From mental health to physical fitness, healthy living doesn’t have to be complicated.
Small changes can make a huge difference in how you feel, and simple tests can offer surprisingly big insights into your life — as we learned all throughout this year.
Here are 10 of the best health hacks TODAY.com discovered in 2023. We hope they’ll help you thrive in 2024!
Just 11 minutes of daily walking improves health
It doesn’t take a lot of time to get healthier. Just 11 minutes a day of moderate-intensity physical activity, such as brisk walking, can reduce the risk of developing heart disease by 17% and cancer by 7%, a review of studies found. This amount of daily exercise also comes with a 23% lower risk of premature death.
A separate study found walking 8,000 steps just once or twice per week can be enough to significantly reduce the risk of death over 10 years.
Wall squats can lower blood pressure
Exercise can lower blood pressure without medication, so experts have been urging doctors to prescribe it for people with hypertension.
But what kind of exercise is best? A review of studies suggests it’s isometric exercise, where you put tension on the muscle without contracting it, particularly the wall squat.
It’s simple, but incredibly intense. The lead author of the review suggests doing four wall squats lasting 2 minutes each, separated by rest intervals of 1 to 4 minutes. This should be done three times per week to help lower blood pressure.
Try the sit-to-stand test to see how healthy you are
Start in a standing position, then sit down cross-legged on the ground, and then stand up again — all without using your hands.
This simple test is an effective indicator of health because you have to have strong cardiovascular health, good balance, agility, flexibility, and core and leg strength to be able to complete it, says says NBC News medical contributor Dr. Natalie Azar.
Tart cherry juice…
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