How can I optimise my health?
If you’re keen to stay fit, active and in good health as you age, one of the best things you can do is to start taking steps to optimise your health today. Although it might seem like a daunting prospect, for most people the best way to optimise health is by making small lifestyle changes, like reducing your alcohol intake or exercising more.
In this article, we explore eight health optimisation steps you can take to boost your overall health and wellbeing to reduce your risk of common chronic health conditions like type 2 diabetes.
What is health optimisation?
Health optimisation is when you actively take steps to improve your health beyond simply preventing disease. Often, health optimisation involves making several small lifestyle adjustments to help boost your physical, mental and emotional wellbeing and improve your overall health.
Although it is possible to start making simple lifestyle changes like losing weight, getting targeted insights, like those provided by our private Health MOTs, gives you clear information about where to target your efforts for the best results.
8 steps for optimising your health
If you are keen to take a proactive approach to optimising your health, here are eight steps to get you started:
1. Focus on nutrition
A healthy, well-balanced diet that provides the energy you need alongside all the essential nutrients for growth and repair can help boost your overall health.
Eating a varied diet is the key to ensuring you are not deficient in essential vitamins and minerals your body needs to stay healthy and keep your immune system functioning optimally.
Maintaining a healthy weight and reducing fat stores by consuming the correct calories for your body and activity level is also important as it can help to reduce your risk of health conditions, such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes.
Learn more about the role your diet can play in maintaining your health, in our guide to the healthiest diet.
2. Stop smoking
If you smoke, stopping is one of the best things you can do to optimise your health. Not only does quitting smoking reduce your risk of a range of cancers, but it can also help to lower your risk of numerous chronic health conditions, like heart disease and lung disease.
The good news is that it doesn’t matter how long you have smoked, quitting can have numerous benefits, from improving how you feel day to day to longer-term health benefits.
3. Reduce your stress levels
Although some stress is a normal aspect of life, feeling persistently stressed can have a negative impact not just on your emotional wellbeing, but also on your health.
When you are chronically stressed, your cortisol levels remain elevated, which can cause a range of symptoms from weight gain, lack of energy and difficulty sleeping to increased blood pressure and blood sugar levels. As a result, chronic stress has been linked to an increased risk of numerous chronic health conditions. So, aiming to reduce your stress levels is one way to help optimise your health.
As stress is often unavoidable, the best way to tackle chronic stress is to find ways to manage it. This could be through mindfulness practices, which help you to focus on the present, making time to do activities you enjoy, getting outdoors more or talking therapies; the key is to find what works best for you.
Discover more ways to reduce your stress and cortisol levels.
4. Maintain a healthy body weight
Aiming to maintain a healthy body weight is one of the best ways you can help to optimise your health as you age, as it can help reduce your risk of multiple chronic conditions, like type 2 diabetes and heart disease, as well as some types of cancer.
It’s important to remember that what is considered a healthy weight for you is likely to be different for someone else, so try not to make comparisons when it comes to weight or attempting weight loss.
We know trying to maintain a healthy weight can be tricky, especially for those who need to lose weight, but making simple changes like eating a healthier diet or getting more active can make all the difference.
5. Exercise regularly
Exercise can play a vital role in helping people maintain a healthy weight and reduce their risk of numerous chronic health conditions. But the benefits of exercise don’t stop there.
Doing 150 minutes (approx. 30 minutes five days a week) of moderate-intensity exercise, like brisk walking, jogging, cycling or swimming and two sessions of strengthening exercise, like weightlifting or yoga per week can also help:
- Boost your immune function and improve your ability to recover from illness
- Improve your mental health, reducing feelings of anxiety or stress
- Strengthen your bones and muscles, reducing your risk of health conditions like osteoporosis in later life
- Improve your energy levels, making you feel better
- Boost your brain function, such as your ability to multi-task or ignore distractions
The best way to incorporate more exercise into your life is to find activities you enjoy, as they will be far easier to stick to than punishing yourself at the gym. Remember, even household tasks that increase your heart rate, like gardening, count.
6. Get a good night’s sleep
Sleep is essential as it gives our body a chance to physically and mentally repair, enabling us to function optimally and be at our best.
Poor quality sleep has been linked to multiple factors that can affect our overall health, including:
- Weight gain
- Poor immune function
- Increased risk of type 2 diabetes
- Decreased mental wellbeing
As a result, it is hard to overestimate how beneficial sleep is to overall health and wellbeing.
You should aim to get between seven to nine hours of sleep per night. It’s also important to focus on sleep quality, as disturbed sleep can have the same negative impact as not getting enough sleep.
To find out more about the role sleep plays on your health and discover tips to boost your sleep quality, check out our guide ‘Why is sleep important?’
7. Reduce your alcohol intake
Frequently drinking too much alcohol puts your liver under undue stress and can increase your risk of liver disease and cancer, as well as causing other health complications.
As a result, reducing your alcohol intake can not only reduce the number of mornings you wake up with a sore head, but it can also have significant long-term health benefits, including:
- Improving your sleep quality
- Helping you to lose weight or maintain
- Lowering your blood pressure
- Lowering cholesterol levels
- Reducing your risk of some cancers, type 2 diabetes and heart and liver disease
- Improving your mood and reducing feelings of anxiety
- Improving your absorption of nutrients
- Boosting your liver function
The NHS recommends drinking no more than 14 units of alcohol per week, spread across three or more days. This is approximately six medium glasses of wine (175ml) or six pints of 4% beer.
8. Eat less salt
Eating too much salt can cause high blood pressure and increase your risk of heart attacks and strokes, so trying to reduce your intake can be beneficial for health optimisation.
It is recommended that adults should have no more than 6g of salt per day, which is approximately one level teaspoon.
The best way to reduce your salt intake is to stop adding it to food; instead, try using herbs or spices to flavour your food, and always make sure you try your food first before adding salt.
However, as around three-quarters of the salt we eat comes from ready-made foods like bread, breakfast cereals, ready meals or sauces, it’s also important to look at food labels and choose low-salt options to help reduce your intake.
Get a health assessment for peace of mind
To optimise your health effectively, one of the best things you can do is have a full body health assessment to better understand your current health status. This enables you to take a more bespoke approach when it comes to deciding on the best ways to enhance your overall health and wellbeing.
At Bluecrest Wellness, our comprehensive health MOTs provide insights into key health metrics and your risk of certain health conditions, so you can make smarter, more informed decisions to optimise your health.
All of our health assessment packages can be booked across the UK, making it easy for you to find a location convenient for you. Plus, you can be confident that we will deliver fast, efficient and accurate results as we have established links with leading UK laboratories and are fully accredited for a wide range of tests. In addition, alongside a comprehensive Results Report, you get free 24/7 access to a GP helpline for a year following your tests.
