Health Care Absolutely Free
By James LaValle, R.Ph, ND, CCN
Here we are in the middle of summer. The weather is nice. The food is fresh. We’re more active 
and happy — and hopefully feeling good.
At LMI, we use a lot of nutritional supplements to help people regain their health and vitality. Too many times though, we find that people think they can build health just with supplements, not realizing supplements can’t do everything. They can’t fight forever against the foundation of an unhealthy diet and inactivity, for example.
Thankfully, some of the most important things we can do for our health are free (or almost free anyway). Summer brings some of those things into focus.
1. Have Fun in the Sun
Soaking up some sun for vitamin D is a great way to help your health. Regular THB readers are well aware of the risks of vitamin D deficiency and the healthful powers of the sun. Newcomers can review some of the evidence here, here and here.
The best and most cost-effective source of vitamin D is sunshine. If you live in southern climes where you can be outside most or all of the year, just get 15 to 20 minutes of sun daily. (Add 5 to 10 minutes if you are dark skinned.) That lets your body produce all the D it needs. For northerners like me, enjoy the sun during the warmer months and eat fish, which is rich in D, when you’re stuck inside all winter.
If you want to learn even more about the remarkable health benefits of vitamin D, you can go to www.vitamindcouncil.org, a non-profit organization that highlights the research of the foremost authorities on vitamin D throughout the world.1
2. Drink Enough Water
One large study has shown that drinking water keeps your blood from getting too thick, and can lower the risk of fatal heart disease.2 Surprisingly, the study found that other fluids do not have the same effect. Water is also important for the lymph system, which is our body’s way of removing toxins.
How much water should you drink? Fluid needs are highly variable based on your size, your climate, and your activity. The National Academy of Sciences2 set normal fluid intakes according to large studies looking at the average person (adequate hydration was assumed). According to their study and just about every other formula I’ve evaluated, it always comes down to about 6 to 8 glasses of water per day.
For intense exercisers, fluid replacement is another matter and varies according to the sport. Any athlete should work with a trainer to determine fluid needs before, during and after exercise.
But even if you are paying for some method of water filtration, at a few cents per glass, drinking water is one of the cheapest ways to help your health.
3. Get Your ZZZZZ’s
Too many of us want to cheat ourselves of sleep. We try to squeeze in more work or maybe we want to watch a movie or TV show we were interested in, but cheating ourselves of sleep comes at a very high cost. Not getting enough hours of sleep at night is associated with increased risk of obesity, diabetes and heart disease.
Making sure you get adequate sleep will help your insulin sensitivity and thus lower risk of insulin resistance and diabetes.3 This has the added benefit of helping control your weight in the process.
But there’s a less understood component to this free health-promoter that a lot of people don’t know about. It’s crucial to sleep in pure darkness at night.
Our circadian rhythms are profoundly influenced by light. Bright light in the day increases cortisol and promotes alertness. Darkness — total darkness, that is — stimulates melatonin production and helps you fall asleep and stay asleep. Even small amounts of light can disrupt melatonin production.
Melatonin not only helps you sleep, but it is also a potent antioxidant. In fact, several studies have linked exposure to light at night with increased risk for breast and prostate cancer.4,5,6 Further study has found that breast cancer risk increases with low levels of melatonin,7 so the connection is pretty clear.
The bottom line is to keep your room dark at night. It will help increase your melatonin production, lower your cancer risk and improve your sleep. Oh, yeah — and it’s free.
Sunshine, water and sleep are absolutely free and along with fresh foods and being physically active, they lay a foundation for great health that can’t be bought, not even with supplements.
References
- http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/research.shtml.
- Am J Epidemiology. 155(9): 827-833.
- http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=10925&page=77.
- J Appl Physiol. 99: 2008-2019.
- J Nat Cancer Inst. 2001;93(20):1557-1562s.
- Chronobiology Intl. 2008;25(1):65-81.
- http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090203135015.htm.
- http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080610161255.htm.
[Ed. Note: James LaValle is the founding Director of the LaValle Metabolic Institute, one of the largest integrative medicine practices in the country. Dr. LaValle is the author of The Metabolic Code Diet: Unleashing the Power of Your Metabolism for Lasting Weight Loss and Vitality and the Executive Editor of THB's The Healing Prescription. To learn more, click here.]
“This article appears courtesy of Early to Rise’s Total Health Breakthroughs, offering alternative solutions for mind, body and soul. For a complimentary subscription,
visit http://www.totalhealthbreakthroughs.com“
Related Posts:
Tags: General Health, health, insurance, nutrition
Filed under: Featured | Jul 14th, 2009.
[...] See original here: Health Care Absolutely Free | Health Solution Secrets [...]