Top 10 Interesting Quick Health Facts: Part-01
1: Laughing is good for the heart and can increase blood flow by 20 per cent:
Laughter makes you feel good, but it is proven to have positive effects on your mental health, immune system, and even vascular function.
Laughter is a common physical response to happiness. All our emotions affect our bodies – the good and the not-so-good. Karthikeyan Ananth, M.D., a Henry Ford Health cardiologist, says emotions like stress, depression and loneliness have both immediate and ongoing negative effects on your heart. Laughter is an easy way to take care of your heart. It doesn’t require a huge lifestyle change, but it may encourage you to find happiness in your life each day.
2: Your skin works hard & How does skin work?
Not only is it the largest organ in the body, but it defends against disease and infection, regulates your temperature and aids in vitamin production.
Our skin is only a few millimetres thick even at its thickest point. But it is still our heaviest and largest organ, making up about one-seventh of our body weight: Depending on your height and body mass, it weighs between 3.5 and 10 kilograms (7.5 and 22 pounds) and has a surface area of 1.5 to 2 square meters. This goes to show how important skin is for your body and metabolism.
The skin has a lot of different functions. It is a stable but flexible outer covering that acts as a barrier, protecting your body from harmful things in the outside world such as moisture, cold and sun rays, as well as germs and toxic substances.
Just looking at someone’s skin can already tell you a lot – for instance, about their age and health. Changes in skin colour or structure can be a sign of a medical condition. For example, people with too few red blood cells in their blood may look pale, and people who have hepatitis have yellowish skin.
Skin also plays an important role in regulating your body temperature. It helps prevent dehydration and protects you from the negative effects of too much heat or cold. And it allows your body to feel sensations such as warmth, cold, pressure, itching and pain. Some of these sensations trigger a reflex, like automatically pulling your hand back if you accidentally touch a hot stove.
3: Exercise will give you more energy, even when you’re tired:
You might feel that exercise is the last thing on your mind. But, in fact, regular exercise will make you feel less tired in the long run, so you'll have more energy.
Even a single 15-minute walk can give you an energy boost, and the benefits increase with more frequent physical activity.
Start with a small amount of exercise. Build it up gradually over weeks and months until you reach the recommended goal of 2 hours and 30 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise, such as cycling or fast walking, every week.
4: Too much sitting linked to an early death:
The ease of our modern workday could come at the expense of our longevity. A new study of older women in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine finds that sitting for long periods increases the odds of an untimely death. The more hours women in the study spent sitting at work, driving, lying on the couch watching TV or engaged in other leisurely pursuits, the greater their odds of dying early from all causes, including heart disease and cancer.
When you sit, you expend fewer calories than you would while standing, and you demand little effort from your muscles. Sitting too much can also lead to other behaviours that contribute to obesity and heart disease. “Many times when people are sitting, what are they doing? They’re often watching TV and snacking,” says Dr JoAnn Manson, one of the study’s authors, and chief of preventive medicine at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
5: A lack of exercise now causes as many deaths as smoking:
A lack of exercise is now causing as many deaths as smoking across the world, a study suggests.
The report, published in the Lancet to coincide with the build-up to the Olympics, estimates that about a third of adults are not doing enough physical activity, causing 5.3m deaths a year.
That equates to about one in 10 deaths from diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and breast and colon cancer.
It is recommended that adults do 150 minutes of moderate exercises, such as brisk walking, cycling or gardening, each week.
The team of 33 researchers drawn from centres across the world also said governments needed to look at ways to make physical activity more convenient, affordable and safer.
6: Nearly 30% of the world’s population is obese:
Considered to be one of the most comprehensive studies on obesity, a global report, published in The Lancet this week, noted that the obesity crisis is quickly spreading to developing countries. The study that has offered a comparison of overweight and obesity rates globally from 1980 to 2013 has reported estimates for 188 countries.
While being overweight in adults refers to having a body mass index or BMI ≥25 to <30 kg/m2, those with a BMI ≥30 kg/m2 are categorised as obese.
The total number of overweight and obese people in the world rose from 857 million in 1980 to 2.1 billion in 2013. More than 50 per cent of the 671 million obese individuals in the world live in 10 countries (listed in order of several obese individuals): USA, China, India, Russia, Brazil, Mexico, Egypt, Germany, Pakistan, and Indonesia. The United States is also home to the biggest chunk of the planet's obese population - 13 per cent.
The biggest obesity rise among women occurred in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Honduras and Bahrain. In the case of men, the biggest increase was witnessed in New Zealand, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United States.
7: The U.S. spends more on healthcare than any other country — but not with better health outcomes
The US spends almost three times more on healthcare than any other country in the world but ranks last in life expectancy among the 12 wealthiest industrialized countries.
The United States has much room for improvement when it comes to healthcare, experts said. “The U.S. spends more on healthcare, but we don’t have the same health outcomes [as other countries],” said Cynthia Cox, associate director at Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit organization that researches national health issues.
According to experts, there are two underlying reasons why the United States spends so much on healthcare: It uses expensive medical technology and prices for healthcare services, and goods are higher than in other countries.
“The U.S. spends more money, but we definitely have worse health outcomes,” said David Squires, president of the Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation based in New York that carries out independent research on healthcare issues.
“It doesn’t appear that people in the U.S. use more healthcare in general. We go to the doctor less often than people in other countries and get hospitalized less, so it’s not like we are making greater use, but we are paying more for the things we do use,” he said.
Life expectancy is one-way experts measure the effectiveness of a healthcare system, and experts say the United States’ poor ranking, compared with other Western nations, indicates a weak healthcare system. When it comes to healthcare access, in many ways the United States trails behind other countries, including access to health insurance.
8: Learning a new language or playing a musical instrument boosts your brain:
Researchers have found that learning to play a musical instrument can enhance verbal memory, spatial reasoning and literacy skills. Playing an instrument makes you use both sides of your brain, which strengthens memory power.
If you are facing memory problems, then you may want to exercise your brain. A new study published in the journal Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences shows that learning to play a musical instrument or speak another language can train your brain to be more efficient. In the study, individuals with either a musical or bilingual background activated different brain networks. A 2016 study had also shown that the elasticity of the human brain may be enhanced by learning foreign languages.
“These findings show that musicians and bilinguals require less effort to perform the same task, which could also protect them against cognitive decline and delay the onset of dementia,” said Claude Alain, a senior scientist at Baycrest’s Rotman Research Institute in Canada. “Our results also demonstrated that a person’s experiences, whether it’s learning how to play a musical instrument or another language, can shape how the brain functions and which networks are used,” said Alain.
Musicians and people who are bilingual have long been shown to have a better working memory, and the ability to keep things in mind, such as remembering a phone number, a list of instructions or doing mental math. However, it remains a mystery as to why this is the case. This is the first brain imaging study looking at all three groups and this work uncovers how these activities boost different parts of the brain among individuals.
“People who speak two languages may take longer to process sounds since the information is run through two language libraries rather than just one,” said Alain, who is also an associate professor at the University of Toronto in Canada. “During this task, the brains of bilinguals showed greater signs of activation in areas that are known for speech comprehension, supporting this theory,” he said.
9: Reading can lower unhealthy stress hormones:
It is a proven fact that reading can help reduce stress. Many of us take this simple act for granted because we have so much "required" reading in our daily lives-the newspapers, traffic signs, emails, and bills. But how often do we read for pleasure?
Reading can be a wonderful (and healthy) escape from the stress of everyday life. Simply by opening a book, you allow yourself to be invited into a literary world that distracts you from your daily stressors. Reading can even relax your body by lowering your heart rate and easing the tension in your muscles. A 2009 study at the University of Sussex found that reading can reduce stress by up to 68%. It works better and faster than other relaxation methods, such as listening to music or drinking a hot cup of tea. This is because your mind is invited into a literary world that is free from the stressors that plague your daily life.
10: Maintaining good relationships with family and friends is good for your health, memory and longevity:
Good friends are good for your health. Friends can help you celebrate good times and provide support during bad times. Friends prevent isolation and loneliness and give you a chance to offer needed companionship, too.
Some advantages of having a family are increased happiness and satisfaction. Studies have shown that spending time with family can help reduce stress and anxiety, lead to a healthier lifestyle and lengthen your life. Family gives you the motivation to be the best version of yourself. At Highland Springs you can enrol in family counselling where there are trained therapists that specialize in helping to restore family relationships.
Family is so important because of all the love and support it provides. Being with family helps construct principles and improves overall mental health. Spending time with family is key to a person’s development as it promotes adaptability and resilience. Such key lessons can only be taught by family members coaching each other regarding life’s ups and downs. Family is what makes us who we are. A healthy relationship could increase your lifespan by up to 50%. Even those with unhealthy physical habits, but a strong social network live longer than those without these relationships.
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