4 Essential Lifestyle Changes that Can Help Prevent Diabetes, Heart Diseases & Dementia

Many common and sometimes fatal diseases are potentially avoidable. By making small but important changes in your diet and exercise routines, you can have a major impact on your health both now and in the future to prevent diabetes, heart disease and dementia. The following steps are recommended to help maintain the health of both your brain and your body. All of them will help you to avoid Metabolic Syndrome (MsX), which in turn reduces your risk of diabetes, heart disease and dementia.

What’s Metabolic Syndrome?

The underlying cause of Metabolic Syndrome is a person being overweight or obese and storing too much harmful fat in the abdomen. This tummy fat often leads to diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, obesity and many other forms of inflammation in the body that are harmful to a person’s total well-being. The syndrome is often the result of a lifestyle that lacks exercises and incorporates too many and the wrong kind of calorie consumption, such as fast food or eating out rather than cooking healthy meals at home. These lifestyle choices are then compounded by preservatives and toxins in our food sources that cause brain inflammation and toxicity. Preventing inflammation in the body, in turn, helps to avoid or postpone dementia.

How to Avoid Metabolic Syndrome: 4 Easy Steps

In order to avoid Metabolic Syndrome and help prevent diabetes, heart disease and dementia a person needs to re-structure four major components of how they live their lives, including how they eat, exercise, sleep and go about their daily lives.

Step 1: Change Your Eating Habits

• Get into a Routine. Eat a healthy diet by avoiding saturated fats, simple sugar foods, fried and fast foods. Concentrate on eating veggies and whole fruits and avoid continuous snacking.
• Stop Drinking Soda. Avoid sweetened, fizzy or carbonated beverages as much as possible.
• Pick up a Yoghurt. Eat low-fat yogurt three times a week.
• Take Your Vitamins. Take the proper supplements, such as a complete age-related multivitamin plus Vitamin D3, Calcium, Omega-3, Magnesium and Co Q-10. The body needs antioxidants and flavonoids to fight the intracellular junk that has accumulated in your body over the years. Consult your physician as to the correct dosage.

Not sure how to make these changes? Check out our handy The All-In-1 Pocket Guide to Healthy Choices for specific suggestions for how to have a healthier diet.

Step 2: Exercise Your Body & Mind

• Get Moving. Participate in aerobic exercise for at least 30 minutes a few times a week.
• Keep Your Brain Working. Perform mental exercises such as crossword or language puzzles. Try out some of the online “brain training” programs, such as www.lumosity.com.

Step 3: Get a Proper Amount of Sleep

• Keep Track of Your Sleep. Make sure your sleep patterns are healthy. Many people suffer unnecessarily from sleep disorders, such as sleep apnea which is treatable. Individuals with sleep apnea often feel tired during waking hours and have trouble concentrating.
• Natural Remedies Can Help. Many alternative remedies can help with sleep, such as melatonin, kava kava and valerian root.
• Everything is Related. Be aware that losing weight, especially as a result of a healthy diet and exercise, can have profoundly positive effects on sleep patterns.

Step 4: Stop & Think

• Wear Your Helmet & Seatbelt. Protect your brain while bike riding, skiing or participating in any activity where your head potentially could suffer any damage—no matter how minor as any trauma to your head causes the release of glutamate, which is harmful to your brain.
• Treat Pain Effectively. Strong opiates are not always necessary to treat pain instead simple medications, such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAID) drugs, can be augmented with acupuncture, massage and music therapy. Always seek medical help for pain that is not explained.
• Protect Your Brain from Toxins. Besides steering clear of smoking, drugs, excessive alcohol consumption, you should also watch the amount of preservatives in foods and the toxins found in the environment. Wash all food items before eating them. Placing vegetables in a blender is a healthy way to get many varieties in one big gulp. (Red wine drinker and latte lovers will be happy to hear that a glass or two of red wine and 1-2 cups of caffeinated coffee have been clinical proven as healthy for the brain.)
• Get Out & About. Make sure you socialize and experience healthy emotions. Participate in groups and interact with others as much as possible.
• Focus on the Positive. Emphasizing the positive, rather than the negative, can help with an overall sense of well-being. Some people find that hypnosis, yoga, tai chi and meditation are very helpful in helping to re-focus the mind on positive things.
• Understand Your Place in the World. Take responsibility for your own world and life, to the degree possible, while also accepting your limitations on what you cannot change. Always seek out professional help when necessary to help you cope.

Keeping our bodies and therefore brains healthy is about how much we move, what we eat and how we think about our selves and our lives. Get started today with more nutritional information and real-world advice with our handy The All-In-1 Pocket Guide to Healthy Choices.

Posted in Anti-inflammation Diet, Brain Fitness, Fitness, Nutrition, Prevention, Prevention, Prevention Techniques, Senior Health, Tips for Healthy Living