Ready for New Year’s Resolutions? Here is What You Should Know before Decide to Make Changes in Your Life

ready for new year’s resolutions - here is what you should know before decide to make changes in your life

New Year’s Resolutions has always been about making changes in your life, reflecting on the year that passed, and becoming a better person.

It is not rare, unfortunately, that instead of improving their lives and making better changes, people choose to go one step backward. Before you decide to improve your life, read some of the latest researches and studies related to health and nutrition.

 

Risk of Dementia can be reduced with 5 healthy habits

We have all heard that healthy eating habits, regular exercising, a healthy body weight, life without cigarettes, and a low intake of alcoholic beverages are very beneficial for our overall health. However, we can now say it with certainty: these five habits can make significant changes for every one of us.

Researchers from Cardiff University monitored the health habits of 2,235 men and concluded that 5 healthy behaviors could help us lead a disease-free life. According to a study, 60 percent of participants who followed 5 or 4 of these habits experienced a decline in dementia and cognitive functions.

Peter Elwood, Principle Investigator from Cardiff University, said:

“What the research shows is that following a healthy lifestyle confers surprisingly significant benefits to health. Healthy behaviors have a far more beneficial effect than any medical treatment or preventative procedure.

The study is published in PLOS one Journal.

 

Father’s healthy eating habits have a crucial role in the offspring before conception

Sarah Kimmins, a researcher at McGill University, suggests that fathers also bear a significant responsibility related to their children’s health.

Most nutritionists emphasize the importance of emotional and physical health, and healthy nutrition during pregnancy, however, it seems that mothers share the responsibility with fathers. Father’s folate levels are important to the health of the offspring. The study suggests that fathers should pay more attention to their lifestyles and diets before conception.

The study also raised questions about the food insecurity and typical Western diets, that is, the long-term effects of these diets on both men and women.

“Despite the fact that folic acid is now added to a variety of foods, fathers who are eating high-fat, fast-food diets or who are obese may not be able to use or metabolize folate in the same way as those with adequate levels of the vitamin,” Kimmins explained.

More on the study you can find here.

 

Parental stress is linked to weight gain in children

A leading author of a study that researched the connection between parental stress and children’s weight gain is Dr. Ketan Shankardass. He is a social epidemiologist. Dr. Shankardass emphasizes that children whose parents experience high levels of stress daily have a Body Mass Index (BMI) approximately 2 percent higher than the children whose parents have low-stress levels. During the study, those children also gained weight at a 7 percent higher rate.

“Childhood is a time when we develop interconnected habits related to how we deal with stress, how we eat and how active we are. (…) It’s a time when we might be doing irreversible damage or damage that is very hard to change later.”

 

A tomato-rich diet may lower the risk of breast cancer

A new study revealed that diets rich in tomatoes might help prevent risk from breast cancer in postmenopausal women. This diet has great benefits on the levels of hormones that are important for regulating fat and sugar metabolism. One of the study’s authors, Adana Llanos, an Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at Rutgers University, explained:

“Eating fruits and vegetables, which are rich in essential nutrients, vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals such as lycopene, conveys significant benefits. Based on this data, we believe regular consumption of at least the daily recommended servings of fruits and vegetables would promote breast cancer prevention in an at-risk population.”

The study examined the benefits of both tomato-rich and soya-rich diets in 70 postmenopausal women for 10 weeks. The data showed that the tomato-rich diet is linked to increased levels of lycopene for 9 percent.

 

Adolescents with poor sleeping habits may increase the risk of heart disease

The leading author of a study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal is Dr. Indra Narang, a respirologist and director of sleep medicine at The Hospital for Sick Children. She explained that sleep disturbances and poor sleep, in general, are linked to the risk of cardiovascular diseases in adolescents, according to the result related to cholesterol levels, hypertension and increased BMI.

The study included 4104 adolescents who slept an average of 7.9 hours on weeknights and 9.4 hours on weekends and recorded their sleeping patterns and the quality of sleep. 20 percent of students reported poor quality sleep during the week, and 10.0 percent on weekends.

During the experiment, trained staff in hospital collected data on blood pressure, cholesterol levels and BMI.

 

Physical activity may decrease the risk of developing kidney stones

The researchers from the University Of Washington School Of Medicine conducted a study to determine whether energy intake is linked to kidney stone formation.

The study included 84,225 postmenopausal women who participated in research from the 1990s. The researchers concluded that kidney stone formation is linked to obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and metabolic syndrome.

Consumption of more than 2200 calories per day can increase the risk of developing kidney stones up to 42 percent, as well. On the other hand, the study also determined that physical activity can decrease the risk of kidney stone formation up to 31 percent.

 

Alcohol and energy drinks pose a health threat

Megan Patrick of the University of Michigan and Jennifer Maggs of Penn State University conducted a study to determine the risk of mixing alcohol and energy drink to overall health, especially for young adults. The data are collected from 652 college students for four semesters. Patrick explained:

“Our findings suggest that the use of energy drinks and alcohol together may lead to heavier drinking and more serious alcohol-related problems. As energy drinks become more and more popular, we should think about prevention strategies for reducing the negative consequences of using energy drinks and of combining energy drinks with alcohol.”

 
These are the latest researches related to a specific field of medicine. These new conclusions and findings can help us change our lives, prevent certain illnesses, and maintain our overall health.

 
Image credit: 123RF Stock Photo

 
Last aricle update: 12/5/2019