The 10 Most Important Health Tips To Follow
If more precisely stated, this blog title would read, “The 10 Most Important Health Tips I Follow” or perhaps even better, “What Works for Me.” I’m out of my lane as far as expert advice, of course, so please don’t take this as anything but just that — what I’ve found works best for me. Let me also add that while I am doing pretty well, I’m far from some bastion of health; it’s all about the trade-offs we are willing to make. That’s an individual choice, of course. I have ice cream almost every day, I drink way too much caffeine, and I likely don’t sleep nearly enough. But on a personal level, I’ve invested heavily in my mental and physical well-being since before COVID hit — I overcome things both mentally and physically more easily now, I feel better overall, and friends of mine have even noticed the change. This is sort of an accumulation of the hundreds of hours of podcasts and thousands of pages of research I’ve read, and what I’ve put into practice that turned out to work well for me. I hope it does for others too.
1. Have (a) passion(s).
Dr. Gabor Maté, author of the best-selling In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, describes a passion as “divine spark.”
“There’s no formal definition of having a purpose in life, but the consensus is that it’s a sense of meaning and feeling that life is worth living,” says preventive cardiologist Randy Cohen, MD, medical director of University Medical Practice Associates at Mount Sinai St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital. And research shows that having a passion or purpose is quite healthy. Reviewing data from ten studies involving 136,000 men and women, Dr. Cohen and his colleagues found that people with a low sense of purpose, as measured by psychological surveys, were more likely to have a stroke, heart attack, or coronary artery disease. Individuals with a high sense of purpose had a lower risk of developing the same conditions. “We found a 23 percent reduction in mortality and a 19 percent reduction in cardiovascular events among those people,” Cohen says. That puts living purposefully about equally as healthy as the more frequently recommended things people do, like engaging in exercise.
2. Embrace and accept yourself… but always grow.
I’m not going to source a single research study here, although I will quote UnFu*k Yourself by Gary John Bishop. There’s actually a lot of great stuff in that book — it’s sort of a modern-day Man’s Search for Meaning — but two sentences stand out to me: “It’s not that you have to find the answer, you are the answer” (true from my experience) and, “Don’t ever blame anyone, not even yourself” (equally true). I’ll use my own story as an anecdote here. I am a vastly more healthy person today than I’ve ever been in my life because I have looked carefully at my flaws and the challenges that life has thrown at me, particularly those from my childhood that I tucked away into my subconscious (and we all do), and accepted them. Because once you are able to say “I may have needed that at some point in my life, I understand why I had that flaw, and it comes from deep inside and was useful at one time, but I no longer need it” — you gain control of your life. And control of your life essentially means freedom. Free will. The ability to maximize every day and live in the present. And if that isn’t healthy, I honestly don’t know what is.
3. Get 12,000 steps a day.
A recently-published 4,840-person study from the Journal of the American Medical Association found that people who walk more than 12,000 steps a day die at a far lower rate (by almost 16x) over 10 years than those who only walk less than 4,000 steps. Additionally, the benefits of walking were the same whether participants smoked or didn’t, had a lot of education or not, drank alcohol or not, or ate well or not. We have every evolutionary reason to believe that we are meant to walk or run during the day versus sit (incidentally this also makes us very rare among large mammals, who tend to spend a great deal of time conserving energy for sporadic bursts when it is needed). The data suggests benefits flatten after 12,000 steps, and I’ve found that if I set this as a goal it is one of the easier ones to achieve on a daily basis. Getting a dog would help make it even easier, and there are a number of other health benefits associated with having a pet.
4. Stress yourself.
Please before reading on make sure to note I didn’t say “be stressed.” You, of course, want to minimize feeling mentally stressed. But for longevity purposes, it would seem that environmental stressors are actually good. When your body senses adversity, longevity genes get turned on. We live in a world of convenience, and it turns out that as far as what that does to our body, not good. Get hypoxic (exercise intensely), get cold, get hot and sweat, go for a few extra hours each day without having to snack (see my footnote on this at the bottom please), etc. I find I love running at as high an altitude as possible (made easier by the fact I live in the highest altitude state). All of this can genuinely suck, of course, but for me it’s trading short-term misery for long-term health, and most days that is a trade I’m very happy to make.
5. Trust your doctor, not the internet.
This post notwithstanding (that is a joke; this post should never be seen as medical advice), you can basically find anything out there supporting any theory you want — it’s just one search away. But you can often flip the theory on its head and find the same amount of supporting evidence. Even doctors disagree with one another about most things health. So why trust your doctor when there is such agreement? Well, two things: 1. Trust between doctor and patient is probably one of the most powerful medical interventions there is, and 2. As alluded to below, you are the only “you” out there. What works en masse may not work for you. Over time, your doctor will figure that out with you. Find a good doctor and stick with them for life — because likely your life is going to be a good deal longer if you listen to a doctor who knows you and your health versus the internet.
6. Find what works best for you.
Good news! You are, indeed, a beautiful and unique snowflake. So unique, in fact, that there is zero guarantees that what works for someone else (or even the masses) will work for you. That same thing — be it diet or prescription drug or exercise, etc. may even harm you. That is known as a “paradoxical effect” in the medical community. There are two points here. Point number one is, find what works for you. In diet and nutrition this may mean veganism. Or time-restricted feeding (more commonly known as intermittent fasting). Or any of about 600 other possibilities. Again, it is impossible for even the most educated and experienced doctors to tell you exactly what you should put into your body until you actually do so and see what happens to you. Which brings me to the equally important point number two…
7. Get outside and in nature.
We are absolutely meant to be outdoors, and this coming from someone who had to deal with a melanoma near my lymphatic nodes. That experience hasn’t changed a thing for me, other than I now remember to wear sunscreen (you should too!). But get outside as much as possible — here are the documented benefits per mentalfloss.com:
Being outdoors boosts your energy. One study suggests that spending 20 minutes in the open air gives your brain an energy boost comparable to one cup of joe.
It feels easier to exercise outdoors. Does it seem noticeably easier to exercise outside? In one small study, researchers had cyclists pedal in front of green, grey, and red video footage. The bikers who exercised in front of the green reported feeling less physical exertion and more positive moods—meaning that grass, trees, and plants might add a psychological energy boost to your workout.
The outdoors is good for your vision. Research shows that elementary school students who spend more time outdoors are less likely to develop nearsightedness.
Natural sunlight helps mitigate pain. In one study, surgery patients who were exposed to high-intensity sunlight reported less stress and marginally less pain, and therefore took less pain medication.
The outdoors boosts your immune system. Scientists think that breathing in phytoncides—airborne chemicals produced by plants—increases our levels of white blood cells, helping us fight off infections and diseases.
The outdoors provides you with free aromatherapy. According to science, you really should stop and smell the flowers. Research shows that natural scents like roses, freshly cut grass, and pine make you feel calmer and more relaxed.
The outdoors enhances creativity. Psychologists found that backpackers scored 50 percent higher on creativity tests after spending a few days in the wild sans electronics.
The outdoors helps with seasonal affective disorder. In the winter, shorter days and lower light levels can trigger Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD—a reoccurring condition that’s marked by symptoms of anxiety, exhaustion, and sadness. Doctors say spending time outside can lessen SAD’s severity—even if the weather’s cold or overcast.
Being outdoors gives you your daily dose of Vitamin D. Vitamin D is essential for a well-functioning body. It helps us absorb calcium, it prevents osteoporosis, and it reduces inflammation, among other things. Although vitamin D is present in some foods, like salmon and fortified milk, we get more than 90 percent of our vitamin D from casual exposure to sunlight.
The outdoors restores your focus. Can’t concentrate at work? Leave your office for a few minutes and go stroll in a nearby park. Studies show that walking in nature helps restore our focus.
The outdoors makes us better people. According to psychologists, exposure to nature helps us shrug off societal pressures, allowing us to remember and value more important things like relationships, sharing, and community.
8. Resistance train.
I think it is important to note that this does not mean exclusively weight training. There are many people who never lifted weights who are understandably a bit anxious at the thought of being the new and untrained person in a crowded gym (or just being in a crowded gym at all during COVID times). You don’t necessarily need it. Anything, including your own body weight, can be used for resistance training, and the benefits are numerous. What are they? Per the Better Health website, resistance training offers the following benefits:
Improved muscle strength and tone – to protect your joints from injury.
Maintaining flexibility and balance, which can help you remain independent as you age.
Weight management and increased muscle-to-fat ratio – as you gain muscle, your body burns more kilojoules when at rest.
May help reduce or prevent cognitive decline in older people.
Greater stamina – as you grow stronger, you won’t get tired as easily.
Prevention or control of chronic conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, back pain, depression and obesity.
Improved mobility and balance.
Improved posture.
Decreased risk of injury.
Increased bone density and strength and reduced risk of osteoporosis.
Improved sense of wellbeing – resistance training may boost your self-confidence, improve your body image and your mood.
Improved sleep and avoidance of insomnia.
Increased self-esteem.
Enhanced performance of everyday tasks.
9. Stretch more, sit less.
I could be a case study in what happens if you train hard for much of your life and never stretch. For me, this means my hips now don’t fire and my calfs keep doing all the work, locking things up including my ankle just about every time I run. Basically, lack of flexibility was zero issue for me until it became the issue. I can’t run until I fix it — which I’m working hard on now. I still run, but I keep injuring myself — don’t be me! Some of the other benefits of stretching:
Increases your flexibility
Increases your range of motion
Improves your performance in physical activities
Increases blood flow to your muscles
Improves your posture
Helps to heal and prevent back pain
Is great for stress relief and can calm your mind
Helps decrease tension headaches
10. Surround yourself with those who care.
Having relationships and friends is, of course, beneficial to most people. But relationships can also be incredibly harmful, especially when your self-esteem becomes other-based (or put another way, when you are externally hinged on someone else’s conception or definition of you and not your own). The best way to protect against this, of course, is to have unconditional, internally-based self-esteem. But there is another helpful health tip. Ask yourself, “Who in my life truly cares about my betterment versus just using me for their betterment?” Surround yourself with as many of those people as possible.
What did I miss? The most obvious that comes to mind is sleep — the problem being I’m likely a “short-sleeper” (or possibly just chronically sleep-deprived), as my body doesn’t seem to need that much. Five hours seems completely fine for me, day after day after day. I wrote about why I wake up before 3:30 every day here. But like much of the advice above, everyone has their own zone. Freaking Mathew McCaunoughy gets nine hours per night. Which makes me kind of jealous.
Someone will likely mention that I didn’t sit much on time-restricted feeding (a.k.a. intermittent fasting) or perhaps a hypocalorioc diet. There’s good reason. I do intermittent fast from time to time, starting to eat around 1:00 PM and finishing around 8:00 PM. But we all have vastly different relationships with food, and the last thing in the world I am going to do is say that this is good for everyone. For some, it will work, likely because of what it does for insulin levels and insulin sensitivity. But in good conscience I’m not sure if anyone should be recommending this en masse. As with everything, do what works best for you, and you know better than anyone.
I’ll conclude with “you.” I firmly believe we can control how we see ourselves and others by looking inward not outward. I firmly believe in human resilience. To quote the philosopher Epictetus, “Know first who you are, then adorn yourself accordingly.” Probably the healthiest thing you can possibly do is to not underestimate your value to this world, but to adorn yourself accordingly.