Many people view the body and mind separately. But did you know there is a strong link between both your mental health and physical health? Suffering from mental health problems can lead to physical health problems, and vice versa. It is estimated nearly 1 in 3 people who suffer from a long-term physical health condition will also suffer from a mental health problem. That’s why it’s important to not only look after your mental health but also your physical health. Let’s take a look in more detail.
The link between mental and physical health
Many people who suffer from mental health problems will likely suffer from a physical health condition too. In most cases, these can be preventable. As your mental health plays a significant role in your wellbeing, it can impact your health and lead to the development of health conditions.
Taking time to look after your physical health can help your mental health in several ways, including improved sleep quality, happier moods, and reduced stress and anxiety. It can also help boost your self-esteem and reduce the risk of depression.
What is mental health and physical health?
Mental health is considered as the well-being of someone’s emotional, social, and psychological levels. Our mental health has a significant impact on how we act, make decisions, and process emotions. Good mental health helps us to maintain healthy relationships and deal with any difficulties caused by changes in our day to day lives. When our mental health suffers, we withdraw from social interaction, our quality of work reduces, and we lose energy.
Physical health can be considered as being free from both illness and injury. Physical health can encompass lots of factors, including diet, weight, dental, hygiene and sleep. Looking after our physical health is important for good wellbeing. With physical health encompassing such a wide range of factors, not looking after our physical health can also have a negative impact on our mental health.
Looking after your physical and mental health
To help keep on top of both your physical and mental health, there are several things you can do. These include:
Getting enough sleep
Sleep is extremely important. Not getting enough sleep can affect us in many ways. Without sleep, your body and mind do not have time to recharge. Giving our body and mind time this crucial rest period helps us to feel refreshed and alert.
A healthy and regular sleeping pattern also helps keep your body healthy and your immune system also works better at fighting off diseases. Without enough sleep, our brain function decreases and abilities, such as concentration, become impaired. To look after your physical and mental health, you should try to get between 7 and 9 hours of sleep every night. A healthy diet and lifestyle can help improve sleep patterns.
Given the importance that getting enough sleep plays on our mental and physical health, here are some tips to help get a better night’s sleep:
- Maintain a sleeping schedule
- Avoid eating heavy or rich food before bed
- Cut down on alcohol, caffeine, and nicotine
- Avoid napping and sleeping during the day
- Create a comfortable and restful sleeping environment
- Include at least 30 minutes of physical activity
- Try to reduce anxiety and stress
Maintaining a healthy diet
Not only is a healthy diet essential for sleep, but it is also essential for our physical and mental health. Maintaining a balanced diet helps provide all the nutrients that your body needs to keep fit and healthy.
Not only is it important to eat a variety of food that contribute to a balanced diet, but how much we eat can also affect our health. By keeping a healthy and well-balanced diet, our mental health can improve too. Cutting down on foods that are high in saturated fats help your body to keep in good health. Not maintaining a healthy diet can lead to health problems, such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Ensuring our bodies receive enough nutrients can help improve our mental functioning. We are then able to concentrate and think better, have improved attention, and feel more alert. Adversely, a poor diet can not only impact our physical health, but also result in fatigue, slower reaction times, and increase the likelihood of developing stress and depression. Someone suffering from an eating disorder, such as anorexia, may not be getting enough nutrients through limiting their eating. Seeking help and support is vital to help develop a positive relationship with food.
Check out the Eatwell Guide for more information on a healthy and balanced diet.
Regular exercise
One of the best ways to take care of your physical health is exercising. Not only does exercising help you to keep in shape, but it also improves your quality of life. Physical activity can help to improve your cardiovascular health and improve your bones and joints. Looking after your physical health is important to help improve your wellbeing.
To help make sure we keep healthy, it is recommended an average adult should do between 75 and 150 minutes of exercise a week. Generally, any physical activity that helps to increase your heart rate, increase your breathing, and get your blood circulating counts as exercise. Even walking can count as an effective physical activity.
Find out more about how much exercise we should aim to do.
Regular exercise can also help to improve your mental health. Research has found that chemicals called endorphins are released in the brain when we exercise. These chemicals provide a feel-good effect that helps to boost our mental health. You don’t need to break a sweat either as even short bursts of exercise can help improve your mental health. Getting outside can also help contribute towards good physical health. The benefits of regular exercise include:
- Positively impacting our moods
- Reducing stress
- Boost self-esteem
- Help reduce levels of depression and anxiety
- Physical activity has also been linked to reducing the risk of dementia.
When keeping active can have such a positive impact on our mental health, it is important to look after our physical health. Helping to stay on top of your physical health by eating healthy and getting regular exercise will help to improve your mental health. Even if you suffer from mental health problems, trying to get active can have a positive effect.
If you feel you are struggling with your mental health, book a free 20-minute consultation with us at Breathe Therapies. As mental health experts, we can help support you to overcome the difficulties you may be facing.
