Taking care of your body means a lot more than simply eating right, exercising, and visiting your doctor for your annual physical.
To truly take care of your body, you have to listen to all the little warning signs it tries to send you.
Like an efficient machine, your body finds various ways to alert you when something is wrong and needs to be fixed.
Here are a few different signals your body may send you, and what they might mean:
Signal: You’re exhausted all of the time.
Likely Cause: You’re going way overboard on the caffeine.
Other Signals: Frequent urination, jitters, insomnia, heartbeat irregularities, agitation.
Why: You can’t run on energy that you don’t have! A cup of coffee can absolutely help you feel more energized, focused, and alert in the short-term. But over time, that energy burns out and you need to recharge it with something real and sustainable—like sleep, healthy meals, water, and relaxation.
Signal: You’re developing small cracks at the corners of your mouth.
Likely Cause: You have a B-vitamin deficiency.
Other Signals: Dark circles under the eyes, fatigue, anemia, skin problems, lack of energy.
Why: Most deficiencies first show up in the form of sores and cracked skin around the mouth and tongue. It’s actually quite easy to develop a B-vitamin deficiency if you follow a diet high in processed foods, refined sugar, and alcohol. To turn your slump around, try to eat healthy foods, like lean meats, eggs, sweet potatoes, salmon, and legumes.
Signal: You suddenly have Eczema.
Likely Cause: Something you’re eating doesn’t agree with your body.
Other Signals: Gas, bloating, foggy thinking, sinus congestion, fatigue.
Why: When your body is intolerant to a certain food, your gut basically becomes irritated and inflamed. Over time, this irritation can worsen and create small fissures between the cells, which are then able to allow harmful bacteria and incompletely digested proteins and fats to “leak” out of the gut. One of the first signs of this “leaky gut syndrome” is Eczema, or other noticeable skin rashes.
Signal: You’re experiencing constant headaches.
Likely Cause: You’re drinking too much diet soda.
Other Signals: Irritability, inability to concentrate or focus, cravings for sweet or salty snacks.
Why: Aspartame, the artificial sweetener found in most diet sodas, is known for causing headaches and migraines. Though some people lack the enzyme needed to metabolize phenylalanine, which is created when the body tries to break down aspartame, plenty of people experience headaches from drinking diet soda no matter what. Many researchers believe the methanol in aspartame, which is broken down into formaldehyde, is the culprit behind the intense headaches.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments!
