Original Post Date: April 27, 2021
Bloom Where You’re Planted!
Cultivate Creative Ways to Promote Your Family’s Health and Well-being
The overall goal of this article is to help people focus on their family habits and lifestyles, and find ways to improve mental and physical health. Here are some key areas that families can focus on to improve their overall health.
One of the best ways to stay healthy is to promote great family habits. Here are some practices that will help keep everyone in your family healthy throughout the rest of the year. By setting family goals and practicing good nutritional habits, you can make overall wellness a priority. Also, by choosing healthier lifestyle choices, you can lead to a more fulfilling life for you and your family!
Tips to Achieve Family Wellness
The following tips can assist towards keeping you and your family on the right path, all while managing and maintaining diet, fitness, and mental health:
- Healthy Food Choices: Eating a wide variety of lean, healthy proteins, such as wild caught fish, cage-free chickens and eggs, and organic, pasture-raised and pasture-finished beef. Also, consume a diverse range of plant-based foods (especially fruits and vegetables) that contain dietary fibers and polyphenols, which support a healthy gut microbiome. Avoid processed carbs; carbohydrates should be complex and organically grown. Consume only healthy fats like those found in raw, unsalted nuts and olive oil is encouraged for a healthy lifestyle. Keeping hydrated with lots of water is also essential. Maintaining a healthy diet from a young age can help prevent health issues such as heart disease, arthritis, diabetes, and weight-related bone and joint stress.
- Exercise: Finding time to incorporate regular exercise into family life. with activities like bike riding, brisk walking or running, swimming, hiking, dancing, bowling—anything that gets you up, out of the house, and moving. Incorporate some form of strength or resistance training. In a study of healthy elderly people from 90 to 106 years old, it was determined that the #1 factor for healthy aging is maintain your muscle mass!
- Oral Health: In 2000, the Surgeon General’s Report on Oral Health in America referred to the mouth as “the mirror” of health and disease throughout the body. This emphasizes the connection between oral and overall health. Good oral hygiene, including regular check-ups, cleanings, frequent brushing, and flossing, is imperative in establishing a good foundation for health. Dental plaque, cavities, gingivitis, periodontal disease, and tooth decay can increase risks for other health problems such as cardiovascular disease, premature birth, and more. Some dentists recommend biting a capsule of Dr. Ohhira’s Probiotics and swishing the contents around in the mouth for 20 seconds before swallowing. The postbiotic metabolites in Dr. Ohhira’s Probiotics can help maintain a healthy oral microbiome.
- Limit Alcohol and Stop the Use of Tobacco: Alcohol in moderation can be part of your lifestyle, but limiting alcohol consumption and eliminating the use of tobacco are critical for living a healthy life and establishing a model of good health for the entire family.
- Mental Health: Stress and depression are associated with increased risks to other health problems such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity and a weakened immune system. Taking a little time each day to turn off electronic devices, meditate, breathe deeply, and empty your mind can help towards lowering blood pressure and heart rate. Families who meditate together or incorporate “quiet time” report a heightened feeling of wellbeing, which can impact physical health.
- Laugh: Laughter is the best medicine and a great stress relief. So spread some joy and find something you can all laugh about. Engage in family activities that are fun for everyone.
- Be conscious: Each decision we make has ramifications. If we are more mindful and aware of our daily decisions, chances are we’ll make better decisions about diet and lifestyle choices that promote health and happiness.
Resources:
1 Ravaglia G, et al. Determinants of Functional Status in Healthy Italian Nonagenarians and Centenarians: A Comprehensive Functional Assessment by the Instruments of Geriatric Practice. J AM Geriatrics Soc. 27 Apr 2015.
2 “2000 Surgeon General’s Report on Oral Health in America.” NIDCR.NIH.gov. Reviewed March 2021. Available from: nidcr.nih.gov/research.
