Every day more of us decide to take care of our body and mind to achieve a healthier lifestyle that allows us to enjoy life to the fullest. However, the health information floating around the internet is sometimes difficult to follow and even contradictory. Should I cut back red meat from my diet? Can I drink water during meals? When is the best time to eat fruit? What is the right glycemic index? Should a healthy person take these questions into account? Does all this really matter?
Our intention is not to answer all these questions, but to share with you some small reflections that will help you simplify and live in a healthier way.
The popular saying “a healthy mind in a healthy body” now makes more sense than ever. New studies have addressed these questions, concluding that the duration and intensity of physical activity can undoubtedly improve our cognitive agility.
Douglas Rosenthal, a structural biologist and research scientist, states that the beneficial effect probably responds to the level of exercise intensity:
“A mild activity in intensity will involve low but noticeable levels of psychological arousal, which will help prepare the brain for the input of new information and for the encoding of such information into memories”, Rosenthal explains.
On the other hand, too vigorous exercise can overstimulate the body and brain, monopolizing all sources of brain attention and leaving little energy for creating solid memories. Therefore, the ideal is to do light exercise to improve the ability to learn and remember.
Many factors affect health in our daily lives. Some cannot be controlled, such as genetic material or the passage of time, but there are others that we can control and that we must modify to improve our lifestyle.
Taking the right initiatives towards a healthier life will level your blood sugar and cholesterol levels, reduce the possibility of chronic and degenerative diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure and Alzheimer’s, among others.
Living a healthy life will make you completely change your life expectancies. Education is a key factor in creating a culture of prevention, where we give fair value to leading a healthy life. So, that is why Douglas Rosenthal will give you some practical recommendations for your day to day life.
Minimize negative emotions
Having a positive mind has great benefits in physical and mental health. Negative emotions must be properly managed to have a full life. One of the main negative emotional factors of these times is the famous stress.
Excessive stress lowers the defenses and increases the risk of suffering diseases, in addition to making us feel bad. Stress can not only have direct psychological and physical effects, it can also lead us toward an unhealthy lifestyle. Additionally, chronic stress can increase blood pressure, cause anxiety, depression, and heart problems.
Remember that being cautious and managing negative emotions correctly are important factors in any healthy lifestyle you want to adopt.
Try to exercise at least 30 minutes per day
When you are relaxed, you do sports and eat healthy; your body just feels good about itself. For example, when you exercise daily for about 30 minutes, your body produces endorphin, this hormone makes you enter a state of happiness, another hormone that exercise produces is serotonin, a hormone that is capable of relieving mood. So, as tired as you may be from daily stress, it is convenient to exercise daily.
People who regularly engage in physical activity or exercise, live on average 3 to 4 years longer than those who do not. For this reason, the development of activity routines in our daily life is important. It not only makes you improve your physical appearance, but also your mental one.