vitamin D

Are Seniors More Likely to Get SAD?

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Anyone can suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), but certain factors can make seniors more vulnerable to the mental health issue. Read ahead to find out why that is, and what affected seniors can do to cope with the condition during the coldest time of the year.

Source:vistaspringsliving.com

What Is Seasonal Affective Disorder:

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is also known as seasonal depression. Certain people find themselves experiencing depressive symptoms during specific times of the year — the most common time for this is during the autumn and the winter. People often dismiss the condition as a case of the “winter blues.”

These are just some of the symptoms that are associated with SAD:

  • Fatigue
  • Trouble focusing
  • Feelings of hopelessness
  • Sleep trouble
  • Change in appetite

Scientists haven’t determined the exact reasons why so many people experience this seasonal mood disorder. Some theorize that the lack of sunlight has a direct impact on the natural circadian rhythm for humans, which disrupts sleep cycles and creates mood shifts. Sunlight is also a primary source for Vitamin D, and a low level of vitamin D increases someone’s risk of developing depression. So, it’s possible that reduced exposure to natural sunlight could affect someone’s mood.

Another theory is that the short days and cold weather in the winter limits the types of activities that tend to bring people joy, like going for walks in nature or socializing with friends. It’s a lot of effort just to get out the door, and often too unpleasant to stand outside for longer than a few minutes. Having those routine activities taken away can dramatically affect someone’s mood.

Why Are Seniors Vulnerable?

Source:folio.ca

There are a few reasons why seniors are more vulnerable to this mood disorder. The first is that the human body’s ability to absorb essential nutrients decreases with age — this includes Vitamin D. This is why seniors are more likely to develop Vitamin D deficiency.

Another reason why seniors are more vulnerable to this seasonal issue is that they are heavily impacted by the harsh weather. As you get older, your body becomes more sensitive to cold temperatures. You have more trouble seeing in the dark. Your mobility changes, making it difficult to trek over slick ice and through heavy snow. If you slip and fall on the ice, you could get seriously injured.

As you can see, the harsh winter weather isn’t very accommodating for seniors. So, they are more likely to stay indoors and hunker down until the conditions outside their front door become a lot milder. This is the safest decision, but it’s also the most isolating one. Seniors lose their daily routine, their time outdoors and social opportunities during the winter. It’s just like when seniors suffer from untreated hearing loss. According to Blue Angels Hearing, the ability to hear others is a fundamental human need, and when it goes unmet, it can lead to social isolation and depression.

What Can Seniors Do to Cope with SAD?

Source:studyfinds.org

Get Exercise:

Exercise is an excellent way to address the symptoms of seasonal affective disorder:

  • It can help you sleep soundly at night.
  • It can help you feel rested and energized in the morning.
  • It can give you a boost of endorphins when you’re done working out.
  • It can motivate you to socialize.

If you normally go outside to exercise, try to find a routine that works for you indoors. So, if you liked going for long walks, use a treadmill and listen to music while you walk. If you liked going for bike rides, hop on a stationary bike. If you liked going to yoga classes or Tai Chi lessons in the park, sign up for online classes and follow along in your living room.

Get Social:

It’s hard to motivate yourself to socialize when you’re feeling down, but you should try your best to do it. Have a date night with your significant other. Call up a friend. Set up a video chat with your family.

If you live on your own, consider moving to a senior community. A senior care home is filled with plenty of people who would love to talk, share dinner and forge genuine friendships with you. And the right home will have a staff that carefully plans activities and events that encourages even the shyest resident to socialize. Take a look at what activities and events that a senior community like Allseniorscare.com has planned for its residents over the past year. There’s always something exciting to do.

Get More Sunshine:

One of the easiest ways to get more Vitamin D is to soak up the sunshine outside. If it’s not too cold or snowy outside, you should go for a walk for at least fifteen minutes. Even standing out on a balcony for a few minutes could make you feel better.

There will be days when you can’t go for a leisurely stroll. That’s why you should consider a light therapy box — it emits a bright light that is designed to replace your daily dose of sunshine and resets your internal clock. Turn it on first thing in the morning. After half an hour, you might find that you’re energized and ready to take on the day.

Get More Vitamin D:

Sunshine isn’t the only way that you can increase your levels of Vitamin D. You can make some changes in your diet to get more of this useful vitamin. Foods that can help you are salmon, herring, sardines, tuna, eggs and mushrooms. There are also food products that are fortified with Vitamin D, including milks, cereals and oatmeal packets.

If that’s not enough, you might want to take a daily supplement to give you a boost. Talk to your doctor first.

It’s also important to get more calcium in your diet. Your body needs this mineral to properly absorb Vitamin D. Foods that contain high levels of calcium are milk, cheeses, yogurts, spinach, kale and almonds.

Get Some Sleep:

Source:seniorfitness4life.com

Getting a good night’s sleep is essential for your physical and mental health. If you’re finding that your seasonal affective disorder is ruining your sleep, you should try these tips:

  • Avoid caffeinated drinks in the evening.
  • Go to bed at the same time every night.
  • Keep your bedroom’s temperature cool.
  • Turn off phone and television screens at least one hour before bed.
  • Do something relaxing to unwind before going to bed, like reading a book, knitting or listening to music.

Every year, you find yourself dealing with SAD. This year, you don’t have to struggle with it so much. Follow these useful tips and you’ll find it much easier to manage a long, cold winter.

To learn if you might be depressed, take this depression assessment from Mind Diagnostics:   https://www.mind-diagnostics.org/depression-test.

Fibroids: What are they and Which Foods help you Combat it?

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You have been experiencing abdominal pain bordering on the extreme and heavy flow during periods for some months now. Finally, you decide, “Enough is enough” and book a doctor’s appointment. Soon after, the diagnosis is revealed – you have fibroids. The world comes crashing down and you helplessly ask yourself, “What are fibroids? Is there no cure for this?”

Well, all hope is not lost as we are here at your service. In this article, we will tell you what fibroids are and also provide you with a list of foods that will help you combat fibroids.

Source:healthline.com

What are fibroids?

Fibroids comprise a cluster of abnormal growths, more specifically, benign tumours, that develop in the uterine tissue of women. These tumours constitute fibrous connective tissue and smooth muscle cells and have shapes ranging from a pea to a watermelon.

Should you be worried or scared?

No need to feel scared as of yet. Approximately 70 to 80 percent of women develop uterine fibroids in their lifetime but not all display symptoms and, therefore, evade treatment. Most importantly, fibroids are not cancerous and have the least likelihood of metastasizing into cancer. However, fibroids can cause a range of health problems, including, but not limited to miscarriages, anaemia, constipation, severe menstrual pain and bleeding – this is why it becomes imperative to treat this condition as soon as it is detected.

Some other commonly used names of fibroids are as follows:

  • Fibromas
  • Myomas
  • Leiomyomas
  • Uterine myomas

Take a look at the amazing foods that help alleviate the severe symptoms of fibroids:

Full disclosure: the foods listed below would not help you cure or prevent fibroids overnight. Dealing with fibroids required careful consideration of your diet and lifestyle choices. Follow a well-thought-out diet to balance your hormones and manage fibroid-associated symptoms. You might have the interest to look at the Good wellness tips post about shrink fibroids fast with right foods.

Get your Vitamin D

Scientists have revealed that ample Vitamin D in your diet helps reduce the risk of experiencing fibroids by approximately 32 percent. Although your body is naturally equipped to generate Vitamin D when exposed to direct sunlight, our sedentary lifestyles make it an unreachable dream. Those with high melanin content in their skin and those who live in cooler environments are most likely to be Vitamin D deficient. Some food items that you can try out for a healthy source of Vitamin D are fatty fish such as mackerel, salmon and tuna, fortified orange juice and cereals, cod liver oil and fortified dairy products.

Source:medium.com

Cruciferous vegetables

Vegetables such as bok choy, watercress, cabbage, arugula, broccoli, radish and turnips help detoxify your liver. This, in turn, reduces the chances of experiencing inflamed fibroids. Our pro tip will be to avoid overcooking of these vegetables so that most of the nutrients are retained in their purest form.

Go Mediterranean with your diet

Multiple research studies have proven that a Mediterranean diet helps marginally lower your risk of developing fibroids. But what is a Mediterranean diet all about, you ask? It’s pretty simple really. You have to add an ample amount of fresh green vegetables, fruits, fish, legumes, nuts, whole grains, herbs, breads, seafood, seeds and extra virgin olive oil to your diet. Apart from this, you are allowed to eat cheese, poultry, yoghurt, and eggs in moderation and red meat on rare occasions. The Mediterranean diet recommends shunning processed meat, refined oils, sugary and fizzy beverages, and a plethora of highly processed foods. It isn’t easy, we agree, but it is needed.

Fibre-rich foods

Source:michaelkummer.com

These food items follow a two-pronged approach in alleviating fibroid symptoms – they balance hormones and promote weight loss while maintaining blood sugar at steady levels. Here are the foods rich in fibre that you should try out: beans, cooked, dried and raw fruits and vegetables, barley, whole grain bread, lentils, and oats.

As sad as it sounds, your chance of developing fibroids increases as you start aging. Family history, an unbalanced diet, and bad lifestyle choices can all be innocuous triggers that lead to fibroids. Make a conscious and heartfelt effort to incorporate the food items listed above into your life, and we promise that you will see a significant difference in your body and mind!

15 Reasons Running Is Better Than the Gym

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It can be hard to do running and gym on the same day so choose one — running. Here in this article, we look at 15 great reasons to put on your best running shoes, get outside and run. Let’s check them out — ready, set, go!  Some of https://gym-expert.com/ ideas can help you understand all advantages of running above the gym.

1. Feel Good for Long

A quick five minutes of exercise outdoors will make one’s mood and self-esteem improved dramatically. According to a recent British study, young people and/or those suffering from some form of mental illness notice the most significant impact. This study showed that the effects of jogging were better if to drink water. Cardiovascular exercise while running produces endorphins and regulates metabolism.

2. Longevity

One needs only to do 5-10 minutes of intense sprinting a day to reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases and cancer dramatically. Running also improves bone strength, making one live a more productive life. All of the cumulative effects of sprinting will increase longevity over time.

3. Run, and You’ll Be Happy

Source:today.com

It’s easy to look for a quick cure when feeling depressed, but reaching for running shoes will be a better choice than getting some snacks in both the short and long run. In a 10-week study, people who ran saw improvements in both their mental and physical health immediately and also after a one year follow up. All it takes is a little perseverance, and jogging can make you super happy, much more than lifting gym weights ever could.

4. Improvements to Attention and Memory

The gym can be great for cardio workouts, but doing cardio work outside is simply pleasant. It turns out to be a lot more enjoyable than we think! If one were to spend an hour a day consistently interacting with nature, their memory and attention span would increase over time by up to 20% according to a 2008 study by Michigan University. Sometimes the kind of gym workout people do just don’t cut it in terms of interaction with the outside world; after all, it’s a pretty sterile and bleak environment in a gym!

5. Vitamin D and Bone Health

The sun is so important for one’s body, creating vitamin D, which is vital for bone density and general bone health. Moreover, this even helps to fight osteoporosis in a long-term perspective. If we run, our bodies get more vitamin D from solar rays, even if they are not intense. All gradual forces that jogging creates on our bodies also make our bones stronger.

6. Wind Resistance

You may be wondering “running or gym which is better for weight loss?” Maybe you can just run on a treadmill to get the same effect? The natural air masses outside act to make workouts harder, helping burn a lot more calories as one battles brutal wind. Also, wind acts as a wonderful source of oxygen and will wake one up, so they keep on running!

7. Music + Jog = Great Mix

Source:teechymantra.com

Music can bring enormous benefits for physical and mental wellbeing, especially when combined with a jog. It helps to improve performance, and it is a lot easier to get through an album or two when jogging in the wind as opposed to lifting weights in a sweaty gym. Music also keeps you less distracted so that you can drown out other considerations, helps to forget about tiredness, and enables running longer.

8. Speed and Convenience

Have you ever noticed how inconvenient is going to the gym? So much time commuting there, coming back, swiping your card, taking things in and out of lockers, etc. Sometimes there’s a lot of time wasted. When running outside, the world is your gym. Just pick up and go whenever it is convenient! Nobody will be around telling you what to do, and it’s super-fast to get up and start running.

9. No Stinking Gym Bag

Love them or hate them, gyms are smelly places. The air is usually recirculated, and this means that your gear is going to stink. It can be particularly unpleasant carrying around these smelly garments, especially when commuting to and from work. Gross! Ditch your bag and dump your laundry in the basket at home where it belongs.

10. Free

A regular gym membership is quite pricey, especially when living in expensive neighborhoods. When you’re outside running around, it costs…nothing! That’s right; it’s totally free. Not only do you get running benefits for the body but they cost 0 too. If you’re still wondering, “is running the best exercise?”, it’s certainly the cheapest if you’re working out outside.

11. Weight Loss

Look no further for the best way of burning calories. Jogging is as effective as one can get when it comes to shedding weight because of the number of calories burned per minute of exercise. When you run for 30 minutes, you can burn an enormous 560 calories if you’re able to run at a pace of 9 minutes a mile. When making a comparison between weightlifting in the gym, jogging has been found to burn twice the calories when spending the same amount of time exercising.

12. Burn That Dinner

Source:skinnyrunner.com

Running in the morning can help burn off last night’s dinner! When trying to lose weight, this is a fantastic way to go. Run it off and don’t count the calories when eating.

13. Socializing

If you’re working on fitness goals such as running for weight loss, joining a club can increase your motivation for exercising. There is a vast world of running enthusiasts of all levels out there just waiting to get stuck in and motivate each other. Socialize with some other runners at clubs because it’s difficult doing it in a crowded gym!

14. No Limits

Gyms impose restrictions. The fees, the time you can work out — even the highest difficulty settings on a treadmill! When you’re outside, there are no limits to what you can do.

Source:time.com

15. Compete!

Since a race doesn’t require any huge arena with thousands of amenities, there are many running tracks everywhere. They won’t break the bank nor will there be few of them! Running can provide so many opportunities for getting competitive.

That’s about it from us, and we hope our reasons have given you food for thought. Consider all the pros and cons, and do not stop on the way to a healthy body. Have a good run!