Refreshing Therapies To Lift Up Your Summer Mood
June 2021 Newsletter
It is now summer, the right season to recharge our batteries and rejuvenate body and soul. After a year and a half of staying at home it seems that in many countries we are beginning to see light and that life might progressively go back to a new normal during the autumn. For many of us there are now possibilities for bigger vacations. Summer is also an ideal time to take physical activity and engage in light for D vitamins.
As most of you already know in our recurrent Newsletter we strive to provide you with knowledge and tips on patterns of behaviors that can increase wellness and longevity. We strongly believe in anti-aging strategies in order to prevent, slowdown and even in some cases reverse the deterioration that we associate with age. Our tips and recipes are as far as possible based on scientific material and are generally easy to follow. We often point out the five dominant ideas to slow down the biological clock:
· Exercise regularly
· Eat less and eat the right thing
· Sleep well
· Limit negative stress
· Do not smoke
Adopting such healthy habits is a cheap but highly efficient therapy. Remarkable studies have been made and they all converge on the strong benefits of any routines incorporating these topics. Research led by Harvard University found that these five healthy habits could extend life expectancy by 14 years for women and 12 years for men. Of course we are all different; each one of us may need to tailor food, exercise or sleep depending on his/her genes and environment, but we all have a body that will respond positively to these incentives. As a complement to these core principles we can of course develop further our lifestyle with additional healthy habits, therapies or supplements. For instance we are focusing this month on a topic we never covered before: cold-water therapy (also called cryotherapy) and sauna heat therapy.
Coldwater therapy is obviously the practice of using water that is 15°C or below (taking an ice bath or swimming in cold water for instance) in a short period of time (five minutes or less) to stimulate health benefits. A growing number of athletes use it today after exercise as a way to reduce muscle soreness. As with ice being applied on an injury, cold water causes blood vessels to constrict and therefore helps reduce swelling and inflammation. Evidence also shows that cold water therapy stimulates the body immune’s system, reducing the risks for bacterial infections for instance. When the body gets cold, blood vessels contract forcing fluid to be pumped and flushing waste out of the muscles and tissues. If not eliminated such toxins build up, generating colds, inflammation, cellular damage and premature aging for instance. Plunging into cold water can also help our mood because it releases endorphins and noradrenaline that make feel happy and alive. Some preliminary research even suggests that since cold water improves metabolic functions in the body there may be a direct effect in weight loss too.
Sauna heat therapy has various positive effects as well. The body’s response to gentle, persistent heat is well-documented. Heat bathing in a sauna provides stress relief in a number of ways. Tension fades. Muscles unwind. Mentally, we emerge relaxed and revived from a quiet and warm space without any distractions. The vast majority of disease (e.g. heart disease) being at least partially stress-related, the sauna’s feel-good effect should not be ignored. The heat from the sauna also improves circulation by dilating blood vessels, which in turn speeds up the body’s natural healing process and eases pains. This sweat production also results in detoxifying our bodies. It has also been shown to improve cardiovascular health on a similar scale to a cardio workout and to induce better sleep.
Wish you all have a very nice summer.
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