Tag: Health

Reacting To The Body While Recovering From Injury

Receiving an injury to your body is one of the most unpleasant experiences that any human being can go through. Whether you have received this injury from your workplace or simply while playing sport in your own time, for the near future, your life is going to change. Once you have gone through the proper care or what may be perceived as the right kind of care, the next step is to heal up. This stage is all too often overlooked by ourselves as we think that once we’ve been given the all clear to go home from the nurses and or doctors, we forget about the little things. However, this is the crucial time when we should be listening to our bodies and reacting to how we feel and how the body is reacting. Recovering from an injury back to health isn’t a done deal. It takes consistency and an understanding of what your body is demanding to make sure, no damage from the injury is permanent.

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Routine rest boosts repair

When it comes to making sure injuries don’t persist once you’re away from the surgery table, getting the maximum amount of rest out of the day, is the key. You have to start making a routine whereby you will stick to like glue and operate under like clockwork. Set yourself a bedtime and stick to it. The more often and the longer your body is in REM sleep, your body is able to release chemicals that will help to boost your repair. Keep in mind that the more you sleep, the more relaxed your muscles will be and the less stress your mind will also be. You should also make a routine of rest during the day. No matter what you’re doing, assign yourself a certain amount of time to either take a nap, lean back and simply focus on breathing or just stop what you’re doing and read a book. The more you’re able to implement a routine of slow, calm periods of rest in your day, and the longer you can sleep during your recovery, the more you’ll be able to boost the body’s natural repair systems.

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Prolonged pain and malpractice

The unfortunate truth is, that even though they are highly trained and incredibly smart, doctors, surgeons, nurses and all another manner of healthcare staff do make mistakes. It’s even more unfortunate when you realise that this is more often than you might think. If you are suffering from prolonged pain, and despite your doctor setting you an amount of time that describes the chronic pain period, you have gone over it and still feel abnormal amounts of pain, it may be wise to contact a trustworthy malpractice attorney. They can help you deal with any medical malpractice that has or is having a detrimental effect on your life and mental health. If you have been misdiagnosed, received negligent nursing care, medication errors, and other forms of hospital malpractice, you may be entitled to compensation. For the ongoing pain you are feeling that should have dissipated a long time ago if so according to your medical examinations, you should be seeking the proper correction owed to you.

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Eat well to feel well

Say you broke your arm, or perhaps had a form of cancer and have since had treatment, the body is craving good nutritious food at the point of recovery. Chowing down on fatty foods with high contents of salt and sugar, will in no way help your body to repair itself quicker. You need to eat well to cleanse your body from the inside because after going through a traumatic experience, there are many chemicals left to float around our system. Not only will the chemicals injected by the hospital have a slowing effect on our everyday lives, but the vast amounts of endorphins and other natural chemicals our bodies secrete in this kind of situation, make us feel heavy and slow. Rich oxygenated foods, such as green leafy vegetables and dense fruits, as well as healthy portions of lean meat, supply the nutrition needed to help recover from injury. You should also be consuming nuts because this type of food is rich in good healthy oils and fats the body actually uses to function.

Reacting to what your body is telling you to do is sometimes met with a degree of suspicion. When you’re trying to recover and repair after an injury, you don’t feel the same for more than a day at a time. However getting the right amount of rest every day without fail, and eating healthy to aid the repair of tissue and bone, can boost your chances of a full recovery. Make sure that you have been properly taken care of and if not, try to pursue the correct action to remedy this situation.

 

 

 

 

Mind Over Matter: Signs Your Brain Isn’t As Healthy As Your Body

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Physically health is all the rage in 2017. What with chefs pushing healthy meals and the effects of the consumption of meat, people are aware of the dangers to their body. Sadly, the majority of us don’t have the first clue about mental health. The old school may think it is unimportant, but the mind is the key to a happy and healthy life. Once it starts to fail, it’s an uphill battle which is difficult to win. With that in mind, it’s essential to spot the signs when they appear.

Below is how to tell your mind is fit and healthy.

You Think You Have An Illness

In the past, there was one term for mental illness and it wasn’t nice. Nowadays, diseases range from schizophrenia to bipolar and depression. The key is to watch out for the warning signs and act as soon s possible. Anyone who is unsure where to start can read more about the symptoms of bipolar depression and other mental illnesses online. If the symptoms match what you feel, the next step is to see a doctor or a specialist. One thing you should never do is bottle it up inside. Over time, the feelings get worse and explode spectacularly.

You Have Difficulty Managing Anger

You don’t have to suffer from an illness to be mentally unfit. Sometimes, struggling to deal with feelings of anger can be a sure-fire sign something is wrong. Again, it doesn’t mean you have to see a doctor or check into an institute. Usually, what it means is that there is an ailment which is causing the outbursts. Stress is a prime example. High cortisol levels tend to make it difficult to be patient or think about emotions rationally. As a result, you may lash out and have a short fuse. Meditating can reduce cortisol production and help control your temper.

You’re Experiencing Weight Loss

There are lots of reasons for weight loss, one being you are eating a balanced and healthy diet. But, dramatic weight loss is a problem which needs addressing as soon as possible. Usually, it has nothing to do with the physical form but the mental. Again, stress is a factor which can cause you to shed lots of weight because it prevents you from eating. Also, the way you view your body may be unhealthy. Young women suffer from this a lot due to peer pressure, but men have body issues too. Anyone who doesn’t eat to stay thin isn’t thinking logically.

You’re Fatigued

Don’t treat being tired and fatigued as the same thing because there are differences. Tiredness stems from a lack of sleep and can is easy to remedy. Fatigue is a mental problem which occurs as a result of the burden of responsibility. No matter how early you go to bed, the feeling won’t go away. The only way to negate it is to delegate your responsibilities and get your feelings off your chest.

If you are happy-go-lucky, have patience and don’t suffer from stress, your mind is healthy.

TV or Exercise? Why Not Do Both?

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You’re sat on the sofa after a hard day’s work and you know you should be out there jogging or using up your gym membership. But what about all those TV shows you need to catch up on? Many of us will often choose the box over exercise. But why can’t we do both? There are many forms of exercise that can be done in a living room in front of the TV. Here are just a few ways that we could all be getting our fix of physical activity whilst getting up to speed on the latest series.

Buy exercise equipment for your living room

Many types of exercise equipment can be used in a living room. Dumbbells, resistance bands and medicine balls take up hardly any space at all both to store and to use. There are then those more bulky exercise machines such as treadmills and exercise bikes. Exercise bikes in particular allow you to sit down as if you were watching TV and take up very little space (some can even be folded away). Read exercise bike reviews online to find the best one for your living space. You could aim to keep on a certain speed for the entirety of a show or vary it up with each ad break.

Use the couch as an exercise tool

Your sofa can be used to perform many exercises. Tricep dips can allow you to still watch the screen. You could also try elevated press ups with your feet on the sofa and your hands on the floor whilst facing towards the screen.

Do squats and lunges

Squats and lunges are great for toning up your legs and butt and require only a small space of floor. You can easily do these exercises whilst watching the TV. You could also do squats and lungs with equipment such as dumbbells or a medicine ball, allowing you to work on your upper body strength simultaneously.

Consider static exercises

Some static exercises can be done whilst watching TV. The plank is a great core workout for improving your abs that requires you to lift up onto your feet and elbows – you can do this whilst staring ahead at your favourite show. You can also switch this up and do the superman exercise which involves laying on your stomach and lifting your lower body and chest off the floor.

Use commercial breaks for HIIT training

If you find exercise too distracting whilst you watch TV, why not make use of those annoying ad breaks? These can be the perfect time to squeeze in some high intensity interval training. Exercises could include press ups, sit-ups, weight exercises, squats, lunges – whatever you can think of. Make sure that it’s hard to get the most benefit out of this form of exercise. You can then use the time in which the show is on to recuperate with a slower form of exercise that doesn’t take away your concentration.

 

Work A High-Stress Career? Look After Yourself First

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Working a high-stress career is simply a must for many people trying to achieve their goals and pursue the life they want. There are almost more high-stress careers than there are low-stress, and so it’s important to tailor yourself to the job market so you can work the roles you truly want. For example, a great chef will only become great if they’re willing to suffer the long hours and hardships of the kitchen. A construction worker will need to become adapted to the rugged physicality of the job, as well as mitigating the overstimulation of the nearby machinery.

High-stress jobs are simply a factor of the working world, as they always have been dating back to antiquity. For these reasons, it’s important to take care of yourself to keep resilient and active in the direction you most want to pursue. We’d like to offer you some health tips for achieving this.

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You must make sure you are well protected during your workplace activities. It shouldn’t take a H+S officer to give you the motivation to read through the safety policy at your firm. Knowing this could potentially give you life-saving information. At the very least, making sure you are well protected regarding the role you play can help.

If you’re on your feet for multiple hours a day, wearing soft crocs or supportive shoes can help your feet health and your alertness over the course of the day. Making sure you mitigate the effects of workplace trauma can help too, for example, tinnitus treatment can help you mitigate the effects of noisy environments, or become active to work again after an injury. Making sure your skin is protected in toxic environments and constantly assessing your breathing environment will give you and even more complete view of safety in the workplace.

Unwind

Giving yourself time to unwind from a stressful day will help you loosen some of the tightness you feel after a hard working period. It’s important that you give yourself this time, where you allow yourself to think about nothing in particular. For some people, this involves resting in front of the television, or consuming video games as a hobby. While these can be beneficial, and it’s more than your right to achieve this, there are better hobbies to help you.

Meditating can help you become more focused in your daily life, and actually de-emphasises the part of your brain responsible for stress. A simply crafting hobby can help you meditate physically, and creative expression is often the best way to de-stress. Reading a great book can help distract you in a completely different world, coming back to your life with added rejuvenation. These tips can help you overcome the difficulty of your daily schedule, and approach it with added caution and ability.

With these tips, your high-stress career will come second to your health, just the way it should be.

 

 

 

When Work Makes You Sick: What Next?

The work you do is meant to enrich your life. It gives you a focus, and of course is the way you generate the income that you need to provide for your family. Work, on the whole, is something that can be a force for tremendous good in your life.

However, there is a potential downside; the threat of work-related illnesses. Below, you can explore some of the most common questions that relate to the idea of work causing harm to your health. If you suspect you — or someone you know — might have been affected, there’s also some valuable advice on next steps.

What Illnesses Are Caused By Working Environments?

  • Mental health conditions
  • Repetitive Strain Injury
  • Mesothelioma, due to asbestos exposure
  • Noise-Induced Hearing Loss

The above are the most common, but realistically, any work could have an impact on your health. If you suspect that work is involved in your misfortune, then you’ll need to look deeper into the matter. The four mentioned might be the most common, but they’re far from the only health issues a bad working environment can cause.

How Do I Know It’s Specifically Work That Caused My Problem?

Some conditions are easier to trace to work-related sources, as the conditions required for the illness are unlikely to exist outside of working environments. It’s easier to obtain Mesothelioma help or Noise-Induced Hearing Loss assistance than it is for RSI or mental health conditions. With Mesothelioma or hearing loss, the issues that cause these are very obviously related to employment; few people will have experienced asbestos or extensive volumes in their personal lives. The same cannot be said for RSI or mental health conditions.

So if you have worked with asbestos or around high volume without adequate ear protection, Occam’s Razor dictates that it will be your working environment that has caused the issue. For mental health problems or RSI, it’s worth thinking through your personal life and seeing if there are any obvious causes. That’s not to say work isn’t the cause of these issues, but just that the matter requires a little more inspection before you pursue the idea.

Do I Have To Tell My Employer?

Yes. It is only right to inform your employer if you suspect something you are doing at work is causing health issues.

Do I Have The Right To Time Off Work?

If you have been made unwell for any reason then you should have time off work if needed. However, few companies have a specific dispensation for extra sickness leave solely due to work-related illness. You will need to talk to your employer about this.

Can I Sue?

It’s impossible to answer this without being sure of your individual situation. The best thing to do is to speak to a lawyer and see if they believe you have a case.

In Conclusion

If you think your work is making you unwell, then don’t ignore the matter. Speak to your employer and a doctor to see what they say. There might be changes or assistance that can be put in place, or you might have a legal case to help pay associated health costs. Don’t just ignore the problem; work is meant to be a method to earn money, and you don’t have to just accept ill health as a part of that deal.

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Maximize Each Workout With These Top Tips

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Working out can be a lot of fun when you get it right. But ensuring that a workout is right for you doesn’t always have to involve technicalities or trends. Instead, you need to ensure that any efforts you make to improve your fitness, get healthier, and generally push yourself when it comes to exercise, are maximized. And although there are some set ways that you can do this, you have to be able to work out how you can make tweaks to your own workout plans to make them more effective. So let’s take a look at some of the things that can help you to do that.

Get Some Sleep

Never underestimate the power of sleep. It’s so easy to let yourself back into unhealthy habits, and not prioritizing your sleep is definitely one of those. Sleep is so essential to everyday life, but also to your workouts. When we sleep, our bodies heal and repair. So if you want to make sure that your body is able to handle your workouts as best as possible, you need to be thinking about getting as much high-quality sleep as possible. And eight hours as a minimum.

Warm Up

When you’re excited to get your workout in, or desperate to fit in what you can in the time you have, it’s tempting to rush through things. But in reality, you need to take it slow if you want your workout to be as effective as possible. And a huge portion of that is going to be down to your warm up. Because when you warm up properly, you can not only ensure that your workout is going to be more effective, but you can get your body ready to perform at its best.

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Stay Hydrated

On the flip side of ensuring that your workouts are as maximized as possible, if them being a bit more of a disaster. And injuries are definitely a huge part of that. However, when you’re able to stay hydrated during your workout, and start off hydrated to, you will be able to not only perform at your best levels, but minimize the risk of injury too.

Refuel

Next, you also need to be super smart with your nutrition. Because what you eat before, during and after your workout is essential to its success. So you need to do your research. Here, you’ll find that Element Fitness recommends what to eat after a workout, but you should also think about what to eat to fuel the workout too. Because what you eat can really influence how well your workout will be.

Stretch It Out

And finally, you’re definitely going to want to think about what you can do before, during, and after your workout to keep your body at its best. And stretching is always great for that. Not only can your body get stronger and avoid injuries, you’ll find that you can recover a lot quicker, especially with post-workout stretches. In turn, your workouts will start to become more effective.

 

 

Improving Your Health As You Get Older

Aging is the one thing that nobody can avoid. No matter how physically or mentally healthy you may be, we all get old at some point. The best way to make sure you can still enjoy life when you’re old is to work harder to look after yourself as you get older. An aging body already comes with its aches, pains, and more medical issues than you faced when you were younger. You don’t want to make things harder on yourself by doing a poor job of looking after your body.

It’s best to adopt a healthy lifestyle whilst you’re still young, but it’s never ‘too late’ to start making changes to your life so that you can live a little more healthily. If you’re alive and kicking then you still owe it to yourself to look after your body and mind. Here are some pieces of advice to help you improve your standard of health as you get older.

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Physical health.

‘Physical activity’ is just another way of saying exercise, I know. But don’t be too dismissive when it comes to keeping your body active. You don’t want to lift weights at the gym or run marathons and that’s absolutely fine. There aren’t too extremes of the spectrum when it comes to exercising or not exercising. You don’t need to spend hours and hours exercising every day if you don’t want to be incredibly muscular or athletic. The key is just to keep your body physically active on a daily basis.

Moving your body doesn’t just reduce fat surrounding your organs (which is a great health benefit) but it also helps to boost your immune system and help to fight off illnesses; this is something which becomes very important as you get older and your body weakens. Just 30 minutes of light exercise or a brisk 10-minute walk could make a huge difference to the health of your heart, your digestive system, and your ability to sleep well.

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Hearing.

Everything deteriorates slightly as you get older. The vast majority of people notice a gradual decline in their hearing as they age, so you’re not alone if you’ve noticed that you’re frequently asking people to repeat themselves because you misheard what they said. Of course, in the modern age, hearing loss doesn’t have to be a permanent state of affairs. Hearing aids and other modern technology have improved the lives of people both old and young who experience auditory difficulties.

Maybe you’ve been to see a specialist before, but you might want to reconsider your audiologist if you think your hearing still isn’t as good as it could be. There are so many options out there that you shouldn’t “make do” with bad hearing. In fact, it can be dangerous to do so. Many people might counteract the fact that they can’t hear the TV by turning up the volume but, much as it would for people with good hearing, high volumes can do just as much damage to the eardrums of somebody with poor hearing. Don’t try to battle with your ears, and make sure you look into appropriate medical solutions.

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Bad habits.

There are countless studies which indicate that curbing bad health habits can have a huge influence later on in life; in other words, you’ll live longer. Addictions such as smoking or drinking are very hard to kick but it’s much easier to do so when you consider the long-term damage. Perhaps you’re still relatively young and the effects stemming from excessive intake of these drugs have yet to really take hold, but the decline of your health is often something which takes place internally before you really start to see the effects externally. Exercise becomes far easier once you stop smoking or drinking excessively, so a healthy lifestyle becomes far more manageable once you’ve stopped these bad habits. It’s about breaking out of that damaging and unhealthy cycle.

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Mental health.

Finally, let’s talk about the mind. When it comes to living longer, people often say the key is to be happy. Not only is this a nice sentiment, but there’s actually some science behind it. The mind and body are interlinked, so it’s completely accurate to say that a good state of mental health can vastly improve your physical health. Think about the ways in which stress, anxiety, and depression all take hold of the body; you might get blemishes on the skin from stress (even young people get that in the form of acne), you might start greying or balding far more quickly, and you might notice a fluctuation in weight.

These things are just a few of the effects of a poor mental state. That’s why it’s so important to work on a healthy mind if you want to keep your body healthy. Breathing exercises and meditation techniques can really help to center yourself if stress is a big part of your life. It’s about becoming more in tune with your mind and finding ways to switch off now and then.

Healthy For Life: Medical Checks You Need To Be Having as You Age

It is inevitable that we are all going to age. But how well we age will be dependant on a number of things. Some things in our life we have inherited and may or may happen as a result. Other things can happen through incidents in our life, or how we treat our body. But there are some things that can occur as we get older than can be dealt with pretty quickly. We just need to be getting them checked in time. So has never been more important to have regular doctor’s appointments as we age. Throughout our life we should aim for at least a yearly physical unless we have any conditions that need to be seen to. But what are some checks we should be having as we get older? Here are a few suggestions. If you have yet to have one of these and are reaching a certain point in your life, then it might be time to schedule an appointment. I hope this helps!

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Hearing Test

Hearing tests should be done from a young age. But unlike eyesight, it doesn’t need to be done too often. Once every five years or so should suffice, as long as you aren’t noticing any problems in the meantime, of course. But as we get older, our hearing can deteriorate quite quickly. So more often than not is recommended for hearing tests. But don’t worry, if there are any issues, it can be easily dealt with. Just take a look at a site like hearingaidbuyertoday.com, and you’ll see the variety of hearing aids that are available. There are many that look like you’re not even wearing one, so you don’t have to make it obvious, if that is something that you’re worried about.

Eye Tests

Throughout our lives, our eyes should be tested around every two years. Again, this should be done sooner if you are noticing problems with the quality of your vision. The number of people, especially women, that wear glasses later in their lives is quite high. So you might want to consider having eye tests annually, rather than every two years. Having good vision can impact your health and life in general greatly, so it is worth looking into.

Stepping on the Scales

Knowing how much we weigh is important for weight maintenance. As we get older, our metabolism can slow down; we tend to be a little less active than we have been before, so weight gain can be quite likely if we’re not careful. So keep an eye on how much you weigh. Being overweight can lead to many issues later in life, but being a reasonable weight can reduce your chances quite significantly.

Cholesterol Testing

Do you know what levels of cholesterol are in your blood? It isn’t something that we tend to know. But having it checked every so often can be really important for our overall health. If you have high cholesterol, it can lead to problems with your heart, and even problems with your blood pressure. So having it checked regularly is important. This can be done with your doctor, especially if you are concerned about it or are overweight. Then you can adjust your lifestyle accordingly, to help improve the results.

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Blood Pressure

Similar to cholesterol levels, our blood pressure can have a big impact on our health, but it isn’t something that we get checked all that often. Untreated high blood pressure can be a killer, as it can lead to things like heart attacks or stroke. So don’t let it sneak up on you. You could check out symptoms at webmd.com if you’re unsure. Get your blood pressure checked regularly and then you can make some changes, as well as take prescribed medication, to help with it.

Mammogram

For women over a certain age, and some men, a mammogram regularly is a great way to detect something like breast cancer before it happens. As well as an annual check, you should look for changes in your body, especially your breasts, and have any changes checked. Yes, it isn’t ideal and can be uncomfortable. But staying on top of it all will help you to deal with anything that might arise, prolonging your health and your life.

Checking Shots

Things like the flu vaccine are available for many of us, especially when the winter months roll around. So if you think you would like one or want to know about it, then speak to your doctor. It can be a lifesaver in winter months when the flu is doing the rounds!

 

 

5 Ways to Manage Arthritis Pain

As anybody with the condition will tell you, there are few things more difficult or painful than living with arthritis. Unfortunately, there’ll be much more people who will be able to inform the rest of us how painful the condition is; the number of people living with arthritis is rising all the time, to the tune of some one million more people each year in the United States. In all, there are around 350 million people with arthritis across the world, including millions of children. Below, we take a look at five ways to manage arthritis pain.

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Hit the Gym

Exercise is one of the things that offer nothing but good things; it’ll relieve pain, improve your all round health, and will not negatively affect your joints. Sounds good to us! Benefits include strengthening the muscles around your joints, giving you an energy boost for when your pain is draining your motivation, improve and maintain your bone strength, and, importantly, help you control your weight; this is particularly crucial because excess weight can put pressure on our bodies.

Use Cold Treatments

Cold treatments are a highly effective way to manage an arthritis flare up. When you’re suffering from arthritis pain, apply a cold pack to the affected spot; it’ll soothe the pain. If your pain is more acute, look at using the new methods of cold treatments that are available. A whole body cryotherapy session like those offered by Cryology has been shown to reduce arthritis pain dramatically. It’s like an extreme cold pack (temperatures reach as low as -160c) that those who have arthritis say works wonders for their pain relief.

Live Stress-Free

When we’re stressed, our muscles seize up. And when our muscles seize up, we’re more likely to suffer from an arthritis attack. Ergo, if you want to reduce the chances of a flare up, then you need to get enough relaxing activities into your life that’ll allow you to live without stress. Of course, what exactly this is will depend on the individual, but there are some activities, such as meditation, reading, and unwinding outdoors, that have been shown to be beneficial to all people.

Try Tai Chi

You might not think that a martial arts activity that developed in 13th century China could help with arthritis, but that’s just what Tai Chi does. Because it’s a low impact activity, it could be performed by people of any age. Benefits of Tai Chi include improved posture, greater balance, increase muscle strength, and an all around improve general mobility. It’s also fun and can be used as a stress reducer.

Eat the Right Foods

Having an overall healthy diet is important when combating arthritis, but there are also specific foods that can help relieve symptoms of the condition, too. If you’re looking for a go-to meal, make it a dish of fish like salmon or mackerel (fish high in Omega-3), with a side of broccoli and brussels sprouts, and add a dessert of tart cherries; your joints will thank you for it.

 

Safeguarding Your Health The Smart Way

Safeguarding your health is absolutely crucial, especially for those who aren’t exactly getting younger! That being said, the younger you are when you start, the better. Here are some smart ways to look after your health for a great quality of life:

Live A More Balanced Lifestyle

Some people think to protect their health, that they need to eat clean, exercise every day, and do every little thing they can. While this level of commitment is admirable, it isn’t necessary. It’s much better to live a balanced lifestyle, with the odd glass of wine and food with friends. Make smart choices 90% of the time and have fun. When you have fun, studies say you will live longer!

Track Your Health

Fitness trackers are a brilliant way of measuring how fit you really are. There are plenty of brands around today, so it depends on the sort of look and features you think will be best for you. Just some of the features you can enjoy include sleep tracking, finding out your cardio fitness level, comparing yourself against similar people in your demographic, your heartrate, and more. You can really improve these way!

Invest In Lifesaving Equipment

Did you know that mature adults are more at risk of suffering from cardiac arrest than other people? Anybody can suffer at any time, but there are ways that it can be prevented. Equipment is becoming more advanced, and having some of it in the workplace or at home could really prevent the worst from taking place. The infographic below can give more information.


By Foremost Equipment