 Hello everyone, this is Dr. Ahmet Ergin. I'm an endocrinologist, diabetologist, a metabolism expert, and a weight loss expert. Today, we are talking about health tips that you did not know or you did not pay attention so far. A lot of things are cliche and people say, I already know that. I already know that. I know what to do. But I'll give you a few tips that you probably either didn't hear before or you did not pay attention enough. So let's get started. So guys, as a physician, of course, I see a lot of patients. I work pretty much 12 hours a day and one of the biggest things that I encounter every day in my clinic is high blood pressure. People always come up with excuses. They say, oh, I didn't take my blood pressure medication today or I'm stressed out or the traffic was bad or this and that. But let me tell you, if your blood pressure is going up for any reason, that's not a good sign. And blood pressure is a vital sign. So a lot of my diabetics just, they just get sold on the idea of lowering blood sugar, et cetera. But then they do not really care much about the blood pressure. But the fact is that 10 millimeter mercury increase in your systolic blood pressure can double your stroke risk. So get a blood pressure machine. Make sure you start testing. I will leave a link below for you to buy a quality blood pressure device and start measuring because blood pressure measurements are actually a lot more accurate when you're relaxed at home, not after a rush or something, but definitely having multiple measurements will give you the best idea and you can take it to your doctor and have them look into that as well. Especially if you have a white coat hypertension, that's the best thing to do. And I think guys, a lot of us go to doctor only after a major event, such as ending up in hospital because of blood sugars are 500 or because you end up in hospital because your blood pressure is 200. Again, these are not the time to go see the doctor, get tested regularly. That's why there are family doctors out there. They will check you, they will do your blood work, do your yearly physical. If you don't know, you don't know. And by the time you know, it may be too late. So getting tested, just stepping into doctor's office, I know it's not the most fun thing to do. You may be so busy with your life, but if you don't do it, you're not going to have a life. So make sure you get tested, the regular screenings for everything. And I think the prevention is the key. So make sure you get tested for diabetes, blood pressure, cholesterol, and other health conditions to your family practice doctor will recommend you. The third thing that I also get a lot is people tell me that they don't really eat anything and they can't lose weight, or they will say they don't really eat any carbs and their blood sugars are not under control. Well, they are willingly or unwillingly hiding a piece of information, and that is that they are drinking their calories. So if you're drinking your calories in a soda, juice, you name it, your blood sugar is going to stay high and you're going to gain weight. Simple as that. So do not drink your calories. And number four is lack of physical activity. Most of us are guilty for that. And people tend to give extra credit. So the problem is everybody knows physical activity is good, but most people don't know how much physical activity they need. So typical recommendation where you give to everyone is at least 150 minutes of cardio, aerobic exercise. So how do you do that? Now how you do that depends on how you want to do it. So you can do, you know, in bits and pieces like 10 to 15 minute walks a few times a day, or you can just do it 30 minutes to 45 minutes a day. But the rule is you have to do a cardio exercise at least every other day. I prefer doing it every day. That's the best way to do it. Because you become more disciplined, you make it like almost like a religious ritual, you just separate that 30 minutes of your time. So like if your boss told you that you have to be here at 6.30 every morning, otherwise, and you have to be here at 30 minutes and you're just going to stand at the door, otherwise you're out. What would you do? Most of you will just say, you know what, I'll just go, you know, I'll just go and stand there, whatever it takes, because I'm going to keep my job. So this is your health. So you should be able to get 30 minutes of your time from your life and put that as an exercise and say, nobody can invade my time with my exercise period. So of course, you know, brisk walking, jogging, bicycling, upper body, lower body, whatever you can do to break a sweat every day is very important. So again, exercise doesn't mean that walking the dog because the dogs will stop every 10 seconds. You don't want that. You want your heart rate to go up. I'm not saying don't walk your dog. I mean, do that. But that's not your main exercise. A lot of people will say, oh, I'm very active. I always walk at work. Well, you're not really walking on a 30 minute period stretch like uninterrupted. So no matter how active you are at work or wherever you are, you can be a housewife, you can be cleaning all day. It does not mean that you're getting the health benefits of an uninterrupted 30 minute exercise by breaking a sweat. That's the key. Break a sweat, get your heart rate up for 30 minutes at least daily or 150 minutes a week. Another big problem is sleeping. So a lot of people come to me and I say they're tired. They come in for thyroid problems. It could be diabetes, insulin resistance, weight, whatever it may be. And they're tired. And the next question is how much do you sleep? They're like, I don't sleep much. Okay, how do you expect to feel good if you're not sleeping well? I mean, do you expect your phone to be charged in the morning if you do not put it to the charge? No, you don't. So how do you expect to feel charged to feel energetic if you're not sleeping well? So most people will need at least seven to nine hours of sleep and nine is a stretch, but I guess at least seven, but some people really do need nine hours. And then it has to be a quality sleep. A lot of people do not know how to have a good sleep hygiene. If you don't have a good sleep hygiene, you have pretty much no sleep. If you have sleep apnea and doctor tells you you need to be tested and you ignore it or refuse it, but that's a problem. Because a lot of times you guys are sleeping, you think you're sleeping, but you're not getting a good quality sleep. Sleep hygiene is again, super important going to bed at the same time and waking up at the same time, having a routine, being boring when it comes to that is extremely important. Having a good quality sleep also comes with a very dark environment and a non noisy environment. Every time there's a little tiny noise actually can distract you, can almost wake you up. You may not realize or remember, but definitely it affects your quality of sleep. Again, if you are on your screen, computer screen or cell phone until you go to bed, that's a problem. If you are doing things in the bed other than sleep and sleep and sex, that's a problem. You don't want to read books in the bed. You don't want to eat food in the bed. You don't want to associate your bed only with sleep and sex. So I would suggest definitely you have to have a good sleep hygiene. Sleep disorders are generally fixable with a few minor tweaks and if it is not the case, you may need to use a medication. That's okay, but if you have to fix that problem. Now, number six would be depression. So a lot of people are depressed and they don't really think that they're depressed and family doctors are supposed to screen the depression and find out, but one of the biggest reasons for fatigue and tiredness and not having a good quality health is definitely depression and anxiety. Now in our society, it is very common to be depressed and to have anxiety issues and people don't consider those as necessarily problems. They are worried that they may be labeled as crazy person or something or they may feel like they may be subject to certain behaviors from others or they may have to use a medication and so they end up hiding their feelings, not talking to anyone about their depression. So if you're depressed, it's not other people's fault. It is not the rest of the world's fault. It is a disease that sometimes happens and anxiety, again, these are inherent disorders that can happen and if you do not really fix the mind, you're not going to fix the body. So you have to make sure that you are open with that and if you need treatment, go on a treatment, don't be scared, it can be a cognitive behavioral therapy or it can be medication therapy, whatever it may be, you may need a psychiatrist, you may need a counselor, whatever you need, you definitely address that problem now. When it comes to diet, there's a lot of noise out there but I'll tell you what, the only proven diet is Mediterranean diet. If you're doing keto type of diet, that's okay but stick to a Mediterranean type of diet and if you don't like the Mediterranean diet, you better like it because that's going to save your life. I have a lot of patients who will say that I cannot eat anything other than red meat and potato, I will not change, oh well, then you're not going to do too well. So health tip, try to stick to Mediterranean diet, healthy foods that you know of and I would say doing all these things can sometimes be challenging or difficult or overwhelming if that's the case, get a coach. I think it's one of the best investments you can make in your life. If you can have a good friend who is very healthy, fitness oriented, etc, great. If you have a friend like this who can help you coach you, that will be great. If you don't have people like that around you, I think having a health coach will help you greatly. We have a diabetes coach program, our diabetes coach is a dietician, a diabetes education specialist, so you can help you in any way you want to get help and through our app you guys can actually stay in touch with our diabetes coach or the nutrition coach but definitely in a health coach we call overall because they really help you overall with your health. It's one of the best investments. We have a program that's only $20 a month. Think about this, what you're spending $20 a month and most people think that, oh I know what to do and but then they never do it. So that's why I think even as an athlete, you know, even if you think you're a good athlete you'll need a coach, right? So that is something important that get a coach that can help you keep you accountable and help you make good decisions. Of course, most of us are guilty of eating processed foods. Unfortunately in our society, especially in the United States, the processed foods are super common, convenient, but if something is coming out of a package, that's something that most people don't pay attention to. They think it's healthy but if something is being preserved, if something is in a can or if something is in a package, more than likely there are preservatives, nitrates in them, so try to avoid and try to stick with whole foods at all costs. And guess what? If you cannot eat that food and if the only available food is your hamburger, you can skip that and try to practice intermittent fasting. Lust but not least is your dental hygiene. Dental health is extremely important. It has been shown multiple times that the gingivitis or teeth problems are a major inflammation producer in your body. It is linked directly to cardiovascular disease and one of the biggest reasons that people end up with gum disease is not flossing. So flossing every day, your teeth not just brushing but flossing is extremely important to keep a good dental hygiene. You will see that in your dentist office but in two days later, boom, it's gone. You need to make sure that you are very disciplined with flossing your teeth. It may take a few extra minutes. I know you're sleepy and all that but flossing before your bedtime is going to give you a tremendous health benefit guys. All right, so I hope you learned something from today's video and if you did, please give it a thumbs up, share this video and make sure you write a comment and educate us. Talk to you later. All right, thank you for watching and I want you to be more informed and more educated. So to do that, go ahead and watch this next video right here.