Focusing on personal health is a habit that everyone should participate in. There are a lot of variables in your life that can directly affect your physical and mental health, and since it’s highly unlikely that you can eliminate them all, doing what you can to boost your overall health is important.
This has always been important but is even more so today. While there are signs that omicron may boost immunity against delta, in the uncertain age of Covid, we all need to be as healthy as possible. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to have an hour-long workout session or cut out all the “bad” foods that you love.
In fact, there are quite a few simple things you can do that will help promote better health. While we can’t guarantee that they’ll all work for you, we wanted to share a few of the easier ones we’ve found.
To Boost Your Health, Boost Your Quality of Sleep
Poor sleep habits can have a direct bearing on your health—both mentally and physically. Studies have shown that getting less than 8 hours of sleep on a regular basis may increase the risk of developing diabetes as well as:
- Obesity
- Cardiovascular disease
- Hypertension
Sleep deprivation may also increase the levels of many inflammatory mediators and possibly decrease your body’s ability to resist infection.
That being said, if you have trouble falling or staying asleep or you rarely get 8 hours of sleep per night, you should consider some changes.
- Set a sleep schedule – Try to go to bed and get up at the same time every day.
- Remake the bed – Evaluate whether you need a new mattress but short of that, get some new sheets, pillowcases, and a heavy blanket. Sometimes, new bedding is a fantastic promoter of a good night’s sleep.
- Set the right atmosphere – Make sure the bedroom is dark and nice and cool. Use blackout curtains if necessary, and if you have roommates or there are outside noises, consider getting a white-noise machine. Additionally, the bed should only be used for sleeping. Don’t lay in bed with the laptop running through email, playing games on your tablet, or talking on the phone. Train your body to learn that getting in bed means that it’s time to sleep.
- Cut out caffeine a couple of hours before bedtime and limit your alcohol consumption. While your homemade, stress-reducing high blood pressure diet may include a couple of glasses of wine before bed, that practice can actually result in poor sleep quality.
5. Yes, You Need to Eat Better
While a lot of people try to eat better when sick with the flu, a well-balanced diet is imperative to regularly maintain good health. The vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients from fruits, vegetables, and lean meats are exactly what your body needs in order to help maintain optimal performance. If you’re unable to change your diet or you’re still not getting the recommended daily amount of vitamins and minerals, consider adding a multivitamin for adults to your daily routine.
Additionally, with the first section above in mind, certain foods and drinks, like chamomile tea, pumpkin seeds, turkey, salmon, and peanut butter, have been shown to possibly aid with sleep. This means that along with a better diet altogether, you may want to try some of them as a snack.
Eating and sleeping right are a couple of the biggest tips you’ll find for boosting your health. They’re basically the foundation for any healthy lifestyle and as you’ve seen above, that doesn’t mean that you have to completely rearrange your lifestyle.
Focus on having a better diet and doing what you can to get 8 hours of sleep a night. Once you’ve got that in place, you can look at exercising more, eliminating unhealthy habits from your life, and implementing other best practices that can help boost your health.
