Tips on improving health and wellness and reducing risk for a heart attack or stroke:
Knowing your risk factors and living healthfully are the best things you can do to prevent a heart attack or stroke.
Included in a healthy lifestyle are regular medical check-ups. Also:
- Don't smoke. Stopping smoking reduces your risk of heaert disease,cancer and stroke.
- Limit cholesterol and unhealthy fats. Cutting back on cholesterol and fat, especially saturated fat and trans fat, in your diet may reduce build-up of plaques in your arteries. Rather have olive or coconut oil. Avocado pears and oily fish are other healthy source of fats.
- Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables. These foods contain nutrients such as potassium, folate and antioxidants, which may protect against a TIA or a stroke.
- Limit sodium. If you have high blood pressure, avoiding salty foods and not adding salt to food may reduce your blood pressure. Avoiding salt may not prevent hypertension, but excess sodium may increase blood pressure in people who are sensitive to sodium.
- Exercise regularly. If you have high blood pressure, regular exercise is one of the few ways you can lower your blood pressure without medication.
- Limit or avoid alcohol intake. Drink alcohol in moderation, if at all. The recommended limit is no more than one drink daily for women and two a day for men.
- Manage your stress levels andtake time to relax.
- Make time for family and friends. This can be highly benficial for your physical and emotional wellbeing.
- Maintain a healthy weight. Being overweight contributes to other risk factors, such as high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Losing weight with diet and exercise may lower your blood pressure and improve your cholesterol levels.
- Don't use illicit drugs. Drugs such as cocaine are associated with an increased risk of a TIA or a stroke.
- Manage chronic illnesses such as diabetes. You can manage diabetes and high blood pressure with diet, exercise, weight control and, when necessary, medication.
Setting your child up to win:
Here are a few helpful tips to help your child to give of his or her best academically this year.
1) Encourage your child to get a good nights sleep. Research as shown that children need at least 10 hours of sleep for optimal concentration in the classroom. That means being in bed by 8 pm most nights.
2) Drop your child off in the morning at least 10 minutes before school starts. This gives him time to settle down before class starts.
3) Insist that children pack their bags for school and tidy their rooms the evening before. Being organized reduces stress.
4) Give your children breakfast. Studies have shown far better concentration in kids who eat breakfast and particularly when it is healthy and contains some protein. And remember that the foods your kids eat are what they are building their brains, bones, immune systems and the rest of their bodies with. Eating together as a family is also a good habit to implement as it creates an environment for kids to share about their day.
5) Encourage your children to listen in class. Explain to them that by paying attention in class they will have less studying to do when they go through the work again.
6) Encourage 30 minutes of daily exercise. This has been shown to boost concentration and improve health and immunity,
7) Ensure that homework is done consistently every day and that your kids have a quiet, designated place to do it.
8) Try to get your children to establish a habit of half an hour of study or revision every day. This will promote long term learning as opposed to cramming.
9) Speak to your kids about the importance of keeping their rooms tidy and about putting things away. Recent research has shown that an uncluttered environment promotes clearer and more creative thought patterns.
10) Lastly, encourage, encourage, encourage. There was a study done where they took above and below average intelligence kids and taught them all the same work. Those with below average intelligence were encouraged to believe in themselves and were regularly affirmed. The above average children received no encouragement or affirmation from the teachers. And the academic results were the same for both groups. So encourage and affirm your kids daily and they will shine.