Your Cigna Whole Health® calendar 2022

Exercise lowers our risk of developing many chronic conditions such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer. Research shows that getting active is also a great way to improve our mental well-being. Sounds like a win-win! You don’t have to play sports or go to a gym to give your physical activity a boost. Whether in a city park or rural nature, there are lots of ways to improve your fitness.

Promoting well-being from a young age helps lay the foundation for better health and development into adulthood. Genetic variants, a lack of physical activity and certain behaviours, such as too much screen time, mean many parents live with an overweight or obese child. With childhood obesity on the rise, we believe setting health goals should be rewarding for everyone.

Food labels contain a lot of useful information. They allow you to compare the nutritional values of different products at a glance and track how much fat, salt and sugar you consume. Understanding what the food label tells you empowers you to make healthier choices when shopping. Our practical tips will help you make the most of food labels and get into the habit of checking what’s in the pack!

There are conflicting messages about what increases our cancer risk and how to know we have it. Some of the most common signs of cancer can be easy to spot. But when changes happen inside the body, signs and symptoms can be difficult to see or understand. You don’t need to have symptoms for screening to reduce your risk. Screening can detect the early stages of cancer when treatment is more likely to be effective.

Find out about how screening could reduce the cancer risk for men or women.

Studies have found that teenagers with electronic devices in their bedrooms reported consistently worse sleep. Not enough quality sleep can have an almost immediate effect. It makes it harder to think and easier to become irritated and stressed. But did you know that poor sleep increases the risk of more serious medical conditions? Getting to grips with sleep can help you make healthier choices for yourself and your family.

Our interactions with friends and family can be essential in supporting many aspects of our health and wellness. But when we experience a lack of drive, negative self-worth or an ongoing sense of feeling low, it can be harder to manage healthy relationships or even engage in everyday social situations. This could signify languishing, a term used to describe the absence of well-being around the midpoint of mental health.

The world around us is changing. Working nine to five is much less common, and today’s society can make real demands on our time and energy. It’s little wonder we can easily lose the balance between work and personal life from time to time. So if you’re feeling overwhelmed and overworked, it might be helpful to take a step back and recheck how you’re managing your priorities.

Whether you’re active throughout the day or spend hours sitting at a computer, musculoskeletal (MSK) pain can affect any part of the body. Pain can start following an accident or injury, or it might build up gradually with no apparent cause. Although persistent pain is complex, appropriate physical activity can help you self-manage your symptoms while positively impacting your overall health and mental well-being.

When it comes to diets, it’s not always easy to keep track of the latest ways to lose weight and improve overall health. From paleo to vegan and low-carb diets, it’s essential to know the facts and think about your lifestyle, preferences and goals before shifting to a new way of eating. Using this information to shape your approach could help your new diet go the distance.

Done right, social media platforms can offer young people valuable opportunities to expand their horizons. However, teenagers and young people who spend more than three hours a day on social media are more at risk of mental health issues such as anxiety, depression and antisocial behaviour. As social media grows in popularity, we need to be aware of its impact on young people.

Chronic conditions include diabetes, heart disease, cancer, chronic lung disease, chronic kidney disease, Alzheimer’s disease and strokes. Living with a chronic condition can drastically change someone’s life, as treatment is usually required indefinitely or over a long period. The good news is that there are things we can do to help prevent the onset of a chronic condition or make managing an existing one easier.

Being a parent isn’t easy. With global increases in obesity, ensuring children grow up to be happy and healthy is another challenge entirely. Health risks associated with childhood obesity include heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and poor psychological health. But, making small changes to family lifestyle dynamics can play a positive role in helping children get more active and achieve a healthier weight.