People often overlook their overall health and wellbeing. Sure, they will see a health food program on Charter TV Essentials and start eating better. Or they will start doing yoga after seeing an ad at their local gym or park. But focusing on just one or two aspects of healthy living isn’t enough. Yes, there will be benefits to it, but you can achieve so much more when you follow all the 7 pillars that lead to a healthier life. Haven’t heard of them before? Don’t worry! This blog will teach you everything you need to know about them.
What Are The 7 Pillars of Health?
Good food and regular exercise are very important. But on their own, they aren’t enough for optimum overall health. That requires more attention to several other areas of your lifestyle as well. Due to the evolution of coronavirus, digital health, and telemedicine concepts are becoming more relevant and would greatly change our lifestyle. Together, these aspects form the pillars to a healthier and fitter lifestyle. Each individual pillar is good on its own, but together they have a cumulative effect on your health and lifestyle. These pillars include the following:
- Managing Mental Health and Stress
- Building Cardiovascular Health
- Increasing Stamina and Strength
- Good Sleeping Patterns
- Healthy and Flexible Joints
- Reducing Body Fat Levels
- Hydration and Nutrition
Let’s examine these in more detail below.
Managing Mental Health and Stress
When considering overall health, you shouldn’t just focus on what shape your body is in. You also need to pay attention to your mental health as well as how you manage stress. A healthy body means a healthy mind, but an unhealthy mind can often ruin your body’s health too. Your behavioral cues, emotional responses, triggers, past trauma, and current circumstances all play their part in making up your mental health. Unfortunately, despite growing awareness surrounding mental health, too many people still remain ignorant and careless when it comes to it. Luckily, we aren’t living in the 1950s anymore, and the stigma around therapy and counseling has considerably decreased. Paying attention to your mental health today can help you live a healthier life tomorrow.
Building Cardiovascular Health
It takes much more to build cardiovascular health than a morning jog around the block. The quality of the air your breathe, how you breathe it, and nasty lifestyle choices like smoking can all have a huge impact on the state of your cardiovascular health. Healthy, smoke-free lungs play a huge part in oxygenating your blood. Your muscles need this oxygen to be able to perform better. A strong and healthy heart can continue pumping the oxygenated blood all over your body whether you’re walking, jogging, or sprinting. Thus, having both a healthy heart and a healthy pair of lungs form the second pillar of health.
Increasing Stamina and Strength
The impact of evolution on our movement is one of the biggest things that define homo sapiens. Thanks to our spine that can carry out rotational movements, there is a diverse array of movements and exertions that humans can do. Of course, movement is what builds up muscle strength as well as endurance. To do this, it is important to have your muscles moving with loads that encourage growth. The more loads your muscles can bear, the stronger they get and the longer they can hold on to them. Unfortunately, too many people focus more on the muscle-building aspect and not enough on the endurance bit. This is a bit like buying a brand new Porsche roadster and using it to drive exclusively in city centers. Sure, it looks good, but you can have a lot more fun on the highway too. Don’t just build a physique for show, build one for performance and endurance.
Good Sleeping Patterns
You could go harder than anyone else in the gym. You could lift the heaviest weights, and eat the healthiest food. But none of it will yield full benefit if you have irregular or unhealthy sleeping patterns. There is a reason why a good night’s sleep is called that. Sleep is when your body releases hormones that work on repairing muscles, organs, and tissue that break down during the day. To not allow yourself to develop healthy sleeping habits is to negate all your other efforts towards a healthier lifestyle. Our bodies are meant to work during daylight, and rest when it’s dark. Millenia of this has shaped or circadian rhythms, which means we sleep better at night. The better the quality and regularity of your sleep, the less the risk of mental and physical health problems.
Healthy and Flexible Joints
Joints form the bridge between different parts of our structure. They help keep our bones in place while making it possible to make movements such as lifting heavy weights or stretching or even walking. Healthy joints mean ease of movement, better flexibility, and better overall health. Of course, with an unhealthy lifestyle, your joints begin to degrade. Weak joints can result in a whole host of problems, which include torn ligaments, arthritis, chronic pain, and even restricted movement and flexibility. With the right mix of healthy food and exercises that work the joints safely, you can keep them healthy and flexible for longer.
Reducing Body Fat Levels
Body fat is the bane of every summer body goal. But it also has a more sinister nature. Yes, higher body fat levels mean your muscle tone will be less defined. It can often be the cause of a lot of embarrassment and even body shaming. But what people don’t understand is that high body fat levels open up doors to serious health problems, including cardiovascular diseases. If you let it accumulate, fat can become very stubborn to remove, especially when your metabolism starts to slow down as you get older. However, with regular exercise, and a caloric deficit, you can start bringing down your fat levels to a healthier ration.
Hydration and Nutrition
The food you eat and your body’s hydration levels have a huge impact on your overall health. Foods that are heavy in carbs, unhealthy fats, oils, sugar, and even toxins sometimes, can negate all your efforts to live healthier. Fast food often consists of processed meats and sweeteners, which offer less nutritional value to the body than natural or organic foods. The frequency and quality of the water you drink also have significance when it comes to your mental and physical health as well. The human body is mostly water, and we lose a lot of it through sweating and other means. In order to stay active and healthy, it is important to keep replenishing your body’s hydration levels. Remember, you can survive for weeks without food as your body breaks down fat deposits to turn into energy. But you can only last for a few hours without water since the body has no way of producing it on its own. Clean water with the right mineral content can go a long way to improve your overall health.
Conclusion
We are all fond of looking for ways to save money. We jump at 2-for-1 sales and pocket-friendly internet offers. But the worst thing that you can do to yourself is to apply that same thinking to your health and fitness. Don’t buy food based on the price and not on the nutritional value. Don’t skimp on supplementary nutrients that your body needs. Don’t opt for a cheaper gym or personal trainer. Celebrities and professional athletes spend thousands of dollars on maintaining their physical and mental health. Don’t think you can get to that level by being stingy.
