Fall Wellness Tips

1. Feast on Fall Produce
It’s the time of the year where we can smell pumpkin spices all around. This makes us anticipate the smells and taste of delicious fall fruits and vegetables with intense colors, textures and flavors. Take advantage of your seasonal produce, such as apples, beets, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cranberries, pears, pomegranates, turnips, sweet potatoes, squash and pumpkin, says Mayelin Lora Williams, dietitian at Memorial Hospital of South Bend. Get your produce fresh from local farmers not only to support the local economy but also to obtain more nutritious and fresh produce.

2. Discover the Outdoors
Get outside and enjoy the fresh, cooler air with after-dinner walks or weekend hikes to see the beautiful fall leaves. When you’re not exploring the outdoors, grab a pumpkin and build some muscle, explains Sarah Strefling, fitness manager at Beacon Health & Fitness. Do lunges while holding a pumpkin or consider doing a plank with your hands on a pumpkin to make the exercise more challenging. You can also place the pumpkin on your back while holding a 30-second plank. If that’s too difficult, do a plank with your pumpkin next to you.

3. Schedule Screenings
It’s time to fall back into our routines of school, soccer practice and cooler weather. But there are a few other routine things we should think about before the calendar turns. We need to make it a priority to schedule the mammograms, colonoscopies, bone density scans and other preventive tests we all promised we would do this year, but have yet to finalize, says Andrew McAfee, MD, family-medicine physician, Beacon Medical Group Main Street. It’s also time for the annual “treat” of our flu vaccine. The flu vaccine not only protects you from influenza, it also protects our elderly and young loved ones who are most at risk of suffering from complications from the flu.

4. Take Care of Your Skin
Even though your beach visits are over, don’t pack away the sunscreen. UV rays reflect off of snow more than they reflect off sand and they can penetrate clouds. While we think we don’t need sunscreen in the fall and winter, sunscreen is still very necessary to protect your skin, says Jill Maddox, nurse practitioner at Beacon Medical Group Dermatology Ireland Road. Also, because there is less moisture in the autumn air, we tend to hydrate less and that can lead to dry skin. You should moisturize daily with thick cream to help your skin stay healthy. Are you concerned about your skin? Beacon Medical Group Dermatology specialize in skin care for patients of all ages to develop a treatment plan that helps patients manage health problems and maintain a positive quality of life. Learn more here: https://www.beaconhealthsystem.org/beacon-medical-group/medical-group-practice?practice=100

5. Prepare for Daylight Savings Time.
Get as much natural light as you can in the days before the time change, and get plenty of exercise. Both sunshine and physical activity will help make the time change easier. You might also consider dialing back the clock and starting the new schedule on Saturday or incrementally making the time change over a few days to make the transition easier, explains Asad Ansari, MD, pediatric pulmonologist and sleep medicine specialist at Beacon Medical Group.