Little Things That Could Help You to Live Longer

Our life expectancy isn’t something that many of us give much thought. We might hear occasional stories on the news about the average life expectancy rising or falling, or about how life expectancy differs between groups and countries. But, we give little thought to where our own outlook fits in. Especially when we are young. We might vaguely assume that we’ll live to be around 80, without giving it too much thought. At the same time, we think of that vague number we’ve got in mind as being very old. We think of old people nearing the end of their lives as elderly. Perhaps sat in their chair or unable to move about much.

But, it doesn’t have to be like that. Making tiny changes to your lifestyle won’t just increase your life expectancy. It can also improve the quality of your life. You won’t be sat, old, in your chair. You’ll be out living your life. Your old age will be fun and exciting, not filled with the woes of age. Here are some of the little things that you can do to help yourself to live a longer and healthier life.

Walk

Exercise has so many benefits to your physical and mental health. It can help to boost your circulation. It can improve your mental health and decrease your stress levels. It can lower your heart rate, reduce your blood pressure, help you to maintain a healthy weight and so much more. All of which can have a positive effect on your life expectancy.

To have the best effects, you’ll want to start a regular fitness regime. But, that’s not exactly a little thing if you’re new to exercise. Instead, walk. Instead of driving, or taking the train, walk more. Walk every distance that you can manage and aim for at least 10000 steps a day.  

See Your Doctor

So many of us avoid going to the doctor for regular checkups or routine tests. Even when we are worried about our symptoms, we stay away. This could drastically affect your life expectancy. So, look after your health with a visit to your GP, the urology department, a mental health specialist or a gynecologist when you need to. Don’t put it off.

Turn Your Phone Off

Smartphones have many, many advantages, and they’ve changed near enough every element of our lifestyle. But, they can hurt your health. Spending to much time on your phone can lead to high stress levels, high blood pressure, poor eyesight, difficulty sleeping, and obesity. It can have a negative effect on our relationships and our confidence. So, turn off your phone for a few hours every night and spend some time relaxing, or out moving, instead.

Go on Holiday

When was the last time that you went on holiday? So many of us are owed vacation days and haven’t been away for years. Going on vacation is one of the more fun things that you can do that will help you to live longer. As long as you do it properly, get some rest, have some fun, bond with your family and leave your worries at home.

Habits to Kick When You're Pursuing a Healthy Lifestyle

We all tend to indulge in habits or behaviour that is detrimental to our overall health and wellbeing every once in a while. Perhaps we allow ourselves excess sugar over a given holiday. Maybe we revel in lazy behaviour on a special occasion. But it’s important that we live life in moderation and that we only engage in unhealthy treats or days off occasionally. There are certain habits out there that simply cannot be incorporated into a healthy and productive lifestyle. Consequently, you need to stop engaging with these habits if you intend to pursue a healthy and productive lifestyle. Here are a couple that you should consider tackling as soon as possible.

Smoking

Smoking and a healthy lifestyle can’t go hand in hand. It’s simply impossible. Cigarettes and rolling tobacco contain all sorts of toxins and pollutants that you really shouldn’t be putting into your body. If you do smoke, this can have seriously detrimental impacts on your overall health and wellbeing. Smoking, after all, is linked to life threatening diseases such as cancer and heart disease, it can cause respiratory issues, it can stain your nails, dull your hair, and cause a whole host of other problems. So, it’s time to kick this habit to the curb. Now, this is easier said than done. After all, tobacco tends to contain nicotine, which is a highly addictive substance. However, there are plenty of options out there that can help you. Vaping is an increasingly popular alternative to smoking cigarettes. Essentially, you inhale water vapour rather than smoke, which has fewer health consequences. There are also various different vape juice flavours on the market, which can make vaping a preferable experience to smoking. Besides vaping, you can make use of nicotine replacement products. These supply your body with nicotine, cutting out the need to smoke cigarettes, and allowing you to wean yourself off the addictive substance without continuing to put damaging substances into your body. To get started today, you can contact your doctor who will be able to come up with a plan to help you quit for good!

Procrastination

Now, so far we’ve focused on relatively addictive substances. But it’s important to bear in mind that all habits don’t necessarily revolve around things we consume. There are certain behavioural habits that can prove detrimental to our overall health and wellbeing too! Procrastination is just one of them. Now, procrastination is the action of purposely delaying or postponing something that you really should get around to doing. This is generally because it isn’t enjoyable or requires too much effort. If you are a procrastinator who wants to lead a healthier lifestyle, you may put dieting off, arguing that you might as well have one more piece of junk food or one more unhealthy meal and start tomorrow. But a lot of the time, tomorrow never comes and you continue eating in an unhealthy manner. It’s important that you don’t give yourself any excuses and start preparing and eating healthy meals straight away. Try not to take an all or nothing approach. This will help you to ease yourself into your new lifestyle. Try having healthy meals with a couple of treats throughout the rest of the day. Then slowly start replacing the treats with healthier alternatives. This isn’t as daunting, and may put the anxieties that result in procrastination at rest. Procrastinators may also put off signing up to the gym, convincing yourself that now is an inconvenient time and you will sign up next week when you are paid, the week after when you don’t have any social commitments. Bear in mind that you should make your gym regime fit into your lifestyle, rather than trying to make your lifestyle revolve around a gym regime. Find a facility that opens early and closes late, so you have no excuse to put off visiting - you can literally turn up as and when you please, around your other life commitments.

These are just two unhealthy habits that could prove problematic if you intend to pursue a truly healthy and productive lifestyle. Sure, they may affect your overall health and wellbeing in completely different ways, but both are things that you can take steps to remove from your life. So, start making changes today!

Getting Back into the Swing: Exercise Tips You Can Bring Out Whenever You Need Them

Look, we all know how difficult it can be to stay in shape all year round, and this is why we need support and advice. Health and fitness are two of the most important parts of modern life, and it is essential to maintain them as much as possible. Think about what you need to do if you want to get fitter and more in shape, and come up with some tactics that are going to help you.

There are a lot of things you need to keep in mind when it comes to improving your health and well-being, and regular exercise ranks among the most important. The problem is that sometimes it might be cold and wet outside, or you might be too busy to get the gym, or you may even be in a situation where you are recovering from an injury. Here are some of the great exercise tips that will help you keep fit this year.

Create a Home Gym

A home gym is not only cool, but it is also a very efficient and effective way of allowing you to lose weight and stay in shape. You can get your own equipment and plan for your own regimes. A home gym can make a huge amount of difference when it comes to improving your workouts. Take a look at the best exercise machine for bad knees, and help you get back on the horse when it comes to exercising in the right way.

Take up an Indoor Sport

Taking up a sport is a wonderful way of staying fit and being sociable at the same time. This is why you have to make sure you look at doing an indoor sport. There are so many things you have to keep in mind, and something like tennis might be the ideal choice. An indoor sport will be the best choice because you’ll be able to play it all year-round without having to worry about the weather.

Stand Up More

You might actually be surprised by how much you can improve and benefit your body by standing up more. We spend so much time sat down at work, and it is important to be stood up more because this is a good way of ensuring that you have better circulation. You can actually burn quite a few calories by standing up, and if you’re doing this every day, it is soon going to mount up.

Stretches are Vital

So much of exercising is about the movements you do before you actually start the workout. This specifically relates to the stretches you do to make your body more limber and agile. The more you can improve this, the better it will be for you when it comes to the actual work out. You will also find that you wind up reducing the risk of injuries as well, so it is really important that you make sure you stretch properly before you start.

If you can implement these ideas into your day to day routine, there will be a lot of positives when it comes to getting into the swing of health and fitness again. Consider what you can do when it comes to improving your well-being, and try to put these tips into practice throughout the year.

3 Reasons That Stop You From Smiling

You’re enjoying a night out with friends, and suddenly someone takes a phone out of their bag and suggest everyone regroup for a selfie. You feel a cold drop of sweat run down your back as your friends gesture toward you. There is no way you can escape the painful photo moment, this time. You sigh and take your place with the group. As everyone says cheese at the same time and show off their pearly white teeth, you freeze and smile with your lips tightly pressed against each other. You can’t help it: You just hate smiling. But what if you could help it? What if you could find the cure for your smile anxiety and regain your self-confidence?

Indeed, smiling is a natural action that shares a connection with your interlocutors. But it’s also a way to boost your mood throughout the day. Indeed, smiling doesn’t only share your happiness. It can encourage the brain to become happy as a result of it. So it’s time to tackle your demons and show your teeth!

You’re not confident about your teeth

You can feel self-aware if your teeth are not perfectly aligned or if they’re not entirely white. However, you need to remember that even people who have a naturally beautiful smile need to look after it. Regular maintenance and checkup appointments with a professional dentist – StratfordDentistry.com is a good address if you don’t have a dentist yet – can make a great deal of difference. Ultimately, it’s ever too late to correct teeth issues – you can even find adults who wear braces at night. Investing in your teeth health is never a waste of time and money. More importantly, you can struggle with serious issues if you leave a cavity, a crooked tooth, or even stains on the enamel unattended.

You’re worried about how your diet affects your breath

You are what you eat. Ultimately, the food you consume affects your appearance and your mind, as it nourishes your brain and body. While food is generally associated with dieting and fitness regime, it’s important to understand how your diet of choice can also affect your teeth. A diet that is high in acidic food, such as raw vegetables and fruits can be harmful to your teeth, especially if you brush your teeth after eating. Similarly, a diet that is rich in meat – such as the keto diet – can give you bad breath as per WebMD.com. While the effects are not permanent, you will need to brush your teeth after every meal if you want to control your breath.

You’ve got a cold sore

Nobody likes fever blisters! Caused by HSV-1 – herpes –, cold sores can appear when the virus is passed by saliva or skin contact and creates tiny blisters on the lip. Stress is also another common cause for it. Unfortunately, you can’t stop the virus if you’ve already been infected, but taking medicines when you feel a cold coming can avoid nasty blisters. You can apply lip balm on the area when the cold sores are out and avoid any lip contact.
 

Lips, teeth and breath, you can learn to manage your problem areas effectively. Smiling is a beautiful thing: Make the most of it!

Helping a Loved One Recover From Addiction

There is a lot of talk about how we can help a friend or a family member with letting go of their addictions. It’s all about admitting the problem, seeking help, and taking care of yourself, right? Yet, the real work starts when the regular weekdays hit us, and it’s supposedly back to normal - and this is when your loved one needs your help more than ever.

Here is a straightforward guide to how you can help a friend or a family member who is trying to recover from an addiction, whether it’s alcohol or drug abuse. Keep in mind that these are just guidelines of how you can offer to help, though, and it’s not always that much you can do unless the person actually wants to quit.

#1 Help them to find a substitute

We all know the psychology behind an addiction; the reward-centre in our brains are tuned into responding to the stimulus of that addiction, and little else is going to give the same feeling of warmth and love.

Going cold-turkey and expecting to not feel a craving for that stimulus is going to take a lot of work, and the world may look rather grim if they cannot find a substitute.

They may not get the same kind of rush from it, but there are always ways to compensate for the lack of that warm feeling they used to get from whatever they are addicted to. Exercise is a sure winner and has helped many to recover from an addiction.

Lots of people are looking into the Choose Your Horizon Naltrexone treatment program which focuses on reducing cravings while supporting healthier habit formation. This structured approach can complement lifestyle changes like exercise by addressing both physical and behavioral aspects of recovery.

Don’t expect your friend to go to the gym on their own, though, as they will need that extra push to get started. If they’re straight out of a general addiction clinic or a PTSD trauma addiction clinic, it’s a good idea to let their body recover a bit first. Take them on walks, be out in nature, and let exercise become their go-to source of endorphins.

#2 Say you want to help

Asking for help can be really tough, so make it clear that you’re there to help as soon as possible. Sometimes, they will ask you directly and that’s great - but you can’t count on them to ask for it, even if they really need it. One way to offer meaningful support is by helping them explore options like inpatient treatment for alcohol addiction, where they can receive round-the-clock care in a structured environment. This type of treatment can provide the stability and guidance they need to begin their recovery journey.

Talk to them about how you can help them to recover; maybe they’d like you to take their mind off their situation by just hanging out together, maybe they want you to introduce them to some of your other friends so that they get out of a toxic network, or maybe they just need someone to talk to.

Whatever they need in order to recover successfully and stay clean, make it clear that you’re their go-to person in case of an emergency - and just on a regular basis as well.

Lone Star State residents often check their loved ones into a drug and alcohol treatment center in Texas to ensure they receive the proper care and support. Being there for them throughout the recovery process helps reinforce their commitment to staying clean and moving forward.

The last point is important as someone recovering from an addiction might worry about being a burden to those around them. If you say you’re there to help but never answer their calls, they’re quickly going to withdraw. Follow up on your promises and be available if you’ve promised to be there for them 24/7.

#3 Help them to reclaim themselves

For someone who has been battling an addiction and is currently recovering, it’s easy to see how this might take over their lives. It’s almost as if their addiction has started to define them, and this isn’t how it should be at all. Instead, try to help your friend or family member to reclaim who they used to be.

It might mean getting interested in their usual hobbies or talents again so that they’re able to get that great feeling from things they used to enjoy. When spending time with others, improving yourself, and enjoying your hobbies have become the highlights of their lives rather than an addiction, you know they’re on the right track.

This might, however, take time and you shouldn’t give up on someone just because they’re not recovering as fast as you hoped they would. Show them that you care and that you’re there to help, and you’re already doing a lot for them.

The Best Places in Oregon

Oregon is a beautiful state in the Pacific Northwest, with lots of stunning places to explore. Whether you want to find a cool city to discover or some incredible scenery to admire, there's something for you in the Beaver State. While it might not always be as sunny and warm as California, that doesn't matter if you're looking for an adventure. Oregon is an excellent choice for anyone who loves the outdoors, but it also offers something for people who are looking for history, great food and drink, architecture, and much more. If you're thinking of going to Oregon, here are some top places to visit.

Crater Lake

Crater Lake National Park is one of the most popular locations in Oregon. This beautiful lake was formed by a volcanic eruption thousands of years ago, and it's the deepest lake in the US. If you're looking for somewhere beautiful to hike, Crater Lake is where you want to be. There are over 90 miles of trails for you to enjoy, so you can keep coming back again and again. If you're not much of a hiker, a scenic drive is also an option. You can also take a boat tour of the lake and its central island for a more sedate way to explore.

Mount Hood

Mount Hood is the highest point in Oregon, so it's a good choice for anyone who loves an invigorating hike. The mountain also makes a stunning backdrop if you would rather stay a bit lower down. Just 60 miles from Portland, it's a big draw for mountaineers in the summer and skiers in the winter. If you like to ski, there's even off-season skiing available later in the year. You can see beautiful wildflowers along the trails or visit the historic Timberline Lodge, which was using for many exterior shots in The Shining.

Oregon Vineyards

California might be more popular for wine tours, but Oregon has some great opportunities to visit vineyards too. Stay at a hotel in Albany, Oregon and you can explore Willamette Valley Wine Country. Willamette Valley Vineyard is one of the oldest in Oregon, and you might also like to visit Tualatin Estate Vineyard. There are more than 500 wineries across 150 miles so you definitely won't run out of places to see. Sample some great food and drink, find places to stay and get between wineries by hiking, biking or even paddling.

Portland

If you're more of a city-dweller than someone who loves the outdoors, Portland is the place to be for anyone looking for somewhere trendy to hang out. While it's not for everyone, there's plenty to do in Oregon's biggest city. Just like any large city, there's dining and drinking, shopping museums, and more. Portland also has plenty of parks, which makes it perfect for anyone who likes the outdoors but also wants to visit a city and experience some culture too.

If you're going to Oregon, there are lots of different places to explore. Whether you like a bustling city or a stunning landscape, you can find it in Oregon.