Tips for Health Living

I was browsing in a local bookshop last month when I quite serendipitously discovered an intriguing book.

Entitled Cheat Sheets for Life by Ayesha Ratnayake, the little book contained a wealth of information – broken down into easily absorbed snippets that provide useful insights to health and happiness. The author has captured the essence of her extensive reading, listing little nuggets of advice backed by research. The book contains chapters on various topics –from leadership and productivity to learning and parenting – but the ten pages on Health were what caught my eye, and provided me with many practical tips which I can share with my readers.

All of us would like to live a life free of pain and suffering. We all want to live and be fit for as long as possible. Among the tips I garnered from Cheat Sheets are the following:

1. Prioritise sleep.  Getting less than six hours sleep per day greatly increases your risk of early death. While we sleep, the body in effect flushes out toxins from the brain. Aiming for between 7 to 8 hours of sleep per day is ideal, while sleeping more than 9 hours per day can actually be detrimental to your health. How true are Mahatma Gandhi’s words “When I wake up, I am reborn”.
2. Stay social. Being connected socially is an important ingredient for wellbeing – so make sure to stay connected to other people. Regular contact with at least ten friends has been shown to significantly boost happiness. Keeping in touch with pals, joining a group if you need to and accepting social invitations is important. While we are working, we have a network provided by our workplace – but once we retire, unless we take measures to cultivate social connections, we lose this safety net. Sharing reminiscences and happy memories with others has been shown to generate good feelings and positive emotions. The least socially connected people experience memory loss much faster than those who regularly interact with others.
3. Exercise regularly – and pick your exercise.  Just half an hour of exercise per day is essential for mental and physical health – and it matters not what you do for exercise as long as you do it regularly. Exercising in nature is even better, as is exercising in a group and/or exercising with motivating music. Not only is exercise important for your overall health and well being, it keeps your joints and muscles in good shape. It pays to choose your exercise, as selecting something that you enjoy makes it more likely that you will stick to it. It does not matter whether you walk, jog, swim, play golf or dance – but make it fun! Even using a treadmill can be made enjoyable if you watch a movie or interesting show while walking! Studies have shown that frequent dancing reduces dementia much more than any other physical or cognitive activity.
4. Read, laugh and sing! Research has shown that those who read books have less cognitive decline and lower mortality than non-readers. Laughing improves heart function and has been found, in fact, to have a similar effect to antidepressants. And singing, researchers in Sweden have found, improves heart health. So if you aren’t doing so already, seriously consider reading, laughing and singing – it could add years and health to your life!