Resilience is our ability to positively respond to adversity and cope with everyday difficulties, stress, illness and trauma. A resilient body can bounce back from such challenges and grow from them. A resilient body can fight illness better and a resilient brain stays happy and alert into the old age. When we strive to improve our resilience, we are optimising ageing, increasing longevity and supporting a longer healthspan, not just a longer lifespan. “Diet and Nutrition Are Crucial But You might have heard the phrase ‘You can’t outrun a bad diet’, which is very true and shows that diet and nutrition are the foundation of a healthy body. Having said that, even with a perfect diet, if your lifestyle is not supporting optimal physiology, such as in chronic stress, ill health will most probably ensue in the long run. So diet and nutrition are crucial but your lifestyle may matter even more. Read on for my tips for lifestyle factors that can change your physiology for better and make you more resilient. Small simple changes in your lifestyle, along with a nutrient-dense diet, can make a big difference in your health. The body is regenerated and rejuvenated during good quality sleep. Sleep deprivation and poor sleep are linked to an increased risk of many chronic illnesses, from obesity and heart and liver diseases to Alzheimer’s disease, depression, and even early death. Even just 1 hour sleep deprivation, or sleeping less than 7 hours each night, may reduce your life expectancy. This really shows the crucial function of sleep for our overall health! So aim to get 7-9 hours of mostly uninterrupted sleep each night and follow a regular bedtime routine. Reduce your overall stress levels by incorporating daily stress reduction techniques, such as yoga, deep breathing, gentle exercise, contact with nature, meditation, into your day. Chronic stress puts our physiology in the fight-or-flight mode, reducing immune activity, impairing the digestive function, suppressing sleep and generally causing havoc in most biological functions. Find some stillness in the midst of your busy day, do something you love doing, something that relaxes you and allows you to forget the stresses of work and family life and make it a part of your daily routine. Nature has a calming effect to our bodies and nervous system. Forest bathing (from the Japanese phrase ‘shinrin-yoku’), or leisurely walks in nature amongst trees, has been shown to reduce stress, by reducing cortisol levels, and improve immune function, by stimulating the activity of immune cells, such as natural killer cells. When we take mindful walks in natural surroundings and notice the beauty of nature, even the smallest creatures living on this planet, as well as the vastness of the universe, we instil the feelings of awe, gratitude and selflessness in us. “Awe experiences are self-transcendent. They Studies show that being in green and blue spaces (parks, woodland and forests, and by the sea, lakes or rivers) stimulates the production of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a protein needed to defend the brain against shrinkage and to support the regrowth and repair of nerve cells. This is what we call neuroplasticity – our brain is not as static an organ as previously believed and it indeed can change, grow and repair. So get out and about and marvel at the beauty of nature and feel those new nerve cells and connections forming! Cold exposure has been shown to have many health benefits. From splashing your face with cold water, taking cold showers or ice baths to cold water swimming and standing in a sealed freezing cold cryotherapy container, there are many forms of practicing cold therapy. Cold exposure is a fantastic stress management tool as it helps turn off the fight-or-flight mode, by stimulating the vagus nerve and increasing parasympathetic activity. This is our rest-and-digest mode that opposes the fight-or-flight stress response and should be the dominant mode. Unfortunately it often isn’t. Through stress reduction, cold exposure may help with many mental health conditions, such as anxiety and depression, and indeed, cold water swimming has been used as a treatment for depression successfully. Cold exposure also speeds up metabolism and activates brown fat, leading to various beneficial metabolic changes in the body, such as break down of blood sugar and fat molecules for heat generation and body temperature maintenance. Exposure to cold reduces inflammation, while activating healthy immune responses. Therefore, it may reduce the risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, chronic age-related diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, and other chronic inflammatory conditions. Last, but definitely not least, as a form of stepping out of your comfort zone, cold exposure can make you more confident in life. Who wouldn’t want a bit of extra confidence here and there? Caution! Please make sure to practice cold exposure safely. If you have any existing conditions, please talk to your medical practitioner. Here’s me this morning getting cold exposure in the snow! Become a child again and play, laugh, cry, sing, dance around, make a snowman! Try not to take life too seriously. Worry less about what other people might think. Do what you love and live your life to the full! Find hobbies you love and do them regularly. Creative hobbies such as drawing, painting, crafting, dancing, singing and playing an instrument are great for activating the creative right side of the brain, particularly for those who tend to be more analytical and have jobs that require a lot of logical thinking. When we get completely engrossed in something that we love, our anxieties and daily stresses disappear and the body is flooded with feel good relaxation hormones. If you do what you love in a group of like-minded people, you get many health benefits also from being part of a supportive community and building new relationships. This also combats loneliness, which we know is one of the risk factors of ill health and early death. Blue Zones are certain geographic areas around the world that are home to most centenarians. One of the common lifestyle factors throughout all Blue Zones is community and purpose. Knowing that there is support when you need it and having a life purpose have been linked to reduced death and better mental and physical health. Volunteering is a great way to find a purpose, while doing something useful for the less fortunate among us. We know from studies that helping others and volunteering is very beneficial for our own mental and physical wellbeing due to the personal sense of accomplishment that is gained from helping others. So, if you haven’t already, why not find a local group that you can join to practice your favourite hobby or join a group of volunteers for a cause that is close to your heart. And feel the benefits to your own health, while doing what you love and spending time with people you love – what’s not to like? Having your skin and body touched by someone who cares, increases the hormone oxytocin. Higher oxytocin levels are known to reduce stress and anxiety, increase relaxation and make us feel happy and loved. So get hugging your loved ones (at least for 20 seconds at a time to get oxytocin flowing) and have fun in the bedroom with your partner! Or book regular appointments of your favourite relaxing hands-on treatment into your diary and make sure to keep to them! Regardless whether it’s a massage, reflexology or facial, the important thing is that it’s enjoyable and you can feel relaxed while having the treatment. My favourite relaxing hands-on treatment is craniosacral therapy with my local practitioner Barbara Gornall. For me, it’s the most effective and magical way to calm down the central nervous system and switch off the stress response and get my body into a lovely relaxed state. Craniosacral therapy can unravel old emotional blockages stuck in tissues that can cause stress, tension and inflammation in the body, and I can tell you that there have been occasions when I’ve felt tears falling down my face when that has happened. Furthermore, craniosacral treatment supports and balances the flow of the cerebrospinal fluid in the central nervous system. This fluid is part of the waste removal system of the brain, and it clears away toxic waste matter and plaques from the brain that are associated with neurodegenerative conditions, such as dementia, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. As an APOE4 Alzheimer’s gene carrier myself and with a family history of all of these diseases, I fully believe that craniosacral treatment supports my brain health, resilience and healthy ageing and I would highly recommend it everyone. Wishing you a happy, healthy and resilient 2021! **** To find out how powerful diet, nutrition, lifestyle and mindset can be for our health, please book your FREE no-obligation discovery call with Minna and let’s have a chat. You can also contact me via the contact form or [email protected]. Join my FREE Facebook Group Healthy You – For Life for health and nutrition tips and advice and delicious healthy recipes.Building Resilience Through
Nutrition and LifestylePart 2 – Lifestyle Basics
(Check out Part 1 for Nutrition and Gut Health Basics HERE) What Is Resilience?
Lifestyle Matters
Your Lifestyle May Matter Even More”My Lifestyle Guide for Hacking Your Own Physiology
1. Get Your ZZZZs
2. And Breathe!
3. Take a Bath – In the Forest!
shift our attention away from ourselves, make us feel
like we are part of something greater than ourselves,
and make us more generous toward others.”
(Source: John Templeton Foundation
by the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley)4. Brace the Cold
(Photo by Riccardo Bresciani from Pexels)5. Be a Child Again!
6. Find Support and Support Others
7. Hug, Make Love or Get a Massage
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