- If you're trying to align your daily habits with science, you may be struggling to find studies that don't appear to contradict one another.
- Fortunately, there's a wealth of peer-reviewed research which can help you decide which practices are the best for your health.
- Here's an easy way to structure your day based on the latest scientific research about everything from healthy eating to exercise and caffeine intake.
Wondering if it's better to workout in the morning or at night? Whether that multivitamin you pop every morning does anything? Or perhaps how long you need to workout to start to see results?
As it turns out, scientists have been looking for answers to these questions too.
You can use their answers to guide many of the decisions you make on a day-to-day basis, from what you eat in the morning to how often you wash the sheets you sleep in.
SEE ALSO: I tried the science-backed 7-minute fitness routine that's going viral, and it actually works
Skip the shower.
If you showered yesterday, you should probably skip it today. A growing body of evidence suggests that showering too much can mess with your skin and dry out your hair. That's because in addition to sloughing off dirt and pollutants, you're also showering away many of the naturally occurring but beneficial bacteria and oil that keep skin and hair healthy.
"It's paradoxical, but people who wash their hair a lot to get rid of oil are drying out their scalp and producing more oil,"Lynne Goldberg, a dermatologist and the director of Boston Medical Center's hair clinic, told Business Insider.
When it comes to setting up your own regimen, you should consider two things: the average dryness of your skin and scalp and the texture of your hair. If they are neither very oily nor very dry, you likely only need to bathe once or twice a week. If your hair is curly and thick, you may need to wash it even less frequently, since coarse hair slows down the spread of oil from your roots through the length of your hair.
Brew your coffee — but don't drink it yet.
Many things naturally happen to our bodies when we wake up. In addition to developing a magical ability to ignore loud noises like an alarm, our bodies also start pumping out the hormone cortisol, a sort of natural caffeine. Most people's cortisol levels peak sometime between 8:00 and 9:00 in the morning.
Instead of hopping aboard this wakefulness train, however, coffee consumed at this time may actually blunt cortisol's natural effects, according to Stephen Miller, a Ph.D. candidate at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland. Instead of caffeinating during this window, Miller recommends holding off for an hour after you awaken.
Hit the track.
Research suggests that an early-morning workout on an empty stomach helps speed weight loss and boost energy levels by priming the body for an all-day fat burn. Exercising first thing in the morning may push the body to tap into its fat reserves for fuel instead of simply "burning off" the most recent snack or meal.
Plus, working out early could mean you get more sunlight, which is key to properly setting your body's internal circadian rhythm. In one study, people who basked in bright sunlight within two hours after waking were thinner and better able to manage their weight than those who didn't get any natural light, regardless of what they ate throughout the day.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider