Protandim

There is a type of music for every mood. There is music that makes you feel excited; music that makes you feel hopeful; music that reminds you of someone; and music that reminds you of a moment. But is there such thing as music that makes you healthier?

Most people will try anything in order to become healthy. There are thousands of diets, books, and exercise routines you can try, but maybe you should try listening to a new type of music. Changing your music genre can make a change in your overall health and outlook on life.

In recent studies, dissonance, or noises that are generally in conflict, can cause your stress levels to increase. On the flip side, when you listen to pleasing music your stress levels can decrease. Decreased stress levels make you healthier and you will live longer, and changing your music may be your first step to a long and healthy life.

Higher stress levels are also inversely correlated to exercise. In other words, the more stressed out you are, the harder it is to find time to work out. So in a round about way, listening to stress inducing music can make you more likely to suffer from obesity or or weight problems.

So what types of music reduce stress? It is different for everyone. Listening to Beethoven’s fifth can be a great way to reduce your stress levels if you enjoy symphonies, but not all of us do. Everyone has different tastes in music, and listening to what you enjoy is an important step towards reducing stress.

However, don’t we all listen to music we enjoy? So why would music ever make us stressed? The answer lies in your genre of music. Hard-core, angry, scream-o, hard rock, depressing or emo music can increase our tension and stress levels. Easy listening music really is easy listening, whereas hard rock really is hard to listen to.

Listening to those types of music will increase your stress levels, and in turn could reduce how much you work out or exercise. If that is your favorite type of music, you can still listen to it, but do it in moderation. That sort of music will have an affect on your outlook on life over time. So if you are looking to try something new and become a little healthier, perhaps you should try listening to a new type of music.

Young children routinely wake up at 6:00 A.M., pop out of bed, and are ready for their day. But as an adult, we are can be groggy or sluggish. However, most of us have discovered the benefits of coffee and caffeine. Caffeine is a mild stimulant that many people worry increases how fast you age. There is evidence suggesting that caffeine makes us older quicker, but there is also evidence showing it will keep us younger longer.

Caffeine has been shown to increase our ability to focus on monotonous tasks. It also can help us stay awake when we are reading or working. Also, it can help us exercise harder and longer. Caffeine provides us with a little boost of energy to help get through the day. Drinking it in moderation has shown little negative side effects, and may even keep us younger and smarter because it is a workout and study aid.

However, some research has come out that drinking caffeine in excess has some very negative side effects. First, many people say that coffee and caffeine are addictive, and trying to cut back or quit will give you withdrawals. It can leave us shaky and jittery. Also, some people say that caffeine induces chronic stress, which is a huge factor in terms of aging. Some say it also decreases mineral absorption, and when we get older we need those minerals to survive and fight the effects of aging. The key to drinking coffee is to simply drink it in moderation.

Doing the crossword puzzle everyday will do more than keep you entertained for an hour or so. According to some recent studies, crossword puzzles help you stay young longer by creating new brain cells and “exercising” your mind. It is easy for those of us who are older to let our minds rest, but that will only allow the effects of aging to creep in that much quicker. Retirement from work is great, but don’t ever let your mind retire.

But crosswords are not the only brain game that will keep you young. Any brainteaser does essentially the same thing. All you really want to do is stimulate your brain. Just as you workout, you need to keep challenging yourself. If you have never done a Sudoku game, start on a easier level, and slowly work your way up. Personally, I know I couldn’t have started with the New York Times Crossword puzzle; I had to work my way up.

Brainteasers, especially crossword puzzles, lower the risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease by almost 50%! So the question is why aren’t people doing crosswords everyday if they have such great results? The answer remains to be seen, but it seems that most people either do not know they can decrease those risks, or have mentally checked out and don’t really care anymore once they are done with work and retired. If you can get in a habit of doing the crossword when you are younger, it will benefit you greatly down the road.