We will tell you what doctors, scientists, and sports instructors mean by a healthy lifestyle and how to maintain it in college.
What is a healthy lifestyle?
It is a set of habits and actions that help strengthen and maintain immunity and physical capabilities and eliminate factors that negatively affect well-being and the body as a whole.
A strict concept of a healthy lifestyle is not formulated, so people often perceive it in their own way. For some, this is a sport seven times a week, and someone believes that they have begun to lead a healthy lifestyle, giving up alcohol and cigarettes.
Many students do not lead a healthy lifestyle, as they believe that it is necessary to spend a lot of time on it. If you don’t have enough time on it because you spend it on homework, then you can save it by asking for help from an academic writing service like Essay Shark. Writers who work there can deal with assignments really quickly.Â
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What makes a healthy lifestyle?
Harvard University conducted a large-scale study of the health habits impact on life expectancy. The scientists looked at data from more than 78,000 women from 1980 to 2014 and 40,000 men from 1986 to 2014.
The researchers took into account information about physical activity, diet, body weight, alcohol consumption, and smoking from regular questionnaires.
Based on the data obtained, conclusions were drawn about the impact of the above criteria on the well-being, illness, and life expectancy of people; a correlation was traced between healthy lifestyles and quality of life.
Healthy habits are of great importance. According to the analysis, people who stick to a healthy lifestyle live significantly longer. Those who did not maintain a healthy lifestyle were much more likely to suffer from cancer and cardiovascular diseases.
Also, the researchers calculated life expectancy in relation to how many healthy habits the respondents had.
Even one of them, for example, the complete rejection of alcohol and smoking or proper nutrition, increased the life expectancy of men and women by an average of two years.
A healthy lifestyle contributes to the following:
- reduce the number of relapses of chronic diseases;
- increased endurance: a person is full of energy and less likely to experience physical and emotional fatigue;
- improved appearance: healthy skin, hair, and nails;
- normalization of weight, which has a positive effect on the figure and quality of the body and physical capabilities;
- reduction in the incidence of acute respiratory viral infections; disease progresses faster and easier.
A healthy lifestyle does not guarantee the absence of diseases. There is no such thing as a guarantee in medicine. Nevertheless, it can be said that a healthy lifestyle provides an opportunity to lay the scientifically proven foundations of long-term health. It helps reduce the risk of non-communicable diseases.
In the middle of the 20th century, when antibiotics began to be widely used in medicine, the average life expectancy of a person began to increase.
However, it then became clear that cardiovascular and oncological diseases, injuries, road traffic accidents, and violent crimes, as well as chronic lung diseases, can prevent an increase in life expectancy. Many diseases are non-communicable, but they can cause epidemics or pandemics. For example, obesity.
Tips for a healthy lifestyle in college
A healthy lifestyle includes several important rules, the observance of which allows you to achieve a positive effect. Pay attention to various areas of life and adjust them if necessary.
1. Balanced diet
Health and mood directly depend on micro and macro elements in products. Modern doctors agree that any diets and fasting days, except for those prescribed by specialists for individual problems, often do more harm than good.
It is necessary to exclude starvation and overeating, monitor the diversity of nutrients and drinking regimen, and select a diet in accordance with preferences and lifestyle.Â
It is important to reduce the consumption of sugar and refined foods and include healthy fats, seasonal vegetables, and fruits in the diet. Find tools and principles that will help you cook healthy meals with pleasure and work out the habit of seizing stress or guilt.
2. Physical activity
Sports activities help to improve cognitive abilities, reaction speed, and mood, get rid of stress, and speed up metabolism. Even adhering to household activity can significantly improve health indicators.
It is not necessary to buy a gym membership and sign up for yoga classes, although consulting a trainer, determining your body type, and an individual training program will definitely not be superfluous.Â
Hiking, morning exercises, favorite outdoor games, or dancing will help to add movement to life. You can buy a couple of machines for home gym equipment, stretch and do simple exercises without getting out of bed.
3. Hygiene
Personal hygiene is an important part of a healthy lifestyle. How often to bathe, shower and wash your hair depends on your health and skin. In recent years, with the COVID-19 pandemic, few have fully understood the need to wash hands at every opportunity.
With regard to sanitizers, the need for their constant use is questionable. On the one hand, they destroy pathogenic bacteria. On the other hand, they disrupt the skin microflora.
4. Sleep and rest
Without an adequate sleep and rest regime, it is difficult to talk about other factors of a healthy lifestyle. Good sleep, along with nutrition, is the basis of health. Determine your rate (it can be either 6-7 or 9-10 hours) and try to stick to the schedule regardless of the day of the week, the amount of work, and the saturation of life with events.Â
Experts confirm that sleep is not only important for physical and psychological recovery but also has other positive effects on the body – for example, it is good for relationships. Know how to break away from important matters in time, take a break from creating a long project and plan a long-awaited vacation.
Also Read:Â 5 Perfect Ways on How Yoga Can Boost Intimacy?
5. Wellness treatments
In addition to daily routines and habits, it is good to supplement self-care with special procedures from time to time. These can be massages, body wraps, going to a bathhouse or sauna, swimming in open water, a weekend at the SPA, or relaxing in a home bath.
The main thing is that you feel the benefits of the procedures, rest and enjoy.