Maintaining good gut health, engaging in regular exercise, managing stress, and getting enough restful sleep are all beneficial for boosting your body’s ability to fight off illness and reducing the risk of getting sick.
However, according to Ayurveda expert Dr. Dixa Bhavsar Savaliya, there are also common habits that could be compromising your health.
Dr. Savaliya has identified five everyday habits that may be contributing to poor health and illness.
Dr. Savaliya, a health expert, has highlighted how our lifestyle choices can contribute to illness, from our eating habits to our sleep patterns. According to Dr. Savaliya, feeling hungry is an indication that the previous meal has been properly digested. Therefore, eating without an appetite can put a strain on the liver, causing overburdening. The health expert recommends consuming food only when you feel hungry. Overeating can lead to gut disturbances and reduced metabolism.
Additionally, Dr. Savaliya suggests a cut-off time of 7:30 pm for consuming any more food. By stopping eating early and sleeping early, your digestive system will have ample time to digest everything that has been consumed throughout the day. This approach can facilitate optimal liver detox by not consuming late-night meals.
According to the expert, it can help you to “maintain your weight, sugar levels, energy and, most importantly, your body’s capacity to absorb nutrition from the food you eat”.
According to Dr. Savaliya, it’s crucial to prioritize a bedtime of 10 pm for optimal metabolic functioning. In her view, this is the best time to sleep since it coincides with the peak of the body’s metabolic activity.
While multitasking might seem like a harmless habit, Dr. Savaliya strongly advises against it. She warns that multitasking can result in an excess of cortisol, a stress hormone in the body, which can increase the risk of developing autoimmune and lifestyle disorders.
According to a study, the ability to multitask effectively is a rare trait found in only 2.5% of the population. For the majority of individuals, multitasking is not as efficient as we may think when attempting to carry out multiple activities simultaneously.
Research indicates that when we engage in complex tasks that require our active attention and constantly switch between them, our brain becomes less efficient, increasing the likelihood of errors. While this may not be immediately obvious or impactful in routine tasks such as listening to music while walking or folding laundry while watching TV, it can have significant negative consequences in high-stakes situations or complex tasks. Attempting to multitask can even be hazardous to our well-being.
A study conducted at the University of London revealed that multitasking during cognitive tasks can lead to a significant decrease in IQ. The extent of the IQ drops observed in the study was comparable to that of individuals who have not slept for a night or those who smoke marijuana, which is quite alarming.
Additionally, the study found that multitasking can trigger the production of cortisol, a hormone associated with stress. Constantly switching between tasks can increase stress levels and leave us feeling mentally fatigued, even at the beginning of the workday. This highlights the potential negative effects of multitasking on our mental health and cognitive abilities.
“Doing one thing at a time mindfully,” according to the doctor, “improves your working efficacy, reduces stress and also makes you feel more content and peaceful at the end of day.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), it is recommended that individuals engage in at least 150 minutes of exercise per week. However, Dr. Savaliya believes that over-exercising is a real concern.
“Exercising more than one’s capacity can exhaust you,” warned Dr. Savaliya.
Pushing oneself too hard can result in a range of health issues, including bleeding disorders, dyspnea, coughing, fever, excessive thirst, and even vomiting.
Dr. Savaliya emphasizes that moderation is key when it comes to exercise and that maintaining a healthy lifestyle still requires regular physical activity.