5 popular stereotypes about healthy lifestyles that can be harmful

ZOJ – how much in this word sweet promises of changes, magical Mondays and unfulfilled miracles. It’s as if you’re a little kid walking out of the dentist thinking that now you’ll definitely brush your teeth twice – no, three times! – a day. And the brush, as in the old joke, dry and does not smell at all …

In all areas of life, we are guided by certain “first” reactions or basic rules. This includes healthy living. But what are the grains and what are the tares, let’s understand together with a specialist. And we will do it in situations that are close to many people.

doctor of the highest qualification category, head of the department of functional diagnostics

What we call a healthy lifestyle is a choice that everyone makes out of concern for themselves and their well-being. Healthy lifestyle may not fit into a certain set of habits – it is different for everyone. We can only outline general trends, but they should also be treated with reasonable criticism.

“Ah, if I had hardened myself, now I would not be sick…”

Autumn. Your weary gaze falls on the thermometer, which continues to heat up in the last rays of your hands’ warmth. It’s thirty-eight degrees. How you wish you could trade them now for the usual “thirty-six and six,” the vigor, the desire to work and live this life. But alas! And then you think that if only a month ago you had begun to harden yourself, this cold melancholy could have been avoided.

And so the shackles of illness loosen, you begin to wash aggressively in a cold shower with clattering teeth and thoughts of future health. Is this helpful? Absolutely not. Tempering is akin to working out. Have you ever seen athletes who immediately take a big weight at the first session? It doesn’t end well for their health. With hardening works the same rule: start with the advice of a specialist, increase the degree of exposure gradually, make procedures regularly.

Julia: Some diseases can arise just because of hardening procedures. They are associated with cold temperatures – kidney disease, thyroid disease, heart disease and others. In such cases, the effect is the opposite. You expect to improve your health, but instead you add unnecessary problems.

Julia: Training is not only a sacral process that takes place exclusively in the gym. If you basically increase the basic activity, it is already considered as a light workout, because the load is different from the usual one. Going to the gym is great, of course. Your activity should be properly structured in terms of load distribution, and you should prepare for it accordingly. There is no point in working up a sweat at the gym every day if you are not providing your body with adequate rest, adequate hours of sleep at the right time, and good nutrition.

“Ah, if I got up at the crack of dawn every morning, I’d be super productive…”

As soon as the first stars began to go out in the sky, larks woke up all over the world. But they’re not the only ones, they’re also the “productivity-charged” owls. And you are an owl and right now you are committing a crime against your usual daily routine to experience the “magic of morning”. You write down affirmations, drink a glass of water, write your thoughts on paper, do a light exercise and by twelve o’clock in the afternoon you want to go back to the wonderful trap called “bed”. But where is the promised paradise? Where is that incredible productivity?

Our way of life – school and university schedules, work schedules – forces us to live according to a certain pattern. It’s hard enough for many people to stick to it, and for good reason. Each of us has individual circadian (daily) rhythms, our own peaks of productivity, which must be mastered and reckoned with. Then any day, no matter what time it starts, will be as satisfying and productive as possible.

Julia: Early awakenings are natural for larks because they have a higher mental activity in the morning hours than owls. But for those who do not have morning activation of metabolic processes, early rising will not be useful. Let’s assume that in the first half of the day you are inhibited, and the peak of activity falls on the evening. Then why do you need to catch the morning? The endocrine system works in an autonomous mode, you are unlikely to be able to change your lifestyle in any fundamental way through systematic abuse of yourself.

Vitamins and vitamin complexes are not just the three vitamins a day we ate as children like candy. Increased or decreased content of certain vitamins and trace elements in the body can affect the state of the body: the functioning of organ systems, the state of the immune system and the psyche.

Julia: It is dangerous to take vitamins without a doctor’s prescription. First, there may be an allergic reaction to the contents, for example, if they are iodine-containing preparations. No one excludes the appearance of an individual reaction. Strange as it may seem, everyone is afraid of a lack of vitamins, but if you take them uncontrollably, you can get an excess. Such a condition in general is very rarely diagnosed, but getting it is more than possible. Do not resort to self-medication.

“Ah, if I had eliminated all the slags and toxins from the body, would be 100% healthy…”

Heaven opened and sent down on mankind the horrors of slagging of the body. The scourge of modernity, the main trouble of medicine, which everyone promises to solve by marathons in Instagram. You endlessly scroll through the tape, read the convincing posts of experts on these programs, but you do not want to go to a consultation with a certified specialist, trusting the general recommendations in social networks.

So-called toxins and toxins do not exist in the body at all. “Decontamination” of substances that entered the body mainly occurs in the liver and kidneys. After which they are removed in a processed form with the products of vital activity. The term “detoxification” is appropriate for severe poisoning. But not in the sense that is invested in the advertising of new guides.

Julia: It is a common belief that toxins and toxins usually leave with water. But if you drink a lot of water, you will have to go to the toilet often. And so a lot of salts are removed from the body. This can lead to their deficiency, which, in turn, will provoke, for example, cardiovascular disease. The benefits are minimal, but the harm is difficult to assess at a glance.