Top 5 health tips for millennials
“To get rich, never risk your health. For it is the truth that health is the wealth of wealth.”
Richard Baker OBE (broadcaster)
A couple of days into January, my son asked me a question on behalf of a group of his mates. What are 5 things they might do to improve their health this coming year? I was chuffed. How fantastic that health-driven lifestyle changes were on their agenda! I paused for a few minutes, bearing in mind they are all around 30 yrs old, and then gave him the following list.
1. Hydrate.
Drink 1.5 – 2 litres of plain, preferably filtered, water a day. Not with meals, but between meals so as not to dilute digestive juices. Your cells need water. Dehydration begins to affect bodily functions even before thirst mechanisms are triggered.
Downstream effects of dehydration include brain shrinkage, headaches, joint pain/arthritis, poor filtration of toxins by kidneys, gout (urate crystals that get trapped in areas of low circulation eg joints), UTIs, decreased blood volume (inhibits delivery of nutrients and oxygen to cells) , dry skin/wrinkles (water is essential for cell structure and collagen fibres), snoring, allergies/asthma (histamine levels increase to conserve cell hydration), constipation (water softens stool and ensures good transit time), toxicity (constipation allows toxins to be reabsorbed back into circulation), systemic inflammation (via a build up of toxins and waste). Enough to convince you?
2. Eat Real food
Most of us wouldn’t buy crap fuel for our cars just because it was cheap and convenient. So don’t buy packaged/processed goods (anything with more than 3 ingredients is a good rule of thumb). Don’t buy ready-made meals unless they are made in the place you are buying them from. Convenience food is packed with emulsifiers, texturisers, flavour enhancers, preservatives, trans fats, sugar, sweeteners, hormones and a whole load of crap you don’t need. This is not fuelling your body to heal or function at its best (think energy, mental clarity, pain-free, clear skin, smooth digestion, good sex drive, resilient good mood). Your body is desperate for nutrients. These foods are not only nutrient-depleted but toxin heavy. It’s a double lose.
Instead shop on the outside aisles of the supermarket; buy whole, natural, unrefined food and drink, and cook like your grandmother cooked. This one thing will make a HELL of a difference to your health and vitality.
3. Eat in a calm state.
That means NOT on the move, NOT while on a business phone call, NOT while doing your emails, preferably not doing anything else at all, except maybe chatting with someone you like. Your body cannot digest food or absorb nutrients from that food if you are not in what is called a ‘parasympathetic state’. In colloquial terms, that means not in Fight, Flight or Freeze mode, but in Rest, Heal and Digest mode. This is binary. You can’t be half in each! You would be better off not eating at all than eating in a ‘sympathetic’ (stressed) state.
This is the reason that so many young people are suffering with gut problems such as painful bloating, trapped gas, constipation and diarrhoea. If you have a problem getting into a properly relaxed state for eating, I suggest you try 4-7-8 breathing (in for count of 4, hold for count of 7, exhale for count of 8) 10 times over and with your eyes closed. This takes less than 4 minutes if you do it properly and will make a huge difference. Then eat slowly and chew every mouthful mindfully. Think about what you’re eating. Notice its flavour and texture.
4. Learn to value sleep.
There is no getting around this one: sleep-deprived people cannot live vital, vibrant, energetic lives. Try and get to bed early enough that you wake up 90% of the time in advance of your alarm clock. Hours before midnight have much more value to your body’s mechanisms than hours after. There is loads of science on this, but if you want easy proof, buy an Oura ring. Preserve the hour before bedtime – this means i) no TV, smart phones, and ii) no stressful activities (bill paying, parenting debates, reading the News, if that gets you worked up as it gets me). Any of these during the hour before bedtime WILL affect your sleep. You need to let your brain know in that hour that you do want to wind down and prepare to sleep deeply.
5. Walk.
Walk everywhere. Don’t take public transport. Make excuses to walk. And this conveniently allows me to sneek in another point which is to get outside into fresh air and day light whenever you can, even if just for a few minutes (yes, v important for circadian rhythm, particularly early in the morning).
If you can, fit in 5 minutes walking every hour even if you are on a phone call when you do it (but preferably leave your phone at your desk). During those 5 minutes take some deep cleansing belly breaths. Allow the exhales to be long and slow.
Consider a standing desk. A sedentary lifestyle promotes disease all by itself. And don’t think your exercise needs are satisfied by a workout at the gym 3 times a week. They aren’t. Movement every day is way MORE important. See my article Get Moving.
There you are. And if I could expand it to 10, I would add in cutting back on sugar and white flour (sugar by another name), cutting out all industrially-produced vegetable/seed oils (anything not cold-pressed) and increasing healthy fat in your diet (yes including saturated fat), stress reduction, toxin avoidance, and doing something fun every day – but they will have to wait. I was only asked for 5 and I understand the reason for that.
This advice may sound obvious. You have probably heard it before. And you probably find it easy to accept. But have you done anything about it? Or does it just feel too hard, too overwhelming, too different? Or maybe you feel you don’t have to worry about this stuff for another 15 years. Well guys, sorry to disillusion you, but the decline in health through poor lifestyle choices starts around the age of 30. You need to get on it now.
The power of these 5 lifestyle choices, collectively, on long term health is HUGE. These are the fundamentals, and they account for much of what you need to do to maximise your body’s ability to Get well and Stay well, or to prevent disease in the first place, including from all infectious challenges. If you don’t get these basics dialled in, there is NO POINT spending time and money on fancy treatments or supplements to try and enhance your health and wellbeing. They won’t make any measurable difference.
We focus so much on disease care in the world of “healthcare”. The truth is that sustainable health naturally repels disease. Each of us must take responsibility for creating resilient health in our lives, functional balance that can weather viral encounters and all the other inescapable factors that can undermine health. There is no other way. No shortcut. No bypass. No-one else can do it for you. No cutting-edge scientific intervention that makes lifestyle choices optional. Its down to you.