World Mental Health Day: Why You Need To Focus On Your Mental Health For A Long Life

When we talk about health, it is important to consider our mental health as well. Being healthy doesn’t only mean absence of diseases, especially if you aren’t able to cope with your surroundings and have healthy relationships with others.?

People who live in countries that come under the ‘Blue Zone’ state that the secret to their long life isn’t only eating healthy and exercising but living with low stress levels, having strong family ties, having a sense of purpose, experiencing spirituality, and getting plenty of sleep. Environment also plays a big role when it comes to our mental health. Staying in a place that is clean and hygienic, with low levels of pollution, and the ability to connect with nature are the physical aspects of the environment. Another aspect includes the people you surround yourself with. Family, friends, coworkers and the community should help you grow emotionally, cognitively and spiritually.?

When we are mentally healthy, we are able to make good life choices and decisions that also impact our physical health. If we take care of our physical health, it can help boost our mental health in return. There are however few things that can hamper this delicate balance;

1. Stress
2. Lifestyle choices and
3. Mental health disorders??

Let’s see how…

Stress And Longevity Are Connected

There are times where we are under stress. Whatever may be the reason, people feel stressed due certain characteristics of stress like;??

1. If the situation comes up suddenly in your life
2. If it is something you haven't handled before
3. If it persists for a long period of time and
4. If you don't have the resources to deal with it

Research conducted by Indiana University showed that people subjected to high stress had a shift in expression levels of the AKN3 genes and mitochondrial dysfunction which can result in premature aging and reduced longevity. These can result in poor mental and physical health with a diminished prognosis as well.?

Stress reduction tools and support in times of crisis by friends, family, organizations and mental health experts can help people cope with stress effectively and ensure a happy and long life. These are some of the things people living in ‘Blue Zones’ also do to reduce their stress levels and live a happier, healthier and longer life.

Lifestyle Choices That Impair Mental Health And Longevity

One other thing that can affect your mental health and longevity is poor lifestyle choices. These lifestyle choices revolve around things like;?

1. Nutrition - When we include proper macro and micronutrients in our diet, we fuel our body to help in our day-to-day life. Proper diet can also help you keep diseases at bay, maintain a healthy weight and help you live longer. To know what your proper diet should be like check out my podcast with Ken Berry.The gut brain axis also shows how the millions of bacteria that are in our intestines actually influence our mental health and nervous system functioning. Studies have also shown the influence of nutrition in the communication of gut-brain axis. A disturbance may promote weight gain due to changes in metabolism, satiety control and eating behavior, severe diseases like multiple sclerosis, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease and changes in mood and behavior by influencing our neurotransmitters like serotonin, dopamine, stress hormones and so on. If you want to know more on how diet affects mental health, then check out my podcast with Dr. Bonnie Kaplan.?
2. Sleep - getting proper restful sleep of 7-9 hours is needed for optimal functioning. Proper sleep can help in our performance and productivity, regulate hormones, prevent obesity, heal the body and improve immune system functioning. Not getting proper sleep can be a sign of a sleep disorder like insomnia which can result in other mental health conditions like anxiety, depression and even psychosis.?
3. Exercise - Exercise is good for the body. It strengthens our muscles and bones, improves our immunity, prevents obesity and lifestyle diseases like coronary heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and even severe diseases like Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. Exercise also has a positive effect on our mental health by improving our mood and sleep by regulating hormones. It helps in the release of hormones like dopamine and serotonin. Daily exercise can also help in increasing BDNF (brain derived neurotrophic factor), which can help alleviate symptoms of depression and anxiety and also strengthen our cognitive capacity. Exercise can also be an effective stress buster and can reduce levels of stress hormones - which can impact our health in the long run.?
4. Habits - Unhelpful habits, especially in times of stress, like consumption of alcohol, tobacco and drugs can affect our physical health and our mental health. Regular consumption of alcohol can shrink the brain size and can also damage brain cells. When it comes to drugs, it is very similar to the natural neurotransmitter available in the brain. Thus, using them mimics the natural neurotransmitter and they lead to abnormal messages being sent throughout the network. Some drugs produce abnormally large amounts of natural neurotransmitters or prevent the normal recycling of them. This also disrupts the normal communication between neurons. People with mental health disorders are more prone to consume substances to help them alleviate their symptoms, this can in turn can worsen their symptoms. People who consume substances are also at a higher risk to develop other mental health disorders such as anxiety, depression, schizophrenia or impulse control disorders. Substance abuse can also impair relationships, put strain in finances and can affect the community at large as well.?

When it comes to the lifestyle of people living in Blue Zones, it isn't very hard to understand and implement those choices in our life. They are simple things that they do which allows them to live longer and happier. It is not that they don’t indulge in their favorite food or abstain from alcohol. It's not that they don't feel stressed or lazy to go to the gym. The key to their life is balance. When they indulge, they do it in moderation, when they feel stressed, they try to alleviate it, when they feel lazy to work out, they take a walk amongst nature.?

Mental Health Disorders And Longevity

There is a huge gap between what is known about mental health and what is done to help people with it. In India at least 14% of our population face some form of mental health disorders. If we look at the loss incurred by our country due to poor mental health, it is around $1.03 trillion between 2012 and 2030 (World Health Organization). Despite the increase in the health budget these funds to help the people in India with mental health disorders aren't being utilized.?

Disorders have been prevalent for a long time and they are universal in nature, the problem that arises is in the actual care of people who suffer from them. There are people who have mental health disorders but it doesn't affect their lives in a big way. But on the other spectrum, are people who have extreme disorders like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, severe depression and so on who have poor quality of life, aren't able to look after themselves, their families, can't work and prosper in any way that you and I do. The people who suffer with these severe mental health disorders often have a shorter life expectancy as they are prone to substance use disorders, are suicidal in nature and have poorer prognosis and health outcomes. According to WHO, mental illnesses under the category of severe often have a reduced life expectancy of 10-25 years. This can be due to comorbid physical diseases caused by medications they take for their mental illness. It can be due to substance use and overdosing. It can also be due to the financial strain that can limit the availability for medical care, nutritious food and clean environment to live in.?

Even if we spread awareness and increase our understanding of these disorders to develop medications and therapeutic interventions the problem arises in the efficacy of these. The goal should be to spread awareness and , develop tools that allow people with debilitating disorders a chance to have a substantial quality of life. Therapy can provide tools to people with mental illnesses of various severities. Psychoeducation and family therapy can allow the person suffering the mental illness to involve their family and the family members can also understand the persons’ health condition better and what all to look out for in case the disorder reoccurs.??

Unless we can improve the quality of life of people with severe mental illness, we can’t expect any improvement of health and wellbeing of people in our country. This should be a combined effort on the part of the person, the mental health practitioner, the family members and the society.?

How Can You Get Started On Your Mental Health Journey?

Consulting a professional mental health expert (licensed clinical psychologist) to understand your mental health and what more you can do to improve it is one thing you can do. If you want to know and understand your body so that you feel you have the power to make your own decisions to improve your health, understand it better and how to lead a healthy life you can visit humanedge.co.?

This newsletter is a part of our ongoing series.?