A Million Lives

A million lifestyle hacks...unlimited possibilities

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9 Lifestyle Tips To Promote Longevity And Good Health

For ages, the human race has been striving to unlock the secret to longevity. Several research studies have been conducted for establishing ways to live longer and healthier. While genetics has a key role to play, a healthy lifestyle is equally important to increase your life expectancy. Wouldn’t it be easier to incorporate a few positive changes in everyday life to stay healthy and live longer? Let us list some simple lifestyle tips that can make all the difference.

Load on antioxidants

Disease and aging are mainly induced due to damage caused by free radicals. This can be prevented by loading on antioxidants. The best food sources of anti-oxidants include leafy green vegetables, berries, nuts, grapes and herbs like turmeric, cinnamon, and rosemary. Make these a part of your daily diet and experience the difference, both in the way you look and feel.

Focus on plant-based foods

A plant-based diet that includes vegetables, fruits, whole grains, nuts, and seeds decreases health risks and promotes longevity. These foods are high in nutrients and antioxidants such as carotenoids, polyphenols, vitamin C and folate. Together, these potent substances bring down the risk of life-threatening conditions such as heart disease, metabolic syndrome, cancer, and even brain deterioration.

Take supplements

Although you may be taking a balanced diet, nutritional gaps may still be there. Get periodic health assessments from an expert to identify where you lack and cover it up with supplements. For example, if you are not soaking up enough sunlight, you may suffer from a deficiency of vitamin D. This is a vital mineral that keeps you in good health and can be easily restored with supplementation. Similarly, increase your intake of probiotic foods.

Maintain an ideal weight

People who are fit are more likely to live longer than those who are overweight or obese. The best thing to do is to maintain an ideal weight by eating right and following a regular exercise regime. The secret lies in avoiding overeating and cultivating healthy eating habits, as this article explains. Also, make sure that you have an established exercise routine, whether it involves brisk walking, cycling, swimming, aerobics or any other activity you enjoy.

Keep stress at bay

While exercise and healthy eating will keep you physically fit, meditation and mindfulness keep you healthy in mind. Living longer is not just about being healthy in the body but also keeping stress away. Of course, modern lifestyle is full of stress but you can try some holistic therapies to keep it in check. Be in touch with nature and try deep breathing, yoga and tai chi to restore mental peace and balance.

Sleep well

Another tip to live longer and healthier is to get enough sleep. Ideally, six to eight hours of sleep is considered as the optimal level. This is because of the body repairs and rejuvenates itself during sleep. While you should try to take seven hours at night, a short nap during the day can do you good. However, sleeping excessively may do more harm than good.

Steer clear of unhealthy habits

Needless to say, unhealthy habits like smoking and boozing can lower your life expectancy to a considerable extent. Besides elevating the risks of multiple health conditions such as cancer, heart disease, and diabetes, they can also take a toll on your skin and make you look older than your years. Similarly, you should avoid the intake of unhealthy fats and processed foods as well.

Grow spiritually

Undoubtedly, taking good care of your body is the secret to living longer but there is also a need to strive for spiritual growth. People who attend religious service or volunteer for social causes tend to be happier and more positive. They also have lower rates of health issues and lower mortality rates. Not only does spiritual growth helps you keep fit in the body but heals the mind and ensures mental health too.

Nurture your social circle

People who follow an isolated lifestyle are more susceptible to problems such as anxiety, depression, and stress. These can translate into a higher risk of health conditions such as hypertension, heart disease, obesity, and poor immunity. Therefore, it is best to have a social circle and nurture relationships with family, friends, and colleagues. Providing and accepting support definitely has a positive impact.

These simple lifestyle changes can have a far-reaching impact on your health and help you extend your lifespan as well. The best part is that these are easy to embrace as habits and are capable of making you a happier and more fulfilled individual.

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Exercise Vs. Diet: Is One Really More Important than the Other?

It’s an old debate really, and while there are those that would pick sides, most would agree that weight loss cannot be brought on in a healthy manner unless you are maintaining both fronts with precision. Nevertheless, we are going a step further today and taking the question head on to find out once and for all if one of these two truly is more essential than the other for achieving your weight loss goals.

The Diet is More Important than Exercise

To answer the question in one line, one would have to say that strictly speaking, diet is indeed more important for weight loss than exercise. It’s quite simple really; what you consume is always going to be more important than how much you move your body around in a quest to burn calories. There is no doubt that exercise hastens the weight loss process and it is absolutely essential to build muscle mass, but when it comes to the raw weight loss potentials, diet just wins hands down.

If you have any doubts regarding this conclusion, you need to understand the fact that while you can definitely burn a lot of calories through planned exercise and determination, you will probably end up eating more calories than you just burned at the gym in just a single post-workout meal! So, if you skipped the workout and the meal, you would end up creating a greater calorie deficit than if you worked out and ate the meal. Add all that to the fact that exercise makes us hungrier than usual and it becomes even harder to control your diet when you are exercising than when you are not.

You Can’t Lose Any Significant Weight Through Exercise Only

In case you thought that you could get away with eating junk just because you exercise regularly, you thought wrong. On the contrary, it is possible to lose weight only through dieting, but any significant weight loss is not possible under normal circumstances if you exercise without controlling what you eat. Unhealthy foods are generally rich in calories and saturated fat, while being low on essential nutrients such as protein and unsaturated fat. Therefore, you just cannot burn off the excess calories by working out hard, if you are eating poorly at the same time.

The Body Adjusts and Makes the Job Harder

This is true for diets as well, but it is particularly true for exercise routines. The amount of muscle you will build during your first two years, or the amount of weight you will lose during your first few months at the gym, are not going to be matched by similar rates of improvement later on. Our bodies adjust and we reach a plateau where gaining even a quarter of an inch on your bicep feels like a herculean task, while losing just a couple of pounds takes a lot more labor than before. The body can and will also adjust to your diets in the same way, but by the time you reach your weight loss plateau with a diet, you will have come very close to your goals already.

Now that we have established that dieting is indeed more important than exercising, head over to Cuisine Study and find out everything you will ever need to about eating healthily and keeping it tasty at the same time. Do keep in mind that if you are serious about losing weight fast, becoming healthy and looking good in the process, you will always need to combine both diet and exercise for best results.

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Hack Your Health With a Hormone Balancing Diet

Man and woman living vegetarian and healthy by eating fruits and vegetables

Having balanced hormones can help improve your overall health, sleep, and make weight loss easier. Check out this hormone balancing diet for a healthier life.

Always tired or moody? Is your lack of focus getting out of hand? Can’t lose the extra pounds no matter how hard you try? You’re not alone.

Many women report symptoms of a hormonal imbalance. But there’s good news! A hormone balancing diet can get you back on track.

To learn about the symptoms, causes, and what to eat to feel better, keep reading.

Symptoms of a Hormonal Imbalance

Your body’s hormonal system is complex. It needs to operate in harmony for best performance. Having an imbalance can cause these kinds of symptoms:

  • Depression
  • Mood Swings
  • Anxiety
  • Fatigue
  • Lack of Mental Clarity
  • Trouble Focusing
  • Weight Gain
  • Hot Flashes
  • Hair Loss
  • Acne
  • Infertility

Do any of those look familiar to you? We all experience at least one of them throughout our lifetime. It’s the ones that stick around for long periods of time that become a concern.

Taking medications for these symptoms only masks the root cause. Medications often trigger other complications that wouldn’t exist without them. It’s best to fix your body naturally.

If you think you may need an extra helping hand, find out more about hormonal replacement therapies to do alongside a hormone balancing diet.

The body is incredibly self-sustaining when given the right nutrition. Not only will the proper diet help out, but you can also avoid inflammation. Inflammation is the primary cause of disease nowadays, so it’s a win-win situation.

A Hormone Balancing Diet: Targeted Nutrition

Let’s look at the primary hormones responsible for the symptoms above. We’ll also discuss foods that help balance them out.

Insulin

Out of whack insulin levels cause diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and metabolic syndrome, to start. Symptoms of an imbalance in this hormone are weight gain, as well as fatigue and brain fog. If left alone, it can lead to serious health complications and even death.

Diet Changes:

Cutting out sugar and starches is the main thing you’ll want to do to gain control in this area. You need to keep your blood sugar levels stable to avoid insulin spikes.

Also, watch for sneakily hidden sugars in your food. Check labels for things like maltodextrin and all forms of corn syrup.

Thyroid Hormones

The thyroid gland makes tyrosine-based hormones that are responsible for your metabolism. It needs iodine to do so. To help the thyroid out, make sure you are getting enough iodine and tyrosine.

Diet Changes:

Tyrosine is an amino acid found in protein. So, you’ll need to eat dairy foods, meats, and eggs. And for iodine, use pink salt in your meals or eat sea vegetables like kelp several times a week.

Cortisol

Chronic stress or repeated use of corticosteroids cause cortisol imbalances. Symptoms include belly fat, anxiety, sleep problems, heart palpitations, and fertility problems.

High cortisol levels often lead to adrenal fatigue. Adrenal fatigue brings more unwanted symptoms like depression, hair loss, and lack of focus.

Diet Changes:

To improve cortisol and adrenal health, avoid a lot of caffeine. Caffeine puts added stress on your adrenal glands. Eat an anti-inflammatory hormone balancing diet by cutting out sugar, processed foods, and trans fats.

Include more fiber and healthy fats in your diet. Consume more coconut oil, avocado, olive oil, and green leafy vegetables. Also, eat healthy proteins like eggs and grass-fed beef.

Herbs like ashwagandha, licorice root, astragalus, and holy basil regulate cortisol. If you’re interested, it’s easy to find adrenal health formulas containing these herbs.

Sleeping eight hours a night, spending time in nature, and staying active will also help.

Leptin

Leptin’s job is to tell your brain when you’ve eaten enough food. People that overeat continually wear out this signaling process. Their body then becomes insensitive to leptin signals.

When this happens, the signals are ignored, and they don’t receive the message to stop eating. An imbalance like this contributes to obesity. In fact, insulin and leptin resistance usually happen together.

The right leptin levels help with brain function, memory, and mood. Resetting leptin sensitivity with diet is possible.

Diet Changes:

Follow the diet recommendations listed above for insulin. Also, add healthy fats. They will keep you from overeating because they are satisfying and filling.

Melatonin

Melatonin is essential for a good night’s sleep; less than ideal levels can cause insomnia. Made by the pineal gland, it helps regulate your internal clock. This neurotransmitter helps with metabolic syndrome, fat loss, depression, and panic disorders.

Shift workers and late-night coffee drinkers are prime candidates for melatonin deficiency. Irregular sleeping hours interrupt the internal clock and throw off melatonin release. This timing is essential to avoid insomnia at night and fatigue during the day.

Diet Changes:

Eating foods that contain tryptophan will increase melatonin levels indirectly. To take advantage of this, eat eggs, turkey, chicken, nuts, seafood, or dairy during your last meal of the day.

Vitamin B-6, magnesium, folic acid, and zinc are also crucial for melatonin production.

Melatonin supplements are available almost anywhere. But, be careful using these for too long. Long-term use can change your body’s natural hormone levels, sabotaging sleep.

Neurotransmitters and Hormones

Hormones are not always the sole cause of imbalances; they don’t work alone. Neurotransmitters get involved too.

They regulate several glands that are in charge of controlling hormones. In these cases, out of balance neurotransmitter levels will need correcting also.

Here are some common ones and the functions they are in charge of:

Dopamine

Dopamine gets involved in controlling the release of hormones in brain pathways. Too much of this neurotransmitter and you may experience muscle spasms. Too little and you’ll have trouble staying focused and lose motivation.

Norepinephrine

The adrenal glands use norepinephrine as a hormone. This gland is in charge of the fight or flight response and dealing with stress. Prolonged amounts of mental or physical stress overstimulate and wear it out.

Norepinephrine provides concentration, alertness, and helps in learning and retaining knowledge. A shortage will have the opposite effect.

Serotonin

To produce the hormone melatonin, your body needs serotonin. Melatonin is what makes you sleepy after the sun sets. Serotonin is essential for a positive mood and gastrointestinal functioning.

Another hormone, estrogen, inhibits the breakdown of serotonin. This effect increases concentrations of it in the brain. Women that have a hysterectomy, or go through menopause, lose this significant benefit.

What’s the Bottom Line?

To naturally correct hormonal imbalances, provide your body what it needs, and you’ll see incredible changes inside and out. Focus on a hormone balancing diet, sleep, stress reduction, and exercise. If required, include hormone replacement therapy as well.

Have you tried making any of the changes above? Share your experiences and tips in the comments section.

A Million Lives

Travelling in all its glory is fun and exhilarating but sometimes you might want to find some information on where to go, what to see and how to go about it from someone other than the go-to websites, especially when it comes to travel hacking and the coolest, most useful ways to get the most out of your next adventure.

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