Health resolutions for new year

Achieving good health is possible with a resolution to live longer by tapping from the wealth of discoveries on how to attain long life, reports Sade Oguntola.

PERHAPS you have always wished that life could be without diseases. Well, living healthy is one way to achieving this and this is one resolution you can make as we enter into a new year. Several things that can form part of your resolution and help to achieve living a healthy life are many. By understanding how these resolutions can help you live longer and what to do to get the most benefits, you will be adding years to your life.

1. Drink Red Wine
Red wine is packed with resveratrol, an antioxidant. This works to protect your body against the effects of ageing. One or two glasses of red wine a day can help keep your body young.

2. Eat Dark Chocolate
Dark chocolate is a wonderful food that contains a large amount of antioxidants that protect your body from ageing. Eating chocolate may lower your blood pressure and cholesterol while providing an energy boost.

3. Smile
Smiling works to counteract the effects of stress. By forcing yourself to smile, you can actually change your mood. So put a smile on, even if you do not feel like it, and pretty soon you will be smiling for real.

4. Relax
Relaxation is the opposite of stress. While stress brings harmful health effects, relaxation helps our bodies to rest, heal and function better. By practicing daily relaxation techniques, you can train yourself to turn off your stress and replace it with calm energy. This will improve your blood pressure, heart rate and ability to cope with life better.

5. Sleep
Sleep is an essential body function. Most people do not get enough sleep. Medications, stress, illness and poor sleep habits all can prevent you from getting between seven and nine hours of sleep a night. The health benefits of sleep include more energy, better immune function, and more.

6. Drink Tea
Tea, especially green tea, is loaded with antioxidants that help prevent damage to your body, including protection from certain cancers and Alzheimer’s disease. Black tea has the potential to stimulate an insulin response and reduce blood sugar levels and so could have benefits for diabetics to keep the body’s blood sugar levels relatively steady throughout the day according to the Journal of the American College of Nutrition. However, to fully tap its benefits, tea should be served without milk said researchers from the Charite Hospital in Berlin.

5. Go for regular medical check up
Early diagnosis of diseases can give you a chance to take action before severe damage is done. Get screened for common conditions in your 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s and beyond.

Unfortunately, in our current medical system you must be your own advocate. Keep your medical information current and organised. If you have a problem, knowing your medical and family history and current conditions can speed up diagnosis and treatment.

6. Exercise
Exercise is one of the best things you can do for your body. Increase your activity level and you will feel your energy and mood improve. Make a decision now to exercise at least three times a week. We could all use a little more exercise, and walking is one of the best ways to get more.

7. Take Fish
Omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oils are a great protector of your brain and eyesight. Eat fish with low mercury levels weekly, eat fresh ground flax seed or take an omega-3 supplement to provide long-term brain protection. Omega-3 fatty acids have been linked to a wide-range of health benefits, including reduced risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and certain cancers, good development of a baby during pregnancy, joint health, and improved behaviour and mood.

8. Take lots of fruits and vegetables
Consumption of fruits and vegetables such as broccoli has been linked to lower risk of cancers such as that of the breast and ovary and a wide-range of health benefits, including reduced risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and good development of a baby during pregnancy, joint health, and improved behaviour and mood. Including tomato products into the everyday diet may cut LDL(bad) cholesterol levels by 13 per cent too said British Journal of Nutrition in its December 2007 edition.

9. Eat more beans
Beans is good for your heart because its daily consumption may cut your blood cholesterol level. Scientists, in the November 2007 edition of the Journal of Nutrition, said beans consumption has a substantial health benefit. In the forty healthy adults that ate a daily serving of beans experienced an eight per cent reduction in cholesterol level after 12 weeks.

10. Go natural on foods
Consuming whole grains cereal and foods that are as close to nature as possible could reduce a man’s risk of heart failure by 30 per cent. This was discovered during a survey on over 20,000 men for almost 20 years, as published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Aside taking whole grains foods like pap and oats that have being linked to a reduced risk of heart disease, obesity, diabetes and certain cancers, soy too may protect men from prostate cancer according to a prospective study that report an inverse association between isoflavone and prostate cancer in Japanese men and ovarian and breast cancers in women.

11. Take vitamin supplements
Multivatimins will do you alot of good and keep you in optimum health. For instance, folic acid supplementation is best known as a means of protecting unborn children against birth defects, but research suggests that it could also be beneficial to adults as it significantly reduce their risk of suffering a stroke.

12. Garlic
Garlic’s active ingredient allicin, produces hydrogen sulphide, which makes blood vessels relax, increases blood flow, makes the heart healthy and improves the immune system stated the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

13. Eat less
Eating fewer calories slows the progression of physical disability in age, which could have lifespan implications in humans. A moderate caloric restriction would likely bring about positive effects on oxidative stress and inflammatory biomarkers.

14. Salt reduction
Salt is, of course, a vital nutrient and is necessary for the body to function. But epidemiological evidence has supported, in general, that lower salt consumption was associated with improved airway responses as well as reduce cases of heart problem and high blood pressure. This was indicated in the December 2006 edition of the International Journal of Clinical Practice

15. Reduce red meat intake
High intake of red and processed meats may raise the risk of lung and colorectal cancer by up to 20 per cent, scientists at the USA’s National Cancer Institute said in the open access journal, the Public Library of Science - Medicine. A decrease in the consumption of red and processed meat could reduce the incidence of cancer at multiple sites.