Lifestyle & Wellness

From the foods you con­sume to how you process every­day stress, the choic­es you make impact your phys­i­cal and emo­tion­al health. Incor­po­rat­ing healthy habits and mak­ing small adjust­ments to your dai­ly rou­tine can go a long way in pro­mot­ing sus­tained health.

Sleep is increas­ing­ly being rec­og­nized as an impor­tant health fac­tor, as sleep insuf­fi­cien­cy has been linked to motor vehi­cle crash­es, indus­tri­al acci­dents and oth­er work relat­ed errors. While some sleep issues are caused by chron­ic dis­eases such as hyper­ten­sion, dia­betes, depres­sion and obe­si­ty, oth­ers are caused by sleep dis­or­ders such as insom­nia and sleep apnea.

Select­ing the right health insur­ance plan is an impor­tant deci­sion and at times can feel like a daunt­ing task. Cov­er­age is con­tin­u­al­ly chang­ing and there are more con­fus­ing health insur­ance terms out there than ever before. DMG enables you to crack the health insur­ance code and pro­vide sim­ple steps to allow you to pick a plan based on the total costs of care.

Heart dis­ease remains the No. 1 cause of death in the US and kills near­ly 380,000 peo­ple a year. While this mor­tal­i­ty rate has fall­en dra­mat­i­cal­ly over the last 10 years, risk fac­tors are still alarm­ing­ly high. Pre­ven­tion is an essen­tial ele­ment in the fight against heart dis­ease — much of which can be man­aged through diet.

1. Get an Annu­al Dilat­ed Eye Exam

Adults should have a year­ly dilat­ed eye exam to detect com­mon con­di­tions like cataracts, glau­co­ma or mac­u­lar degen­er­a­tion. These dis­eases could slow­ly be dam­ag­ing the eye and you would not be aware of the destruc­tion unless you have a dilat­ed eye exam. Be proac­tive and pre­vent blind­ness before its too late, sched­ule your annu­al eye exam (be sure to request dilation).

Trav­el­ing is a great way to expe­ri­ence new things and make last­ing mem­o­ries. Devel­op­ing an ill­ness while you’re away from home can be stress­ful and have a sig­nif­i­cant impact on your plans. Whether you’re trav­el­ing local­ly or out­side of the Unit­ed States (U.S.), it’s impor­tant to be aware of the pos­si­ble health risks you may encounter on your trip and have a plan to min­i­mize them and address any symp­toms that may devel­op, should you become ill. Infec­tious Dis­ease and Trav­el Med­i­cine physi­cian, Noziana Aftab, MD, shares tips to keep you healthy while you’re on-the-go.

Exer­cise is vital to main­tain­ing our over­all health and with a vari­ety of sports and activ­i­ties avail­able year round, there’s a work­out reg­i­men that fits every­one’s needs. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, most peo­ple ignore one of the most crit­i­cal ele­ments for exer­cise suc­cess — our feet.

Your body may be telling you that it’s time to con­sid­er mak­ing changes in your every­day rou­tine to pre­serve your spine health. Edu­cate your­self on sim­ple lifestyle mod­i­fi­ca­tions such as pil­low choice and opti­mal sleep­ing posi­tions, work­sta­tion point­ers and more com­fort­able dri­ving pos­ture so you can begin to see a dif­fer­ence in your pain lev­els. In addi­tion to tried and true approach­es such as weight loss and smok­ing ces­sa­tion, you can reclaim func­tion and range of motion by avoid­ing cer­tain move­ments at the wrong time of the day and using light exer­cise to ease the inflam­ma­tion that leads to chron­ic pain.

You should­n’t feel guilty for indulging around the hol­i­days, espe­cial­ly if you stock the dessert table with health-con­scious treats.

This hol­i­day sea­son, try sub­sti­tut­ing bak­ing recipes that are high in refined sug­ar and heavy creams with recipes that use nat­ur­al ingre­di­ents such as fresh fruit, Greek yogurt, hon­ey and spices. Your desserts will be just as deli­cious and have a healthy, hol­i­day sweet­ness that won’t upset the gut.

There are many chal­lenges can­cer patients face through­out their treat­ment includ­ing appear­ance relat­ed side effects. These sim­ple do’s and don’ts can help you deal with any hair, skin, or nail changes you might experience.