Canyon Ranch Health Resorts
The first and most important step in taking stock of your health is honestly and systematically to address five major preventive health issues categorized under "Mom's Advice." These are the bigger health questions your mom asked when you were young about sleeping, eating, exercise, happiness and habits. You need to reaffirm that you are caring for yourself in all of these areas.

Back to Basics: A Basic Health Self-Assessment
1. Is your sleep adequate? The problem with sleep is that people often don't know if it is inadequate. There are tell-tale signs, however, of too little or disturbed sleep. If you find yourself able to nap in the afternoon or you're drifting off at meetings or while riding in the car, you may not be getting enough sound sleep at night. If you begin to doze in the middle of a conversation, you are seriously sleep-deprived. If you snore, it's important to ask your spouse or significant other specifically whether you snort and stop breathing during snoring. If you're snorting, this means your brain is waking up repeatedly to open up your airway. This is sleep apnea, and it's a huge heart risk. You should pursue the issue with your physician.

2. How are your eating habits? Should you consider a vitamin supplement for optimal health?

3. Do you exercise a minimum of 20 to 30 minutes, three times weekly? This is the minimum recommendation for heart health. A completely sedentary non-smoker has about the same heart risk as an active smoker for heart disease.

4. Are you happy? Depression and anxiety not only make life joyless, they're big heart risks. If you're not enjoying the things you used to enjoy, or if emotional difficulties are interfering with your life, you need to address these issues.

5. Do you consciously practice healthy habits? Humans are truly creatures of habit - some good, and others not so healthy. A periodic review of our habits - from home to gym to workplace - is an essential piece of the overall health puzzle. The list of possibly destructive behavior is long and familiar, but it's worth running through regularly, just to be safe. Drinking too much, taking too many prescriptions without adequate medical assessment, smoking cigarettes and using drugs, and having unsafe sex can all shorten your life - and decrease your pleasure in living. Other habits that aren't intrinsically destructive can also create problems if we let them get out of hand. People simply tend to get into ruts, and doing the same thing in the same way, day after day deadens appreciation of life. Mom's advice holds good, no matter what your stage of life.