Jessica Chapman, Author at MedFitNetwork

Stressed Man Working At Desk In Busy Creative Office

5 Surprising Ways That Your Job Influences Your Health

Jessica Chapman/5 November 2021/ All MFN blog/

Different aspects of your life can affect your health. Exercise, food intake, and sleep are prevalent factors. Unknowingly, your job also affects your mental and physical health. You must consider it if you wish to live a healthy lifestyle.

You spend a majority of your waking hours at work. Several studies have pointed out that the work environment affects your overall well-being and relationships with other people. Let’s take a look at some of them:

Work Overload

Overworking can have adverse effects that include mood disorders, debilitating stress, and illness. If you have little control over your workload, you may experience burnout. According to the American Institute of Stress, 80% of employees and managers face stress at work that results from competition between coworkers, tense working environments, and a feeling of walking on eggshells.

The World Health Organization describes burnout as a type of chronic work stress depleting energy and diminishing efficacy. 50% of workers quit their jobs because of it. You tend to mentally disengage from your coworkers and become increasingly adverse about them. Cynicism with extended working hours drains your joy about working and increases exhaustion.

Depression and anxiety are also prevalent when you overwork yourself. Your moodiness can affect your relationships with your colleagues and supervisors. Overworking can also increase overall work dissatisfaction and heighten anxiety, and you also experience low self-esteem and have feelings of inadequacy. Your feelings of helplessness and restlessness can make you slip into depression.

Lack of Physical Activity

If you work in an office setup, your lack of physical activity can result in several health problems. Your sedentary lifestyle can lead to muscle-related pain, fatigue, and diabetes. You are also susceptible to eye issues if you stay glued to your computer every day.

You often get lost in work and spend hours in your seat. If you suffer from constant backache, you now know why. Sitting in your office chair for extended periods can strain and overstretch your back muscles.

Hating Your Job

If you love your work, you are fortunate because you can pay your bills doing things you like to do. Unfortunately, if you hate what you do but stay in your job to pay the bills, you become unhappy and eventually suffer from stress and exhaustion.

The University of Manchester released the results of its study about poor-quality jobs. According to them, staying in a job you have can wreak havoc on your mental health. It is even worse than being jobless. A passive-aggressive boss, hostile co-employees, and mind-numbing tasks, together with spending more than 40 hours per week in your office, can worsen your situation.

If you are dealing with a mental health issue, you can experience stress, burnout, and exhaustion, especially if you cannot find other jobs or feel obligated to stay because you have bills to pay. Your loss of autonomy and feeling of indebtedness can be emotionally draining.

You feel stuck because your mental health issues do not allow you to find your way out. You do not have the motivation to search for alternatives. You feel helpless and hopeless to change your situation. Getting out of the trapped mindset needs a courageous effort.

Long Commute

The workday starts and ends with your commute. If you live in a large city, your commute takes longer. You become less happy and experience burnout quicker. Your daily commute is also a health risk as commute distance and time continually increase. As a commuter, you spend more than a total of 80 minutes getting to and from work.

The situation worsens if you must commute from one city to another. It increases your blood pressure. You experience heightened cortisol and adrenaline levels that raise your risk of a heart attack. Respiratory issues and air pollution exposure can also have acute effects on your health.

If you stay in your car for an hour’s drive to work, you are adding one more hour to your sedentary lifestyle. Lack of physical activity can lead to diabetes and obesity. Aside from the physical manifestations, an extended commute can also lead to listlessness, boredom, anger, and stress.

Although you can deal with them, you suffer from long-term chronic stress if such moments occur daily. Driving through traffic can result in expending more mental and physical energies that can be exhausting.

Interpersonal Relationships at Work

Establishing close connections with your coworkers is healthy. You are less likely to feel burnout and become happier if you have more camaraderie with your colleagues. Belonging to a group increases your sense of purpose, meaning, affinity, agency, and control. You become competent and productive at work because of your identification with your company.

However, if you have negative work interactions or experience bad bosses and bullying, your health can suffer. Loneliness can result in your untimely demise. Therefore, you must connect with other people in your company. If you can find connectivity with your bosses or coworkers, you can search elsewhere.

Try These 5 Snacks to Lower Your Cholesterol

Jessica Chapman/4 August 2021/ All MFN blog/

High cholesterol levels can dramatically increase your risk of heart disease. In particular, low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol is the bad kind of cholesterol, and it’s the kind you most certainly do not want floating around in your bloodstream.

The good news is that, by sticking to the right diet, you can reduce LDL cholesterol levels in your blood and keep them at healthy quantities. You should make sure to eat only foods with lots of healthy fat and fiber, such as fruits, vegetables, seeds, nuts, whole grains, legumes (for plant protein), and lean meats like fish and chicken. Just increasing your fiber intake can reduce your cholesterol levels by 10% or more.

If you already have high cholesterol levels, it’s important that you don’t aggravate the problem by taking even more saturated fats in your diet. Try to reduce quantities of dairy and meat in your diet, keeping them at no more than 5% of your daily caloric intake. For someone who consumes 2,000 calories a day, that’s no more than 11 grams.

You should also be careful about which snacks you consume. Many snacks are highly processed, which means they’ll contain high amounts of fat. Try to stick to healthy snack options that are packed with healthy fat and fiber.

In this article, we’ll help you do just that by recommending 5 super snack foods that will keep your cholesterol levels as low as they need to be. They are all homemade, so it’s stuff you can get when doing your regular grocery shopping. They’re also quite easy to prepare and flexible enough that you can use them as inspiration for your own recipes. Each of the snacks below is packed with healthy unsaturated fats, plenty of fiber, and consists of whole grains, vegetables, or fruits. They also have very little LDL cholesterol.

Avocado on Toast

Avocado is a popular fruit well known for its high amounts of healthy unsaturated fats. It has also been shown to drastically lower the amount of unhealthy LDL cholesterol in the body. Taking just half an avocado will provide up to 5 grams of fiber, more than enough to meet your daily requirements. If you take it with some whole-grain toast you can get even more fiber from the mix.

Making avocado toast is very easy. Simply toast a slice or two of whole-grain bread, peel and slice an avocado up thinly and top the bread with it. If you’d like to add some flavor, sprinkle some herbs and maybe a bit of lemon juice.

Tuna Wraps

Tuna is a very nutritious food, with plenty of omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3 is a healthy unsaturated fat that drastically lowers bad cholesterol levels in the blood. It also tastes really good if you’re into fish!

To make some tuna wraps, start by making a tuna salad. Get a can of tuna and mix it with your favorite vegetables, such as celery, onion, or something else. Don’t forget to pour some olive oil into the mix too.

For the wrap, you can also get nori, a type of seaweed that comes in thin, edible sheets. Wrap the tuna in the nori and eat to your heart’s content! Alternatively, if seaweed isn’t your thing, you can get lettuce leaves to make tuna sandwiches.

Curried Salmon Salad Celery Boats

While we’re still on the topic of fish, salmon is yet another fantastic option. It is a delicious food and also a rich source of omega-3 fatty acids. Also, just like tuna, it can be used to make nutritious and delicious snacks.

To make salmon salad, get a can of salmon and oil-based mayonnaise. Mix the two together, and throw in some chopped grapes, curry powder, honey, and cashews. Next, take some of your delicious salad and place it on a few celery sticks to make a simple snack for your taste buds and health.

Guacamole

Let’s take a quick moment to revisit the glorious avocado with this simple yet delicious and nutritious snack. Guacamole is simply a fancy name for avocado salad. You can make it by getting a ripe avocado and mixing half of it with a diced tomato, a chopped onion, some minced garlic, and some lime juice to give that extra zing. To give the guacamole even more character, you can mix it with slices of your favorite vegetables, such as asparagus, bell peppers, and carrots.

Oatmeal

If you want a snack that gives you plenty of energy, oatmeal bites are yet another great option. Not only are they very low in bad cholesterol, but they are also a rich source of protein. You can make your own high-protein snack using rolled oats, ground flax seeds, chia seeds, nut butter, dried fruit, honey, and some dark chocolate.

Mix the ingredients into a thick paste that you can easily mold, and then scoop some portions and roll them into balls. Throw them in the fridge for long term storage, taking them out whenever you’re going out and need some energy!

Jessica Chapman is a college paper writer and editor at BrillAssignment. She also writes best assignment writing service UK reviews. She is into sports and politics and enjoys traveling.