Our best advice for a healthier new year

Too many of us don’t enjoy life to the fullest because our health is lagging.

In fact, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 6 in 10 U.S. adults have a chronic disease and 4 in 10 have two or more such conditions affecting their well-being.

Rigorous research, real life experience, and common sense tell us that preventing illnesses, especially serious ones, can have a major effect on our lives. Staying healthy can slash those bankrupting medical expenses as well as extend and improve day-to-day life.

It’s no fun to huff and puff with routine tasks, or to struggle with bending and lifting. Who doesn’t want to share the joy of robust activity with friends and family? Quality living is an aspiration for all of us. Notice that popular media, especially the now-ubiquitous streaming options, are pushing programming that focuses on living long — and well?

As the worst of the coronavirus pandemic seems to shrink in the minds of so many, so, too, perhaps, has the hype for diet and fitness regimens. More practical-minded goals and approaches are getting a warmer expert embrace. So, let’s resolve to knock away at getting healthier in 2024 in fundamental and important ways.

Serious athletes still may be rising at the crack of dawn to lace up pricey shoes for miles of punishing runs, or hit the pool for a daily swim.

But for many more of us who don’t aspire to collecting ribbons for our sports prowess, the  plain advice now given by many experts makes compelling sense.

Move. Stretch. Lift (what weight you can).

Those are the big three. Every day or at least some days every week.

As the nation keeps graying, brisk walking has emerged as an option to vigorous running for many folks as a sound way to maintain and improve our heart and lung health. The myth of the 10,000-steps-a-day “requirement” for walking hangs around but has been debunked. Running can be a more efficient and demanding way for those in better shape to stay fit.

But the counsel grows louder from experts for all of us to just get up and move around whenever we can. The American sedentary lifestyle, research shows, leads to excessive weight gain and increases the risk of serious heart, lung, and kidney diseases as well as cognitive decline and dementia.

Alas, too many folks are stuck in front of screens these days — desktops and laptop computers for work, as well as smart phones, digital tablets, big-screen home televisions and video games for pleasure.

Not good. Instead of planting oneself in place for hours, experts say we all need to take periodic breaks. Walk down the hall to chat with colleagues, rather than send them computer messages. Take strolls at lunch, and use the stairs at the office. Avoid elevators. Do some chores on foot or bike, rather than jumping in a vehicle for short trips.

Engage in a kind of vertical meditation by going on an end-of-the-day walk to examine what might be stressing you out and determine how better to let little stuff go. Stress can be harmful. Getting the partner, kids — and four-footed pals — into regular walks, hikes and more vigorous exercise pays major health dividends, experts say.

They note that regular folks can amp up the benefits of a sensible activity plan by ensuring it includes time for stretching and lifting some amount of weight. The goal isn’t to become a ripped comic book hunk. It’s to preserve flexibility and muscle tone — too often neglected but vital components of well-being as folks age.

The last few years may go down in the history books as a time when scientific advances started to end the stigma of excessive weight and our frustrating efforts to lose it.

Overweight and obesity pose a big problem for the nation, as an estimated 1 in 3 U.S. men and 1 in 4 women carry too many pounds, while 2 in 5 Americans are deemed obese. Excessive weight among children in this country has become a national health nightmare, tripling in recent times. One out of three youngsters now are overweight or obese, experts say.

The sizzling topic in human weight now, of course, is not exercise and diet but hormones and weight-loss medications. Medical researchers, in working to deal with the significant health harms of diabetes, have developed new drugs. They are known as GLP-1 receptor antagonists. You’ve no doubt heard about their branded versions, including Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, Saxenda, and Victoza.

These have produced widely reported and even more widely sought weight losses. Doctors and patients are learning more about the new drugs. They’re expensive, and insurers, especially of older Americans, often won’t provide coverage for them. Early experience is showing that patients may need to keep taking the drugs for as long as they want to keep weight off. The medications’ long-term risks and benefits have yet to be determined. Their side effects can be pronounced.

Still, the significant weight losses patients have achieved while taking these drugs have shown how harmful excess weight can be on the cardiovascular system and with diseases like diabetes. Serious conditions like these, with major weight loss, show marked improvement.

Patients taking the new drugs also report that they experience declines in cravings for foods and alcohol. These suggest to medical scientists the significant role that hormones play in eating, digestion, nutrition, and the mind.

A less emphasized takeaway also is emerging for patients taking the new drugs and benefiting from them: Diet and exercise still play paramount roles in keeping healthy. They may be lighter. But to be fitter and more toned, they must watch what they eat — still. And to reap the full benefit of their weight loss, they must become more active and fit through exercise.

For those who want to be healthier in the year ahead — and who may not need to drop dramatic amounts of weight — dieting still provides a prime option. The folks at U.S. News and World Reports seem ready to rank just about anything. And they put out an annual diet ranking after consulting with experts.

The long-running consensus about healthful eating has trended for a while now in favor of so-called Mediterranean diets. The fundamentals of this approach concur with what many nutritionists advise. Eat less (use smaller plates). Eat more plants, fruit, sustainable fish, and nuts. Cut way down on the salt, sugar, and fast or ultra-processed foods (these can include seemingly “healthy” items whose ingredient lists, under scrutiny, contain bountiful amounts of unfamiliar, complex additives and preservatives.)

The experts also say the health conscious should slash their consumption of red meat, pork, and cured or preserved meat products (hot dogs, sausages, and the like). Grownups can boost kids’ well-being by slashing their fruit drink products (those with some natural juices but replete with sugary liquid) and sodas.

While keeping the body in its best shape in the new year, don’t neglect the head and heart.

One of the nation’s top doctors — U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy — warns that too many Americans damage their well-being by failing to connect with others, fueling what he has described as an “epidemic” of loneliness. The doctor cited research, as the Associated Press reported, showing that:

“Loneliness increases the risk of premature death by nearly 30% [and that] those with poor social relationships also had a greater risk of stroke and heart disease. Isolation also elevates a person’s likelihood for experiencing depression, anxiety, and dementia ….”

Isolation and loneliness

Technology’s rise not only has made too many folks sedentary and unhealthy. It also focuses excessively on keyboards, screens, and cyber contacts — not in dealing face-to-face with real people and building lasting, significant human relationships. The pandemic only worsened social isolation nationwide.

Murthy has prescribed practical, concrete ways to restore the vital network of connections among people, urging Americans to set aside time daily to meet and talk with others. He says to reduce the time spent on social media in favor of IRL (in real life) contact. Put down the smart phone and engage in sustained chats with someone in the same room. Volunteer to help others, informally (small acts of kindness) or formally. Join groups of folks with common interests, whether it’s to make music, play sports, or knit and sew. Pop into a church, get active in the community, including, perhaps, with local politics. Making friends starts with being a friend.

Mental health matters

To break down the walls that some people have built around themselves, they may need help. This might come from trusted friends, clergy, or trained professionals (counselors, psychologists, or psychiatrists). The importance of mental health care to our overall health has soared in importance in recent times. This is a good thing, especially if society can remove the stigma around mental illness. More resources and work are needed in this area, as the record suicide rates show.

[If you or anyone you know is struggling with mental health problems or talking about or contemplating suicide, don’t wait, dial the national emergency hotline 988 for help.]

Too many folks self-medicate to deal with their stress, unhappiness, depression, loneliness, and mental and physical health problems. Americans are making themselves unwell — and even killing themselves — at a record clip with abuse of various substances, inability to cope with stress, and negative nervous habits like lighting up. Drug overdoses, especially of opioids, claim more than 100,000 American lives annually.

Abusing substances

But let’s be real: Cigarette smoking (480,000 deaths annually) also causes huge, preventable health harms, damaging the lungs, heart, and circulatory system and opening the door to a bevy of diseases, including cancers and diabetes.

The long-term damage of vaping has yet to be determined. The early indicators are not good, because regularly inhaling noxious substances is simply unhealthy.  Cigars, hookahs, “light” or menthol cigarettes — marketers may push them as less harmful. But compared to what? Breathing undoctored air is always better.

It was unhelpful for the puritanical to demonize marijuana in days of yore. It defies common sense to argue now that grass is risk-free to the health of users, especially in the stead of what have become highly risky prescription painkillers or sleep aids. The marijuana available now is, overall, more powerful than its street predecessors. In areas where it has been legalized or allowed for medical reasons, researchers are finding an increase in steady, heavy use of grass, notably by older folks — and the experts warn that this overuse is unhealthy.

As for alcohol, its abuse spiked during the pandemic to highs not seen for decades. Binge drinking increased markedly among U. S. adults 35 and older, federal data show. The bad trends in booze are declining slightly, but experts still have high concerns about drinking among women and older folks.

Alcohol, after all, remains one of the cheapest, most accessible, and riskiest intoxicants around, as the American Psychological Association has reported, noting:

“Between 2015 and 2019, excessive alcohol consumption contributed to about 140,000 deaths among adults ages 20 to 64 each year. Those deaths included acute causes like car crashes and alcohol poisoning, as well as chronic conditions such as liver disease or cancer. Put another way, alcohol was a factor in 1 in 8 deaths among 20- to 64-year-olds. And in people ages 20 to 49, 1 in every 5 deaths was related to excessive drinking.”

Beneficial zzzz’s

While a chunk of those who drink or use pot do so because they contend it helps them to sleep, medical researchers find otherwise. They report that booze and grass can be detrimental to a good night’s rest, disrupting the deep cycle that the mind and body requires.

The health benefits of sleep keep increasing in researchers’ minds. The American Heart Association recently elevated this element to its “essential eight” ways to live more healthfully and longer.  The RAND Corporation, a Santa Monica, Calif.-based think tank, has estimated not only that sleeplessness and poor sleep cost the leading economies of the world billions of dollars in lost productivity but that regular folks would fork over real money if they could get a better night’s rest.

Moms around the world join experts in dispensing great knowledge about improving sleep: Go to bed at a consistent time. Ban the use of screens — TVs, tablets, laptops, and video games — and their anxiety-and excitement-inducing content for at least an hour before lights out. Keep the room dark (stash the smartphone away from the bedroom) and cool. Many people’s rest (and general health) would benefit from not eating big, fatty meals for supper, and from getting moderate exercise during the day, notably getting exposure to sunlight while doing so.

Teens may drive the grownups around them to distraction with their vampirish hours. But experts are finding this is a part of their natural development, to which schools and communities would do well to adapt with, for example, later start times