In a recent editorial published in Nutrients, researchers described the health benefits of regular exercise, a healthy diet, and adequate sleep.
Study: Effects of Healthy Lifestyles on Chronic Diseases: Diet, Sleep and Exercise. Image Credit: Nok Lek Travel Lifestyle/Shutterstock.com
Background
The most impactful and controllable element influencing overall health and disease resilience is lifestyle. Chronic illness cases are a critical global health concern since they account for a considerable share of fatalities globally.
Chronic diseases cause poor health, impairments, and early mortality in developed nations, contributing to a large portion of healthcare spending.
In Western nations, the chronic disease burden is driven by dangerous lifestyles, environmental and social factors, and a longer life expectancy.
About the editorial
In the present editorial, researchers presented three crucial aspects of a healthy life: a balanced diet, regular physical activity, and sufficient sleep to prevent chronic non-communicable diseases.
Impact of diet, exercise, and sleep on health
Healthy lifestyles involve nutritious food, frequent exercise, and adequate rest and may considerably postpone or avoid chronic diseases. Sleep is integral to general health maintenance. People’s typical sleep hours are falling, whereas sleep disorder prevalence is rising.
Sleep is a powerful determinant of appetite and food selection, with decreased sleep duration increasing hunger, appetite, and food intake.
Incorporating time into lifestyle treatments can lead to extra health benefits and enhance compliance. Previous research found that sleep deprivation increased blood ghrelin levels, hunger and appetite, and the desire to consume food in the late but not early hours of the night. Sleep scheduling, on the other hand, did not affect leptin levels.
Weight reduction interventions have a significant impact on cardiometabolic health and sleep quality. The timing of sleep phases influences appetite and hunger management, highlighting the metabolic importance of circadian sleep regulation. Social jetlag (SJL) is the difference in sleep hours between weekdays and weekends associated with poor metabolic health.
According to one study, early-morning phenotypic participants had a higher daily consumption of fiber, potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, and vitamin K, and lower consumption of nutrients such as carbohydrates, proteins, total lipids, salt, and saturated fatty acids, and lower dinner energy.
The prevalence of type 2 diabetes (T2DM) has grown in Asian nations, with good eating habits related to lower T2DM risk among adults with sex differences. T2DM is common among older, less educated, and married males living in rural areas.
Non-diabetic women consume more vitamin C, calcium, fatty acids, retinol, and vitamin B2 than T2DM individuals, whereas healthy eating scores were inversely related to T2DM in women.
Influence of healthy lifestyles on metabolic diseases and cancers
Most tumor cells establish unique metabolic profiles as the disease progresses, making them extremely sensitive to alterations in food sources and overall metabolic status. These impacts have increased the interest of cancer researchers and oncologists in dietary treatments.
For example, colorectal cancer (CRC) risk is significantly impacted by diet habits and the makeup of the intestinal microbiota. However, the interplay between the two elements has thus far remained unknown.
A case-control-type study compared two diets and three intestinal microbial enterotypes for classifying 250 colorectal neoplasms among Han Chinese participants. The study reported that healthy diets rich in dairy products, fruits, and vegetables reduced the risk of CRC among individuals with the Lachnoclostridium- and Bacteroides-dominated type-I enterotype and the type-II type, with an odds ratio (OR) of 0.7.
Dietary composition and gut microbiota modulation impact particular metabolic illnesses, like metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), previously known as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), a common metabolic disorder globally.
So far, lifestyle treatments have demonstrated the highest efficacy in treating MASLD and associated complications, like metabolic-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) and cirrhosis of the liver.
A one-year study determined the influence of Mediterranean diets and physical exercise on glucose metabolism trajectories among MASLD patients.
Individuals with moderate to severe steatosis showed an early and consistent drop in glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels, whereas individuals with early-stage metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease experienced this effect post-nine months. The effects persisted for a year.
In contrast, researchers investigated the relationship between one-day behavioral cycles and MASLD among 4,502 overweight or obese individuals. A lower MASLD incidence was observed among individuals with high activity amplitudes, comparing the lowermost to the uppermost quintiles.
Participants in the uppermost quintiles for feeding rhythm scores and fasting time had a lower risk of MASLD. These connections were more robust in obese individuals, highlighting the possibility of behavioral therapies for MASLD treatment.
Conclusions
Based on the editorial, behavioral therapies support metabolic health by promoting lifestyle changes such as improved food, increased physical activity, stress management, and long-term behavioral changes.
These therapies assist patients in maintaining a healthy metabolic state characterized by high insulin sensitivity and low susceptibility to metabolic disorders such as obesity and T2DM. The editorial emphasizes the importance of timing in this situation.
Discriminating characteristics such as chronotype are evaluated, and techniques for using chronomedical approaches in lifestyle interventions are developed.