The Ills Of Modern Day Living and How to Deal with it

By Dominic Pereira

As you’re reading this post sitting at your desk, or on your phone, take a moment and think about your posture. Are you sitting upright, core tight, and back straight? Or are you slouching in front of the screen, or hunched crookedly over your phone? (I know we all do that…) All of these things contribute to health problems with our bodies, even our minds.

From stress, sore backs, bad posture, and poor digestion, the modern-day world has affected our bodies in numerous sneaky ways. And let’s be honest, we all say we’re eating healthy and exercising but we’re still not incorporating good posture as we walk or sit.

People are also spending a large portion of their day on the couch or at their desk. According to a survey by the American Journal of Public Health, adults spend an average of nine hours per day sitting. All this sitting will cause your legs and back muscles to weaken, making your posture even worse.

In another study, standing too much can also be hazardous to your health. Standing all day can lead to long term problems for your body such as increasing your risk of cardiovascular disease aka heart disease.

Luckily, technology has been improving as the years go by and we now have cool gadgets like fitness watches to help us track our physical well-being. There are also various other solutions to fix our problems or prevent further damage to our health. So you see, the modern world isn’t all bad.

1. Beat Back Pain

Back pain sounds like something only older people suffer from, right? Wrong. Many young individuals can also experience the excruciating pain of straining a muscle in their back. Many people don’t focus on strengthening the muscles around their spine or building a stronger core at all. A strong core is essential for improving your posture to prevent injuries in the future.

According to the American Chiropractic Association, back pain is the single leading cause of disability, which prevents people from engaging in their work or other daily activities.

What causes back pain?

The back consists of bones, ligaments, joints, muscles and fascia. So it’s a complicated structure. A lot of back injuries can be from sports or accidents, but it can also be from bending down incorrectly when picking something up from the floor. Other causes for back pain are arthritis, obesity, poor posture, as well as stress.

How can you Prevent or Relieve Back Pain?

Maintain a healthy weight by leading an active lifestyle and eating healthy food. If you’re obese or an unhealthy weight, it can cause strain on your lower back.
Don’t be inactive for long periods of time. Create reminders to help you move more often.
If you love wearing high heels, you might want to consider lowering your heels or even wearing flat, comfortable shoes.
Smoking can also cause back pain because it impairs your blood flow which results in oxygen and nutrient deprivation to your spinal tissues
Do some Pilates. Strengthen your upper body (core, neck, back, rear shoulders) as well as your glutes. Most of the time you have to engage your core to stand tall or sit upright at your desk.

2. Isolation

People are social creatures, always wanting to connect with others and share what’s happening in their life. Social media can trick the mind into allowing a person to think they’re part of the people around them it actually does the opposite of bringing people together, by causing people to be socially isolated in their own world.

Fixing Social Isolation

Participating in Pilates or yoga classes where there are other people as well, is a great solution to prevent you from feeling so isolated. When all of you are following along with the instructor you’ll undoubtedly feel part of the team!

3. Depression

Depression is a common mental disorder which many people suffer from. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), more than 300 million people globally suffer from depression and more women are affected by the mental disease than men.

Many cases of depression are due to genetic influences. Depression can run in your family and most people struggle to escape illness. But there are also many other factors that can lead to a person’s depression:

Leading a stressful life
Unemployment
Social media. Looking at how “great” other people’s lives are going compared to yours, might trigger people into feeling like their lives are unfulfilled. Social media is a huge culprit here.
Loneliness

How do you Know if you Suffer from Depression?

Before diagnosing yourself, it’s best to go to a professional who has knowledge of mental illness. But in the meantime, a few symptoms are:

Feeling persistently miserable, anxious, and helpless
Loss of interest in things you usually enjoyed
Suicidal thoughts
Poor concentration
Loss of appetite
Loss of energy

There are so many other symptoms which indicate depression in people. If you want to see more symptoms, This Way Up has an informative list for you to read through.

How to Deal with Depression?

Try to stay connected with friends and family. This might help with loneliness.
Medication such as antidepressants might be helpful but speak to a medical professional first
Exercise such as yoga, Pilates or simply walking can make a big difference to your mood.
Talk to someone you trust or a professional about how you are feeling.

4. Poor Digestion

People rarely discuss their digestive disorders. Silent suffering is usually the go-to method. Often we don’t seek advice to deal with these common digestive problems such as diarrhoea, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), constipation, heartburn, bloating, nausea, the list goes on!

All these problems are compounded by and can be caused by our modern fast-paced lifestyle. Believe it or not, not sitting upright can cause heartburn! Also, people don’t eat the necessary healthy food to ensure their body gets all the nutrients it needs to function properly. We eat fast food, don’t move enough, eat too much or too little, and so forth.

According to an article from Copeman Healthcare, exercise can strengthen your digestive tract and keep your gut healthy. The amount of blood diverted from your digestive system decreases when you’re fit so the need isn’t as urgent.

Luckily there are also many other options to improve your digestive system to help alleviate the common problems you face on a daily basis.

Add probiotics via capsules or food, such as yoghurt or kefir.
Change the way you eat and also what you eat. Try adding more natural, whole foods into your nutritious habits and remove processed foods and sugar.
Drink enough water. When we become dehydrated our body shows signs of sleepiness, headaches occur, dry skin, dry mouth, to name a few.
Exercise can improve digestion. Try doing some Pilates!

5. Stress

Stress. The ultimate modern day demon most of us face on a daily basis. Hands sweating, heart pounding, not being able to eat or overeating. Stress can wreak havoc on a person’s mind and body. It can eat away at you.

In today’s life, there are many causes of stress such as financial problems, stressful work, personal relationships, parenting, etc. Everyone has their own demons plaguing them at night. Luckily, there are also many ways to relieve stress from our lives.

Exercise. Getting your heart rate up and releasing endorphins will make you feel much better 🙂
Supplements – find out what you need, how much and choose good quality brands.
Drinkable oils such as CBD oil or using essential oils therapeutically
Writing down how you feel in a journal.
Spend time with people you care about.
Laughing. Laughing reduces stress hormones.

As you can see, the modern world can cause a lot of problems for our minds and bodies, but it also has many solutions. We can never truly escape the problems we face daily but at least we can try and improve ourselves both physically and mentally.

If you want to take the first step to a fitter and healthier lifestyle, we offer various workouts such as HIIT, yoga, and Pilates to help get your healthy lifestyle started. Contact us to work out a programme to meet your needs. Have a blessed day!