7 tips to stay healthy to qualify for life insurance

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Have you ever been turned down by a life insurance company? Or you’ve probably heard of insurance denials and wondered why an insurance company would refuse to insure people? There are many reasons for the denial of life insurance coverage. Insurers will use your profile, your age and your health history to determine if you are insurable or not. So if you want to buy a life insurance plan, you should prepare from now and stack all the odds in your favor to be insured. As you read this, do you know someone who has been denied life insurance and would like to qualify for life insurance? Share this article with this person to help her!

It's easy to get life insurance at age 30, but much more challenging after 50 years old or during retirement.  What to do if you are denied life insurance? You must prove that you are in good health and not at risk for any illnesses and diseases. So read these tips carefully to take care of your health and increase your chances of getting a life insurance plan. Tip number 7 will surprise you!

1. Eat balanced and varied

A balanced diet is key to your health. This is advice that you will find trite and oversaid. We all think we eat healthy because we eat a salad once in a while. And yet take a closer look at your plate, and what you consume during most meals. Did you know there are 50 calories in a beer? And over 500 calories in a candy bar?

Poor diet is dangerous for you health

We need an average of 1,800 and 2,100 calories a day to function. Do you distribute your food well among the three main meals? Proteins, starches and sweets are often the essentials parts in our diet. However, we usually don't consume enough fibre from fruits and vegetables. Thanks to their antioxidants, vitamins, minerals and fibres, fruits and vegetables will help you prevent:

- The age and wear of the body,

- Cancers, particularly of the colon,

- Cardiovascular illnesses,

- Insulin disorders such as diabetes,

- Overweight and obesity,

- Mental and neurological diseases,

- Osteoarthritis and joint problems,

- Vision disorders,

A healthy diet will help you to qualify for life insurance

But what is a balanced meal after all? It is a meal that contains the six nutrients that are essential for our body to function correctly.

- The proteins

- Carbohydrates

- Lipids (fats)

- Vitamins

- Mineral salts

- And water

According to some doctors and dieticians, we need 7-10 fruits and vegetables per day. Fruits and vegetables are essential for the proper functioning of our body. Still, they also have the incredible power to satiate while being low in calories: you can easily have five different vegetables on your plate in addition to your proteins, fats, and carbohydrates.

So now think about your last two days: is the count right in your meals? Food habits are part of a healthy lifestyle and maybe one of the questions to qualify for life insurance!

2. Engage in regular physical activity

The WHO has defined physical activity as "any bodily movement produced by muscles that require the expenditure of energy - which includes movements performed while working, playing, doing household chores, moving around and during exercise, hobbies. "

Regular physical activity is like running your car every day: it helps maintain the battery and stays charged. No physical activity means no energy. It's that simple. So when you get tired and bored, feel like you've run out of energy, put on your sneakers.

Physical activity has a beneficial effect on our muscles, lungs, heart, hormones, and helps reduce the risk of over 25 diseases such as:

  • Strokes
  • Colon cancer
  • Osteoporosis
  • Hypertension
  • Breast cancer
  • Type 2 diabetes
  • Heart disease

 

By adopting a sports routine two to three times a week, you will feel less fatigue while doing your daily tasks. It is often a sedentary lifestyle that causes the first health concerns, and not ageing itself. Movement is health so get moving!

You are in luck. Nowadays, it is possible to practice a sporting activity from home, in the comfort of your living room.

 

 

Diversify your sports activity to exercise your body with different techniques: running, dancing, brisk walking, cycling are very affordable and sometimes even completely free! And every time you feel lazy to exercise, remember you need to qualify for life insurance!

 

3. Drink lots of water

Water makes up 70% of our bodies. Are you drinking enough? Three signs can tell you that you are not drinking enough water:

- You are tired because your vital organs are working harder to pump oxygen into the blood.

- You have dry, tight skin, a sign that your dermis is dehydrated.

- You have constipation problems because water helps food move through the intestine.

But that's not all. Water makes up 80% of our brains, providing them with the energy and nutrients they need to function. Drinking lots of water also cleanses the brain and the body of its toxins thanks to the kidneys. It also allows us to keep our organs moist and will enable them to function well. Doctors recommend that you drink plenty of fluids when you have asthma. Drinking more water loosens the mucus and clears the airways. The muscles also need to be lubricated with water, which will help you avoid sprains and other injuries.

Water helps regulate blood sugar levels better and is, therefore, a key ingredient if you have diabetes.

Finally, an American Chemical Society study published in August 2010 proved that water was the best ally for weight loss. Adults who drink water before each meal eat less.

Here are three tips for drinking more water throughout your day:

- Drink half a bottle just before a meal.

- Drink a large glass of water as soon as you wake up.

- Always keep a bottle of water nearby, and instead of a coffee or cigarette break, drink water and keep your bottle in your hand.

 

4. Sleep well will help you to qualify for life insurance.

You are going to love this one, that is maybe the easiest way to help you to qualify for life insurance. Not getting enough sleep can disrupt your metabolism and contribute to your immune system collapse. The simple lack of sleep as well will increase the risk of developing certain diseases.

"People who sleep less than seven hours a night are almost three times more likely to catch a cold than those who sleep an average of eight hours or more," concluded a study released in January 2009 by the Carnegie Mellon Institute.

Sleep is a fundamental condition for optimal cognitive functions, but also physical ones. Good sleep is restorative: it helps the body repair damaged tissues and cells. It is also during sleep that your body builds muscle and synthesizes proteins.

According to the report released by the National Sleep Foundation of the United States in January 2015, the optimal duration of sleep is between seven and nine hours. And if you decide not to drastically reduce your sleep, or even to cut back a few hours here and there, know that you increase the risk of physical injuries and chronic or critical illnesses:

- Alzheimer's disease

- Cardiovascular illnesses,

- The weakening of immune functions,

- The Depression,

- Diabetes,

- Hypertension,

- Obesity,

 

5. Stop smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol

Did you know that alcohol is responsible for one in 20 deaths worldwide each year?

Why do Life Insurers care how much you drink?

Alcohol is linked to more than 200 diseases, according to the WHO: cancers, cardiovascular and digestive tract diseases, disorders of the nervous system. Alcohol can also contribute to common health problems: fatigue, sleep disorders, premature ageing of organs and tissues, an increase in blood pressure, but also personality disorders. A study published in February 2018 proved that drinking alcohol over the years harms character traits: consuming alcohol regularly develops anxiety, risk of depression, and lessens abilities to regulate their impulses and emotions of anger and frustration.

Tobacco: an obstacle for getting insured

Combined with tobacco, the health effects are devastating. How many chemical ingredients do you think a cigarette has? 20? 50? They contain over 4000! Chemical compounds develop their highest form of toxicity when they burn before you inhale them. In addition to the cancers and chronic diseases (such as asthma, diabetes, stroke, and reproductive disorders), it contributes to developing, smoking reduces your life expectancy by ten years and just like alcohol causes personality disorders.

Alcohol and smoking are not just habits but two severe addictions. How can you overcome them?

If you are used to drinking alcohol with your meal, take two glasses near your plate to alternate water and alcohol. You will drink your glass of alcohol much more slowly. Also, plan when you get home, or when invited out, a drink to replace alcohol, such as fizzling water with lemon juice for instance.

Quitting cigarettes is just as tricky, and according to the latest data on smoking cessation, it can take up to 30 attempts to stop successfully. So don't be discouraged, you will get there, you are on the right path.

 

Here are some tips to help you quit smoking, which will help you to qualify for life insurance plan:

- Create new habits to replace those related to smoking (drink a glass of water, take a short walk)

- Learn from previous attempts

- Get into sports

- Have a therapist accompany you if necessary

6. Relax

"Sometimes doing nothing can be the most effective form of action."

- Kevin Kwan Crazy Rich in Singapore

While it is essential to have plans and a social circle, it is crucial to allow yourself times when you do not do anything for your mental health. In these moments of non activity, a certain part of the brain is activated allowing what is called “the default mode”. Therefore, this default mode can’t be triggered most of the time because of our non stop activity.

No, it's not an automatic mode like on computers. This is the time when ideas are vague. You can't build a solid, reliable memory if you don't have this default mode from time to time.

This is what a study conducted by neuropsychologist Francis Eustache who practices at the CHU de Caen in France, has shown. "We turn to our thoughts, we turn to recent information, which we have been confronted with. And in fact, our brain makes it possible to synthesize this new information and the older data. So this is one of the essential times in the creation of our autobiography. If we don't have those moments, this autobiography will be missing a few pages of sorts. And above all, he will lack overall consistency. If you are permanently hyper-stimulated, you can't set up this default mode network. And we must protect it. "

This default mode stimulated during non-activity times will allow your brain to understand your environment better. You will react more effectively and intelligently to subsequent situations that come your way. Therefore, you will maintain excellent mental health.

 

So how can we do nothing? Not easy, because we are always in demand with screens and advertising. Here are three tips to get started:

- Unplug and turn off your televisions, phones, and computers for 3 hours per day.

- To relax deeply, take deep breaths and breathe out completely.

- Look at the sky, and look at the clouds or the branches of the trees, without doing anything.

 

7. Learn to manage your emotions

Do you know that we do not remember the facts at the end of our life? We actually remember the events related to strong emotions.Why? And how? It is that emotions have an impact on our bodies.

According to Henrique Sequeira, professor of affective neuroscience at the University of Lille (France): "Emotions are a real interface between the brain and the body. "

Emotions induce a chain of muscular, hormonal, neurological and immune reactions. And Finnish researchers published at the end of December 2014 in the Proceedings of the American Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a map of emotions. In other words, emotions can be localized in the same places in the same way for everyone, with no difference in the individuals' culture. Besides, Chinese medicine says that the liver is linked to the feeling of anger, and the lung has the emotion of sadness.

"Emotional health, and especially depression, are risk factors for cardiovascular disease," says Heart Institute clinical psychologist Heather Tulloch, Ph. D.

Stress, anxiety, and depression directly affect cardiovascular health: these negative emotions increase the risk of blood clots and damage to the inner wall of blood vessels. If you want to qualify for life insurance take care of your emotional balance right now.

 

Therefore, how can we better manage these emotions that can have a lasting impact on us?

- As in the art of doing nothing, take deep breaths

- If you are feeling angry, take a pillow to hit it and let off steam. You don't hurt anyone this way!

- Close your eyes and focus on the emotion. Where is it located in your body? What physical sensations do you associate with it? Focus on it for a few minutes and breathe deeply.

- If necessary, see a therapist to speak when you have an overflow.

In conclusion, taking care of your health is essential to maintain a good quality of daily life and facilitate your approval with life insurance. It's a step-by-step process, the pace of which depends on each individual. But if you apply all of these tips, you will see a noticeable difference in your fitness and health. However, whether you are in good health or not, we have suitable life insurance solutions. To speak to an advisor who can offer you a plan adapted to you, we invite you to complete our short free quote form.

 

Sources :

Harvard Health - Nutritional Psychiatry

Chemistry for Life - Clinical trial confirms effectiveness of simple appetite control method

Carnegie Mellon University - Not Sleeping?

Roussy, Kas. Experts unveil new sleep guidelines for children CBC News. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, [En ligne], 13 juin 2016.

Healthy Sleep - The Hidden Cost of Insufficient Sleep

National Sleep Foundation - How Much Sleep Do We Really Need?

 

 

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