Drink more water! Sleep less! Snap out of it! Let’s bust some outdated beliefs.
You can never drink too much water.
Women need around eight glasses of water per day and men need up to 10, but the body can get approximately 20 per cent of its total water requirements from solid foods alone. The digestion process also produces water as a byproduct and can provide around 10 per cent of the body’s water requirements. The rest must come from liquids. There are many dangers associated with dehydration, but yes, you can also drink too much water. If you drink litre after litre very quickly, the kidneys become overloaded, causing water intoxication. This condition is called Hyponatraemia, where the sodium in the blood drops to a dangerous level, hindering muscle contraction and nerve impulses. A rare condition, Hyponatraemia can lead to headaches, blurred vision, cramps (and eventually convulsions), swelling of the brain, coma and possibly death.
You need to eat meat and dairy to get enough protein
Eating a variety of protein-rich plant foods (nuts, seeds, legumes, soy and grains) each day will give your body all the protein and amino acids it needs. Unlike meat, protein-rich plant foods have thousands of phytochemicals that protect against disease. Check this chart for protein-rich plants.
People who sleep a lot are just plain lazy
One of the pillars of health, sleep is essential for your body to repair damage, and even older people need seven to nine hours sleep per night. In fact, being overtired can impact brain function similarly to being intoxicated by alcohol, decreasing your ability to concentrate and perform cognitive tasks. Physical performance is hindered as well. Accumulated sleep loss affects hormones including ghrelin which stimulates appetite. Insulin levels are also affected, contributing to the risk of pre-diabetes. These factors combined mean a lack of sleep is one of the strongest risk factors for obesity, heart disease and stroke. Restricting sleep also leads to grumpy moods and anti-social feelings in the short term, but can end up contributing to depression down the track. And we all know exhaustion lowers your immune system and leaves you susceptible to bugs. The answer? Press snooze!
Aging means loss of brain power and strength.
What’s that? Older people continue to learn as they age and can integrate new knowledge easily, so long as they move it and don’t lose it. A Canadian study comparing active adults between the ages of 53 and 75 with sedentary adults found the active group’s muscle cells functioned nearly as efficiently as 20-somethings’. New studies in neurogenesis or brain plasticity show that the brain has the ability to change and alter function throughout life by forming new connections between brain cells. These study show that decreased mental capacity is down to physical and functional changes in the brain, not age. It can be avoided and even reversed through a variety of environmental enrichment activities, including physical and mental training exercises. The secret is to challenge the brain, and to do novel and stimulating tasks that don’t rely on established ways of doing things – as in, get out of your comfort zone!
Depression is caused by a chemical imbalance
Scientists from Florida State University say “low serotonin levels are no more the cause of depression than low aspirin levels are the cause of headaches.” The Irish Medicines Board actually banned drug company GlaxoSmithKline from claiming that depression is caused by a chemical imbalance. According to BeyondBlue, Depression usually results from a combination of recent events and other longer-term or personal factors, including genetics. Effective treatment can stimulate the growth of new nerve cells in circuits that regulate your mood, rather than treating the chemical imbalance, which is merely a symptom.
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