How Poor Physical Health Impacts Our Mental Health

Finally, mental health is getting the attention it deserves. Even though mental health is as important as our physical health, we know that the conversation and awareness around it was always missing. Thankfully, we’ve come a long way from where we started but there’s a lot more that could be explored. One such aspect is how physical well-being can affect the mental state of an individual and vice versa. Let’s dig into this a little more in this write-up:

Is our lifestyle slowly numbing us?

Our daily routine plays a salient role in upgrading or degrading our health — yes, it could silently kill. Let’s try to find if the factors that we do are responsible for our poor mental health. The following are a few obvious reasons that can be held accountable for influencing your state of mind. 

  • Smoking

Concerns around the effects of smoking are all well researched, well debated, and well sold. Everyone knows that smoking has a direct effect on both an individual’s mental and physical health. Many people say that smoking helps them to relieve their stress and symptoms, but the after-effects of smoking are dangerous for our mental as well as emotional health. This can keep you from truly breaking free from your destructive habits and even cause self harm.

  • Bad sleep cycle

Your body and mind go through a lot each day and not giving it proper and consistent rest is like doing a great injustice to it. Just like a well-maintained diet incorporates a good amount of nutrients for our body, our sleep cycle packs a good amount of rest for our mind. This can lead to a constant feeling of exhaustion and also severe migraines.

Proper sleep replenishes our mind and resets our mental potential. With the absence of a proper sleep schedule, you will always feel tired — an inch away from exhaustion. Fixing your sleep can directly translate to improving your mental health.

  • Unhealthy eating 

Unhealthy eating is one of the most common causes of having poor physical health. The food we eat is fuel for our entire body throughout the day. What do you think will happen when you feed your engine with oily, fat-filled, and processed food items? It takes a toll on your physical health and the damage eventually is most likely to impact your mental health as well. 

On the flipside, eating healthy significantly improves the nutrition of your body which can positively reflect on your mental state. Healthy food also helps you avoid getting deficient in some essential nutrients and can help prevent diseases that can eventually lead to physical and mental turmoil.

  • Being inactive 

All of us know the importance of keeping ourselves physically fit. Not just for the aesthetic appeal but for the numerous health benefits that fitness offers. However, the discipline that fitness requires discourages most of us from making the right choice. 

Experts remark that exercising allows the release of endorphins in our minds. Even a short 10-minute session of brisk walking helps greatly in increasing our mental alertness. Try observing how you feel the next time after a successful exercising session.

Pro tip: For beginning from a point of no momentum, fitness experts suggest starting with just 5-10 minutes of exercise each day. They recommend starting each session with some stretching exercises to avoid injuries. At no point should you force your body beyond its capability to do any exercise. Yet, if anyhow you get an injury, head over to the nearest pain management clinic to get yourself checked and treated. There are plenty around, if you’re in Spokane, you can plan to visit the pain clinic Spokane WA.

Categories: Health

Nicolas Desjardins

Hello everyone, I am the main writer for SIND Canada. I've been writing articles for more than 12 years and I like sharing my knowledge. I'm currently writing for many websites and newspapers. I always keep myself very informed to give you the best information. All my years as a computer scientist made me become an incredible researcher. You can contact me on our forum or by email at [email protected].