How to Live a Healthier Life

You have to think it before you can do it, so living a healthy life starts out as  a psychological issue. That is why I’m giving you some general rules to keep in mind. If you remember to keep it simple, you will change your behavior and live healthier.

1.  Don’t smoke cigarettes or use tobacco products. The latest research tells us that even second-hand smoke — being around someone who is smoking — is dangerous. When polycyclic-aromatic hydrocarbon, a substance in tobacco — is burned, it changes your DNA, causing cancer-forming agents within 20 minutes of taking it. That’s the latest research and follows 20 years of earlier research showing that smoking cigarettes, as well as being around others when they are smoking, affects us immediately and is dangerous to our system.  Clearly, this is the one thing you can do if you want to live a healthier life. Don’t smoke.

2. Exercise. I don’t care what you do, but  do it every day. Everyone needs to exercise. Make the time to do it. Get up in the morning and do something —  it doesn’t matter what. New studies show that the amount of exercise we need is much more than we thought — about six hours of fairly rigorous activity a week. From an evolutionary standpoint, it makes sense. We are animals and animals spend all day in movement looking for food and trying to survive. We need a lot of exercise to stay healthy, much more than the average American does. Studies that look at cultures where the people live long lives show that heavy physical activity is one of the key components in addition to being born with good genes. (more…)