How Much Your Age Says About Your Health?
“You look young for your age.”
This is flattering to hear but it is important for many reasons. All of us have a chronological and biological age. Chronological age is just a number of birthday candles we blow out each year, while biological age is a measure of the physical and physiological state compared to an average of other people who are at the same chronological age as we are.
Laurie Archbald-Pannone, a physician specialized in geriatrics at the University of Virginia Health System said:
“It’s not all that helpful to talk about chronological age. It doesn’t tell us how resilient the body is.”
In other words, chronological age has very little to do with our physical well-being.
One 50-year-old smoker might have the lung capacity of an 80-year-old man. As Todd Miller, associate professor in exercise and nutrition sciences from George Washington University said:
“In other words, the 50-year-old smoker has the ‘lung age’ of an 80-year-old.”
It’s not just smoking that ages us beyond our chronological age. The activity that often will increase our biological age is inactivity. Professor Miller says:
“Many of the things that we consider age-related changes are more related to activity or inactivity as opposed to age.”
It’s important for us to understand how to truly stay and feel young no matter how old we are today.
How often do you share your health information with fitness and health apps?
Demanding Privacy in Digital Health
How often do you share your health information with fitness and health apps? Several of these apps share users’ personal information with other companies and you probably are not comfortable with that. Multiple companies damage trust with their users due to sharing personal health information with different third-party companies.
Even big companies like Apple, Amazon, and IBM have issues with a trust deficit with their users. According to the Rock Health’s 2018 National Consumer Health Survey, only 11% of respondents said that would be willing to share their health data with other tech companies. It’s not surprising that many of us are not comfortable with having our data shared without our permission to any other company or without our knowledge on how this information will be used.
As we are moving towards an increasingly digitized world of healthcare it is important that we demand each party involved to be responsible for their actions.
Companies must ensure their users that their data is safe, error-free and secure. Also, healthcare companies operating as providers should have strict confidentiality and privacy policy of patients’ data
The success of health companies and apps will be based on how comfortable patients are with sharing their personal health information with those companies, especially when sharing data could have an impact on their employment or health care insurance.
Last year, more than 6.1 million people were impacted by data breach in the healthcare sector only. The increasing frequency of data breaches will make users think again if they want to share their data with different apps and companies.
When it comes to personal health information, protecting the security and privacy of patients and users should be business imperative for these companies.
Foods for a Flat Belly
We all want to have the flat belly that J. Lo has, right? When you are trying to slim down your stomach area, you do have to work hard and eat healthy at the same time.
Regular core exercise will go a long way but what you eat is crucial. Sometimes, ab workouts are not effective at all if you are not doing anything different from your daily diet.
Plus drinking enough water, eating only fresh products and healthy fats are crucial parts of having a flat stomach. It’s important to stress that you should avoid belly-busters such as alcohol, sugar, and soda, as well as eating foods that are really good for shrinking your gut.
We all know there are two different types of people. Some store fats in their belly and others in their booty area. Unfortunately. for us who store fats in the belly area, there is a lot of work that we need to do in order to remain or gain that flat belly that we want.
Keri Gans, RD, a nutrition consultant and author of The Small Change Diet from New York City said:
“If you want your abs to feel flatter, choose foods that will help decrease bloating in your stomach, such as water-packed fruits and veggies”.
If you are looking to reduce bloat, boost metabolism while giving your body important nutrients you should have the following foods on your weekly menu.
- Cucumbers
- Fennel
- Ginger
- Asparagus
- Lentils
- Papaya
- Avocado
- Yogurt
- Almonds
- Bananas
- Chili peppers
- Whole grains
- Dark chocolate
In the end, it’s important to remember that staying healthy and loving your body should be your main priority.
