Live, Longer Happier Lives
... physical health problems. Drug overdoses have killed many people, young and old. Maintaining a healthy weight will greatly increase your chances of living a longer life. Obesity plays a vital role in developing life-threatening diseases such as diabetes, coronary heart disease, and some forms of cancer. Metabolism will start to slow down with age. This makes maintaining a healthy weight harder to achieve in the middle to late adulthood. You must compensate accordingly by limiting calorie intake, and exercising regularly to burn off unwanted calories. Stress is very tough on physical health and one’s emotional well being. The immune system can also be affected by prolonged stress. The immune system is used to fight off disease causing organisms and damaged cells. Naturally a weakened immune system makes people more susceptible to infectious diseases and less able to protect themselves from chronic diseases associated with aging such as heart disease, cancer, and hypertension. Stress management techniques will help you avoid stress, and reduce the risk of developing stress related disorders. Exercising the mind by participating in activities that are intellectually stimulating is linked to better preserved mental functioning in later life, including memory. Mentally challenging games, reading, writing, and painting are all intellectual activities that help preserve mental sharpness. Preventing osteoporosis is crucial in having a good quality of life at a later age. The key factor in preventing osteoporosis is to build strong bones at an early age, especially before the age of thirty five. There are many factors in having good bone health, including diet and exercise. Weight-bearing exercise that requires working against gravity is a great way to keep bones and muscles strong. Exercise of any kind will also help to maintain good bone density. Exercise will also help to decrease the loss of calcium and other minerals, which will decrease the likelihood of developing osteoporosis. Complementary and alternative medicine is another tool that some people use to live happier, healthier lives. Complementary and alternative medicine are practices that are not integral parts of conventional medicine. Even though the two terms are often put together they are not the same thing. Complementary treatments are thought of as treatments you would use with more conventional therapies. Alternative medicine is thought of being used instead of the more conventional ways. There are three ideas behind the philosophy of CAM (complimentary and alternative medicine). The first one is your body heals itself. CAM practitioners think that you only need treatment that encourages natural healing processes. The second idea is that prevention is key. CAM practitioners want to see you even when you are healthy. They strongly want to prevent diseases and other things before they happen. The last idea is that learning and healing go hand-in-hand. Practitioners will give you guidance on how to heal yourself. Many of them think of themselves as teachers. Three types of treatment categories are Mind-body connections, Dietary supplements and herbs, and Manipulation and touch. Mind-body connections help enhance you minds ability to regulate and control symptoms of stress or illness. Meditation is one way of strengthening the mind-body connection. Sitting still and focusing on something is called mindfulness and it relaxes your body and helps you manage pain and reduce anxiety and stress. Yoga uses postures and meditation to enhance a min-body connection. A normal yoga session uses four elements: relaxation, breathing, poses and meditation. Biofeedback teaches you to use your mind to control you body. People can learn to control their heart rate, blood pressure, and muscle tension along with many more functions. Other ways of strengthening the mind-body connection are prayer, hypnosis, and art therapies. Dietary supplements and herbs use ingredients found in nature. Some examples of herbs are ginseng, and echinacea. Examples of dietary supplements include selenium and SAMe. For thousands of years herbal treatments have been used. Many people trust in herbal medicine because of its long history. If you get prescribed herbal remedies you treatment Is not regulated as much as other drugs, so there is little proof that these remedies can help you. The third treatment category is manipulation and touch. These methods use human touch to manipulate a targeted part of you bod...