5 Health Mistakes I want to Avoid in 2026.
These are some of the mistakes I make when it comes to my own health, which I want to avoid as much as possible.
People love posting the ideal health transformation, the best “bio-hacking” strategy, or sharing the fruits of their own journey.
Perfect labs. Perfect abs.
Perfect skin.
Beautiful bowel movements.
You get the picture.
But, if you cannot afford some of these tests or “hacks” with time, money, or motivation…it can all start to seem a bit unattainable or discouraging.
The truth is we all stumble. We all have constraints on our lives that either make things more difficult or distract us from our goals.
Myself included.
I try to do a lot, and often wear myself out. My wife notices and will remind me that I need to take time for myself. She’s right.
Full-time hospital job. Part-time side-gig (this publication). Two boy toddlers. Third baby any day now. House work and renovations. Hunting and staying active. Plus all the other tedious things that populate our lives.
Today, I want to talk about all my health mistakes/oversight to help keep myself accountable.
1. Getting enough sleep.
People will tell you that you absolutely need to get 8 hours of sleep. Others will say 7 is enough. Some will say they can run on 4.
My belief is that the answer is more nuanced than that.
For example, the amount of sleep you need depends on your temperament (physiologic constitution). This has been known for thousands of years, and is reflected in several traditional medical arts.
From the Unani perspective, sleep is not simply a time to rest. Sleep is an essential pillar of health. During the day, the brain is ON. I mean, really on. Despite having 2% of body weight, it consumes 20% of total energy.
Unani teaches us that this activity generates heat, which makes things dry. During sleep, moist vapors (of the humors) rise to the brain and provide a cooling, moistening restorative effect.
Furthermore, Unani teaches us that the optimal sleep duration depends on your temperament.
Some days, I do not get enough sleep. I should be getting 7-8, but would be lucky to hit 7. Luckily, it’s very easy to remedy this and it’s something I actively try to consider when I’m burning the midnight oil. If I know what time I need to wake up the next day, I just go to bed earlier.
The benefit of staying active and busy (especially with 2 young boys), is that I can fall asleep whenever I decide to hit the bed.
2. Slowing down.
This may be a function of my temperament, or having been raised in a huge city…but I’m always trying to do something. The more productive and harder, the better.
Go, go, go.
One of the things I love about life in some European countries is the daily focus on slowing down, taking time to pause and reflect on life. Interact with neighbors. Let your mind and body walk slowly through the events of life.
This is one of the things I learned from my Uncle as well. Every day he takes long walks. He says it allows his mind to process information and problem solve, at its own pace, while he concerns himself with his steps.
Last night I was speaking with my wife. We have finally settled into our home. I said something along the lines of:
Look at all this. We have wonderful kids, a beautiful home, and the will and resources to achieve anything we like. And, as much as I like the grind and climbing the mountain…right now may be a good moment to stop and enjoy this plateau.
This isn’t just an opportunity to “rest,” whatever that means.
It’s an opportunity to be grateful, to savor, to debrief, to reflect and to re-orient.
3. Stay hydrated.
Yes, I know. But, as you can probably tell from the above…I often forget about staying hydrated.
And I don’t just mean drinking water. I mean getting appropriate and adequate electrolytes. Magnesium, potassium, and sodium.
Not much more to it. Just remember to make the mix, keep it on hand, and drink.
4. Breathe and stretch.
Whether you want to unravel this from the perspective of modern science and vagus nerve activity, or from a traditional medical perspective…the answer is the same.
Stretch and joint strength improves mobility and posture.
Good posture + deep breathing exercises → optimized energy flow.
As every medical discipline knows (either explicitly or implicitly), stagnant or blocked energy flow is the basis of many diseases.
At this point, both you and I are starting to see a pattern with the mistakes I keep making.
Don’t let my wife see this, but I think she was right about Yoga.
5. Moisturize.
Don’t tell her about this one either.
This is another big for me. When I was young, I knew kids who would regularly use moisturizing creams. But, it never occurred to me. Not because it wasn’t practiced in my household…my parents had all sorts of skin creams in our home.
After learning about the pitfalls of modern skincare and makeup products, maybe it was for the best. However, that doesn’t mean there are not good moisturizing options on the market.
In my case, it’s particularly important for my hands and face. As someone who does a lot with their hands, they tend to get cuts and scrapes, and generally worn out.
On my face, I have recently developed something that apparently my father suffers from as well. A red hot patch of skin between my eyebrows. Looks fired up, and often dry.
I haven’t yet figured out what it is. People will tell me all sorts of things about it, often about how it’s some manifestation of disease.
But, I have a sneaking suspicion it has something to do with an energy center of my body.
The space between the eyebrows is the seat of the sixth energy center, the Ajna (or third eye) Chakra.
The Ajna chakra is associated with intuition, inner wisdom, clarity and spiritual insight. Furthermore, this patch of skin started getting fired up just as my life completely changed course.
A change that started with discarding the grip that modern academic medicine had on my life. When my wife and I both welcomed a new way of living centered on our family, values, and tradition.
It would be foolish to think that this is merely a coincidence. The moment I decide to live a more considered, spiritual and sovereign life…the energy center associated with these functions suddenly revs up.
With skin care we try to keep it simple.
For skin in general, we use a tallow-based balm/cream. We like the products from White Oak pastures, very affordable and consistent quality.
For the face, we add a copper-based serum and infrared light. Bonus points on wrinkles when you combine infrared light with green tea on the face.
What are some of the mistakes you’ve made that you want to avoid?
Self diagnose or see an unani doctor.
I recently test ran a self assessment I made.
New version with more precise temperamentalcomposition and associated temp guide.
Stay tuned.
Great advice on slowing down. How do you find out your temperament?