Essay Example - Physical and Cognitive Development in Middle Adulthood

Aging is a fact of life, but positive lifestyle habits can help enhance the quality of life and its longevity. While a human being cannot change much of the environment and genes that affect growth and development, making informed and intentional choices in matters such as the quality of sleep, using alcohol, diet, and physical activity can promote good health.

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My Current Lifestyle

I try as much as possible to have regular and adequate amounts of sleep. Getting an ideal duration of sleep is an important health habit as it gives the body a chance to regenerate. At the moment, my night's sleep is six and a half hours, but I intend to increase it to seven hours. A recent scientific study demonstrated that sleeping seven hours each night has the lowest risk of early death (Yin et al., 2017). The same study also showed that too much or too little duration of sleep raises mortality regardless of age or sex (Yin et al., 2017). It is for this reason that I try to have a good night’s sleep to reduce the risk of early death and promote a good life.

Another health habit that I follow in my current lifestyle is eating a healthy, balanced diet. This healthy habit is essential since it is a way to reduce the risk of leading lifestyle diseases such as hypertension, cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. I have developed a plan to help me ensure that I eat a balanced diet. In this regard, the goal is to eat food that grants the greatest protection against lifestyle diseases. By following this dietary plan, I will be in a better position to avoid less healthy choices and eat the healthiest food. I believe my current eating habit can promote good health and elongate life because it includes plenty of vegetables, fruits, and soluble fiber, which helps boost immunity and maintain a healthy weight.

Managing stress is also part of my current health habits. I always try to stay social and avoid holding a grudge. I strive to have good relationships with both men and women to keep me happy and free from negative emotions. To me, staying connected helps reduce stress and avoid the risk of depression, among other mental health problems. Anger is a tough emotion that is difficult to control, but I always try to share my problems with friends and relatives to get relived. This healthy behavior is good for boosting longevity and the quality of life.

Changing Poor Health Habits

I need to develop two important health habits to live longer and healthier. First, I ought to engage in moderate-intensity exercise to improve my health. While at home, I often do house chores and other tasks that do not involve much movement. I intend to spend more time in leisure activities as part of my strategy to engage in more regular physical activity.

A study by Norat et al. (2015) showed that a lack of exercise contributes to nine percent of breast cancer in women. In light of this study, I will do more physical exercise to reduce the risk of getting breast cancer. Secondly, I need to reduce the processed foods that I eat. These foods have added sodium, more sugar, and saturated fats that are not good for good health.

Many people do not follow good health habits because they disregard advice and information on the need to change unhealthy behaviors. Most people still smoke harmful cigarettes, eat a lot of processed foods, and live sedentary lifestyles, despite knowing their implications on their overall health. Of these negative health behaviors, eating processed foods, and not having adequate exercise apply to me. I will change these poor habits by following a dietary plan and engaging in leisure or physical activities that are enjoyable to females. In my family, there is no history of early death and hereditary diseases that encourage me to do so.

References

Norat, T., Scoccianti, C., Boutron-Ruault, M., Anderson, A., Berrino, F., Cecchini, M., Espina, C., Key, T., Leitzmann, M., Powers, H., Wiseman, M., & Romieu, I. (2015). European Code against cancer 4th edition: Diet and cancer. Cancer Epidemiology, 39, S56-S66. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.canep.2014.12.016

Yin, J., Jin, X., Shan, Z., Li, S., Huang, H., Li, P., Peng, X., Peng, Z., Yu, K., Bao, W., Yang, W., Chen, X., & Liu, L. (2017). Relationship of sleep duration with allcause mortality and cardiovascular events: A systematic review and doseresponse metaanalysis of prospective cohort studies. Journal of the American Heart Association, 6(9). https://doi.org/10.1161/jaha.117.005947