“Your outlook—having a sense of optimism and purpose—seems to be predictive of health outcomes,” says Dr. Laura Kubzansky, professor of social and behavioral sciences at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Kubzansky has studied the health effects of several forms of psychological well-being. She has found that emotional vitality—characterized by enthusiasm, hopefulness, engagement in life, and the ability to face life’s stresses with emotional balance—is associated with a substantially reduced risk of heart attack and stroke.
healthy lifestyle
🍎 Health Hack: Good Health and Self-Compassion are Linked
Do you treat yourself as well as you treat your friends and family?
That simple question is the basis for a burgeoning new area of psychological research called self-compassion — how kindly people view themselves. People who find it easy to be supportive and understanding to others, it turns out, often score surprisingly low on self-compassion tests, berating themselves for perceived failures like being overweight or not exercising.
The research suggests that giving ourselves a break and accepting our imperfections may be the first step toward better health. People who score high on tests of self-compassion have less depression and anxiety, and tend to be happier and more optimistic. Preliminary data suggest that self-compassion can even influence how much we eat and may help some people lose weight.
🍎 Health Hack: Listen to Your Mom – Floss and Brush
“Brushing and flossing every day doesn’t just help your teeth; it may also keep your cardiovascular system healthy. A 2018 study in the journal Cerebrovascular Diseases Extra found that the worse your dental hygiene, the higher your chance of having a stroke. Doctors aren’t sure why, but it’s possible that the bacteria that infect your gums seep into your bloodstream, causing blood vessel inflammation and other problems.” Source
Longevity Tip: 5 of 5 To Go Beyond 90
Eat a Healthy Diet
Eating a healthy diet is really quite simple. Eat real food. If there is an ingredient list, it probably isn’t real food. Likewise, if it comes in a box, can, or jar it also probably isn’t real food. Real food looks like something you would grow in your garden or bring back from a hunt. If you can just do these three things, then you are 90% of the way to a healthy diet. 1. Don’t eat sugar. (This includes fruit juice, honey, maple syrup, etc.) 2. Don’t eat flour. (Flour, whether it be from wheat, rice, corn, or potatoes, is still just sugar). 3. Eat vegetables with every meal. (And by every meal I also mean breakfast!)
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Longevity Tip: 4 of 5 To Go Beyond 90
Tip 4: Keep Alcohol Intake in Check
In this study, . . . those who drank the least seemed to live the longest. Alcohol and longevity is a difficult question to answer. . . . Some studies that claim moderate alcohol consumption has life-extending properties. However, other studies claim this research is bogus because they didn’t account for the abstainer bias. . . . The American Institute for cancer research claims that there is no safe level of alcohol that can be consumed. Even for the heart condition, atrial fibrillation, studies also show that there is no safe level of alcohol. If you chose to drink, my advice would be to look for the minimally effective dose that you need. If your BMI runs high, minimizing alcohol intake will help you to optimize your weight as alcohol packs a big sugar punch.
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Longevity Tip: 3 of 5 Tips To Go Beyond 90
Tip 3: At Least 30 Minutes of Exercise Every Day
With regards to this Harvard study, they don’t give you any days off. You have to be active every day. No excuses. What you do for exercise doesn’t matter. My only rule is that you enjoy doing it because if you don’t, it will never stick. That daily dose of physical activity can be anything provided you break a sweat and get your heart rate up.A quick disclaimer…if you haven’t been exercising regularly, please speak with your physician first before adopting this longevity hack or, for that matter, any other hack mentioned in this article.
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Longevity Tip: 2 of 5 Tips To Go Beyond 90
Tip 2: Keep Your BMI Between 19 and 25
Not quite sure what your body mass index (BMI) is? Here is the link to find out. If you are like most people . . . The natural inclination is to say the BMI system is wrong, bogus, or a terrible measure of health. Despite the limitations, BMI is a proven predictor of longevity within a population of people. And when it comes to living a long life, studies show that the BMI sweet spot seems to be 20 to 25. Even if you have battled weight all your life, it is easy for most people to maintain a BMI below 25. In fact, after working with thousands of patients, you only need to remember three things when it comes to optimizing your weight – No sugar, no flour, and nothing after 7 PM.
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Longevity Tip: 1 of 5 Tips To Go Beyond 90
Tip 1: Breathe Clean Air
While this study specifically looked at smoking, countless other studies have linked any form of air pollution to heart disease, cancer, and a shortened life. The message is simple. Make clean breathing a must. In addition to not smoking, you also don’t allow anyone to smoke around you. The same goes for electronic cigarettes. Besides smoking, air pollution can be a huge problem. Indeed, studies show that air pollution may rob you of up to 5.5 years of life! And when it comes to air pollution, indoor air quality is generally much worse than anything you may encounter outside of your home. For indoor air pollution, studies show that even breathing the stench of smoke on the clothes of smokers puts you at risk.
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Longevity Tip ~ Moving Beyond 90
What Does it Take to Get to Age 90?
The human body is genetically programmed to make it to 90. As long as we don’t screw it up, 90 is within reach for most people. If you can get a few simple, healthy lifestyle habits down, then the odds are that you will thwart a fatal cancer or heart condition. Indeed, if you can stave off heart disease and cancer then cruising past 90 should be a breeze.
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5 Tips to Live Beyond 90 Will Appear Over the Next 5 Days
Longevity Tip ~ Rosemary may be your BFF
In Acciaroli, Italy, a remote village of only a few thousand people — if that many — there’s a staggering number of centenarians — 300 — and experts don’t think it’s a coincidence. That’s why researchers from the University of California, San Diego and the University of Rome, La Sapienza are teaming up to study them. The coastal city is located south of Naples, next to the Tyrrhenian Sea, where locals often get around on foot and enjoy a Mediterranean Diet that relies heavily on the herb rosemary. Rosemary is thought to improve memory, and to help with blood circulation and the nervous system. The Mediterranean Diet as a whole is rich in fruits, grains, vegetables, and seafood.
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