Welcome to Healthhacks!
Hi everyone! As you know, every Tuesday, I bring science-backed health hacks for you. The purpose of sharing weekly hacks is simply to help you become more productive at work and also, in day to day life.
Today, I am going to share hacks about the most dynamic emotional state of our mind i.e the mental wellbeing. This health hack would be covered in different parts.
#Healthhacks #24
Each one of us goes through disappointments, loss, and grief in some part of life. And these being normal parts of life, adds further sadness, anxiety, and stress. But just as fit or physically active people are better able to cope with illness or trauma, people with strong mental health are able to bounce back from any kind of stress or trauma.
This particular subset of society has a positive outlook that helps them sustain and fight for a long time. Basically, such people know how to get a remedy?
Why are we mostly ignorant to address mental health issues?
Broadly, emotional issues are considered as less legitimate than the physical issues. They’re majorly considered as a sign of weakness and sigma.
Some people wrongly see mental health problems as something to be hidden.
In the modern virtual era, we’re obsessed with seeking reputed connections rather than reaching out to people in the real world. And we prefer taking a pill, rather than addressing the real issues.
The unreasonable pressure of emotional issues, sometimes, push you to take unwanted steps if not managed well.
Clinical practice has shown that active lifestyle, medications on time, and adequate health care significantly contribute to your overall wellbeing. And so I will start with nutritional interventions in this post. Something as the most helpful tool to combat the adverse effects of mental illness.
Let’s know the hacks for ‘how to boost gut and brain connection’. Understand it as Nutritional psychiatry. This is a growing discipline that focuses on the use of food and supplements to provide the essential nutrients as part of an integrated or alternative treatment for keeping mental wellbeing.
- Observe yourself how eating different foods makes you feel and work like. Make your food- record book.
- Try eating a “clean” or unprocessed food in the diet. Go clean, green and natural. See how you feel. Then gradually reintroduce foods back into your diet, and feel the difference.
- Do mention how you feel about other aspects of wellness. Like how you feel physically and emotionally. How are you behaving socially? You will get a different perspective.
- Be wise in food selection. Include more of the lean proteins in the diet. Eat whole cereals rather than having processed and refined cereals.
- A good dose of fibre is as important as other nutrients are. Include raw vegetables as salad and seasonal fruits in the diet.
- Include omega 3 food sources in the diet. Seafood, flax, chia, walnut, canola and soybean oil in the diet.
Studies suggest that many mental health conditions are caused by inflammation in the brain which ultimately causes the death of brain cells.
This inflammatory response starts in our gut and is associated with a lack of nutrients from our food such as essential vitamins and minerals, magnesium, omega-3 fatty acids, probiotics. These nutrients are vital to our life.
- If you are not taking these vital nutrients from food sources, have food supplements by consulting nutrition professional. There is enough research done on the role of food such as zinc, magnesium, omega 3, and vitamins B and D3. These can help improve people’s mood, relieve anxiety and depression and also, improve the mental ability of people fighting with Alzheimer’s.
- Probiotics also have studied vividly. Taking them regularly is associated with a significant reduction in anxiety and depression.
- Vitamin B complex and zinc has a similar function and acts prominently in a reduction of anxiety.
Nutritional interventions now have enough evidence to support their use to prevent mental disorders and to maintain well-being. Accepting ‘Nutrition psychiatry’ is helpful in improving emotional wellbeing.
Do you keep yourself engaged in any wellness activity? Are you looking for any health hacks in particular? Feel free to write me back in the comments section for any such hacks.