Seven surprising things that will make you healthier

HOW to get healthier by reading a book and playing video games. Find out the seven surprising things that will boost your wellbeing.

Find out the seven surprising ways to make yourself healthier. And there's not a gym ...

While doctors and Michelle Bridges constantly bombard us to keep healthy, the spinach smoothie and morning stretch has some competition from some very unlikely sources.

An article in The Week has taken a look at studies conducted this year and has revealed seven surprising things that will make you healthier. If you're pessimistic about the results, great! That'll keep you healthy, too.

Video games:

It's not an urban myth created by teens. Playing video games has been proven to help fine tune older minds and keep them sharp. A specially-developed game called Neuro Racer, which involved driving while identifying signs, was played by a group of volunteers aged between 60 and 85 for a month and found their cognitive skills had improved. The multi-tasking game helped boost their short-term memory and long-term focus.

How playing video games will make you awesome

Singing in a group can have the similar relaxing effect of yoga

Group singing:

No wonder it's called Glee, because singing in groups can reward with a feeling of oneness and a "harmonising of hearts" according to Swedish researchers. They monitored the heart rates of choral singers and noticed how their pulses increased and decreased in unison as the music's tempo changed. The controlled breathing needed in singing also seems to have a calming influence as it's "the same effect as breathing exercises in yoga".

Pessimism:

Being a pessimist might not win you many friends, but it could lead to longer life. German researchers asked 40,000 people aged 18 to 96 to rate how happy they'd be in five years. Checking five years later they found that those who over-estimated their wellbeing related to a 10 percent higher likelihood of death or disability within the study period. "Pessimism about the future may encourage people to live more carefully, taking health and safety precautions," says psychologist Frieder Lang. Sure, whatever.

Paracetamol:

While used to battle headaches, this medicine could also be used to help keep you calm and ease angst. Researchers at the University of British Columbia have found that the medicine's main ingredient, acetaminophen, led to volunteers being significantly less depressed and worried about existential dread when they were asked morbid questions.

Slip, slop, stop ageing. Sunscreen could keep appearances youthful.

Sunscreen:

Slapping on a low-factor sunscreen everyday can slow skin ageing, protect against wrinkles and make skin more youthful in appearance according to Australian researchers. Fair-skinned volunteers who applied SPF 15 lotion to their head, neck, arms and hands every morning for four and a half years showed 24 percent fewer signs of ageing than those who did not. As ultraviolet rays from the sun damage the collagen that gives skin its plump appearance, blocking this effect could keep you more youthful.

Nostalgia:

Thinking back to the good times when you're faced with life challenges can help beat loneliness and anxiety. Relief is offered by bringing to mind "cherished experiences that assure us we are valued people who have meaningful lives," says psychologist Clay Routledge of North Dakota State University. This psychological comforting is a way to handle and ease stressful situations.

And, relax. Reading a work of fiction could make you a nicer person.

Reading fiction:

This might sound like a made-up tale but evidently psychologists in New York found that reading fiction made people nicer and more empathetic. Volunteers read an excerpt of literary fiction, while others read a non-fiction article and their emotions were measured through their facial expressions. Those reading literary fiction scored higher because "fiction takes readers into other lives and forces them to reconstruct the mind of the character - something that carries over into real social situations," says its study author Emanuele Castano.