Though the carefree days of summer will soon come to an end, it’s never too late to prioritize your health. This issue of Start Healthy is full of ideas to help you stay active and feeling your best, including tips for taking control of your natural aging process, six daily habits for creating a healthier lifestyle, and so much more.
We all must grow old eventually, which means experiencing certain physical and mental changes. However, there are specific things we can do to take control of the aging process and minimize its negative effects. Inside you’ll find six actions that can help you maintain your wellness as you get older.
Like many other kids around the world, you likely played the classic game of tag at some point in your childhood. Now, however, it’s been taken to a new level with World Chase Tag (WCT), the heart-pumping professional spin on the playground activity. In this issue, Christian Devaux, founder and CEO of WCT, offers a closer look at the sport and what makes it so unique.
If you find that you seem to get tired at the same point each night, you can blame your body’s circadian rhythms. This series of internal systems regulates your energy and controls important functions, including sleep and digestion. Find out more about how it all works in the enclosed article and discover what you can do to ensure your sleep cycle stays on track.
When it comes to developing healthy habits, even the smallest changes to your routine can make a huge difference. In fact, the six simple habits in this issue may just be the key to having less stress and higher energy levels each day.
Here’s hoping you have an amazing August! As always, it’s a pleasure to send you this magazine.
Aging is a natural process that everyone must go through, but committing to healthy lifestyle choices can help make it a smooth one by promoting better physical and mental health as you get older. Although genetics plays a role in everyone’s health, studies have revealed that it’s far less impactful on a person’s life expectancy than previously believed. In fact, some show that behaviors such as engaging in regular physical activity and managing stress levels can increase your likelihood of living a longer, healthier life—meaning you have the power to dictate your future. Here are some tips to help you take control of your health and retain your independence.
Nutrition is more than just eating “healthy” foods. It’s also about consuming enough vitamins and minerals and limiting your intake of sugar, unhealthy carbohydrates, and refined grains—think white bread, pasta, and white rice. By swapping red and processed meats, fried foods, junk foods, and sugary drinks for lean proteins, whole grains, nuts, legumes, fresh produce, and water, you can help reduce inflammation in your body. In turn, this can improve your gut health and minimize the risk or symptoms of serious health conditions, including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and arthritis.
Regular exercise is one of the best ways to maintain healthy aging. It can not only help you keep a healthy body weight but also improve your mental health and outlook. Whether you’re a sports enthusiast or prefer low-impact activities such as swimming or yoga, getting active can help maintain flexibility, slow the pace of bone and muscle loss, and lower blood pressure and sugar. Of course, the type and intensity of exercise that is best for you will depend on your physical condition, so be sure to check with your health care provider before starting any new workout routine.
Although sleep decline naturally occurs as you get older, getting enough sleep is essential to maintaining your memory and healthy aging overall. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society both recommend that adults between the ages of eighteen and sixty get at least seven hours of sleep per night to reduce their risks of heart disease, cognitive decline, and a compromised immune system. To improve the number of sleep hours you get, avoid caffeinated beverages late in the day, lower your bedroom temperature, and turn off your cell phone, computer, and TV at least two to three hours before bedtime. Also, consider using a sleep app like Pzizz to help relax you and induce sleep. (For more details, read the article about the body’s internal clock later in this issue.)
Keeping your mind active and staying socially engaged are two of the most important ways to retain your mental acuity. In fact, getting involved in a mix of social and intellectual activities may help lower your odds of cognitive decline and even stave off dementia. You can partake in a wide range of social activities, such as volunteering at a community theater, joining a book club, or playing group games that require thought and strategy. You could also learn a new language or hobby or tackle a daily crossword or sudoku puzzle to keep your mind engaged.
Long-term stress can have a negative impact on both your physical and mental health, leading to an increased risk of heart disease, insomnia, depression, and anxiety, to name a few. However, you can manage it through exercise and relaxation techniques such as deep breathing, yoga, and meditation. You could even listen to apps like Calm or Headspace. These will all help you slow your heart rate, lower your blood pressure, and calm your mind.
Keep track of all your vitamins, over-the-counter drugs, and prescriptions. Because your reaction to medications can change over time, be mindful of any side effects and check with your doctor about whatever concerns you may have, especially if you’re starting something new. Consider using this worksheet to help you stay on top of your medication regimen.
Take proactive steps to maximize your wellness and minimize age-related health risks. And if you have loved ones who are older, talk to them about easy ways they can boost their health to live a longer, healthier, and more joyful life.
Christian Devaux, founder and CEO of World Chase Tag (WCT), discusses this international phenomenon where teams compete in a heart-pumping version of the classic kids’ game.
What inspired you to turn tag into a sport?
My son, Orlando, never liked conventional sports—all he wanted to do was play tag, or as we call it in England, “it.” We developed obstacles in our garden to make the game more exciting and started timing the chases to see who could tag the other faster.
I started thinking it’d be cool to see elite athletes playing this game. So when the company I worked for was sold, I decided to pursue creating a competitive tag league rather than another career. Orlando and I started a meetup group in Hyde Park using barrier tape wrapped around trees as obstacles. From there, we moved it into a nearby parkour gym, which had better obstacles.
But it still wasn’t quite right. My brother, Damien, joined in, and we bought some scaffolding and built our first tag arena, or “quad.” We then rented a venue, got cameras and lighting, booked two dates in May 2015, and invited players from a well-known parkour team called Storror to test it out. We agreed that if these run-throughs weren’t entertaining, we’d just give up.
The players immediately got it. It was amazing. We made some adjustments to the quad based on their feedback and decided to have only one-on-one competitions with teams, which made it easier to rule on the winner. We also worked to get the pace and scoring in a good place: we wanted scoring to be between basketball, where it’s too easy, and soccer, where it’s too difficult. I was convinced that if we had a good quad and audience, made the sport look professional, and showcased stellar athletes, it would catch on.
How did it go viral?
We put out a video right after Boxing Day in 2016, and it got about 20,000 views that week; our videos would usually only get about 500. Our next video—which involved a chase between Sacha Powell from Storror and legendary parkour athlete Daniel Ilabaca—was released on January 1, 2017. That video got 1.8 million views on Facebook. As soon as that happened, we were on the radar of places like LADbible. As a result, that year we got approximately 80–90 million views. It’s helped us expand around the world very quickly. Today, we hold national, continental, and world championships from the Americas to Asia. (Orlando is also now a WCT athlete!)
What are the basics of WCT?
There are two teams of up to six athletes. Each match is the best of sixteen chases, and each chase is twenty seconds long. A team is awarded a point only when their evader lasts the entire chase without getting caught. Tags must be made with the hand (not the foot), and if an athlete steps out of bounds, they lose that chase. The winning athlete then stays on as the evader for the next chase. If a match ends in a draw, it is settled by a sudden death chase-off, which consists of two chases where the teams alternate between chaser and evader. The team with the longest evasion time wins.
The game’s fast pace, flashing lights, and music seem geared toward a twenty-first-century audience. Is that intentional?
Yes. A lot of thought went into that. It was actually somewhat inspired by Orlando’s friend, Raza. I heard him playing a computer game one day. When I asked him about the weird noise in the background, he said he was also listening to a YouTube video—and that it was at double speed because it was boring otherwise. I was astonished by the information overload. When Damien and I created the chase cycle, we remembered that.
We’re also both musicians, so we relied on our musical backgrounds. With music, you add layer upon layer of instruments and singing to make a song. When we finalized the chase cycle, we created that same effect to get the perfect rhythm.
So before the chase, a drill-sergeant-type voice shouts, “Ten seconds!” After that, the chase announcer, who has a very smooth, rich voice, announces the teams. Then our “ready man” shouts, “Athletes, ready!” a few seconds before the buzzer sounds. During play, you hear a play-by-play commentator, who’s more excited, paired with an analyst with a calmer tone. Between chases, a DJ plays music for about fifteen seconds and fades, and the whole cycle continues.
Essentially, we want the athletes to compete like their lives depend on it. It’s like this: If you’re at a basketball game and a fight breaks out, everyone will watch the fight. But if someone then sprints by with another guy chasing after him, you’d turn your attention to them because you want to know whether the first guy will be caught. There’s something intriguing about a chase—but only if it’s full-out. We progressively shortened the chase times to foster this. The athletes have only twenty-five seconds between chases, so it’s brutal on the cardio.
Do the athletes tend to have thinner or bulked-up physiques?
In most sports, bulk is good because it provides power. In the 100-meter dash, your bulk gives you power for momentum, but you don’t need to control it because you can just gradually slow down after finishing. In sports like rugby and American football, bulk and power enable you to gain yardage, a territorial advantage.
In WCT, it’s an interesting balance. You need power for explosive speed, but you must control it because of the obstacles and compact space. That said, some great WCT players are light while others are bulked up; it all depends on the player. For example, one of our most dominant athletes is Kyle Soderman from Hollywood Freerunners. He’s around 6’2” and has great cardio and power. His size gives him the strength to chase you down. But if you’re going against him, you can use obstacles and tiny gaps to your advantage. So it’s a constant battle between power and agility.
We designed the quad to accommodate different body types, sizes, and movements: it doesn’t favor a tall player or a small athlete. At a recent event, our shortest was around 5’4” and the tallest was Brian Prince, who’s 6’10”—he played the Predator in the movie The Predator.
Why is World Chase Tag so popular?
Tag is perhaps the most fundamental of all sports—anyone can identify with it. The world over, generation after generation, it starts on the playground. So it’s not surprising that, if it’s entertaining, people everywhere would want to watch it.
For more info, visit worldchasetag.com or watch on YouTube @worldchasetag
It’s the same story every night: You finish dinner, put your plate in the sink, and then dive into your evening activity du jour. Maybe you settle on the couch in front of the TV or with a good book, or perhaps you spend some quality time bonding with your loved ones. But as the sky goes dark, you find that you can barely keep your eyes open. Why does it feel like they always get heavy at the exact same time?
Blame your circadian rhythms, a series of clocklike systems in your body. As SleepFoundation.org describes them, “circadian rhythms work by helping to make sure that the body’s processes are optimized at various points during a twenty-four-hour period.” In other words, they regulate your energy throughout the day, gear you up for high-energy activities like exercise and work, and calm you down for sleep at night.
So why does your brain do this? The human body craves consistency. No matter your unique behaviors and ever-changing tastes, your brain wires you to follow a repetitive routine, ensuring your bodily functions are attuned to all your daily needs.
Your body’s internal clock is an amazing feat of nature. It adjusts your energy based on a cycle that runs very close to twenty-four hours—in fact, it’s so accurate that it can wake you up right before your daily alarm goes off, almost down to the minute. Besides sleep, this system is also responsible for other functions like hunger, digestion, and hormone regulation.
The command center of these functions is the suprachiasmatic nucleus (also called the circadian pacemaker), which is located in the structure of your brain known as the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus coordinates communication between your nervous system and your endocrine system, triggering the latter to produce hormones. When your circadian pacemaker senses changes in the environment, such as sunrise and sunset, it sends signals throughout your body to react accordingly.
Your circadian pacemaker is highly sensitive to shifts in light. When nighttime falls, it prompts the pineal gland in your brain to produce and release melatonin. This hormone calms your body’s continuous processes, slowing your breath and heart rate, lowering your body temperature, and, in turn, enabling sleep. In response to daytime light, melatonin production slows until you eventually wake up. This is why early risers can feel alert and energized as soon as the sun comes up.
This fascinating natural clock isn’t found only in humans. Other life forms have circadian rhythms of their own. This biological feature tells flowers when to bloom or close and warns nocturnal animals not to leave their shelter during the day. It even reacts to changes in the length of night and day throughout the seasons, which activate the hibernation response in some wildlife and provide seasonal information to migrating birds.
However, there is one aspect seemingly unique to humans: our circadian rhythms can become inaccurate or inconsistent. Problems with this natural flow can make healthy sleep a challenge and even interfere with daytime responsibilities.
Unfortunately, a person’s inner sleep-wake clock isn’t always in sync with their lifestyle or rest needs. If you feel that no matter what you do, you just can’t fall asleep, you may have a circadian rhythm disorder. This occurs when your cycle is unaligned with environmental cues such as sunrise and sunset, leading to poor or unfulfilling sleep.
There are several different types of circadian rhythm disorders, some of which are impacted by biological factors like age and genetics. For example, many middle-aged and older adults suffer from advanced sleep phase disorder, which causes them to fall asleep very early and wake up hours before sunrise. Conversely, young adults often struggle with delayed sleep phase disorder (SPD), a condition that leads them to sleep and wake about two hours later than the average adult. Because few social systems allow for such a sleep pattern, many SPD sufferers have difficulty adhering to early-morning school and work demands.
General symptoms of a circadian rhythm disorder may include struggling to fall asleep, grogginess when waking up, and difficulty engaging in everyday activities like work and exercise. In extreme cases, you may even experience severe daytime fatigue, trouble staying alert, memory problems, or cognitive issues. Left untreated, these symptoms can increase your risk of dangerous workplace or driving accidents.
Sometimes, your own habits may be to blame. Behaviors that can override your circadian rhythms include:
Circadian rhythms are so sensitive to your habits that you may be able to correct an improper sleep cycle on your own by creating a consistent routine. However, certain types of sleep disorders, such as sleep apnea, may require professional treatment. See a doctor to address such concerns, as untreated sleep issues can eventually lead to serious health problems and interfere with your work life and relationships—not to mention leave you staring at the ceiling every night.
For more info, visit sleepfoundation.org
Routines are a simple and effective way to prioritize your health and can go a long way toward improving your quality of life. Even the smallest changes can lead to big benefits, including better sleep, decreased stress, and higher energy levels. And though it takes an average of sixty-six days to develop a habit, the results will be well worth the effort. To help you in your journey toward living a healthier lifestyle, here are six habits you should incorporate into your everyday routine.
Approximately 60 percent of the human body is water, so staying hydrated throughout the day is important for your well-being. While you’ve likely heard that you’re supposed to drink eight glasses of water a day, the actual amount each individual needs depends on their exercise levels, environment, and overall health. In general, the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine recommends about 15½ cups daily for men and 11½ cups for women. You should also drink water before, during, and after exercising, whenever you eat, and anytime you simply feel thirsty, especially during summer. Staying hydrated can improve the health of your heart, brain, kidneys, and joints and make you feel more energized and less irritable.
From fresh air and energizing sun to beautiful scenery, Mother Nature has a lot to offer, and spending two hours a week taking it all in can make a big difference in boosting both your physical and mental health. If you can get outside a little each day, you may find that you sleep better, breathe easier, and feel more relaxed. That’s because spending time in the great outdoors decreases your cortisol levels, which can help reduce the amount of stress you experience every day.
Exercising for 150 minutes a week, or about 21 minutes a day, can have a huge impact on your health. By incorporating moderate levels of activity into your daily routine, whether that involves walking around the neighborhood, lifting weights at the gym, or working in your yard, you can improve your heart health, strengthen your muscles and bones, reduce your risk of various diseases, and increase your life span. You may even find that you have a more positive outlook as a result.
Solitude may not be easily afforded to you if you work in an office, have kids, or live with several people, but stepping away from the hustle and bustle for even a few minutes is vital for your overall health. By taking this personal time, you’re giving yourself a chance to unwind and reenergize, which can in turn improve your concentration and productivity. Even just stepping outside every once in a while, shutting your office door during your lunch break, or turning your phone to “Do Not Disturb” can help you feel more rejuvenated and refreshed.
Reading is a great way to delve deeper into your favorite topics, learn more about ones you aren’t familiar with, or get lost in a fantastical world or story. But this activity isn’t just good for your mind—it’s also good for your health. Studies have shown that reading for thirty minutes a day can improve your blood pressure, sleep quality, stress levels, depression, and general quality of life. So the next time you go to turn on the TV or scroll through social media, consider cracking open a book instead.
When was the last time you got a full night’s sleep? If you can’t remember, it may be time to shift around your priorities and move sleep toward the top of the list. As mentioned earlier in this issue, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society both recommend that adults between the ages of eighteen and sixty get a minimum of seven hours each night for optimal health. When you regularly get less than this, you may experience fatigue, lowered immunity, impaired performance, and a higher risk of accidents in your daily life. Instead, try to get in the habit of going to bed at the same time each night so you can feel well rested in the morning and ready to conquer what’s ahead.
Though it may not be easy at first to incorporate these six habits into your everyday routine, it’s important that you prioritize your health so you can be your best self. It will take some time for each one to feel less like work and more like a normal part of your day, but if you stick with it, you’ll be left feeling better than you did before.
