10 things you can do to improve your health right now

Here is a list of some simple things you can do every day to improve your health.  Choose a couple, or follow all the suggestions – start slow and incorporate 1 per week and see how you feel after 10 weeks!

1. Eat more green, colorful, leafy vegetables – Vegetables like broccoli, brussels sprouts, kale, chard and other commonly found vegetables have a multitude of antioxidant effects, minerals and other nutritive value that everyone can benefit from.  Chinese medicine dietary theory emphasizes eating slightly cooking vegetables, not raw, as the light sauteing or stir frying can make digestion and absorption easier.
2. Reduce or eliminate processed sugars from your diet – High sugar intake is now known to cause inflammation in the body, as well as lead to the well-known issues of insulin resistance and diabetes mellitus. Chinese medicine describes sugar as harming the Spleen, which helps absorb nutrients from food (basically the digestive system) as well as distribute fluids throughout the body. Keeping your Spleen system healthy is one of the main objectives in maintaining a healthy body and mind.
3. Switch from coffee to green tea– If you really need that “pick-me-up” in the morning, green tea is the way to go over coffee.  Coffee’s vasoconstrictive qualities can lead to health problems in the long run, like hypertension, and increasing anxiety and heightening our reaction to stress.  Green tea, whereas it does have some caffeine estimated at about the same amount as a similar sized cup of decaffeinated coffee, the antioxidant and other herbal effects are more beneficial to people than coffee.
4. Go for a walk with co-workers on work breaks – The benefits of work breaks and movement throughout the day have recently been shown to be very important to over all health.  I’m sure many people have seen the studies showing sitting even 1 hour per day is detrimental to health.  Help offset these effects by taking an active work break at least once daily, or more times if possible.
5. Schedule time for relaxation and time for yourself – Everyone can benefit from taking their minds off the stress of their work week, or simply taking 30 minutes to lie down and do nothing. Carve some time out of your week to nurture yourself, as often as possible.  Downtime can help you be more productive.
6. Use at least one wellness treatment to help prevent illness – A holistic health care system like Traditional Chinese Medicine, such as Kingfield Community Acupuncture offers, stresses the importance of illness prevention.  These systems often can detect and treat imbalance before there are symptoms. Treatment often involves acupuncture, herbal supplements, dietary suggestions and other self-help approaches to help you maintain your health. Treatment plans for helping maintain health vary by the individual, but can include weekly treatments during allergy season, to quarterly check-ins to help the body through the seasonal adjustments our bodies make throughout the year. Call 612-871-2288, or visit KCA as a walk-in to learn more about health prevention using acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine.
7. Try to get a good night’s sleep whenever possible – The real reasons we sleep, or how sleep affects our health, has not been well known until some recent studies have revealed sleep benefits the brain and memory, influences weight loss, and many other reasons. Some people look at sleep as a nuisance, and could supposedly get by on very little, whereas others cannot function without it.  Knowing now that the brain needs sleep to flush out wastes from an active day contributes even more to the other important reasons that sleep is very important to maintaining health. Don’t look at sleep as annoying, look at it as a way to nurture your best self and health, even as a way of extending your life!
8. Join a tai ji or similar approach like yoga that focuses on teaching breathing techniques – Breath is vital to the health of everyone, in fact the Chinese word qi (氣) is closely tied to air and breath. Approaches to regulating and benefiting the breath can help us respond in better ways to stress and help us live fuller, healthier lives. Tilopa Tai Chi Qigong Center is a great local organization where you can learn taiji.  The Faith, Health & Wellness Center’s own Yoga Sanctuary in the Solomon’s Porch building offers a wide variety of yoga approaches to fit everyone’s needs.
9. Keep laughter around you– Laughter has been shown to have many short term and long term effects on the body, from deactivating the stress response and improving relaxation, to actually improving immunity, relieving pain, and improving overall mood. Find more ways and time to laugh in your life, and be healthier as a result!
10. Massage acupuncture point Stomach 36 every day – Massaging this specificacupoint located just below the knees, is something suggested by Chinese medicine to help promote health and longevity. Contact or come in theKCA to learn more about locating this point and adding it to your daily routine.