3 surprisingly easy changes that could radically improve your health

Published in

The Startup

5 min readDec 31, 2023

We all want to be healthy. After all, who doesn’t want boundless energy, a lengthy lifespan and an irresistible reflection?

But let’s face it: exercise is often hard work, and steering clear of fatty/sugary temptations can be damn near impossible. Particularly at this time of year.

Fortunately — and contrary to popular belief — not all determinants of our health are based on pain or deprivation. So if you’re looking for some quick and dirty tricks to bolster your health, here are a few I have garnered secondhand over time courtesy of people who are way smarter than me.

Trick #1: Shut your mouth

The organ through which we inhale our air has the potential to impact an enormous number of the systems within our body — from sleep to urination (yes, really!). And while mouths are the easy option for air intake by virtue of their large aperture, noses are a vastly superior choice in almost every instance.

Nasal breathing humidifies and filters air through about 5 different levels, all of which are essentially bypassed when we breathe through our mouths. As a result, mouth breathing ramps up our risk of sorts of nasty stuff, from increased incidence of respiratory infections1 to enlarged tonsils and adenoids.

And the benefits of schnoz-sniffing aren’t restricted to the respiratory system. The nitric oxide produced in our paranasal sinuses when we nose-breathe has been found to regulate our blood pressure2, enhance male bedroom ‘performance3’, and even mitigate the need for repeated bathroom visits overnight4. Not to mention the more obvious areas of impact like sleep apnoea, asthma, gum disease, jaw issues and dental structure and function.

So how do we evade the aforementioned undesirables and derive all of the delightful benefits?

As with any change in habit, the first step is to become more aware. Upon noticing ourselves gob-gulping air, we can make the conscious effort to switch to our sniffer instead. Sticking a small piece of micropore tape over the mouth during non-eating, non-talking periods of the day (e.g. TV time) can further help to increase this awareness.

Trick #2: Pull your head in

In our digital age, posture has deteriorated to a level unseen since our pre-Homo Sapien days.

But poor posture doesn’t just make us look like we inadvertently skipped the last 10 million or so years of evolution; it can have a huge impact on how we feel. ‘Tech neck’ and its associated ailments have become alarmingly common afflictions in the modern world thanks to our relatively newfound electronic prostheses.

When looking down at a mobile phone in our lap, our head position can shift into a 60 degree angle relative to the spine. This transforms our normally 4–5kg head into the equivalent load of 27kg.

It’s no wonder so many of us suffer with daily headaches, neck pain and general shit-feelery.

Happily, there are a few relatively easy adjustments that can counteract this heavy head syndrome.

Holding a phone up while laying back rather than looking down at it while seated is one option. Otherwise, phone stands or towers of stacked books can be used to prop phones up to eye level on tables.

And how about negating the dreaded slump that persists beyond the conclusion of a sneaky phone binge?

According to a smart physio friend who purports to know about such things, the answer is to pull your head in. Literally.

He explained that the secret to stunning posture is essentially 3-fold:

Pull your head in (towards your back)
Tuck your chin slightly down (towards your chest)
Imagine an invisible thread pulling your head up (towards the sky)

So if you suffer from persistent headaches/neck pain or have received comments that you look a little like an emu mid-strut, face a mirror and apply the three steps listed above. If you’re anything like me, the transformation may surprise you!

Trick #3: Salute the sun

As a modern-day human, we don’t tend to see the sun as a life-giving force beneath which millions of years of evolution occurred. Rather, we are coached to perceive the sun as a danger that must be avoided at all cost, obsessively slipping, slopping, slapping and generally hiding to protect ourselves from this omnipresent ‘hazard’.

Interestingly however, rates of melanoma have actually been found to be higher amongst office workers than amongst those whose jobs have them labouring outdoors 5. Indeed, the World Health Organisation (WHO) themselves put out a report in 2006 noting a radically higher disease burden worldwide due to low levels of UV exposure than that thought to be attributable to excessive UV 6.

Furthermore, I recently learned of a rather fabulous protein called proopiomelanocortin, which interacts with leptin (our satiety hormone) to regulate our body’s metabolism and reduce appetite7. As you may have guessed, the proopiomelanocortin pathway is activated by UV-B 8; the type of sun ultraviolet radiation we are endlessly cautioned against.

It’s no wonder that in the depths of a cold, dark winter, all we want to do is eat!

So if lack of sun makes us hungry and fat, ramps up our risk of musculoskeletal malaise and potentially even increases our risk of various autoimmune diseases and cancers, it seems that our fearful shift into the shadows hasn’t really done us many favours.

On the other hand, increased serum levels of vitamin D have actually been found to protect against the angry, red skin reactions we get when we’ve been lapping up a little too much sun 9. So ironically, a tad more sun = more vitamin D = fewer sun-related ouchies.

Personally, I’m a big fan of sun-seeking sans ‘protection’ in the early mornings and late afternoons, and building up my vitamin D levels gradually throughout spring when UV tends to be lower. Many weather apps and websites these days include a UV section which can be used to map out the best times for unprotected outdoor opportunities throughout the day.

Now of course the timing and amount of exposure any one person can comfortably tolerate in any given sun sesh will depend on each person’s natural skin tone and melanin content. But there’s no question that we all need some sun in our lives. And for most of us, it’s more than we are currently getting.

So if it’s 8am in the middle of spring, personally I won’t be slathering myself with sunscreen before I wander off for a half hour stroll. I’m gonna soak up those life-giving rays.

Because it can’t be an accident that it feels so, so good.

References:

3 surprisingly easy changes that could radically improve your health

Written by Sharon Flitman