It is essential to keep up the motivation on health habits to make sure your health remains good in the long term.

It is true, the tendency is to think that bad health is a long time off, when you are younger. However, people of all ages can make lifestyle changes to improve their health.

The risk of heart failure can be halved by carrying out daily exercise. In reality, this means that by doing just an hour of moderate exercise each day, you can almost halve your chances of dying from heart failure, which is the biggest killer in the western world.

Researchers say that half an hour of more vigorous exercise will have the same effect. This study was carried out at Uppsala University in Sweden (HeartFail, 2014).

The study included looking at the lifestyles of 39,805 men and women aged between 20 and 90, none of whom had heart problems when the study began in 1997.

Their levels of activity were divided into light (casual walking), moderate (jogging and swimming) and heavy (competitive sports).

However, there is no doubt that by performing some activity every day, even just walking or taking the stairs, could make a huge difference and will determine your future health.

Staying on the subject of walking, another study has shown that women who take up some kind of walking exercise or any physical activity after the menopause can reduce their chances of developing breast cancer.

The study shows that walking for four hours a week, or cycling, or engaging in any sport for two hours a week can reduce the risk of invasive breast cancer by 10 per cent.

The researchers from Gustave-Roussy Institute in France also added that walking for 30 minutes each day can also help. This study involved analysing the responses of 59,308 post-menopausal women and then following their progress for around nine years (CancerEpidermiolBiomarkers-Prev, 2014).

People who are low in vitamin D are far more likely to develop dementia and Alzheimer’s in old age. There appears to be a direct link between vitamin D and cognitive disorders, say researchers from France, the UK and the US.

It is vital to eat at least three portions of oily fish a week. This helps brain health and wards off dementia

Team leader David Llewellyn said he expected to see a link between low vitamin levels and dementia risk, but was, nevertheless, still surprised by the findings.

“We actually found the association was twice as strong as we anticipated,” he said.

The study tracked the health of 1,658 older adults who were not suffering from dementia or Alzheimer’s at the beginning of the programme. Almost six years later, 171 had developed dementia and it had particularly affected those who had the lowest blood levels of vitamin D.

Those who were moderately deficient in vitamin D had a 53 per cent increased risk of developing dementia, but those who were severely deficient in the vitamin ran more than twice the risk.

In contrast, those with the highest level of vitamin D had the lowest risk of dementia. Vitamin D levels can easily be topped up by being out in the noon-day sun during the summer months for at least 15 minutes, three times a week.

In winter (depending which hemisphere you live in), the vitamin levels can be raised by eating oily fish or taking supplements (Neurology, 2014). We all know that it is vital to eat at least three portions of oily fish a week. This helps brain health, wards off dementia and offers a list of other health benefits. However, a new study has concluded that the way fish is cooked can make a vital difference to the amount of benefits you obtain.

Steaming, grilling and baking are all good methods of cooking oily fish or any fish for that matter. Frying is most definitely not beneficial.

The study covered all types of fish, not just oily fish. In fact, it also supported the benefit of eating any fish for brain health.

The findings were based on 260 cognitively normal people over the age of 65 whose lifestyle and diet were tracked for 10 years, while their brains were regularly monitored by MRI scans. Frying any fish destroys the omega-3 fatty acids, they concluded, and was not beneficial (Am. J. PrevMed, 2014).

Stress is a huge part of our lives. Type 2 diabetes is known as a lifestyle disease and those lifestyle factors are generally known as poor diet, lack of exercise and being overweight. However, stress has now been identified as another factor related to lifestyle factors which contribute to Type 2 diabetes.

The study showed that people who struggle at work or have a demanding boss have a 45 per cent higher risk of developing diabetes, even if they are following a healthy diet and exercising.

As with most cases of stress, it affects those who feel they don’t have much control over events or outcomes. A number of researcher centres in Germany made the connection when they examined the health of more than 5,300 employees aged 29 to 66.

None of them had diabetes at the beginning of the study. More than 300 went on to develop the disease over the following 13 years (PsychosomMed, 2014).

kathryn@maltanet.net

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.