So many of us are looking for ways to increase our health. You’ve probably already heard the advice that you need to eat more vegetables, spend more time exercising, and stop checking your social media feeds right before bed.
Well, there’s a lot more you can do to increase your health and happiness. Here are three things that can adversely affect your health that you may not know about.
Money
This one may not come as a huge surprise, but it is quite surprising just how negatively it can affect your life. Money can cause a lot of stress, and stress creates a lot of medical problems like:
- Headaches
- Heartburn
- Higher risk of heart attack
- Weakened immune system
- High blood pressure
- Stomach aches
Money is one of the leading causes of stress because it can cause problems no matter where you turn. It’s especially troublesome when it comes to health care. Health insurance and discounted prescriptions can help you save, lowering your stress levels. But, just dealing with all those payments, even if you can afford them, can be enough to cause anyone to feel stressed.
Loneliness
In today’s overly connected world, it may seem strange that people get lonely at all. The fact is, all that online stuff doesn’t count. We need to connect with people in real life, and if we don’t, our health can suffer.
People who feel lonely are:
- Less likely to take care of themselves
- More susceptible to heart disease
- More likely to have a weakened immune system
Loneliness is especially dangerous for the elderly. Feeling lonely can trigger changes in your body that enable you to get ill more easily. In old age, that can mean living a shorter life than you could have if you were surrounded by friends and family.
Not Being Married
Researchers are finding that people who aren’t married are generally less healthy than those who are married. That’s because being married comes with some surprising health benefits:
- It can reduce your chances of dying of cancer
- It can protect you from heart attacks and heart disease
- It can lessen your chances of having a stroke
- It can help you sleep better
- It can cause you to live longer
Of course, the quality of your relationship matters. If you are in an unhappy marriage, you may actually end up living a shorter life than if you weren’t married at all. In order to get the most health benefits out of your marriage, you have to make sure to marry the right person, and you have to spend the years and decades after your wedding day maintaining your relationship.
There are so many ways to boost your health! Of course you should eat better and exercise, but you should keep your eyes open for other ways you can positively affect your health too. Knowing these three things can put you on the path to being even happier and healthier that you ever thought you could be.
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