Combine mindfulness with exercise for happier 2024
Lifestyle habits that focus on both physical and mental health are effective in lifting mood and improving overall well-being, says a study published in the journal Mental Health and Physical Activity (December). Researchers of the University of Bath reviewed research studies to highlight that combining mindfulness practice with physical exercise has several psychological benefits.
The study concludes that mindfulness improves the benefits of physical exercise by motivating people to overcome minor pain, discomfort and feelings of failure when exercising gets hard. Moreover mindfulness is highly effective for reducing worry, stress, anxiety, and helps people live healthier, happier lives.
“Mindfulness is an approach that can help us ‘train up’ the psychological strengths we need to exercise and be more in tune with our bodies, as well as make exercising more interesting and help us recognise its benefits,” says Dr. Masha Remskar, study author and behavioural scientist at Bath University, who suggests using apps to practice guided mindfulness.
Pet ownership slows decline in verbal memory and fluency
“Pet ownership offsets the association between living alone and declining rates of verbal memory and verbal fluency,” says a study published in JAMA Network Open (December).
The study conducted by researchers of Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, China, observed 7,945 participants aged 50 years and above to determine the impact on their health of owning a pet. They found pet ownership was associated with slower rates of decline in verbal cognition, verbal memory and fluency in adults who lived alone without a pet.
“Older adults living alone are at high risk of developing dementia. It is worth noting that compared with pet owners living with others, pet owners living alone did not show faster rates of decline in verbal memory or verbal fluency,” say the researchers.
The researchers obtained data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), an ongoing, prospective, and nationally representative cohort of community-dwelling UK adults aged 50 or older. In wave five of the study, participants were asked, “Do you keep any household pets inside your house/flat?”. Information relating to cognitive function was obtained from subsequent waves of the study, with the researchers particularly examining verbal memory and fluency.
Early breakfast and dinner cuts heart attack risk
Delaying eating the first meal of the day is associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular disease, with a 6 percent increase in risk per hour of delay, says a study conducted by the French research institute INRAE — National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment
On the subject of the last meal of the day, eating late (after 9 p.m) is associated with a 28 percent increase in risk of cerebrovascular disease such as stroke compared with eating before 8 p.m, particularly in women. The study published in Nature Communications (December) found that eating the first meal of the day at 8 a.m and dinner by 8 p.m reduces heart diseases.
For the study, INRAE scientists used data from 103,389 participants to examine the association between food intake patterns and heart disease.
ADHD increases risk of developing mental health problems
Hyperactivity disorder, usually referred to as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), is an independent risk factor for several common and serious mental health issues, according to a study published in BMJ Mental Health (December) journal. University of Augsburg, Germany researchers found “evidence of a causal link with a heightened risk of anorexia nervosa (28 percent), and evidence that ADHD increased (9 percent heightened risk), and (76 percent heightened risk) of major clinical depression. And after adjusting for the influence of major depression, a direct causal association with suicide attempts (30 percent heightened risk) and PTSD (18 percent heightened risk) emerged.”
An estimated 5 percent of children/teenagers and 2.5 percent of adults are diagnosed with ADHD worldwide. The study’s findings show that ADHD is a cause of major depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, the eating disorder anorexia nervosa, and suicide attempts.
