Tag Archives: health

How To Look After Your Back

08/17/2020 R.C. Liley Leave a comment

back, health, pain, posture, fitness — Photo by Jesper Aggergaard on Unsplash

Each year, over 250 million workdays are lost to back pain (Source: ACTA). They also estimate that a massive 80% of people will experience back pain at some point in their lives.

For those with a diagnosed condition, it’s often a never-ending circle of doctor’s appointments, pain killers, and reduced mobility. For those of us lucky enough to be pain-free, it’s essential that we look after our backs every day, so that we can stay pain-free in the future too.

Don’t underestimate back pain

If you do start experiencing back pain, it’s important not to ignore it. See your primary care provider of a specialist at a company such as Advance Physical Therapy. They will be able to provide advice and treatment early, which often results in a better outcome.

Exercise

Getting regular exercise is a great way to keep fit and healthy. Being active and eating a balanced diet can reduce the risk of a host of conditions including Type 2 Diabetes, obesity, heart attack, stroke, and insomnia.

Exercising and keeping your weight in check, keeping your muscles supplied with blood and oxygen, and is great for keeping the pressure of the extra pounds off your joints. But in order to keep your back in tip-top shape, you need to be doing specific exercises to strengthen it too.

The key to a strong back is a strong core. Exercises such as yoga, pilates, and exercise ball workouts are all good for keeping your core strong.

Learn how to lift

Lifting too much weight, with a bad technique, can lead to serious back injuries. These can be prevented by learning some of the basis of lifting. Here are some of the basics for safer lifting.

Don’t lift more than you can handle – no correct technique is going to help you if you’re lifting something that’s far too heavy for you.
Stack your shoulders over your feet – you should be aiming for a straight line between the two. By doing this, you will find it easier to maintain your balance and not twist as you lift.
Hold the object close to you – the closer the object is to your body, the less strength you will need to hold it.
Bend at the knees – everyone knows this but few do it consistently. Use your leg muscles to lift, not your back or core.

Correct Your Posture

Bad posture can cause a lot of health problems including back pain, muscle aches, headaches, and insomnia. It’s something that most of us are guilty of, as we slouch at our desks or lounge on the sofa.

When sitting, try to use the following techniques:

Sit up straight with your shoulders back.
Keep your knees level with, or slightly higher than your hips, feet flat on the floor.
Don’t sit still for too long, try and get up every 30 minutes.

Conclusion

Though it’s a very common health problem, back pain can really affect your quality of life. We should be looking after our backs as much as any other part of our body. Your spine will thank you for it.

Going Healthy, Health, Life

A Few Healthy Home Changes Your Family Will Benefit From

07/07/2020 R.C. Liley Leave a comment

If you think now is the time to start collectively improving the health of your family, there are many ways you can make it happen. And the great thing about it is that you don’t have to make big and sweeping changes that’ll drastically alter your family’s lifestyle. The relatively small changes you can make also have a huge impact.

We’re going to talk about some of the things you can do to enhance your family’s health. Each of these changes will deliver benefits that each member of your family will be able to enjoy. So read on now to find out more about those changes.

Start the Discussion

First of all, you need to start the discussion with your family. After all, if these changes are ones that you want to make together, it’s important that you talk things through. You can then find out what you all want to achieve and which things each of you thinks is most important. Starting those discussions and doing this collaboratively will yield better results for you all later on and that’s what’s most important for you all.

Use the Car Less

One of the things you can do for your family is exercise more when you might have otherwise taken the car. There are lots of short journeys you have to make with your family each week, but why not walk a few more of them rather than hopping in the car? You could even take a bike ride, which is an efficient way of getting around, as well as being active and fun for all the family. Simply not taking the car all the time will help get you all moving, as well as saving you money.

Structured Meal Times

Having structured and regular meal times will have a big impact on your ability to ensure your whole family has a more balanced diet. If your meal times are irregular and inconsistent, it can encourage bad habits such as snacking between meals. And those are the kinds of habits you certainly don’t want your young children to pick up when they’re still growing. It’s much better for them to eat home-cooked meals made with fresh ingredients.

healthy, home, health, family, food, healthy eating — Image Source – CC0 License

Filter Your Drinking Water

The best and healthiest drink for your family always has been and always will be water. And the great thing about drinking water is that it comes straight out of the tap and you don’t have to pay for it at the store. However, if you want the full benefits of water as well as the best taste, you should use a water filter. This will filter out the bad stuff while also improving the taste in a way that encourages your kids to drink more of it too.

Set Some Rules for Screen Time

Like many parents out there, you might be worried about your kids spending a little too much time in front of the TV. Screen time should be limited so that you can make time for other things, such as spending time outdoors and other valuable and healthy activities. You can limit it by setting rules for screen time and not letting those time limits be exceeded each day. Your kids might not like it at first, but if you fill that time with fun activities, they’ll soon enjoy the change.

Make a Family Commitment to Exercise

Exercise is important for everyone, your family included. If you and your family often don’t exercise together, that’s something you should look to put right. Making a family commitment to exercising together and being active. It’s something you can all do once or twice a week, and shake things up so you can try different activities each week. After all, exercise should be fun and enjoyable.

Mix Vegetables Into Old Favorites

If you want to make your family meals a little more healthy, simply fill them with vegetables. You can make this more palatable for your kids by taking a meal that you know the family loves and swapping out certain aspects of it for healthy alternatives such as vegetables. There’s so much that can be achieved when you get creative with your meal prep.

These changes might all seem like relatively small ones, and they are. But that doesn’t mean they won’t make a difference to the health of your family because they certainly will. If you want to start moving your family’s health in a more positive direction, the ideas above offer some good places to start.

Going Healthy, Health, Life, Parenting

How Hearing Loss Can Affect Dads (And How To Nip It In The Bud)

06/19/2020 R.C. Liley Leave a comment

“I’m not that old”, you’re probably thinking “There’s no way I’m losing my hearing!”. But this denial is actually extremely common in those whose hearing has begun to deteriorate. All-too often, we’re the last people to learn that we’re losing our hearing. After all, rarely does it happen overnight. It takes place slowly and gradually over the course of years (and even decades). And while you may be a good few years away from collecting your pension, you may still be afflicted by hearing loss, even if it’s not age related. Genetic conditions such as Meniere’s disease, and even a stressful lifestyle (which leads to high blood pressure) can cause you to start losing your hearing early.

hearing, hearing loss, dad, fatherhood, health, family, aging, prevention — Image by Ddmitrova via Pixabay

Take the time to look for them, and you may find that the signs add up. Your kids or your partner rolling their eyes when they have to repeat themselves. Complaints that the TV is on too loud. Misunderstandings at work or at home. There comes a point where the facts cannot be denied. Check out this link to find out more about the signs of hearing loss. In this post, we’ll take a look at how hearing loss can affect your ability to be a great Dad, and how to nip it in the bud.

It can add to your stress

Being a Dad is stressful enough as it is. But hearing loss can actually exacerbate your stress. It can cause you (and those you’re trying to communicate with) great frustration, leading to frayed nerves all round.

Unfortunately, stress can, in turn, elevate your blood pressure and exacerbate issues with your hearing.

It can lead to mistakes and misunderstandings at work

As a Dad, you feel that it’s your responsibility to provide for your kids. And that means that you need to be firing on all cylinders at work. But if you don’t take steps to improve your hearing, it can result in misunderstandings and mistakes that may not get you fired, but could harm your chances of promotion or progression.

It can cause those you love to feel ignored

Hearing loss can result in heartbreaking consequences for the people you love the most in the whole world like your partner and your kids. Especially if it goes undiagnosed. If they don’t know that you’re having trouble hearing them, they may assume that you’re ignoring or dismissing them. Which can have terrible repercussions for their self-esteem, and cause them to feel unloved and undervalued.

It can cause your kids embarrassment

Okay, so outwardly our kids act as though we’re super embarrassing anyway. Still, when we keep asking people to repeat themselves in public and mishear them, your partner or (worse still) their friends, it can lead to embarrassment and resentment.

It’s time to take action!
The good news is that there’s always something you can do to mitigate hearing loss. The first thing you should do is find a local audiologist who can determine the cause and extent of your hearing loss and prescribe a solution. Whether it’s a thorough cleaning of your ears, a hearing aid or even referring you for surgery, you can enjoy better hearing and less stressful conversation. As the years advanced, there are now smaller hearing aid models that are comfortable to wear all day. They can also be paired with your smartphone using a Bluetooth connection to make phone calls and play music. You should also try and exercise regularly, even under lockdown. Not only will it help you to control your stress and blood pressure, it can help you lose weight and feel better about yourself.