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Health Wise
8 Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes That Can Change Your Life
Last year a thoroughly researched and rather important paper was published in American Psychologist by an eminent physician, Dr. Roger Walsh. The topic was on Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes (TLC) and the paper summarized research on eight different lifestyle choices that can improve your health. Normally, when we think of TLC, we think of “Tender Loving Care” and that is pretty much what Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes represent—TLC are how we can show ourselves some TLC. In this two-part article, we’ll look at these eight lifestyle choices as a means to empower our ability to self manage our health and well-being.
First off we should recognize that many chronic diseases including cardiovascular disorders, diabetes, obesity, and cancers are frequently determined by lifestyle. Dietary choices, the level of physical activity (or inactivity), smoking, and alcohol intake are all major contributing factors in our individual and collective health. Just as poor choices can be detrimental to our health, good choices can be beneficial. Collectively, TLC can improve physical health, mental health, self esteem, and quality of life.
Exercise
Exercise can help condition your body and your mind. It reduces the risk of heart disease, diabetes, and even prostate cancer. Done properly, it can be good for arthritis. It helps build and maintain muscle mass which is particularly important as we get older. Exercise can be a good stress reducer and can be helpful in both preventing and treating both anxiety and depression.
Other potential benefits of exercise include improved sleep, increase in brain volume, and improved cognition. Some of these cognitive benefits might surprise you—better academic performance, reduction in age related memory loss, enhanced stroke recovery, and as a valuable therapy for Alzheimer’s patients. Clearly exercise is good for the body and the brain.
So what are you waiting for? Like the Nike ad says, “Just do it!” As always, before starting an exercise regime, it’s best to check with your health provider for guidance.
Nutrition and Diet
There is quite a bit of nutritional guidance out there and sometimes it can be overwhelming. I like to keep it simple so I emphasize the 5 F’s:
Fat—eat less fat
Fiber—eat more fiber
Fruits and vegetables—eat more fruits and vegetables
Fish—eat more fish
Folic acid—eat more folic acid if you are a woman of child bearing age as this helps prevent certain types of birth defects
Of course, controlling your caloric intake is crucial as this helps prevent obesity. Obesity is associated with heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, certain cancers, and degenerative joint disease. A pescovegetarian diet is associated with many of the same neuroprotective and cognitive benefits described previously for exercise. We know that fish oil is good for mental health and has beneficial anti-inflammatory properties.
Nature
Spending time in nature might seem like an unusual health and wellness recommendation, but it has been recognized for thousands of years that nature can both heal and calm. Too much time in unnatural artificial environments can disrupt biorhythms and sleep cycle. Exposure to sunlight is important for vitamin D synthesis. Vitamin D is essential for bone health and also has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Vitamin D deficiency is associated with bone fractures, cognitive impairment, and several mental disorders.
Dr. Walsh details some of the health benefits of natural settings: enhanced cognitive, attentional, emotional, spiritual, and subjective well being. Although more research is needed in this area, studies suggest immersion in nature appears to reduce stress, depression, and ADHD.
Relationships
In many respects, the quality of our relationships mirrors the quality of our lives. It has been my own observation as a primary care physician that people with good relationships tend to enjoy better health. Because I believe this is an underappreciated area of health, I covered this as a separate chapter in my book, Pathways to Health—An Integral Guidebook.
Recognize that we are social beings. Having the support and caring of close friends, family, and community is important to our overall health and well being. Having toxic and/or broken relationships can be very stressful and we know that stress is associated with poor mental and physical health. Having few or no relationships leaves us open to isolation and depression. Our choices in making, maintaining, breaking and repairing relationships are important to our individual and collective well-being.
Part Two of this series on Therapeutic Lifestyle Choices (TLC) will cover: Recreation and Enjoyable Activities, Relaxation and Stress Management, Religious and Spiritual Involvement, and Contribution and Service.
8 Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes That Can Change Your Life
In Part One of the two-part column I summarized some of the work published recently by Dr. Roger Walsh and incorporated some of my own ideas on Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes (TLC). Collectively, these represent important choices we make that impact our health. In Part One we covered the first four topics: Exercise, Nutrition and Diet, Nature, and Relationships. Let’s turn our attention to the remaining four topics.
Recreation and Enjoyable Activities
Recreation is just one of the ways we re-create ourselves and mange to restore and renew. When you are involved with enjoyable activities, hobbies, creative pursuits, etc. you are engaged and focused on these pursuits. You stop thinking about the things that are worrying you and draining your energy. This is healthy. We all need the down time to recharge. Quoting directly from Dr. Walsh, “Recreation may overlap with, and therefore confer the benefits of, other TLCs such as exercise, time in nature, and social interactions.
Think about and take inventory of how you relax, how you play, what you do to have fun, and how you spend enjoyable time with others. Time spent with these kinds of experiences is healthy for our minds, psyche, spirit, and socially. Depending on the activity, there may be physical benefits as well. Don’t overlook this important aspect of your health and well-being.
Relaxation and Stress Management
Certainly there is some overlap when discussing relaxation and stress as many of the ways we de-stress and relax are the very things we do to re-create and spend time with enjoyable pursuits. But when we think about the health effects of chronic stress, we need to consider the release of “stress hormones” and how these can result in physical and mental effects. Too much stress elevates our blood pressure, affects our sleep, our relationships, and generally runs us down.
Meditation is a great way to relax and relieve stress. Regular exercise, hobbies and past time pursuits, social engagement are all ways to reduce stress. Movement practices such as tai chi and qui gong have both physical and psychological benefits and are excellent ways to de-stress. Of course, many people try to de-stress through unhealthy means. These include: addictions, abuse of prescription and non-prescription substances, alcohol, tobacco, violence and aggression. There are many healthy TLC to select from instead of making these types of unhealthy choices.
Religious and Spiritual Involvement
It might seem unusual to discuss religion and spirituality in the context of health. Yet, 90% of the world’s population engages in religious or spiritual practices. Often, religion and spirituality are partly how we contend with stress and illness. Did you know that the word “health” shares the same roots as the word “holy”? Research has demonstrated a beneficial relationship between religious involvement and mental health. Potential benefits include less anxiety, depression, substance abuse, and suicide.
One can conceptualize religion and spirituality as how we relate to the divine. We know that good relationships favorably impact our health and our sense of well being. When we recognize that spirituality is an important aspect of who we are and embrace that as an important aspect of health, it opens up a new door of understanding. Prayer has been shown to have health benefits. Connecting with nature is potentially one of the ways we relate to the divine. Being part of a religious community is a way to feel connected and part of a support network and represents another way we can improve our health.
Contribution and Service
This is one of my favorite TLC to discuss because it is so often overlooked. Contributing to a cause greater than ourselves expands our circle of involvement. Volunteerism is just one way to contribute to the greater health of our society. And, studies of people who volunteer suggest that they are psychologically and physically healthier. As Dr. Walsh states, “…service is not necessarily a sacrifice but rather can foster qualities that serve the giver—such as happiness, mental health, and spiritual maturity. Altruism is said to reduce unhealthy mental qualities such as greed, jealousy, and egocentricity while enhancing healthy qualities such as love, joy, and generosity.”
Beyond individual health, there is a multiplier effect from getting involved in service and by contributing to society. This is one way to build “social capital” and contribute to the health and well being of society as a whole. Indeed, the word “health” also shares roots with the word “whole”. In this sense, to be healthy is to be whole and it is more difficult to be healthy in a society that is not. Contributing and providing service provides healing to self and our larger society.
This two-part article covered quite a bit of ground discussing therapeutic lifestyle changes which can be life changing and bring you to a place of better health and well-being. The eight specific areas include: Exercise, Nutrition and Diet, Nature, Relationships, Recreation and Enjoyable Activities, Relaxation and Stress Management, Religious and Spiritual Involvement, and Contribution and Service. Read more in Dr. Walsh’s publication, Lifestyle and Mental Health and in my book, Pathways to Health—An Integral Guidebook.
Stay Healthy!
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