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World Health Day: 5 easy steps to get healthier

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Wouldn’t it be nice if there were some undiscovered ingredient, and one bite of it would cure all our health concerns?

There isn’t one, sadly.

But scientists do know the recipe to better health, and it is a long-term practice of good habits when it comes to sleep, eating, exercise, socialization and stress.

In honor of the 75th anniversary of the World Health Organization, here are the factors that add up to better health and what you can do today to improve in these areas.

Ask your doctor if you have specific concerns in any of these areas.

A bad night’s rest doesn’t just mess with your concentration during the day. So far this year, CNN has reported that not getting enough sleep can increase your risk of mood problems, asthma, stroke and longevity.

Sleep is kind of a big deal.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that adults get at least seven hours of sleep a night — but quality is important as well.

To get more good sleep, research shows it’s important to set a schedule for going to bed and waking up, follow a nighttime routine to tell your brain it’s time to go to bed, keep your bedroom dark and cool, turn away from the screens early, and don’t lay in bed if you are having trouble sleeping.

People’s individual bodies need different things, but is there a best way to guide your nutrition?

According to many scientific studies and U.S. News & World Report’s annual rankings, it’s the Mediterranean diet.

Don’t let the word diet fool you — this isn’t a restrictive philosophy to manipulate your body weight. The Mediterranean diet is a way of eating that features simple, plant-based cooking, with the majority of each meal focused on fruits and vegetables, whole grains, beans and seeds, with a few nuts and a heavy emphasis on extra-virgin olive oil. Fats other than olive oil, such as butter, are consumed rarely, if at all, and sugar and refined foods are reserved for special occasions.

Numerous studies have found the Mediterranean diet can reduce the risk for diabetes, high cholesterol, dementia, memory loss, depression and breast cancer.

Scientists have long known that exercise is good for a healthy body, but research has shown it’s also important for a healthy mind.

The US Department of Health and Human Services recommends that people between the ages of 18 and 64 engage in at least 150 minutes of moderate physical activity or 75 minutes of vigorous physical activity each week, as well as muscle-strengthening activities at least twice a week.

The good news is even if you can’t get there right now, adding even a little bit will help.

Research published earlier this year showed that even 11 minutes of exercise a day can lower your risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease or premature death.

Many people place a lot of importance on some of the health behaviors often thought of as more physical, but social and emotional factors deserve our attention as well.

And good, strong friendships are key to not just alleviating our stress and improving emotional well-being, but also boosting markers of our physical health, according to the latest research.

People should grow this area of health by investing more in a feeling of community, experts have suggested.

They also stressed the importance of making friendship a priority in your schedule: Text a friend that you haven’t talked to in a long time, commit to meeting one new person a month, host a dinner party or join a class.

Strong bonds won’t happen overnight, but starting small and prioritizing friendships as an important part of your life can bring more happiness, less stress and more support, workplace belonging expert Adam Smiley Poswolsky told CNN earlier this year.

“Even when — especially when — their friend is struggling or going through something hard,” said Poswolsky who is also author of “Friendship in the Age of Loneliness: An Optimist’s Guide to Connection.” “You know someone is a true friend when they have your back when you’re sick, when you lose your job, when you make a mistake, when you’re going through a break-up, when you’re stressed, when you’re sad.”

I know I’ve heard it every time I go to the doctor for any concern: Whatever it is, it gets worse with stress.

Sure enough, stress can send a body into fight or fligh, which raises cortisol. Higher levels of cortisol can exacerbate health conditions such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and chronic gastrointestinal problems, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

Stress can also cause or contribute to anxiety, irritability, poor sleep, substance abuse, chronic distrust or worry, and more.

Fortunately, a balanced diet, good sleep, exercise and social support can help with stress reduction. It can also help to explore breathing and meditation techniques.

You may be thinking, I am already stretched thin in my day — adding in all these health behaviors will cause stress by itself.

The good news is that these habits are best added with small, manageable changes over a period of time.

Approach your goals one bite at a time and with a plan, flexibility, fun and support, and you may soon find you’ve made the changes you are looking for, said Katy Milkman, the James G. Dinan Professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, author of “How to Change: The Science of Getting From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be.”

Sign up for CNN’s Stress, But Less newsletter. Our six-part mindfulness guide will inform and inspire you to reduce stress while learning how to harness it.

Walking 8,000 steps 1-2 days a week linked to major health benefits

Current research suggests that walking 8,000 brisk steps or more per day may be the sweet spot for receiving the health benefits walking provides.
People who have trouble finding time to walk each day of the week will be encouraged by a new study that demonstrates walking just one to two days is still associated with a significant reduction in all-cause and cardiovascular mortality.
The study’s authors found that each additional day walked confers greater benefits.

Briskly walking 8,000 or more steps each day of the week is associated with a significant decrease in all-cause and cardiovascular mortality. A new study finds, however, that people taking just 8,000 steps one or two days a week are also less likely to die over a 10-year follow-up period.

The study published in JAMA Network Open found that over a decade of follow-up, people 20 years or older who took 8,000 or more steps on one or two days a week were 14.9{bf0515afdcaddba073662ceb89fbb62b6b1bf123143c0e06b788e1946e8c353f} less likely to die compared to people who were sedentary.

The risk of death dropped as the number of days involved increased. For example, exercising from three to seven days a week was associated with a 16.5{bf0515afdcaddba073662ceb89fbb62b6b1bf123143c0e06b788e1946e8c353f} reduction in all-cause and cardiovascular deaths.

The same pattern held true for people meeting step goals of 6,000 to 10,000 steps.

Previous research found that mortality risk decreases up to 10,000 steps per day for people younger than 60 and 8,000 for people older than 60.

The study’s findings pertain to both “weekend warriors,” people who confine their exercise to non-work days, and to people who steal a few hours to walk during the week.

The study cites recent data showing the average American takes just 4,800 steps a day, too few to provide much of a health benefit.

“Brisk walking” is defined as walking three miles an hour. If you can speak song lyrics but not sing them, you are walking briskly.

The current study compared data from the U.S. 2005 and 2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey with the National Death Index up to the year 2019. It incorporated accelerometer data from 3,101 participants 20 years or older and was a nationally representative sample. It included a similar number of women and men, and 50.9{bf0515afdcaddba073662ceb89fbb62b6b1bf123143c0e06b788e1946e8c353f} were White, 21.5{bf0515afdcaddba073662ceb89fbb62b6b1bf123143c0e06b788e1946e8c353f} Black, 23.7{bf0515afdcaddba073662ceb89fbb62b6b1bf123143c0e06b788e1946e8c353f} Hispanic, and 3.9{bf0515afdcaddba073662ceb89fbb62b6b1bf123143c0e06b788e1946e8c353f} other race and ethnicity.

The participants most likely to walk 8,000 or more steps every day were more likely to be young, male, Hispanic, insured, and married. They were also typically never-smokers and were less likely to be obese or have comorbidities.

For many people, walking 8,000 steps each day requires a significant commitment of time. 8,000 steps are about four miles, which, walking at three miles per hour, comes to a total of about an hour and 20 minutes every day. Steps can be taken simultaneously or in shorter periods of brisk walking.

The study was led by Dr. Kosuke Inoue of Kyoto University in Japan, collaborating with researchers from UCLA in California. Dr. Inoue explained why the study was undertaken:

“We started this study to answer the question one of my patients asked during an outpatient clinic: ‘It is hard for me to keep sufficient steps every day. Is it okay to focus on walking only during the weekend?’”

Steps studies often consider the value of a week’s worth of various step goals, and Dr. Inoue saw a lack of evidence regarding the possible benefits of walking just a few days a week.

“Given that a lack of time is one of the major barriers to exercise in modern society,” said Dr. Inoue, “our findings provide useful information to recommend walking even for a couple of days per week to reduce mortality risk.”

“This is one of the first studies to use direct measures of daily steps using a wearable accelerometer over a 10-year followup period,” said Dr. Paul Arciero, a professor in the Health and Human Physiological Sciences Department at Skidmore College, who was not involved in the study.

Walking is viewed as a simple, low impact means of making a person’s life less sedentary. A sedentary lifestyle has been linked to an increased risk of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality.

“Further, a sedentary lifestyle drastically increases the risk of cardiometabolic disease such as abdominal obesity, hypertension (high blood pressure), type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, and certain inflammatory conditions and cancers,” said Dr. Arciero.

According to Harvard Medical School, taking one’s steps has additional, less-obvious benefits. Walking offsets the effect of weight-promoting genes, reduces breast cancer risk, and boosts one’s immune system. It can also lessen arthritis-based joint pain, and even a 15-minute walk can curb a craving for chocolate, both generally and in response to stress.

The study’s findings should provide valuable information for clinicians and health professionals, said Dr. Inoue. He suggested a reader’s takeaway should be that for people who have difficulties engaging in regular exercise, “achieving recommended daily steps only a couple of days per week can have meaningful health benefits.”

Describing the study’s conclusions as “encouraging,” Dr. Arciero suggested the study may help people who don’t have enough time to walk 8,000 steps a day overcome feelings that walking less is pointless.

“We now have scientific evidence that proves this mindset is not true, and even a couple of days is beneficial!” said Dr. Arciero.

He said the study underscores the value of increasing one’s daily step count:

“Always a good reminder that any amount of walking, even one to two days per week, is still better than no walking.”

Take small steps to achieve healthy lifestyle in new year | Entertainment/Life

When it will come to eating, the new 12 months must be far more about creating healthy way of living variations than location difficult eating plan targets.

“It really is all about including healthier way of life modifications that you can do alongside the way so that you will never be miserable,” claimed Rosa Folgar, family medical doctor for Ochsner Overall health in Baton Rouge.

Folgar said, bottom line, individuals will get off monitor.

“The place you have a birthday celebration or people bring king cake for the future two months — but retain in thoughts that you are human,” she explained. “What you do is 1 food at a time to get back again on keep track of and remember the development you built so much.”

Molly Kimball, a registered dietitian with Ochsner Wellness in New Orleans, agrees.

“The time period ‘clean eating’ is kind of the cool child way to say ‘healthy consuming,'” Kimball stated. “It is really a phrase to refer to a range of techniques to healthy ingesting, but it’s different for all people.”

Kimball, who also is founder of Ochsner’s EatFit NOLA cafe initiative in New Orleans, extra that it really is important to put into action healthier way of living variations in smaller techniques.

She agrees with Folgar that no matter how fantastic men and women check out to be in conference their plans, they’re only human and prone to occasional failure.

“Which is why you should not overwhelm your self by attempting to meet one particular large target,” she reported.

Very first, any prepare must have the endgame of over-all superior health and fitness.

“I consider no make any difference what your definition of clean feeding on is, your purpose is to overall have far more wholesome food items and to be balanced,” Folgar stated. “When we talk about clean ingesting, we talk about creating that a way of life alternative and how to go about earning these variations so that they’re practical to you.”

The next stage is location timelines that will empower you to maintain your healthy lifestyle selection.

“You may possibly consider about how you can dial back on carbs, white starches and sugar,” Kimball mentioned. “For occasion, if you come to a decision to cut again on sugar, the very first move could be figuring out added sugar in your beverages and removing them.”

Kimball implies 1 way to do this is to transform your beverage decisions by replacing sugary soft drinks and juices with these choices as flavored vitamin drinking water.

“But you really don’t even have to do that all at the moment,” Folgar included. “Say that you’re consuming two or a few sodas a working day, and you want to eradicate that from your eating plan, and you say, ‘I’m going to consume only h2o.’ But then you happen to be miserable.”

To stay clear of the distress, Folgar indicates having infant steps.

“Alternatively of saying, ‘I’m just likely again to consuming soda, because no 1 can stand to be all around me,’ start out out by substituting h2o for just one of the sodas,” she explained. “My complete level is that you can make tiny improvements to make the big transform materialize more than time.”

Back again to the overall prepare, Kimball stated just after finding the sodas in verify, the subsequent phase could be chopping again on added sugar by slicing out desserts. Again, this would not have to materialize all at at the time.

Soon after that, focus on chopping out these starchy foods as pasta and rice, buying and selling them for healthier possibilities that can be located in most grocery outlets.

“Banza has a chickpea pasta that would be a wonderful nutritious different,” Kimball stated. “And then there is certainly cauliflower rice, which is a good choice to white rice.”

To just take additional manage above altering your taking in practices, Kimball also suggests much more cooking at house.

Nevertheless, that doesn’t signify you have to stop eating out. Ochsner delivers recommendations for healthy choices at dining establishments on its EatFit world-wide-web website page, ochsner.org/lp/consume-healthy, and its subsequent app, the two of which include things like links for New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Acadiana dining establishments.

Folgar included that those wanting for concepts to make nutritious way of living changes but really don’t know the place to commence also can check out Ochsner’s Healthy You webpage at ochsner.org/healthyyou. She also advisable Tulane University’s web site for its culinary drugs educating kitchen area, goldringcenter.tulane.edu/about-the-educating-kitchen, as an additional resource for healthful lifestyle suggestions.

Last but not least, Kimball said, no make a difference what measures you acquire, be sure to continue to be hydrated.

“Staying hydrated optimizes your electricity recovery,” she said. “Sometimes, folks consider that when their strength stage is lower, they will need to try to eat much more carbs, when what they simply require are much more fluids.”

Sparkling h2o is generally a most well-liked answer for hydration. It can be supplemented with electrolyte tablets or sugarless taste packets.

“The trick is using your physique fat and dividing it by two,” Kimball explained. “That’s how many ounces of fluids your physique desires just about every day, and the fluids could be smoothies, yogurts, soups, fruits, veggies and even caffeinated beverages like espresso or tea. Just you should not go wild with the coffee.”