Starting 2024 with Some Healthy New Year’s Resolutions
With the new year often come “New Year’s resolutions”, decisions to change our lives radically in some way; many relate to improving our health. Here are thoughts on some of the most common:
- Stop smoking: As a major cause for heart disease, lung disease (#1), and cancer (#1), this should be a no-brainer. Just do it! Once you make this decision, simple behavioral approaches and hypnosis are all quite effective. Programs including prescription medications can support a “nearly-painless” exit from this deadly habit.
- Exercise: You know the benefits; it’s time and discipline that are required. It’s much easier if you create a routine and stick with it. Even a 1-hour walk in a mall three mornings a week can revolutionize a sedentary life, improving weight, tone, joint and heart health. Often a doctor can prescribe physical therapy for some reason (toning, heart, osteoporosis), and then you can get your own “personal trainer” covered by insurance to get you on track.
- Get to bed earlier: Especially when the daylight ends early as is the case currently, this is critical. The importance of natural sunshine and the health benefits of waking up to the first morning light have been established in countless studies. Additionally, sleeping the full night is one of the two factors known to extend longevity statistically. 7.8 hours is the exact amount of sleep necessary for optimal health. Less is inadequate; more, you may be fatigued or even depressed.
- Lose weight: This is probably the most common resolution, and it is enormously important. Underweight is that second factor associated with extending longevity. But even normal weight is associated with many health benefits:
– To be overweight is to be inflamed. No one who is overweight, no matter how lovely they may look or dress, is healthy. Period!
– Increased weight places a burden on the joints
– Excessive weight contributes to heart disease and cancer risk
– Increased weight leads to insulin resistance, and ultimately to diabetes and its many associated pitfalls (retinopathy, kidney disease, atrial fibrillation, cellulitis and gangrene, etc.)
-Weight loss improves body image, confidence, and mood.
If being overweight is an issue for you, you need to create a plan with a professional. There are many new medications advertised on TV that can conceivably be used to this end, but just like the old “Fen-Phen diet” in the ‘90s, these medications must be used lifelong to be effective and carry with them grave potential consequences, some that are still being identified.
As a first line approach, a nutritional program accompanied by checking up on body chemistry factors (such as thyroid, adrenals, hormone levels, food sensitivities, and insulin resistance) can be remarkably effective. Losing weight based on proper food choices and balanced body chemistry can produce safe, healthy, lifelong change. Don’t try to go it alone: supervision and coaching help a lot. With professional guidance, a weight loss program can be modified over time to become a long-term maintenance plan, leading successfully to a stable, normal weight for the rest of your life.
Sticking with any and all of these resolutions is absolutely the best investment of time, effort, and money you can make. Start it in 2024, live it for life!
Robin Ellen Leder, M.D. began her journey into functional medicine working side by side with Dr. Robert Atkins (“The Atkins Diet”). She has since treated thousands of patients with a holistic, more natural approach to wellness and healing, helping with weight loss, smoke stopping and addiction from a medical and psychological perspective. She provides innovative, comprehensive testing, IV chelation and vitamins, individualized nutrient programs, and counseling to achieve optimal health for her patients.
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