HealthInsight’s : Medical information and health/Fitness advice you can trust
your trusted source for practical tips on wellness, exercise, and nutrition to support a healthier, happier lifestyle. At Peak Wellness, we believe that health is a journey, and we’re here to provide you with the tools and knowledge to make informed choices every step of the way.
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At Peak Wellness Insights, your health journey is our priority. Join us as we dive into the latest in exercise science and nutrition advice to support your best self!
Weekend Warriors’ Get the Same Brain Health Benefits As Regular Exercisers
- Weekend warriors — individuals who get most of their physical activity over one or two days in a week — gain similar brain health benefits as those who exercise more regularly.
- According to a new study, weekend warriors showed similar risk reductions for developing mild cognitive impairment as those who exercised throughout the week.
- Another recent study showed weekend warriors had reductions in risk for dementia, stroke, Parkinson’s disease, anxiety, and depression, which is comparable to a more traditional workout schedule.
If you’re a night owl, you can still change your sleep cycle. Read on to learn how to shift your sleep schedule so you can go to bed and wake up earlier.
Staying up later than average can be a good thing, especially if you tend to feel more alert, creative, and productive at night.
However, if you have to get up early for work or school, it can be hard when you’re regularly going to bed late. If that’s your situation, you may want to consider shifting your bedtime so that you fall asleep earlier.
You may naturally have a late chronotype, but you can still change your sleep schedule.
Different behaviors can help you adjust your sleep patterns. Light exposure, in particular, has a strong influence on your sleep-wake cycle.
Some things you can do to shift your sleep cycle include waking up at the same time every day, getting a good amount of light soon after you wake up, and exercising moderately.
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HealthInsight’s : Medical information and health/Fitness advice you can trust Social media can be a good way to connect with friends and loved ones, keep up to date on current events and trends, and spend time relaxing. It can also be a cause of stress and worry as people try to navigate difficult new stories, online bullying, and the pressure to create the perfect image. Here are some tips to have a healthier social media experience.
Connect with loved ones:
Social media can be a great way to connect with friends and family around the world. Use your social media channels to reach out and see how loved ones are doing and what is going on in their lives. Take the opportunity to share your own personal stories and photos with them.
Follow and share inspiring stories:
Find stories and platforms that help you feel uplifted and positive. If a friend or influencer is sharing negative content that makes you feel upset, you can stop following them or put them on mute for a short time.
Connect carefully:
While there is much uplifting and educational content on social media, there is also content that can encourage and lead to harmful behaviors. Do your best to verify the validity of content you are viewing and un-follow or block accounts that encourage harmful or destructive behavior.
Have fun!:
Find engaging and entertaining groups and people to follow and bring a sense of light-heartedness to your own platform.
Take a break and support others in doing the same:
Deleting apps from your phone or using other mechanisms to limit access can be a great way to bring yourself back to reality when feeling stressed or overwhelmed by social media use. If a friend or family member takes a break from social media, give them the space they need and try to connect with them in other ways.
Let someone know if you are struggling:
If you are experiencing anxiety, depression, or other issues related to social media overuse, reach out and talk to someone. Friends and family can be a good support network, and there are professionals available for more urgent issues. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 988.
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This 30-second balance test can help tell you how well you’re aging
A new study published in the journal Plops One found that a simple balance test is a strong indicator of age-related decline. Researchers at Mayo Clinic evaluated grip and knee strength, double- and single-leg balance, and back-and-forth walking of 40 participants. Half were aged 50 to 65 and the other half were over 65.
Their main questions were: Which of these metrics deteriorates faster and at what rate? Those answers will help medical professionals create more targeted treatments to slow these declines.
Clinicians chose these tests because balance, muscle strength, and an efficient gait—your walking pattern—contribute to quality of life as you age, and are especially important for older adults to maintain independence.
The study concluded that the single-leg balance is the best indicator of healthy aging. It was the one exercise that showed the steepest decline with age.
Balance is important for healthy aging
“Balance is important because it reflects how well the body systems are working together,” says Kenton Kaufman, lead author of the study, director of the Motion Analysis Laboratory, and orthopedist at Mayo Clinic.
Around age 50 is when balance starts to decline, Kaufman says. That can put you at risk for falling, which is the leading cause of injury for adults over age 65, according to the CDC.
“If you can’t stand on a single leg for 5 seconds, then [you] might be at risk for falling,” Kaufman tells Fortune.
Kaufman says good single-leg balance shows that the neurological, vision, and vestibular (your inner ear, which helps you maintain balance and spatial orientation) systems are well-coordinated.
“A good test of [balance] is putting your trousers on in the morning,” Kaufman says.
How to improve your single-leg balance
Practice standing on one leg, but don’t be discouraged if you can’t stay balanced for a full 30 seconds, Kaufman says. It’s just a goal to shoot for.
There are numerous at-home exercises to help improve single-leg balance. Here are a few to try from the Mayo Clinic.
- Weight shifts: Stand with your feet hip-width apart. Shift your weight from one leg to the other. Lift your opposite foot off the ground for as long as you can hold it. Then shift to the other leg. Repeat.
- Tandem walking: Place one foot directly in front of the other while walkingThink of the “sobriety test” that police officers use.
- Tai chi: Look for group classes at local fitness centers or senior centers, where you can practice this slow, balance-focused movement.
- Hip strength: Kaufman recommends strengthening your hip abductors, with exercises like clamshells with a resistance band or single leg raises while lying on your side.
I usually come away from my yearly wellness appointment feeling secure in my future, even though I have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). That’s not the case this year; in fact, some of the results worried me.
First, I learned that my B12 levels are too high and my iron level is normal. Yet I’m still anemic, which is one of the more common comorbidities with COPD. I was diagnosed with pernicious anemia when I was a senior in high school, and iron-deficiency anemia came along shortly before I was diagnosed with COPD.
High B12 and normal iron shouldn’t lead to anemia. So how could this seemingly contradictory information be true? I began searching for answers and found that people can have unexplained anemia. As I read further, I learned that a bone marrow biopsy, which involves extracting a small portion of the hip bone, is one way to determine the anemia’s cause.