wellness

Wash Your Face Before Bed

Don’t go to sleep without thoroughly washing your face. Over the course of the day your skin and pores collect dirt and oil. If you don’t wash it all off before you hit the hay, the dirt will clog your pores overnight and you’ll wake up with irritated skin that is quite the opposite of a healthy, glowing complexion. 

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Once the swelling has gone down and the muscle doesn’t hurt as much, you can incorporate more movement into your recovery. Some experts recommend gentle stretching for muscles that are recovering from a strain. Be careful not to over-stretch and re-injure the healing muscle fibers.

If stretching is very painful, stop and continue to rest the muscle. You can try again when you aren’t feeling as much pain. If you have questions about when to start stretching an injured muscle or what types of experiences are appropriate, call your doctor or visit a physical therapist. They can help you plan a safe return to normal activity.

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Preparing your own meals can help you take charge of your health. Here’s how to cook tasty, nutritious food for one person. . . . One of the easiest ways to improve your mental and physical health is by preparing more meals at home. Cooking for yourself gives you greater control over the ingredients in your meals, enabling you to cut down on the additives and calories often loaded into takeout and convenience food. Improving your diet with simple, healthy home-cooked meals can also help you lower your risk for serious illness, boost your energy, sharpen your mind, lose weight, and improve how you manage stress, anxiety and depression.

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Make Plants the Main Attraction

A substantial amount of research shows that people who eat a plant-based diet — mainly fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes — live longer and enjoy better health than people whose diets consist mainly of animal-based foods like meat. Many cultures developed their cuisines around plant foods out of necessity. Traditionally, animal protein was expensive, so limited quantities were available. Mediterranean, Latin American, and Asian cultures are known for pairing healthy plant foods with lean protein (fish, chicken) and monounsaturated fat (olive oils, nuts).

These diets can have substantial health benefits. For example, a Mediterranean-style diet has been found responsible for:

• longer life expectancy
• reduced heart disease
• relief from rheumatoid arthritis
• lower rates of Parkinson’s disease
• lower rates of Alzheimer’s disease

Source: Harvard Medical School: Healthbeat Newsletter (April 4, 2022)

No one food can reduce your risk for cancer, but there is an overall diet that can. Learn what it means to eat a plant-based diet and see all the ways it can help your body. If you’ve given any thought to  cancer prevention, you have probably thought about your diet. Almost every week a new trend is hitting the health food headlines. It can make it almost impossible to settle on what to eat and not eat. But there is one diet that is consistently proven, over more than two decades to reduce your risk for cancer. It is a plant-based diet.Eating plant-based does not mean you can’t eat meat. It means your meals are mostly plants: vegetables, grains, and fruits. Beans, seeds and nuts are also included. Fill two-thirds of your plate with these plant-based foods. The remaining one-third should be a lean protein like chicken or fish, or a plant protein like tofu or beans. 

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Dark green leafy vegetables

Mix Things Up

Remember trying to talk backwards as a child? Researchers at Duke University created exercises they call “neurobics,” which challenge your brain to think in new ways. Since your five senses are key to learning, use them to exercise your mind. If you’re right-handed, try using your left hand. Drive to work by another route. Close your eyes and see if you can recognize food by taste.

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Regular physical activity promotes general good health, reduces the risk of developing many diseases, and helps you live a longer and healthier life. For many of us, “exercise” means walking, jogging, treadmill work, or other activities that get the heart pumping.

But often overlooked is the value of strength-building exercises. Once you reach your 50s and beyond, strength (or resistance) training is critical to preserving the ability to perform the most ordinary activities of daily living — and to maintain an active and independent lifestyle. The average 30-year-old will lose about a quarter of his or her muscle strength by age 70 and half of it by age 90. “Just doing aerobic exercise is not adequate,” says Dr. Robert Schreiber, physician-in-chief at Hebrew SeniorLife and an instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School. “Unless you are doing strength training, you will become weaker and less functional.”

Source: Harvard Medical School, Healthbeat Newsletter (Issue #4)

Vitamin B₁₂ and folate form one of nutrition’s best couples. B₁₂ helps the body absorb folate, and the two work together to support cell division and replication, which allow the body to replace cells that die. This process is important during times of growth in childhood, and throughout the body of adults as well. Cells that line the stomach and the cells of the hair follicle, for example, divide and replicate often. Good food sources of vitamin B₁₂ include:

• meat
• eggs
• milk
• Leafy green vegetables
• beans
• other legumes

Nutrition guidelines recommend 2.4 micrograms of B₁₂ and 400 micrograms of folate daily. This can usually be achieved easily by eating a reasonably well-balanced diet. However, vegans — people who don’t eat meat and other animal-based products — may have B₁₂ deficiencies. And people who eat poorly or drink too much alcohol may have folate deficiencies. . . . Deficiency in either or both vitamins may cause a form of anemia called macrocytic anemia. B₁₂ deficiencies can also cause mild tingling sensations and memory loss.

Source: Harvard Medical School, Healthbeat Newsletter