Health News and Tips:

35 Simple Health Tips Experts Swear By - A Series

What is a societally condoned dietary constituent that helps prevent liver disease, makes you alert and does not need to break the bank? 

Coffee! The cheapest brewed coffee with the lowest number of additives helps the brain, liver and microbiota.

– Dr. Jasmohan S. Bajaj

Hepatologist and professor at Virginia Commonwealth University

In the world we live in, the phone is usually the last thing we see and the first thing we see. It’s the bookend to our sleep, which is terrible. At night, I shut my phone down and meditate before I go to bed. In the morning, I meditate when I wake up — before looking at my phone.

– Peter Economou

Assistant professor of applied psychology at Rutgers University

Each year, make a commitment during your birthday month to schedule all your annual health checkups. Schedule them for anytime in the next year before your next birthday. Keeping your health in check requires consistent care. This helps make sure that you get it done.

– Dr. Folasade P. May

Gastroenterologist and associate professor of medicine at U.C.L.A.

Often when I’m feeling mentally foggy, I use the 10-10-10 rule: Take a 10-second break every 10 minutes to stare at something 10 feet away. This not only helps reduce eyestrain from screen time, but the brief mental break can help boost your focus and refresh your cognitive clarity.

– Lisa Mosconi

Neuroscientist and director of the Weill Cornell Women’s Brain Initiative

I look for opportunities for bite-size “movement snacks.” Exposure to different movements helps prevent injury and increases range of motion. When you leave a room, touch the top of the doorway. If you walk by a playground, just go hang on the monkey bar for a little bit. Put your hands against the wall, lean forward and pedal out your feet to flex your ankles. Look for times to sit on the ground, so you have to get back up. Try brushing your teeth on one foot.

– Michelle Voss

Associate professor of brain sciences at the University of Iowa

If you want to eat more healthfully, minimize your intake of ultraprocessed foods —concocted with nonfood ingredients, designed to be irresistible if not addictive (“You can’t eat just one”) and unable to be made in home kitchens because you don’t have the equipment or industrial ingredients. How do you recognise one? Check the ingredient list. If it’s full of chemical flavors, texturizers or colors, leave it on the shelf.

– Marion Nestle

Sleep specialist and author of “Sleep Drink Breathe”