HEALTHY LIVING n CHIROPRACTIC CARE
Daily Habits to
Improve Your Health
By Dr. Adrianne Hauff D.C.
Chronic stress is a leading cause of
disease and dysfunction. Studies
supported by the National Institutes
of Health have found a link between
long term stress and an increase in
gastrointestinal disease, heart disease
and cancer just to name a few. While
short term stress can temporarily
increase your immune system, long
term stress has the opposite effect.
Chronic stress has also been linked
to increased frequency and intensity
of migraines, peptic ulcers, Diabetes
Mellitus II and has even been linked
to the development of rheumatoid
arthritis.
While all of this may seem daunting and
even more stressful, there are ways in
which we can easily manage the stresses
of modern life.
Give yourself permission to take a
break. Take a few minutes every day
to “hard reset” yourself. Do something
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that you enjoy…read a book, take a
bath, go for a walk or meditate. Let this
be 15 or 20 minutes a day in which you
allow your mind to rest. Turn off your
technology and be present in your life.
It may seem simplistic, but it is harder
than you think. The need to check our
email, texts, and social media every few
minutes has become compulsive and
like any habit, it will be difficult to break.
Eat the rainbow. This certainly doesn’t
mean to eat a bag of brightly colored
candy! Consuming fruits and vegetables
of varying colors is the absolute best way
to provide your body with the nutrients
it needs. Avoid anything processed,
sugary or that comes in packaging with
ingredients you won’t find in nature.
While this advice isn’t new, it is still worth
mentioning. Shop the perimeter of the
grocery store and avoid the middle
aisles…which are stocked with brightly
colored, enticing rows of high sugar,
high salt, high fat choices that fuel our
bodies chronic stress response.
Exercise. You don’t need to spend
hours a day in a fancy gym. That 20
minute walk around the block to clear
your mind will also work your muscles!
Play with your kids in the yard, take your
dog to the park or do a few exercises at
home. Just get up and move.
Spend time with your family and
friends. There is nothing more im-
portant in our lives than our loved ones.
Spending quality time with our friends
and family can greatly reduce stress and
make us feel more connected to our
loved ones. Eat dinner together and
discuss the days events. Talking about
your day with someone you trust can
put things into perspective and reduce
anxiety. Practice gratitude with those in
your life. Ask for help when you need it
and offer help to others when you can.
Get a good nights sleep. According
to the A merica n Ps y c h o l o gi c a l
Associations annual Stress in America
survey, 43% of adults report poor sleep
quality as result of stress. Lack of sleep
can increase our stress levels and cause
anxiety, irritability, less patience, and a
lack of interest and enjoyment in our
lives. A full 8 hours of restful sleep in
imperative for a healthy mind and body.
Put away all electronics an hour before
bed in order to allow our natural sleep
hormones to be released. Light is the
trigger for wakefulness and the light
from our cell phone, tablet or TV is
perceived in our brain as daylight and
thus inhibits the release of melatonin,
our bodies sleep hormone. Avoid
alcohol before bed. While it can make
us fall asleep, it inhibits deep sleep and
you will wake up tired and sluggish.
While it may be difficult or even
impossible to eliminate the causes of
stress in our lives, we have the ability
to manage the way we cope with them.
A few small changes to our daily habits
can greatly reduce the physical effects
of stress and reduce the chances of the
chronic health problems that may result.
You don’t have to do everything all at
once. Start with one thing and add to it
as you can. Small changes can have big
impacts.
At Longwood
Chiropractic, we are
dedicated to helping
our patients live full,
pain free lives. Call
Dr. Adrianne
us at 407.378.2055
Hauff D.C.
or visit us online at
LongwoodChiropractic.com to learn more and start
your journey to a healthier you.
T
he demands of modern life
can feel overwhelming at
times. Work, family, finance,
relationships…these are not
new stresses. But they are being
compounded by the ever-increasing
pace of our technology driven lives.
Social media and the instant access
to information has pushed us to
believe that we all need to maintain a
constant rush of productivity. But are
we ever slowing down long enough
to smell the proverbial roses or are we
more interested in finding the perfect
Instagram filter to make our roses look
better than the other guys? It has become
more important to appear relaxed and
put together than it is to actually be living
our best life. The desire to have a perfect
online presence has added to the normal
stress of modern life.