Lifestyle

Your "lifestyle" is your daily behaviours, habits, routines, and environments that influence your health and wellbeing. This page covers how the things you do affect your health. The way you sleep, manage stress, age, your diet, activity and how you recover from injury or illness all influence your health.We focus on practical, sustainable, evidence-based approaches. Our resources are designed to help you understand how lifestyle choices affect your health.  Whether your goal is to age well or improve your health and wellbeing, we're here to help.

HORMONE HEALTH

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Does Testosterone Build Muscle?

An overview of testosterone’s role in muscle growth, exploring how training, nutrition, sleep, and lifestyle influence your natural levels.
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What Is Cortisol: Hero or Villain?

Cortisol gets a bad rep, but it’s essential for survival. Understanding what it actually does in your body (and when it becomes a problem) is the first step to working with it.
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What to Eat (and Avoid) to Increase Your Testosterone

Your diet can affect your testosterone levels — but not in the way most people think. Here we cover what to eat, and what to avoid to boost your testosterone levels naturally.
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Not smoking, maintaining a healthy body weight, regular physical activity, quality sleep, strong social connections, stress management, and a nutrient-rich diet emphasizing whole foods. Large epidemiological studies suggests that these modifiable behaviors can add 10-15 years to life expectancy.

Whole, minimally processed foods. Engage in regular physical activity combining strength and cardio. Maintain consistent sleep schedules. Manage stress through proven techniques like mindfulness or social connections. Avoid smoking. Limit alcohol intake. And most important: self-discipline and consistency.

The most harmful lifestyle habits include smoking, excessive alcohol intake, sleep deprivation, prolonged sitting/physical inactivity, high intake of ultra-processed foods, too much stress, and social isolation. They're all linked to cardiometabolic diseases, cancers, poor mental health, and early death.

The five commonly cited pillars are good nutrition, physical activity, sleep, stress management, and social connections. Some people also include avoiding harmful substances and preventive healthcare.

Health is now defined as a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not just the absence of disease. It's the body's ability to adapt to physical, mental, and social challenges of life.

BRAIN HEALTH

Does Exercise Help Anxiety?

Research shows that regular physical activity can reduce anxiety symptoms, with effects comparable to some standard treatments — and may even help prevent anxiety from starting in the first place.
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Health Benefits of Oily Fish

An overview of oily fish as a superfood, highlighting heart, health, and brain benefits. Get the recommended servings, what to eat, and practical tips to get omega-3-rich fish in your diet.
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Is Exercise Good for Depression?

Research shows that regular exercise helps with depression, comparable to routine care. This makes it one of the best treatments around.
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SLEEP

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What to Eat for Better Sleep

Diets rich in certain nutrients can support better sleep, while others don’t — eating the right things is one of the simplest ways to improve your sleep.
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How To Sleep Better

Strategies, including light management, mind-body practices, and sleep environment, can dramatically improve your sleep quality.
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How to Fix Your Sleep Schedule: A 7-Step Plan

Bad sleep leaves you exhausted, foggy, and stuck in a frustrating cycle. This step-by-step plan helps reset your body clock, sleeping better, faster.
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FASTING

Should You Exercise While Fasting?

Research shows that exercise while fasting can increase fat burning and improve metabolic health, but it may impair exercise performance.
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Is Hara Hachi Bu Healthy?

An overview of hara hachi bu, the Japanese practice of eating to 80% fullness, highlighting its role in weight control, health and longevity.
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What Happens to Your Body When You Fast?

The hour-by-hour changes in metabolism, insulin, autophagy, and brain function: understand the body’s response to periods without food.
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HEART HEALTH

Does Exercise Lower Blood Pressure?

Research shows that regular exercise can lower blood pressure, with effects comparable to many blood pressure medications (and possibly better).
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Health Benefits of Olive Oil

An overview of olive oil as a superfood, highlighting cardiovascular and metabolic benefits, recommended daily intake, and practical tips for including extra virgin olive oil in your diet.
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What is VO2max & How to Improve It

VO2max is one of the best measures of fitness and health, and the good news is that almost everyone can improve it. Here's an evidence-based how to.
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Alphabet Guides publishes practical evidence-based content using trustworthy, peer-reviewed research: information you can actually use. Learn more About Us and our Editorial Standards.