5 Pillars of Health
Many of my patients have heard me review the 5 pillars of health during a visit. These are important at any age and become more important as we age. If your goal is to be healthy, stay off medications, and avoid the need of frequent doctor visits (other than for a yearly check up) then the 5 pillars are a great foundation. If you have medical conditions, the 5 pillars can help improve these conditions and your overall health. They are essential for your physical and mental health. Patients often ask about various fad diets, supplements, secret formulas all claiming to be the secret to health. The truth of the matter is that each of those probably can help tweak your health (a little), but unless you have the 5 pillars of health well tuned in your life, you will probably be very disappointed in anything google has to offer.
Sleep
Getting enough good quality sleep helps promote health. It is a time when the brain performs important activities necessary to life. Studies have shown that it helps promote cardiac health, supports weight management, reduces risk of injury, increases attention span, boosts memory, and strengthens immunity just to name a few.
If you struggle with good sleep, start with good sleep hygiene. This refers to both your sleep environment and behavior. Below are a few suggestions for creating good sleep hygiene.
Start with a consistent bed time and wake up time ( 7-8 hours between times and for every day of the week ).
Develop a pre-bed routine and be consistent with it. This can help train your mind and body to prepare for sleep.
Prioritize your designated sleep time over everything else (work, studying, socializing…). great sleep will make those things better when you do them.
Create a relaxing environment for sleep. While in bed, avoid watching tv, listening to music, reading, screen time. Bed should be for sleep. If you want to read or watch tv, get out of bed and go back into bed when you feel tired.
Avoid daytime naps if you are struggling with good quality sleep.
Incorporate methods of relaxation to aid in falling asleep instead of making falling asleep your goal.
For more detailed information this is a helpful link: https://www.sleepfoundation.org/sleep-hygiene
Stress
Stress in brief, situational episodes can be a positive force motivating performance. It releases stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol, which can help you perform when the pressure is on. However, if stress becomes chronic, it can negatively impact health and well being. Chronic stress and the sustained elevation of stress hormones can disrupt almost all of your body’s processes. It has been associated with anxiety, depression, digestive issues, headaches, muscle and joint pains, Heart disease, high blood pressure, sleep problems, memory and concentration impairment and weight gain.
Ideally, removing chronic stress would be fantastic, however, this may be difficult to do without a major overhaul in life, or simply may be something that is just not removable at this time. So, learning how to manage your stress may be more realistic. Below are some tips that may be more obtainable and effective at lowering chronic stress. You may notice that some of the tips are also listed as one of the pillars of health.
First, find active ways to manage stress. Don’t be fooled into think that Idle distractions ( surfing internet, watching TV, taking a nap…) are managing stress. They are more likely avoidant behavior and may lead to increasing stress.
Get regular physical activity most days of the week. (see below).
Incorporate relaxation techniques such as meditation, tai chi, massages…
Keep a sense of humor
Adjust your perspective about the stressors. Looking for the possible positives that may come from managing the stress or what you may learn from working through the stress can help lesson the burden of it.
Get enough sleep (see above)
Eat a healthy balanced diet. ( see below).
Set aside time for things that rejuvenate your body, mind and soul.
Surround yourself with people that are positive.
Exercise
Exercise is a very important part of being healthy. It doesn’t have to be 3 hours in a gym everyday, but it does have to be more than looking at your watch to see how many steps you took for the day and then counting that as exercise. Exercise should be intentional. The goal is to be healthy for life. A good way to think of exercise, especially as we age, is to think about training for a centurion decathlon. When you are 100 years old, what are the 10 things you still want to be able to physically do. What matters is not how many hours you are exercising on a given day, but how consistent you are with exercise from day to day, week to week, month to month, year to year. 15-20 minutes, 3-4 times a week over 20 years will have a more significant impact for your long term health than 2 hours 3 times a week for 3 months. The goal is to create the habit and keep it until you are 100 years old. The book “Atomic Habits” is a very helpful tool to learn how to create such a habit.
The kinds of exercise will matter as well. A balance of cardiovascular exercise and strength training (this becomes more important with each decade of life) are essential. Cardiovascular exercise such as HIIT (High intensity interval training) can be done 3 days a week and takes about 20min. It is a great way to quickly and easily (depending on what your understanding of easy is) get the cardio done. This kind of exercise has been shown to help improve metabolism. Strength training can be completed with body weight, dumbbells, kettlebells or using gym equipment. These can be done 3 days per week and doesn’t need to take more than 20-30 mins. The goal, as we get older, is not to push out the heaviest weight as fast as we can, but to do controlled, proper form exercises. Using Time Under Tension techniques is a good way to help strengthen muscles, tendons, joints and ligaments and ultimately prevent injury. Consistency is key.
Healthy Diet
Training for the centurion decathlon requires proper fuel. The fuel you use will determine how well your machine works. Eating healthy in America takes some effort. The goal is to essentially stay away from the American diet. Remove the processed carbs (everything on the middle isles at the grocery store). The more foods are processed, the more likely they will be unhealthy. Try eating foods that have only “that food” as the ingredient.
Fats are an important macronutrient. Some are healthy and others are unhealthy. Eating the right kind of fats will help promote health and decrease the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Protein is essential for maintaining muscle mass. For the average person, about 0.4-0.5 grams of protein for your weight in pounds should suffice (if you weigh 200 lbs., then 100 grams of protein a day is sufficient). For those of you looking to gain some muscle mass, up to 1.0gram of protein for your weight in pounds would be the upper limit of healthy/safe.
Water
“Drink your water people”. Tony Horton’s famous words in his P90-X work outs. Water is important for many reasons.
it helps carry nutrients and oxygen to your cells,
aids in intestinal and bladder health,
helps with constipation(along with fiber),
helps cushion the joints,
help keep electrolytes balanced in your body, and
protects organs and tissues.
All of these things keep your body healthy and your mind clear.
Most experts would agree that about 15 cups of total water per day for the average male, and about 11-12 cups of water per day for female. Having said that, there are many variables to consider such as activity level, diseases, medications you may be taking, time of year…
For most people, a simple measure of your hydration is the color of your urine. If your urine is almost clear, you are probably getting enough water (of course the above mentioned variables may distort that simple rule).