{"id":42236,"date":"2015-08-10T11:15:45","date_gmt":"2015-08-10T15:15:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/?p=42236"},"modified":"2016-07-14T16:05:33","modified_gmt":"2016-07-14T20:05:33","slug":"healthy-life-hacks-that-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/health\/healthy-life-hacks-that-work\/","title":{"rendered":"7 Science-Backed Health Hacks That Actually Work"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"7
Photo: Pond5<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In today\u2019s fast-paced world, we\u2019re all looking for quick ways to take charge<\/a> of our health. That\u2019s probably why biohackers<\/a> are willing to drink butter for breakfast in the name of superhuman energy and\u2026 fat loss<\/a>? And why the Quantified Self<\/a> movement \u2014 or the practice of studying your own body to see how it responds to small changes \u2014 has been gaining steam ever since Gary Wolf\u2019s famous TED Talk<\/a> in 2010.<\/p>\n

RELATED:<\/strong> 6 DIY Kitchen Hacks to Get Healthier, Stat<\/a><\/p>\n

Plus, those trackers and smart watches you\u2019ve been wearing for years now are poised to become an even bigger<\/em> deal. Wearable<\/a> technologies are predicted\u00a0to emerge as\u00a0a $5.8 billion<\/a> industry within the next three years. Ca-ching. Now that whole fields of study are now devoted to decoding which life hacks actually work, here are a few simple science-backed strategies<\/a> that will help you sleep, move, think, work and live better.<\/p>\n

7 Genius Life Hacks\u00a0to Improve Your Health<\/strong><\/h3>\n

1. Get more active by\u2026finding the right<\/em> tracker.
\n<\/strong>You\u2019ve burned through one, maybe two, bands since Christmas. But if you can find a device\u00a0you can stick with, the simple act of tracking your activity<\/a> will increase it, says sports medicine and rehabilitation medicine physician Matthew Diamond, MD, PhD, medical director for Misfit Wearables<\/a>. One review<\/a> of 26 studies found that when people started counting their steps with a pedometer, they increased their movement by almost 27 percent. Dr. Diamond suggests starting small, tracking both your activity and sleep<\/a> for a week. Just being more aware of your daily movement might encourage you to sweat more often.<\/p>\n

RELATED:<\/strong> Why Apps Might Be Just as Good as Wearables for Tracking Steps<\/a><\/p>\n

2. Zap a headache by\u2026using pressure points.
\n<\/strong>Head throbbing? In traditional Chinese medicine, acupressure<\/a>, which targets certain areas of the body known as pressure points, is thought to balance the body and potentially help ease pain. Next time you have a headache, try applying pressure to the skin between your thumb and index finger, Dr. Diamond suggests. How does it work? Stress<\/a> makes most people\u2019s sympathetic nervous system (responsible for the \u201cfight or flight\u201d response) overactive. Pressure points activate the parasympathetic nervous system, which will relax your nervous system, potentially relieving pain, Diamond explains. In fact, one small Taiwanese study<\/a> found that acupressure was more effective than muscle relaxant medications for relieving chronic headache pain.<\/p>\n

\"7
Photo: Pond5<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

3. Feel happier by\u2026chewing more slowly.
\n<\/strong>Simmer down and actually enjoy that oatmeal. It\u2019s no shocker that eating makes you feel good<\/a> in the moment, but savoring each bite can actually boost your overall happiness level, Dr. Diamond shares. Mindful eating<\/a> is the practice of focusing on the experience of eating your food, including the flavors, textures and how it makes you feel. Dr. Diamond also suggests thinking about where your food came from and how it ended up on your plate. \u201cConsistent mindful eating practice is a way to cultivate gratitude<\/a>, an important component of happiness,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd you\u2019ll also be more likely to choose healthier food and be less likely to overeat.\u201d<\/p>\n

RELATED:<\/strong> 6 Easy Tips for Clean Eating on a Small Budget<\/a><\/p>\n

4. Be more productive by\u2026calling it a night.
\n<\/strong>Counterintuitive, we know. It can be easy to push through those end-of-day yawns, grab another cup of coffee<\/a> and power through more Powerpoint slides. But if you stop working at the end of normal business hours and pick up where you left off the next morning, your work will be more polished. \u201cYour productivity goes way down at [a] point,\u201d says Josh Davis, PhD, director of research for the NeuroLeadership Institute<\/a> and author of Two Awesome Hours<\/a>. \u201cBut by stopping, you will be able to get a better night\u2019s sleep and then be more productive the next day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"7
Photo: Pond5<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

5. Fall asleep fast by\u2026ditching your phone.
\n<\/strong>Your smartphone addiction<\/a> is very real. In fact, 81 percent of U.S. smartphone users say they keep their phone near them \u201calmost all the time during waking hours.\u201d And 63 percent reported keeping their phone near them even when sleeping, according to a recent Gallup Panel survey<\/a>. While scrolling through your Instagram feed<\/a> one more time<\/em> might be tempting, it can actually keep you awake long after you turn the screen off, Dr. Diamond says. \u201cArtificial light at night has been shown to decrease the quantity and quality of sleep<\/a> and disrupt our natural hormonal balance, predisposing us to metabolic diseases, and even cancer.\u201d Power down or at least set your phone to \u2018Do Not Disturb.\u2019<\/p>\n

RELATED:<\/strong> Can Your Phone Tell When You\u2019re Depressed?<\/a><\/p>\n

6. Hit your 10,000 steps by\u2026taking your meeting on the road.
\n<\/strong>Reaching that elusive\u00a010,000-step<\/a> daily landmark (the default \u201cgoal\u201d on most fitness trackers) can be tough on days that are jam-packed. But taking your coworkers outside for a walking meeting<\/a> is an easy way to sneak in a few extra miles-worth of steps during the workday, Dr. Diamond says. If you don\u2019t have any in-person meetings on your Outlook calendar, try to take a phone call outside instead. Not only can you sneak in a 45-minute walk, but your meeting or call will likely be more productive<\/a>, Dr. Diamond says. \u201cPeople are more open and you really get to talk about what\u2019s important instead of sitting somewhere and getting distracted.\u201d<\/p>\n

7. Solve problems like a CEO with\u2026brain training.
\n<\/strong>Ready to unleash your inner Sheryl Sandberg<\/a> on the world? Just like you can make your body stronger<\/a> with exercise, you can also condition your brain<\/a>. One method of brain training, known as the \u201cdual n-back test,\u201d requires participants to match both a visual and auditory cue, forcing them to juggle many different pieces of information at the same time. A team of psychologists and neuroscientists at the University of Michigan<\/a> who have been studying the effects of dual n-back training<\/a> have found that it can improve people\u2019s fluid intelligence<\/a>, or their capacity to think and solve problems in new and novel situations. To give it a try, download an app, such as Dual N-Back<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All you want is to stay healthy, sleep more, get fitter and feel smarter. Right? Here are seven science-backed life hacks that actually will help you do it. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":42238,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,11],"tags":[58,59,280,282,341,381],"class_list":["post-42236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-health-hacks","tag-hacks","tag-healthy-substitutions","tag-sleep","tag-stress","tag-tax1living-well","tag-tax2low-carb-diets"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}