Lifestyle changes are always the first step to managing cholesterol, but it can be hard. Cholesterol itself isn’t likely to cause you any major symptoms until it contributes to a major event, like a heart attack or stroke. If you can’t feel something’s wrong, it can be hard to motivate yourself to change your life and the things you enjoy.

The key thing to remember is that you do want to be healthy. This isn’t nothing. High cholesterol levels can cause serious health problems in the long term. If you want to stick around for a while to enjoy your time with friends and family and to make the most of your life, this is something that deserves your attention.

Also, a lifestyle designed to lower cholesterol doesn’t have to be all about deprivation. In fact, it’s better if it isn’t. Yes, some types of cholesterol are bad for you (LDL), but don’t forget there’s good cholesterol (HDL), too. The best diet is the one that increases your HDL while lowering your LDL.

So, you may need to cut back a bit on the cheese and the butter, but you’re not necessarily going to have to give them up completely. As with many aspects of diet, sometimes the overall amount isn’t as important as the balance. You still need all the nutrients essential to your survival, which means eating a wide range of foods.

Start small. If you’re lucky, you’ll only need tiny lifestyle changes to bring your cholesterol under control. If that doesn’t work, maybe you’ll need to get stricter, but it’s still not time to despair. And if the lifestyle changes aren’t enough on their own and you end up needing medication, well, you’re not the only one. It’s not a sign of failure. Everyone’s different when it comes to what works or doesn’t work.

Motivation to tackle your cholesterol isn’t that different from motivating yourself for other tasks. Set yourself achievable goals, go one step at a time, make sure there are people supporting you, and reward yourself for doing well. You can do it!

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If that’s the case, all you need to do is establish a healthy mindset and everything else will follow. Better grades. Better job. Better relationships. If only it was that easy! Instead, achieving a positive mindset tends to require a lot of work – work that’s particularly difficult when your mental health is already poor.

Mindset has everything to do with the way you think. It’s about attitudes, ideas and opinions as well as how you interact with other people and the rest of the world. Much of it can be established in early life based on our childhood experiences and relationships, which can make it very difficult to dig your way out of those old ways of thinking to establish something new.

It can be done, however. At its best, you can develop what’s known as a growth mindset as opposed to a fixed mindset. A growth mindset takes the attitude that there’s always room to grow and improve. Whatever challenges you face in life, you can learn new ways to deal with them. It’s like training in the gym to build muscles, but the muscle in question is your brain.

A growth mindset may help you develop the skills you need to deal with problems, both external ones and internal ones. You can let go of negative emotions and influences like the fear of failure, which can be paralyzing and exacerbate other low feelings. Other people become an opportunity to build new relationships and receive useful feedback, reducing isolation.

None of these things are easy. It involves a lot of introspection and self-awareness. You need to watch every thought; if it’s not helpful, redirect it. Sometimes you might need some kind of therapist to guide your process. If you have a diagnosable illness, you may also need medication to manage the symptoms before you can even start to work on long-term solutions like a broader mindset change.

You can’t always control how you feel, but you can control how you react. No one can feel good all the time, but working on your mindset allows you to deal with negative emotions when they happen.

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Well, sometimes it turns out there is a scientific explanation – it’s just one that you can’t easily see. If your hormones are out of balance, either too high or too low, that can do strange things to your mood. That includes increasing the likelihood that you will experience anxiety. There may not be an outside cause; it may be internal.

Hormones are chemical messengers that tell your body how to react. They serve a variety of roles, and different hormones can impact anxiety in different ways. That includes thyroid hormones, sex hormones like estrogen and testosterone, and stress hormones like adrenaline/epinephrine and cortisol.

The thyroid is a gland in the neck that releases three different types of hormones: triiodothyronine, thyroxine and calcitonin. When it becomes overactive and starts producing too much of these hormones, it’s called hyperthyroidism. Symptoms include heart palpitations, sleep disruption, sweatiness and shaking hands. All of these things are associated with anxiety.

Anyone who has been through puberty knows that sex hormones are tricky things. When they start to fluctuate, as they do naturally during adolescence or as part of the menstrual cycle, it has a big influence on your mood. That’s why anxiety can seem to increase or decrease suddenly. Testosterone levels also have an impact on cortisol levels, and vice versa, so sex hormones and stress hormones can be related.

Stress hormones are the ones that are released when you perceive a threat. They allow you to enter the “fight or flight” response when things like your heart and breathing change to get ready for potential conflict. When these hormones are released and there isn’t a threat, or if you remain in that heightened state for an extended period of time, you could find yourself trying to manage ongoing anxiety symptoms.

Luckily, hormones can also regulate and lower anxiety. That doesn’t just mean changing your levels of estrogen and testosterone, although that can help. Hormones like vasopressin and oxytocin can help relieve anxiety. You can also influence your hormone levels through diet, exercise and other lifestyle changes. Therapy may also assist in learning how to manage symptoms.

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There’s a substantive body of evidence to suggest that our fluid intake has a profound effect on our mood and cognition. People who drink more water are less likely to experience depression and anxiety (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6147771/). People who don’t drink enough water may be fatigued, unable to think clearly, and more at risk of low moods.

This seems to be true even if the dehydration is mild. If you wait until you’re thirsty to have a drink of water, you’re already starting to feel the effects of dehydration. You should be thinking ahead, pouring yourself a glass regularly regardless of your thirst level, just so you can stay at your best.

It’s not just about how it directly affects your mood. If you’re tired and finding it difficult to concentrate, which are other symptoms of dehydration, it’s going to be harder to focus on the tasks you need to complete. That’s likely to aggravate any depressive symptoms, which in turn can make it even harder to do the things you need to do.

Once your motivation slips, it becomes harder and harder to get it back. It’s a self-fulfilling cycle, where lower mood leads to less achievement, which leads to even lower mood. Other vital activities, such as exercise or preparing healthy and balanced meals, can also fall by the wayside because of the combination of dehydration and depression. That will make your health even worse.

Attention to fluid intake becomes even more important with high-risk groups, like the elderly or the very young. They’re more susceptible to dehydration and less likely to remember to drink regularly. Anyone can underestimate their water needs, however, so everyone needs to pay attention to how much they drink.

Getting enough water isn’t just about your physical health. It has a vital impact on your mental wellbeing, including cognition and mood. It’s not only on hot days or after exercise that you need to think about this; every day, you need to be stopping to make sure you’re drinking enough to stay sharp.

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When you have a condition like diabetes, however, you need to be extra careful about what you put in your body in case it interferes with your blood sugar. You definitely need to supplement your insulin if your pancreas isn’t producing it or is not working properly. But just as diabetics have to watch what they eat, they also have to be cautious about supplements.

However, there may be supplements that can reduce the risks of developing diabetes or mitigating its effects. You can’t cure diabetes, so be skeptical of any miraculous-sounding claims, but there’s been lots of research into whether certain herbs, spices and other plant-based additions can help diabetes.

The evidence is mixed (https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/diabetes-and-dietary-supplements). Popular herbal supplements for diabetes include cinnamon, ginger, aloe vera, bitter melon, ginseng and fenugreek. There are some studies that suggest they have a slight benefit on blood sugar levels and others that say they have no effect at all. You do need to be careful if you’re taking other medications or have other medical conditions in case they interact.

One mineral that definitely has a relationship with blood sugar is chromium. A chromium deficiency in your diet can stop your body from properly controlling its glucose levels. People with a chromium deficiency can take chromium supplements. There is some evidence that these supplements may also help diabetics, although the research is limited.

Another potential substance that is being researched with some positive signs is alpha-lipoic acid, which may lower the risk of diabetic neuropathy. Magnesium may make you less likely to develop diabetes in the first place. Other vitamins and probiotics are also being researched. The evidence pool is only growing.

The key things to remember when it comes to supplements, whether you’re diabetic or not, is that they’re no substitute for a healthy diet, and they should only ever be taken in moderation. Always talk to your doctor about your specific situation before embarking on any course of supplements.

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When it comes to minerals, there’s one in particular to watch out for: sodium. That’s right, we’re talking about salt. Too much salt is one of the biggest risk factors when it comes to high blood pressure (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1930921/). There are a few reasons for this, including the fact that it changes how the arteries work and it affects how your body retains fluids.

Conversely, there are other minerals that you should try to include in your diet if you want to lower your blood pressure. Potassium, magnesium and calcium easily top the list of good blood pressure minerals (https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/key-minerals-to-help-control-blood-pressure). They should show up in any healthy, balanced diet with plenty of vegetables. If you can’t get them from your diet for whatever reason, you may need to supplement them.

Like sodium, potassium plays a key role in the amount of fluid in your body. It also influences your heart rate (helping it avoid an irregular rhythm) and it can relax your blood vessels so your blood pressure becomes lower. Good potassium sources include dried fruit like apricots and prunes, different types of nuts and beans, yams and potatoes.

Not many people get enough magnesium in their diets. That may be because it’s prominent in leafy green vegetables like spinach and kale, which don’t always attract the most enthusiasm. You can also find it in some types of cereal. You need magnesium because of its impact on bones, muscles and nerves, including blood vessels.

Then there’s calcium. You might think of this mostly because of its role in bone health and because it’s why you were encouraged as a child to drink your milk. You find it in fish and leafy greens as well as dairy, and it impacts hormones, enzymes, blood vessels and bones.

The minerals that affect blood pressure (sodium, potassium, magnesium and calcium) can also affect each other. Sometimes one going up will be enough to make another go down. Your blood pressure can change because of the interaction between these minerals. It’s complicated stuff, but the main thing for you to remember is to make sure you eat a balanced diet.

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If the early research is any indicator, it may have higher levels of the essential vitamins we need to survive. In 2014, a British journal tried to review all the evidence gathered on organic food so far (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/263432810_Higher_antioxidant_and_lower_cadmium_concentrations_and_lower_incidence_of_pesticide_residues_in_organically_grown_crops_A_systematic_literature_review_and_meta-analyses).

It’s not an absolute conclusion. There are other studies that suggest no discernible difference between the nutrient content of organic and non-organic food. It’s hard to measure when so many factors (such as weather, soil, and insects) can affect how crops grow. And some of the things that are higher in organic food, like antioxidants, are important to our bodies, but that still causes arguments among scientists who can’t agree on how important they are to our diet.

If organic food can improve our vitamin intake, that’s important. A lot of Americans don’t get all the vitamins and minerals they need. Sailors who went to sea without enough fruit would develop a horrible disease called scurvy because of their vitamin C deficiency. They’d grow tired and weak, with aching limbs. As it progressed, they might develop gum disease and start bleeding very easily. In its worst cases, it could be deadly.

That’s because vitamin C plays an essential role in skin health (both in the production of collagen and in healing wounds), in the immune system, and in the operation of certain enzymes in the body. Traditionally, humans get the vitamin C they need from fruits, particularly citrus (like oranges and lemons), but also kiwis and strawberries. If they’re overcooked or stored for too long, they might lose some of their vitamin content. Obviously, we want the vitamin C levels to be high enough for us to benefit.

There may be debate over the health benefits of organic food and just how much it can improve our vitamin intake, but eating organic isn’t going to harm you and may just help. With the popularity of organic continuing to grow, it’s likely there will be more investigation into whether claims of higher vitamin levels can stand up to scrutiny.

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This is a problem because if you’re not getting the nutrients you need, the healing process is going to be a lot slower. That’s true of physical injuries, of getting over a virus, of trying to overcome an addiction, and of recovering from major surgery. It’s even true when you’re not seriously hurt, like when you’ve just done a heavy exercise session and your muscles are all aching. You might not want to do anything, including thinking about food.

Portion size isn’t as important as making sure you get all of the necessary nutrients, with some being even more important during recovery. For example, eat dairy products full of calcium to strengthen your bones or protein-rich foods to help with muscle repair. Iron and zinc are also important when trying to repair the body.

Fruit and vegetables are always important and can make up simple snacks if you can’t face a full meal. They’re full of essential nutrients however you eat (or drink) them, whether on their own or as an ingredient in a larger dish. They also contain fiber, which will help your overall digestion.

Keeping hydrated is also vital. This doesn’t just have to be water. As mentioned, milk and fruit juice are both full of vitamins and minerals. Tea and coffee have lots of health benefits and can boost your energy levels. Even soup can count towards your fluid intake.

If you’re having trouble maintaining a balanced diet, you may find you struggle to heal. You may also lose weight and feel more tired. After an illness, injury or hospital stay, you need to be paying extra attention to making sure your diet is adequate. If you still can’t manage it, you may need some form of dietary supplement.

This may mean various forms of tablets or capsules that you can swallow for a nutrient boost. You may also want to enrich your regular diet, such as by adding cheese or butter to dishes to increase the protein. You may also need to consume more fat than normal without worrying about potential weight gain. Your body needs the energy.

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That may be true, but don’t get carried away. Exercising is good. Overtraining is bad, wearing out your body and mind until they can’t function properly. You need time to rest and recover. Without taking breaks, you may be more at risk of what’s known as “adrenal insufficiency” (https://www.omicsonline.org/open-access/overtraining-exercise-and-adrenal-insufficiency-2165-7025.1000125.php?aid=11717).

Adrenal insufficiency is a pretty self-explanatory condition. It’s when your adrenal glands aren’t working properly and don’t produce enough of the hormones you need. This can lead to tiredness, physical weakness and lack of energy. You may also experience low moods.

Lots of things can cause problems with your adrenal glands, but overtraining doesn’t help. That’s especially true when the training is accompanied by significant stress. This can overwhelm the glands and leave your body unable to cope with the extreme demands being placed on it.

The adrenal glands react strongly to stress, whether it’s physical, mental or emotional. It’s the adrenal glands that release stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol. These are what control your so-called “fight or flight” response, when things like your heartbeat and breathing change to make you ready to run away or to battle an apparent threat. It’s a state you can only be in for a short length of time before your body starts experiencing damage.

Occasional overtraining probably isn’t going to cause significant issues. It’s when it becomes chronic, or you do it all the time, that it becomes a source of worry. The more and more you overtrain, the less and less time you have for recovery. This can lead to ongoing symptoms and an inability to perform even when you have a major event or competition approaching.

You do need to be aware of the risks of overtraining because symptoms may not be immediately apparent. Your adrenal glands could be overworking and underproducing for a while before you notice anything’s wrong. If the first time the problem is officially acknowledged is when you reach a crisis point, it’s going to be much harder to fix it. The earlier it’s caught, the more chances you have to heal.

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There are natural times to feel tired, like when you’ve been on your feet all day, when you’ve been studying for hours, when you’ve just had to spend an afternoon with some of your less personable relatives. Fatigue is more than tiredness, though. Tiredness disappears when you’ve had enough sleep. Fatigue drags on and you may not be able to overcome it alone.

The potential list of causes of fatigue is a long one. It could be neurological, hormonal, some kind of infection, a sleep disorder, or a mental health condition, to name just a few. That means that if you’re going to the doctor to try to find out what’s causing your fatigue, there’s a lot to work through.

As with many things, a blood test is a good start. It can show if an underactive thyroid, anemia, or diabetes (also diagnosable with a urine test) is the cause. Checking for the Epstein-Barr virus will show if you have glandular fever. All can cause fatigue.

Blood tests are the first step to diagnosing celiac disease, a type of gluten intolerance that makes your immune system attack your body. If the blood tests are inconclusive, you may need a biopsy. A tube will be sent down your throat to take a sample of tissue from your small intestine.

For mental health conditions, such as depression and anxiety, it’s trickier. Your doctor is likely to ask you a lot of questions about how you feel and how long you’ve felt that way. It’s a lot more subjective, depending on your perception of yourself (and willingness to share) and the doctor’s interpretation.

That’s still not as difficult as the ongoing fatigue caused by myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). We still don’t know its cause for sure (it might be a reaction to an infection, an immune system problem, a hormonal imbalance, or something genetic) or how it works, and there’s no one test to diagnose it. That just shows how important it can be to have effective testing and diagnosing procedures.

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