an hour per day. This can be hard in the winter months, you’ll have to get creative and find fun ways to engage your child in activity when it isn’t possible to get outside and move.

You want to encourage your child to participate in a variety of sports which can help them develop certain skills. They can also do non-scheduled physical activities, like going to playgrounds.

During adolescence, teenagers may not become as physically active as before, especially for girls. Managing anxiety and stress and having a healthy body image can be achieved by exercising moderately.

To keep teenagers physically active, parents can persuade them to join at least one sport, regardless if it is with a team or not as long as it can help them stay fit.

20s:

People who are in their 20s are usually the most active. At this stage, VO2 max, which measures the rate at which oxygen can be pumped into the muscles, is at its peak and their reaction times are the fastest. However, every year, up to 1% of the VO2 max decreases and one’s reaction time tends to slow down. Here’s the thing, exercising regularly aids in slowing down this decline.

Retaining the optimum VO2 max and reaction in your system can be achieved by increasing your bone density and lean muscle mass.

To keep yourself fit, you can choose various physical activities while having fun. Rowing, boot camp or tag rugby are great examples for this.

If you work out regularly, you can ask a professional to help you establish periodization while you are training. With this, you can divide your activities into different aspects, like volume, intensity and type of exercise. Doing so allows you to boost your performance and prepares you for any exercise events.

30s:

Focusing on your cardiovascular strength and fitness is essential when you are in your 30s. With your career and your family as your priorities, a sedentary lifestyle might not be avoided. Always remember to have a good posture and refrain from sitting for long periods of time. Even while you are at your home, you can always use household chores as reasons for you to move around.

At this stage, HIIT or high-intensity interval training is something you can try. This involves high-intensity activities that are divided into lower intensity exercise periods which would only take 20 minutes for you to finish.

Pelvic floor exercises can be done by women, especially after giving birth. These activities, often called as Kegel exercises help in the prevention of incontinence.

If you want to explore more, you can also try yoga, boot camp, or spin class.

40s:

As people tend to start gaining more weight as they turn 40, resistance exercise is recommended to burn calories and prevent the accumulation of fat. Resistance training for ten weeks can help gain lean weight, increase metabolic rate, and decrease fat weight.

You can go to the nearest gym and follow a weight training program. Instead of walking as an exercise, running would be better. If you want to reduce back pain, build your core strength by doing pilates too.

50s:

At this age, you are at a greater risk of developing chronic conditions like cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes.

Weight-bearing and strength training exercises can help you stay fit and robust. You may also try activities that promote balance and provide relaxation.

60s:

As you get older, you are more prone to various chronic conditions, even cancer. To avoid such, people at this age should engage in a high level of physical activity.

Even if aging declines physical activity, it is your mission to stay fit and active.

Exercises that improve strength and flexibility should be done at least twice a week. You may also engage in various forms of dancing, like ballroom dancing. Aqua aerobics and brisk walking can help you, too.

70s:

As cognitive functioning starts to decline at the age of 70 and above, exercising is very crucial as it improves your brain’s health. Keep yourself mobile, especially if you experienced being ill before.

To keep yourself fit, talking walks with family members and friends when they visit would be a great idea. Cardiovascular, balance, and strength exercises should also be a part of your exercise regime, as of course, with the approval of a professional.

Regardless of what age you are, exercising indeed is beneficial and essential in achieving good health.

5 Ways to Live Longer

May 16, 2019 by Martha Minniti

Despite the fact that the United States has a huge budget allotted on healthcare, it still has low life expectancies among developed nations.

Is it possible that we in the healthcare industry might be mistaken for quite some time now?

Impact of Health Habits on Life Expectancy

To know the impact of health habits on life expectancy, a study using data gathered from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (HPFS) and Nurses’ Health Study (NHS) was conducted massively by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. This study involved a huge number of people gathered from separate studies. From 1980 to 2014, more than 78,000 women were observed by NHS and above 40,000 men were followed by HPFS since 1986 until 2014.

Through the systematic administration of standardized questionnaires, data on alcohol consumption, physical activity, smoking, body weight, and diet were obtained by researchers from HPFS and NHS.

What does it take to have a healthy lifestyle?

Having a huge impact on the risk of premature deaths, these five things were closely monitored and measured to define the ways to achieve a healthy lifestyle. The following are given below:

Having a balanced diet
Exercising regularly
Maintaining a healthy body weight
Stop smoking.
Drink alcohol moderately.

Is a healthy lifestyle beneficial?

One may not see its value but having healthy habits is very important. People who followed these five ways lived longer than those who haven’t. According to the study, men and women lived 12 years and 14 years longer, respectively, given that they have started practicing these habits when they were 50 years old. Those who haven’t had those habits suffered from cardiovascular disease, cancer, or premature death.

Furthermore, a study was also conducted stating that people who apply even just one of those five habits are expected to extend their life expectancy by two years for both men and women. With this, people who practice more healthy habits tend live longer.

A similar research in 2017 also states that people above 50 who never tried smoking, who moderately drink alcohol and have maintained a normal body weight had an extension of seven years in their life expectancy. Another study in 2012 stated that unhealthy lifestyle habits such as smoking, being obesite, having a poor diet, being inactive, and drinking alcohol excessively contributed to more than half of the premature deaths reported.

So, what now?

The thing is, the U.S. had focused on the development of various drugs and ways to treat diseases, yet they never invest on preventing them instead.

A change in lifestyle and healthy does not occur overnight. Sometimes, it takes a nationwide effort and public health policies to be implemented. While this may be the goal, this can be very challenging. If such habits will be promoted, a lot of companies would shut down such as fast food chains or soda factories.

So the question is… what now?