To care for your mental health, you MUST care for your physical health …

Here’s a fact that reliable and reputable research has proven conclusively: What you eat, and how you care for your physical health, directly and profoundly impacts your mental health.

In fact, the growing field of “nutritional psychiatry” is helping us better understand that the root cause of some mental health disorders and mental illness is found in what we eat or don’t eat, and how we care for our physical bodies.

It’s good news to know that we can actually improve our mental health, and even overcome some mental illness, by including proper care for our physical bodies. Here’s the tough part – due to stigma and other issues (like cost, access, etc.), many people who need clinical counseling for mental health issues don’t get the help they need. But along with that, MANY people won’t exercise the self-discipline needed, and are just too lazy, to properly care for their bodies. This laziness or unwillingness to be more self-disciplined, not only results in a lack of fitness and contributes to declining health, but it can impact our mental health mildly to severely.

If you really want to be serious about caring for your mental health, then you also MUST get serious about caring for your physical health.

How?

Let me give you six keys to caring for your physical health that will help you also care for your mental health:

1. Increase your physical activity. If life lived mostly from a reclining position in a Lazy Boy chair or favorite couch sounds wonderful to you, then you likely are going to create problems for having and maintaining the most robust mental and physical health possible for you. That is why both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American College of Sports Medicine both recommend that adults should “accumulate” 30 minutes or more of moderate-intensity physical activity every day. That “physical activity” does not have to be a workout at a gym but can be any form of physical activity you prefer, from working in a garden or actively doing household chores, to taking a walk, engaging in your favorite sport, or choosing to do a physical exercise routine. What is ultimately important is that you are physically active rather than physically regressing by indulging in a sedentary lifestyle.

2. Movement. To be more specific about physical activity, research shows what is critically important for our physical and mental health is movement. The modern American has become so sedentary that more recent research has referred to sitting for excessive periods of time as “the new cancer.” Five or more hours of sedentary sitting, according to Dr. David Agus, is the health equivalent of smoking a pack and a quarter of cigarettes. Sitting for six or more hours daily can elevate your chances of dying from cancer and other major diseases – even if you maintain a healthy weight and don’t smoke. This startling finding emerged from a review of data from the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Prevention Study II (CPS-II). Researchers concluded that:

• • • Women who sat for six or more hours daily faced a 37 percent greater risk of death as compared to those who sat for three hours or less.
    • For men, the increased risk of death for those who sat at least six hours daily was 17 percent.
    • Those who did not exercise regularly and also sat for long periods faced even greater mortality rates – a startling 94 percent higher for women and 48 percent higher for men.

How do you battle against the risks of such a sedentary life?

MOVE!

Even if you have a job that keeps you at a desk all day, studies have shown that movement as simple as standing about every 20 minutes is key to fighting against the negative affects of excessive sitting. Gretchen Reynolds, a reporter on exercise research for The New York Times, wrote a book condensing health studies down to their most essential parts. One of the key takeaways from her research was this emphasis on standing up and the golden 20-minute mark:

“New science shows very persuasively that standing up about every 20 minutes, even for only a minute or two, reduces your risks of developing diabetes and heart disease. By standing up, you cause the big muscles in your legs and back to contract, which leads to an increase in certain enzymes that break up fat in the blood stream. You don’t have to jog in place or do jumping jacks. Just stand. A very pleasant additional benefit is that standing up every 20 to 30 minutes also seems to prompt the body to burn calories, so you don’t gain as much weight from sitting at the office most of the day.”

Even the least self-disciplined person is capable of motivating themselves to simply stand up! For your physical and mental well-being, learn to move more!

3. Exercise. We have long known that physical exercise is needed and beneficial for our physical fitness and health. It also directly positively — and profoundly! — impacts our mental health. Physical exercise is known to be valuable in preventing, treating, and reducing mental health issues such as stress, anxiety, depression, and more. Click here, here, and here to read more about the mental health benefits of physical exercise.

4. Good nutrition. The growing field of nutritional psychiatry is helping us learn that what we eat, or don’t eat — how we “fuel” our bodies — can have a direct and profound affect on our mental health and can be core sources of mental illness. A change in diet, and additions of certain supplements, vitamins, or minerals have shown direct affects on treating some mental illness and mental health issues. To read more about “your brain on food,” click here for an article from Harvard Medical School. If you want to care for both your physical and mental health, you have to get serious about how you fuel your body.

5. Sleep. The affect of lack of sleep, and poor quality sleep, on both our physical and mental health can not be overstated and can be quite complex. To dig a little deeper into how sleep affects mental health, click here for an article from Harvard Medical School.

6. Relaxation. Americans have bought the lie that we should always be doing something “productive.” Many people experience “false” guilt when they make time for relaxation, but both our bodies and our minds need consistent and adequate periods of relaxation for our physical and mental health. Mental Health America reports:

While there are no specific guidelines for how much relaxation a person should incorporate into their lifestyle, making time to unwind and enjoy life is an important part of maintaining good health. Deep relaxation, like meditation, when practiced regularly not only relieves stress and anxiety, but also is shown to improve mood. Deep relaxation has many other potential benefits as well — it can decrease blood pressure, relieve pain, and improve your immune and cardiovascular systems.

Making time to find enjoyment is also an important element of relaxation. Laughing decreases pain, may help your heart and lungs, promotes muscle relaxation, and can reduce anxiety.

If you aren’t getting enough time to relax, you may find yourself feeling tense and stressed out. Long-term stress, if not addressed, can cause a host of health issues, including chest pain, headaches, digestive issues, anxiety, depression, changes in sexual desire, and the ability to focus.

If relaxation isn’t a routine and consistent part of your life, then it’s time to prioritize regular times for relaxation, both for your physical and mental health’s sake!

Scotty