Live to be 100 the Easy Way

 

 

Whether you manage stress by getting a massage, meditating or working out, as long as you're doing something to curtail the anxiety you're headed towards a healthier life.  Stressful situations such as births, deaths, divorce and employment concerns often slow down the blood flow to the heart, raise cholesterol levels, decrease your mental well-being and weaken the immune system. 

 

 

Experts say that laughter is the best medicine. After all, it increases your immune system response, lowers blood sugar levels in diabetics, increases oxygen flow throughout your entire body and helps induce a state of relaxation promoting better sleep.  The positive health effects are no laughing matter: according to the University of Maryland Medical Center, average blood flow typically increases 22 percent during and after bursts of laughter compared to a decrease in blood flow by 35 percent during mental stress.

 

 

Getting less than six hours of sleep each night could have negative health effects.  A study from the Sleep Health Centers in Boston reported that getting less than this amount of sleep each night increased the risk of dying.  Plus, having too little sleep increases your risk of diabetes. Sleeping reduces the levels of leptin, which is the hormone that signals us to stop eating. A heavier weight equates to an increased diabetes risk. Experts recommend getting between six to nine hours of sleep each night for optimum health.

 

 

If you always think the glass is half full, you're on the right track. Mayo Clinic research shows that people with a positive outlook typically live 19 percent longer than people who see the glass as half empty.  Although it's questionable if this can be attributed to optimists being more likely to seek medical help when they're ill or their immune systems being stronger as a result of their sunny outlook, the result is that they live longer. Optimists are also less likely to suffer depression and helplessness than their pessimist counterparts.