Time for a Gut Check 5 Ways to Naturally Improve the Health of Your Stomach
If you’ve ever attended
a healthy way. Fiber is also a great way to relieve or prevent constipation!
Drink plenty of water. Hydration plays a key role in both softening and bulking up stools, making them easier to pass through the digestive system. It should be noted that liquids that contain caffeine, such as coffee or tea, can actually have the opposite effect on your body. Take your probiotics. Probiotics occur naturally in your gut. They help to reduce adverse symptoms of digestion, such as pain, discomfort, bloating, and gas. Ask your doctor to recommend a beneficial probiotic to incorporate into your daily lifestyle. A healthy gut yields a stronger immune system, comfortable and effective digestion, and an overall better mood! With these tips, you’ll be on your way to a healthier digestive system!
an event with
older adults, digestion is bound to
Get moving. Exercising regularly helps to ensure that everything else in your digestive system moves along regularly too! Research shows that regular exercise promotes the growth of different types of beneficial bacteria within both animal and human digestive systems. Reduce stress levels. Did you know that when you’re stressed out, your mental state is affected as well as your stomach and gut, as they are intimately connected? By keeping your cortisol levels low, you can eliminate and prevent some uncomfortable gastrointestinal complications. Stress, research suggests, increases the risk of irritable bowel syndrome, so managing stress can lead to better intestinal health.
come up at some point! As we age, our guts sometimes have a difficult time keeping up, causing stomach issues and complications. When people talk about having a “healthy gut,” they are talking about having a good balance of beneficial bacteria and microbes within their digestive tract. Here are some natural ways to keep things healthy and moving along properly: Eat foods rich in fiber. Fiber, found naturally in many foods, including sweet potatoes, beets, carrots, fennel, beans, broccoli, berries, and whole grains, stimulates the growth of the good bacteria that keeps your gut performing in
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Vision Loss Isn’t Just Part of Aging
Try though we might, no one can stay young forever. Gray hair and wrinkles are the prices we pay for living long. So, when many adults begin losing their vision, they take it in stride, thinking it’s all part of the aging process. After all, our bodies change as we get older, and our eyes are no exception. It’s normal for many people to need reading glasses as they enter their 40s and 50s. The cause is presbyopia, which naturally hardens our eye lenses with age. That makes it difficult to focus on books or other close materials and typically results in a prescription for reading glasses. It may feel tempting to go down to the store and pick up a pair of readers. But anytime you notice changes in your vision, you should visit an optometrist to rule out medical conditions. And beyond difficulty reading small types, there are other eye symptoms you should never ignore. Schedule an eye appointment if you experience cloudy vision, tunnel vision, a yellowish tint to your vision, or have trouble distinguishing between green and blue. The same is true if you experience excessive tearing or can’t produce tears, have a gritty sensation on your eyes, or experience eye pain, swelling, or twitching. These can be signs of glaucoma, cataracts, macular degeneration, or other eye conditions. Glaucoma often has no symptoms until
it’s too late, making annual optometrist visits very important. We will all
eventually develop cataracts if we live long enough, but treatments are available to improve vision. And though macular degeneration
has no cure, early interventions can slow its development. Beyond regular eye appointments, you can also keep your eyes healthy by wearing sunglasses when it’s bright, eating well, not smoking, and maintaining healthy blood pressure and blood sugar. These practices won’t guarantee a life of 20/20 vision, but they’ll improve your chances of maintaining the health of your eyes and the rest of your body. Finally, always take abrupt changes in vision seriously. If you suddenly experience blurry vision, loss of sight, uncontrolled eye movements, or sharp pain behind the eyes, call 911. These signs can indicate a stroke or other neurological problem, and the sooner you seek help, the better off you’ll be.
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