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Last Updated: Oct 23, 2019
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Why Having a Hobby is Good For You?

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Dr. Jatin SoniGeneral Physician • 22 Years Exp.MBBS
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Pursuing a hobby can help you to ward off diseases while keeping your mind and body fresh and active. What's more, hobbies come with several health benefits too, ranging from lowering of blood pressure and control over cortisol production (a hormone that causes stress) to improvements in your weight and BMI.

4 Amazing health benefits that you can derive from pursuing your favourite hobbies are:

1. Strengthening of your immune system - 
Hobbies that augment your activity levels like basketball, golf or bike riding are extremely beneficial for improving your immune system, thereby enhancing the overall quality of your life. A strong immune system is essential as it makes you less prone to chronic diseases like diabetes, arthritis and heart disease.

2. Improving your memory - Another health benefit of having hobbies is that they bring about an improvement in your memory and aid in enhancing your problem-solving abilities. A research conducted by the University of Texas on the impact that hobby has on the brain reveals the fact that the picking up of a new hobby can prevent memory loss. Here's how - the challenge to learn a new skill causes you to focus all of your mental abilities on the task at hand, leading to a sharpening of your memory, while preventing memory loss. By helping you to maintain an active brain, the act of picking up a new hobby, therefore, brings about a delay of cognitive aging by a few years.


3. Cutting down on stress - By indulging in a hobby like cooking, baking or gardening, you get an effective outlet to release all your stress. Being a non-work activity, your mind gets another area of focus, one which you can enjoy. Furthermore, when you put your whole mind to it, your stress and worries seem to wither away.

Moreover, such hobbies that require you to physically exert yourself, albeit in a limited manner, also bring down your stress levels as they produce chemical changes in your body.

4. Improving sleep - Having a hobby also has a positive impact on sleep. The pursuit of active hobbies in the earlier part of the day can lead you to have a very restful sleep. Likewise, engaging in the intellectual activity of reading before going to bed can help you to sleep better.

Apart from giving you tremendous enjoyment, a hobby can also bring many health benefits. So, pursue your hobbies actively despite the busy lifestyle you follow. If you wish to discuss about any specific problem, you can consult a doctor.

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