If you’re making an active effort to take care of your health and wellbeing, there’s a good chance that you already invest effort and time into eating right and making sure that you get your daily exercise. However, while those are undoubtedly two building blocks of a healthy lifestyle, it’s a mistake to think that this is all that it takes. Here, we’re going to look at some of the other aspects of your health that you need to ensure that you’re not neglecting, and how to give them the focus that they need.
Are you getting enough sleep?
Everyone needs roughly seven to eight hours of sleep each and every night. If you’re not able to get the sleep that you need, it can start to take a toll on your health, from your metabolism to your sensation of pain and even down to your mental health and experience of stress. If you’re having trouble getting the sleep that you need, then there are several things that you can do to improve both the quality and quantity of sleep that you get. For instance, ensuring that you create a full night routine that gets you in bed early, without having any monitors in your room, and keeping distractions out of the bedroom can be a great help.
Take good care of your gut health
A good diet isn’t just about ensuring that you get the macro and micro nutrients that you need, while avoiding salt, fat, and too many empty carbs. What you eat also plays a major role in your gut health, which can affect everything from how effectively you digest food, your metabolism and how you burn energy, right down to the effectiveness of your immune system. There are a host of gut healthy foods that you can make sure that you get more of in your diet, from foods that are high in fiber, like dark leafy greens and oats, to probiotics and fermented foods, like kimchi. Even a little addition of gut healthy foods in your diet each day can make a big difference to your health in the long-term
Spend time on your skin
Your skin is just as important to your health as ever other organ, and there are a lot of good reasons to take care of it, from making sure that it provides a healthy barrier against outside infection to fighting the signs of aging. There are plenty of easy tips for healthier skin that you can follow, from making sure that you give it the right protections against UV radiation with things like sunscreen, and keeping it out of the sun, to staying hydrated and using skin creams that help you lock in the nutrients that we tend to lose through the general wear and tear of the day. Build up a skincare routine and take care of your skin, and it will take care of you, too.
Don’t neglect your intimate health
It’s something that many of us do not get checked often enough, but if you’re a woman, you should make sure that you’re getting scheduled pap smear, as well as routine visits with your gynecologist. Aside from the fact that cervical cancer is one of the most common types for women, there are other health issues that we can ignore or miss because we don’t check these most sensitive parts of us as often as we should.
Watch out for your eyesight
We’re all getting older and, as we do, there are parts of our health that need a little more attention. Eye health issues can affect you at any age, and it’s not just about your sight alone. You should also make sure that you’re protecting your eyes from UV radiation, as well as the dust, pollutants, and allergens that can affect you from day to day. If you start to feel like your eyes are getting a little dry and more irritable over time, then eye drops might be just what you need. If you haven’t arranged for a vision test in the past decade, then it might be time to get it checked out. Eyesight is one of those things that can change so gradually that you might not even notice it changing at all until it has already happened.
Be mindful of your hearing
Just like eyesight, our hearing is more prone to change as we get older. However, changes to our hearing are much more prevalent than changes to our vision for a range of reasons. For one, hearing can be affected not only by age-related degeneration, but by excess exposure to loud noises as well. As such, aside from getting routine hearing checks to make sure that any signs of hearing loss are found and diagnosed if necessary, you should wear hearing protection if you work in especially noisy workspaces, or if you have any hobbies that generate a lot of noise.
Think about mental health
A lot of people think of our mental health as something that’s separate from all of the physical health aspects that we should be keeping an eye on, but the boundary doesn’t really exist. We can all experience mental health issues, and often they can be related to our physical condition, as well. For instance, the link between stress and sleep deprivation is very thoroughly proven by now, and things like chronic pain can lead to issues with anxiety, depression, and the like. It’s important to invest in your mental health, whether it’s by incorporating good practices such as meditation and journaling into your every day life, or by talking to someone when you think you’re having a tough time of it.
Ensure good oral hygiene
You might think that you don’t need to be told to take good care of your teeth, gums, and mouth, but the truth is that it’s much easier to neglect than you might imagine, and many of us may not be putting in the right effort in, even if we think that we are. Brushing and flossing daily, especially after meals, becomes more and more important the older that we get, but you should also think about making routine appointments with your dentist if you have yet to, for more in-depth cleanings, as well as a check as to whether or not you might be experiencing gum disease. Oral cancer becomes more a risk as we get older as well, so routine checks for that are recommended, too.
Get the checkups you need
We’ve named a few of the checkups that you should be having on a routine basis, but there’s a lot more that’s with keeping an eye on besides that. Both men and women should ensure that they have routine cancer checks, and learn what self-examinations you need to. Your annual physical every year can take a good general look at your overall health and give you some real information to work from, helping you get an idea of what lifestyle changes you need to make instead of having you do guesswork about it, instead. Basically, make sure that your doctor is kept in the conversation and that any major health changes or lifestyle changes you plan are done in cooperation with their advice.
With the tips above, you can ensure that you’re giving your health the comprehensive focus that it needs. Don’t worry if you don’t become a master of healthy living straight away. It’s all about building the blocks of a healthy lifestyle, bit by bit, until it becomes habit.