This article was originally published on .Ìę

Joints undergo a lot of wear and tear in a life, especially if you’re an active individual. And while genetic factors certainly play a role in joint health, lifestyle is also key in keeping them in good working order.Ìę

Common Joint Issues in Women

Regardless of your activity level, every woman is prone to joint issues. Some of the most common woes involve the lower extremities. “Knees are probably the most common, followed by hips, ankles and shoulders,” saysÌę, M.D., associate professor of orthopedic surgery at Harvard Medical School and director of arthroplasty research at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. Why the knees? Chen blames it on women’s anatomy, namely the angles of the bones from the hips through the knees and down to the ankles.Ìę

Of course, there are hereditary issues, like rheumatoid arthritis, that can be difficult to prevent. But even arthritis comes with good news. “Arthritis is manageable and treatable and shouldn’t be feared,” saysÌę, PT, MSPT, physical therapist with Atlantic Spine Center in West Orange, New Jersey.

How to Keep Your Joints Healthy

So what should you be doing to keep them healthy and strong? Try these seven strategies:

1. Eat an Anti-Inflammatory Diet

Food and supplements can directly impact joints, Chen says. When her patients eat an anti-inflammatory diet, they report that their pain is reduced. Think about Ìęand turmeric. And while many people tout supplements like glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate for joint health, the verdict is still out on how helpful they are.

2. Choose Joint-Friendly Activities

When it comes to activity, it’s a double-edged sword. “Too much exercise can lead to joint overload, which can cause pain,” Chen says. On the flip side, though, weight-bearing exercises are important for maintaining joint health, and activities like using the elliptical and bike riding are better on the knees than activities like running, she says. Walking on soft, even surfaces like tracks also can be better than walking on asphalt or concrete.Ìę

3. Pump Some Iron

You know strength training can help maintain bone density, but it also can strengthen tendons and muscles, which, along with ligaments, form the support system for your joints. “A stable support system reduces the stress on the joints during daily activities,” Yalamanchili says. For joint health, aim for twoÌęÌęevery week, focusing on compound exercises that use multiple muscle groups.Ìę

4. Get Some Sleep

As crazy as this sounds, sleep reallyÌęcan impact your joints. “Poor sleep can result in less energy, which may discourage activity, leading to worse joint health,” Chen says. Yet that pain can actually affect your sleep, leading to a vicious cycle. Bottom line? Getting enough sleep will help you maintain an active lifestyle, which will keep everything running smoothly. The Sleep Foundation recommends logging seven to nine hours every night.Ìę

5. Don’t Ignore Joint Pain

This should seem obvious, but there are women who will brush off their pain, following the adage of “walking it off.” Yet if joint pain is persistent, seek medical attention so that you prevent a worse injury, Chen advises.Ìę

6. Modify Activities When Necessary

If you are starting to have issues, Ìęversus quitting your exercise program, Yalamanchili says. For instance, if you’re doing high-impact activities and they’re starting to get the best of you, switch to low-impact activities or swap a strength-training exercise like a step-up for a lunge.Ìę

7. Stay Active as You Age

This is perhaps the most important thing you can do for your joints because motion really is lotion. “Joint health improves with appropriate cardio activity,” Chen says.Ìę

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You feel stressed about a presentation at work and can’t seem to shake imposter syndrome. Your friend blows up your phone seeking reassurance about her relationship. Your mom hasn’t had a decent night’s sleep in weeks because she can’t stop worrying.

As a rule, worry doesn’t discriminate. But how it plays out is unique to each of us. “Stress tends to be more specific to an external pressure that you’re aware of, and it’s shorter-term,” says Juliet Lam Kuehnle, a clinical mental health counselor and author of . Although stress can occasionally trigger feelings of anxiousness, Kuehnle continues, anxiety tends to be longer lasting and typically involves “anticipatory worry of some future event.”

The experience of anxiety can either be related to a specific identifiable situation or it can be more generalized. But the one constant is fear in response to uncertainty, says , PhD, psychologist, and executive coach in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Although occasional anxiety happens to most of us, chronic anxiety is less common yet more debilitating, causing you to become so preoccupied with the future that you find yourself unable to be experience what’s happening in the present. At work, for instance, you might notice that you’re unfocused, less productive, and lacking in creativity. Anxiety can also make it difficult to connect with friends and family, develop intimate relationships, and appreciate life, says McKay.

Although you can’t control what happens to you, there are some everyday contributors to anxiety that you can influence in an attempt to soothe your emotional state. If you think you might suffer from chronic anxiety, seeking out a board-certified therapist can provide helpful insights and ensure that you don’t struggle through your fears alone.

8 Unexpected Dos and Don’ts to Minimize Anxiety

1. Do Stay Hydrated

You already know (and have been told a mind-numbing number of times) that adequate water intake is essential for your physical well-being. But quelling your anxiety may be another compelling reason to reach for your water bottle.

According to a in the World Journal of Psychiatry, subjects who drank five or more glasses of water a day reported lower ratings of anxiety and depression than those who drank less than two glasses a day. Although more research is needed, it can’t hurt to keep your water glass or bottle in sight at all times. If you still forget to sip, set an alarm for every 30 minutes as a reminder.

2. Don’t Tell Your Brain to Stop Worrying

Chances are you’ve seen the meme that says, “Never in the history of calming down has anyone calmed down by being told to calm down.” The same advice applies to how you talk to yourself.

Telling yourself to turn off your negative thoughts is “like asking your nose to stop smelling or your ears to stop listening,” says McKay. By trying to stop the thoughts, you draw even more attention to them, making it harder for your brain to disregard whatever incited your anxiety.

A better approach to disrupting negative thoughts is by focusing your attention elsewhere, says McKay. What type of distraction works best will be unique to you. One way to quiet your fears about the future is to become intensely absorbed in your present, whether that means watching your coffee brew, losing yourself in a book, journaling your thoughts, or focusing all your attention on what the other person in a conversation is saying.

Another way to focus your awareness to what you’re doing is to move your body, which also brings other anti-anxiety benefits.

3. Do Get Physically Active

Your body can’t discern the difference between an actual threat and something that you perceive as a threat. That means whenever you become anxious, your sympathetic nervous system automatically activates, your body goes into fight, flight, or freeze mode, and your heart rate, blood pressure and breathing to accelerate. It’s the exact same response whether you barely averted a car accident or were asked a question in a Zoom meeting while you weren’t paying attention.

Although you can’t change your physiological response, you can learn how to lessen the severity of it, Kuehlne says. Regular exercise can help. A from the Journal of Affective Disorders found that moderate and strenuous exercise, including aerobic activity and strength training, helped ease symptoms of anxiety in those who were suffering from chronic anxiety. A in JAMA Psychiatry also found improved symptoms in those subjects with generalized anxiety disorder who practiced yoga.

In terms of how much exercise you “should” be doing, any amount of moving your body is better than none. That could mean letting loose in a dance party of one in between meetings, a class at the gym or yoga studio, or an all-day hike.

4. Don’t Get Sucked into Doomscrolling

No is telling you to quit social media. But according to a recent study, when college students limited their social media usage to 30 minutes a day, their anxiety levels decreased.

“Anyone who experiences anxiety is likely to be affected by the scroll,” McKay says. But the researchers specified that the results were less about the specific amount of time spent online and more about being aware of how you’re interacting with social media and making some effort to limit yourself. That includes being choosy about who you follow, which means lessening your exposure to sensationalized news reports and beautified accounts that only show the “Instagram version” of life.

Also, consider using social media for good, McKay says. Post or share things that inspire you or use it as a place where you can catch up with your friends.

5. Do Eat More Plants

The relationship between food and your mood is not news—and something that’s probably been apparent to you since you were a kid. But published in the Annals of Medical Research suggests a surprising correlation between a predominantly plant-based lifestyle and anxiety.

Researchers surveyed hundreds of individuals on their emotions and found that vegans and vegetarians experienced significantly lower self-reported levels of anxiety and depression than omnivores. No further distinction was made regarding the specific intake of subjects.

It’s well known and supported by science that certain , which means if you choose to reduce your consumption of meat, emphasizing unprocessed food will do more for your longterm mood than seeking out the .

6. Don’t Overindulge in Alcohol

Hangovers happen. Maybe you were out with friends and lost track of how many beers you had. Or you knew it might catch up with you but you figured the night would be sufficiently memorable to offset any side-effects.

But sometimes the morning after screams at you with more than a headache. Hangxiety, short for hangover anxiety, is the name for the sense of uncontrollable worry many suffer after a night of drinking. The science behind it is complicated, but according to a study in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, the body’s drive to regulate itself after being intoxicated “can lead to increased anxiety during withdrawal.”

The only known cure to hangxiety is prevention. When it isn’t an option to cut out alcohol entirely, curtail your consumption. Then pay careful attention or even journal about how much you consume and how you feel the next day. You might be surprised at the patterns you notice and your ability to discern your optimal cutoff.

7. Do Schedule Worry Time

Instead of adding to your anxiety by trying not to fall into worry, what if you indulged your negative thoughts? Setting a scheduled time each day to worry affords you a degree of control over the part of your brain that insists you consider each and every “what if.”

You can try journaling about your negative thoughts during this scheduled time, says McKay. “Literally writing down what you’re worried about helps shift your perspective on what you’re anxious about,” McKay says.

Another approach is , in which you deliberately bring your attention to your breath as you sit quietly. When your thoughts bombard you—which they will—try to simply observe them rather than spiraling into your reaction to them. Then bring your attention back to your breath. Repeat.

Your scheduled worry time can also include time spent in a therapy session.

8. Don’t Skimp on Sleep

No one operates at peak emotional capacity when they’re not sleeping well. But those who are prone to anxiousness tend to be especially sensitive to the effects of insufficient sleep, making it more likely that you’ll experienceÌę those unwanted symptoms, of anxiety, according to the

Not only can getting less sleep negatively influence your mood, but anxiety can cause you to get less sleep, creating a particularly frustrating cycle. It’s generally recommended that adults sleep between seven and nine hours a night, although your sleep needs are as unique to you as your anxiety. It can help to understand some of the most common misconceptions about sleep.

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Despite the fact that advice on how to sleep better is everywhere, it’s becoming more and more challenging—not to mention frustrating—to find reliable information.

Social media, exaggerated product claims by brands, even doctors who lack education can perpetuate myths around sleep, says Pedram Navab, a doctor of osteopathic medicine, neurologist, sleep medicine specialist, and author of .

The alternative to falling for false assertions is familiarizing yourself with advice from experts who understand the science of sleep. The following insights will help ensure you don’t lose another night’s rest.

8 Sleep Myths (and the Science That Debunks Them)

1. You Shouldn’t Exercise Before You Go to Bed

Research has long supported the fact that exercise can improve your sleep quality. Although a single workout can bring positive results, the more regularly you work out, the more likely you are to sleep better.

Until recently, experts cautioned against exercising close to when you turn in for the night. Not anymore. “For most people, exercising at night won’t get in the way of sleep,” says Michael Grandner, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Arizona College of Medicine and lead scientific advisor to Sleep Reset, a personalized sleep program.

Proof lies in a that concluded evening exercise didn’t adversely affect quality of sleep in subjects. In fact, it seems to have improved it. The only exception were those who practiced high-intensity exercise, such as running or cycling, within an hour of trying to fall asleep. Many of these subjects reported experiencing difficulty falling asleep and poorer quality sleep.

If you’re a late-night exerciser and suspect exercise is messing with your rest, try working out earlier or lowering the intensity of your nighttime routine. You could even try or , or a hybrid yoga class that begins with a fast-paced sequence and slowly settles into long-held stretches known as .

2. It’s Only What You Do At Night That Matters

Yes, everyone knows that consuming caffeine and taking long naps can stifle sleepiness hours after the fact. But there are less obvious daytime behaviors that can influence your ability to fall asleep. Notably, stress. has shown us again and again that stress and sleep engage in a complicated relationship.

“We think ‘I’m going to be up all day working and then I’m going to turn my life off,” says , PsyD, a behavioral sleep medicine provider and sleep expert with Calm, the sleep and meditation app and mental health brand. “But as sleep informs the day, the day informs sleep.” Harris suggests that you think of sleep on a 24-hour continuum as a reminder to “pay attention to all the ways you manage your physical and emotional health throughout the day, which in turn influences your ability to sleep.”

She suggests getting outside to ensure adequate exposure to natural light, which can reset your circadian rhythm. Also, Harris says, taking brain breaks as needed or whatever else helps you be at a better baseline. One thing she regularly recommends is meditation.

“When you meditate during the day, you cultivate a life of mindfulness and notice when your brain is talking so much, and you learn to bring it back,” says Harris. “It makes it easier for them to use meditation at night when the stakes seem higher. You can say, ‘Nope, not now, back on track.’”

3. Lying in Bed With Your Eyes Closed Counts

Technically, yes, lying in bed awake with your eyes closed constitutes rest. But it’s no substitute for sleep. Ironically, that well-intentioned behavior could actually set you up for continued sleep disruption.

According to Grandner, remaining in bed when you can’t sleep is the most common behavior that can turn short-term sleep issues into long-term insomnia. “You’re creating a wake association with the bed,” says Grandner. This means your body and mind get used to not sleeping in bed, which can make falling asleep more stressful and keep you awake.

If you’ve been lying awake for more than 20 minutes or are getting frustrated, get out of bed and do something relaxing, says Grandner. For instance, meditate or read a non-stimulating book in a dimly lit room. As soon as you start feeling tired, head back to bed. Resist the urge to look at any digital device while you’re up. The device could stimulate your mind too much to fall back asleep and the blue light could mess up your production of melatonin, a sleep-inducing hormone, according to the .

4. You Need 8 Hours of Sleep

For years, we were told that we needed eight hours of sleep. While it’s possible eight hours is what you need, not everybody requires that amount. Some may need a little more, some a little less, Harris says.

The confusion arose, says Harris, when the National Sleep Foundation recommended that adults log between seven and nine hours of sleep. But somehow that was misunderstood as a single-digit average that applied to everyone.

In fact, in terms of cognitive performance, less may actually be okay. A revealed that somewhere between 5.5 and 7.5 hours could do the trick, the sweet spot being 6.5 hours, Navab says.

5. There’s Nothing Wrong With Hitting the Snooze Button

You know the scenario. You hear the alarm clock go off in the morning and you slap the snooze button
not just once, but twice, thrice, sometimes more. Although some of us might think it’s helpful to gradually awaken, science suggests that relying on the snooze button could mess up your sleep patterns in several ways.

First, relying on the snooze function interrupts your sleep cycle, only to start a new one that’s interrupted again. “This can lead to sleep fragmentation, which may leave you feeling groggy and less refreshed after waking up,” Navab says. This is known as , a state of grogginess and cognitive impairment that can linger after waking. Translation? Less productivity.

Plus, if you’re not consistent with your wake-up times, you could disrupt your body’s internal clock. As a result, you may have trouble falling asleep at night, Navab says. It could even lead to long-term sleep disorders.

Instead, set your alarm for the exact time that you want to get out of bed. Then—this demands some discipline—resist the urge to snooze. If necessary, place your alarm several feet from your bed so you have to actually get out of bed to turn it off.

6. You Can Make Up For Lost Sleep

Everyone knows someone who insists that when they skimp on sleep during the week, they can easily catch up on the weekend. If only this were true.

Sleep consists of different stages. Each fulfills a critical role. It’s the deep, or restorative, stage that is often sacrificed with diminished sleep. During this stage, your body literally restores itself at the cellular level by repairing damage to tissues, bolstering the immune system, and engaging in neural reorganization.

“When you consistently deprive yourself of sleep, your body and brain experience a deficit in the amount of restorative sleep that’s required for optimal performance,” says Navab. Those deficits accrue over time and can’t be reclaimed.

What’s more, when you try to make up for that sleep, you could make things worse. Your internal clock, also known as your circadian rhythm, is regulated by consistency in your sleep patterns. “Attempting to regain lost sleep can disrupt this rhythm and make it more difficult to attain the benefits,” says Navab.

So what do you do after a crappy night or two of tossing and turning? Take a nap. Navab considers daytime sleep to be productive and beneficial as long as you follow two rules: Schedule it for no later than 1 pm and nap for no longer than 30 minutes. Otherwise, you could disrupt your sleep later that night. If you’re a shift worker, take a nap before leaving for work.

7. You Can Train Your Body To Get By With (A Lot) Less Sleep

You can train your body to do incredible things. Climb a fourteener in Colorado. Hit a PR in a 10k. Nail in yoga class. But train it to get less sleep? In your dreams.

When researchers study sleep deprivation, they find that people feel like they’re adjusting to less sleep and report being less impaired, Grandner says. In reality, though, they’re functioning poorly, both physically and psychologically.

According to the , staying awake for 17 hours elicits the same effects as having a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .05 percent (.08 percent BAC is when you’re legally impaired). That rises to .10 percent if you’ve been awake for 24 hours.

“Brain function and other effects of sleep loss continue to increase over time,” says Grandner. “People may not notice anymore, though, because they start getting used to being impaired.”

Also, without proper sleep, you’re more likely to gain weight, lack energy, develop high blood pressure and diabetes, be more prone to getting a cold or the flu as well as take longer to recover. And that’s the short list.

There’s no getting around it: You’ve got to give your body the sleep it needs.

8. Slumbering With Your Four-Pawed Friend is Bad

According to the Center for Sleep Medicine, of pet owners let their cats or dogs bunk with them at night. Although experts have warned against this behavior for years, there may not be any substantiation for it. In fact, recent suggest co-sleeping with your pet may be less disruptive than sleeping alongside another human.

Navab says that for many of us, allowing a furry companion in bed can help relieve anxiety and promote relaxation. “Pets can potentially improve insomnia,” he says, explaining that the nightly routine you create for your pet can help you establish a consistent bedtime routine for yourself, which promotes a “robust homeostatic drive to sleep.”

So permission granted
sort of. The results are highly individual, cautions Navab. If allergies (yours) or noisy and disruptive behavior (theirs) become an issue, you may need to try keeping them out of your sleeping quarters and see if your rest patterns change. As with humans, it seems not everyone will make an ideal nighttime companion.

About Our Contributor

is an award-winning journalist who specializes in health, fitness, nutrition, travel, and animals. She’s been widely published in numerous leading publications, including Better Homes & Gardens, O, Real Simple, Eating Well, Women’s Health, Prevention, and more. She’s also the author of , a certified personal trainer, and Nordic walking world record holder who spends her spare time rescuing and fostering dogs.

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No one needs to tell you that work is a source of stress. But the workplace—and its unrelenting deadlines, meetings, politics, and frustrations—has become the leading stressor for Americans. According to a , 83 percent of workers in the United States suffer from work-related stress. Among that group, 25 percent report that work is their number one complaint.

While work stress takes a toll in numerous ways in our everyday lives, perhaps the largest toll is on mental well-being. Recently Calm, the mental health brand, asked users what difficult moments prompted them to use the app. Facing challenges at work was the most common response.

Eradicating workplace stress obviously isn’t an option. That leaves everyone in need of different ways to handle that stress better. The answer may seem too obvious.

“Taking a mental health break can take you out of the monotony—or chaos—of your day and bring you back to the present, allowing you to re-enter your work day less stressed and more focused, increasing your productivity in a calm and sustainable way,” says Madeline Lucas, a New York-based therapist at , a mental health therapy platform.

Easier said than done. If you think you’re too busy to take a break, feel guilty slipping away during work hours, or don’t want your co-workers to think you’re unproductive, you’re not alone. Those are the top three reasons why workers don’t take a break during the day for their mental health, according to a report.

But finding even 60 seconds to be present with yourself and your surroundings can help you feel more centered, says , a life coach, host of the , , and chief purpose officer at Calm.

When Do You Need to Take a Break at Work?

It may seem like you would know when you need to take a break. But that’s not necessarily the case. “Taking breaks at work is not intuitive,” Shetty says. “We haven’t been trained on when to take breaks or how to do them, so most people just skip them and take their stress into the next task or meeting.”

There are actually classic signs of needing to take a mental health break. Lucas explains, “Are you, for instance, having difficulty focusing or completing a task, becoming easily distracted by other thoughts or activities, or even noticing a dull numbness if you’ve been on your computer too long?”

You might also notice that you’re more irritated, annoyed, or resentful toward your coworkers and tasks than usual. Even feeling constantly fatigued can indicate you need to step away from the screen. Check in with yourself throughout the day—or even the hour.

5 Ways to Take a Break at Work (in Less than 60 Seconds)

How long you take a break is up to you. The more time you can devote to your mental health, the better. Although any amount of time for a break is better than none. Even 60 seconds.

The duration of your break might also depend on your manager or your workplace. “No one will probably notice if you take one minute for a few deep breaths before a meeting,” Shetty says.
If, however, you intend to take a longer break, you might want to communicate your need for that.

The most important thing to remember is, as Shetty says, “a short break is better than no break.” Here are five to try.

1. Stretch Your Neck

Settle yourself comfortably in your chair, close your eyes or soften your gaze, and release your shoulders away from your ears. Lower your chin toward your chest and slowly roll your head from side to side. As you do this, breathe deeply. Repeat at least two to three times, Lucas says. can activate the vagus nerve, which in turn kicks in your parasympathetic nervous system, which lessens physical and mental tension.

2. Practice the Three W’s

This refers to “walk, water, and window,” a practice that Shetty created. First, take a walk, which has stress-reducing benefits. Bonus points if you can be outside. But even just walking into another room or down the hallway can help, he says.

Next, drink some water. “Five cups of water per day lowers the risk of anxiety,” he says. This, by the way, comes from a recent in the World Journal of Psychiatry.

The last one is looking into the distance through a window. Not only will you give your mind a well-needed break, you’ll also reduce eye strain, he says. Follow the 20-20-20 rule from the American Optometric Association: Every 20 minutes, take a 20-second break and look at something 20 feet away.

3. Slow Your Breathing

Turning your attention to your breath is one of the most time-tested and science-backed ways to give your body and mind a break. Slowing your breath causes your heart rate to lessen, your blood pressure to lower, and your mind to quiet. And it can start to take effect in just a few seconds. Although focusing on your breathÌę won’t eradicate the source of your stress, it can modulate how you show up to it.

Inhale for a count of four and exhale for a count of four. Or as you breathe in, say “inhale” in your head, and say “exhale” as you breathe out. You could also use a specific mantra that matches your inhale and exhale. One option sometimes used in yoga is “” which means “I am that” in Sanskrit; say “so” to yourself as you inhale and “hum” as you exhale.

4. Tap It Out

Using your fingertips, lightly tap across your chest, then down each arm and back up to your chest. Take long, slow breaths as you do so. “This can awaken your system and reground you in the present moment,” Lucas says.

How, exactly? “Tapping is another way you can activate the parasympathetic nervous system to signal messages of safety, calm and relaxation to the brain,” she says. supports this.

5. Give (and Receive) Some TLC

Although silly pet videos can soothe your nervous system by making you laugh, that the real deal is even more effective. Engaging with a cat or dog for 10 minutes can significantly lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Can’t take a break for that long? Finding one minute to play with your fur baby isn’t going to make you feel worse.

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