Establishing a healthy lifestyle can help all the members of your family live longer, healthier lives.

Moving muscles and making the heartbeat faster can help you reduce stress, feel more energetic, look better, sleep better and have greater concentration. Doing physical activity with your family allows all the members to stay active while maintaining healthy weights. Exercise also protects the family from developing heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke and osteoporosis (weak bones). Though osteoporosis and most of the formerly mentioned diseases are more prevalent in the elderly; children may develop some of these conditions and as such, need to exercise as well.

Children need at least one hour of moderate to vigorous activity everyday. This can be spread out in bouts of 10-15 minutes workout/playtime activity throughout the day. Older children, particularly those 12 and over need more vigorous activity for longer periods. Children’s exercise routines do not have to be as rigid as an adult’s and can simply be games such as: football, bicycle riding, skipping and running games.

Encourage strongly, the idea of playing with your children. The more you play with your children is the more active you all get and the more comfortable they are around you. Proper exercise and physical activity will undoubtedly have positive effects on your children—teaching them teamwork, organisation skills and initiative. Parents may opt to simply organise an activity after the children have their done homework each evening. Simple stretches or jumping jacks will suffice. On weekends however, the exercise routine can be a little more lengthy and rigorous.

The television takes up a considerable amount of time, try avoiding this by cutting down on tv time by doing physical activity during these hours.

Incorporating the family in this kind of activity is definitely a sure way to keep everyone happy and healthy. Start today!

Often times we focus on the physical, forgetting that we are also psychological beings that need to pay special attention to our mental health. Research has shown that physical health diversely affects psychological health.

Neglecting our mind means that we become susceptible to any mental illness or condition. Some of the conditions include depression and schizophrenia. Information from the Ministry of Health reveals that an uneven balance of chemicals in the brain causes depression. The research indicates that a chemical called serotonin may play a role in depression. And it is suggested that this condition might be hereditary. Depression is treatable and as such comes with common symptoms. Some of these include:

• Not doing things that were once enjoyable

• Feeling sad, fretful and hopeless

• Constantly feeling tired

• Sleeping too much or not enough

• Eating too much or too little food

• Losing or gaining too much weight

• Thinking of death or suicide

Persons with four or more of these symptoms can be considered as victims of depression. This mental disorder can be treated with the aid of antidepressants, psychotherapy or a combination of both. In psychotherapy, the patient and the therapist discuss the patient’s feelings and experiences in order to work out the difficult areas. The duration of the treatment is directly dependent on how severe the case is.

Depression can be a lonely place, so it is important for family and friends to stay close to victims. Encouragement and kind words can allow for a speedy recovery; the support victims receive is valuable.