Living Longer – Most Important Factors

It is important to ensure your efforts and actions are aligned to what will bring you the biggest return on your investment. It is common to see people focusing on simple, easy to do health hacks which could only ever give marginal benefits at the expense of doing more basics behaviours which delivery much greater results. The problem of course is the basics tasks are often boring and require consistency over long periods of time.

Health has two elements to it, what age will you live to and how great do you feel while living. Taking an equal emphasis to both these facets I would suggest the following order of priority in regards to health optimization:

1-Start the journey to become super fit – The research keeps showing that being super fit seems to protect you against almost every other bad behaviour or problem. This relates mostly to being aerobically fit. If you currently do not do any fitness then it will require a persistent effort over time but today could be that very first step. If you do already train consistently, are you really trying to push it to a great level? There are massive benefits given to people who are very fit.

2-Stop smoking, drinking or taking drugs – There is only so much you can do for your body and health to lift it upwards if you are still regularly hammering it downwards. You may think you cannot stop these bad behaviours but that is not true, you can stop it and millions do every year.

3-Be in the healthy or slightly overweight BMI weight range  – The data points continue to roll in showing that being within your normal BMI or close to it, has spectacular health benefits. Adjust your targets if you are carrying a lot of muscle but for most people this scale is adequate enough.

4-Cut Out Sensitive/Irritating Foods – One of the sneaky ways our health gets hit is when normal, or even ‘healthy’ foods have started irritating the body for a variety of reasons or mechanisms. Any food can annoy the body and this varies between people. In general, the more frequent you consume something for a longer period of time the more likely it is to annoy the body. For this reason, gluten and dairy are often top of people’s list but it equally could be a fruit or vegetable you consume a lot.

5-Reduce Stress – There are numerous things that can come under the term stress, it could be physical (e.g. persistent low blood sugar, injury), emotional (excessive worrying, arguments), lifestyle based (being in an abusive relationship, extreme poverty) or spiritual (suffering from a lack of purpose, worries around life/death).  The goal is not to live without stress, but to ensure that it is at a manageable level. While stress directly affects your health it also ruins most of the other behaviours in this top 10 so it doubles its negative effects.

6-Get Enough Social Connection – We are designed to live in small tribes and to be around other people. The lack of adequate social connections will undermine your health & happiness. What adequate means will vary between people, but it is important to feel a sense of connection. The deeper the connection the better.

7-Resolve Emotional Trauma – Unresolved emotional trauma can manifest itself physically, leading to chronic health problems. This has become fairly well accepted over the last few years. There are many different approaches to addressing this available in addition to more traditional therapy or counselling. This could be eye movement therapy, bioenergetics or metaphorical based approaches. I have used Emotional Freedom Technique for years.

8-Eat a Healthy Diet – We should look to consume a balanced diet rich in whole, natural foods while reducing the amount of processed food and excess sugar. This should give you all your vitamins and minerals while minimising exposures to chemicals. I think most people would expect this to be higher on the list but by extension of not overeating from being at your goal weight and cutting out irritating foods (3 & 4 above) you have has already put in place some of the key elements of a healthy diet.

9-Get Your Sleep into the Ideal Range – The body can do some crazy things when given enough time to recover via sleep. This day and age the majority of us a living in a large sleep debt as screens, stress and life severely disrupt our sleep patterns. Within an ideal sleep routine, you would be in bed early and consistently every night and get your 7 to 9 hours as dictated by your body.

10-Take Supplements – Supplements can help fill nutritional gaps in your diet. Consider taking a multivitamin, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin D, or other supplements as needed, based on your dietary intake and health needs. Always consult with a healthcare provider before starting new supplements to ensure they are appropriate for you.

******

I could continue to rank further factors but it is already too much to digest and do something with. Not making the top 10 included; having a purpose in life, reducing environmental toxin exposures, air quality, getting really strong with weights, fasting, using detoxification methods, body alignment, sunlight exposure and more.