By looking at the skin tone of a person, one could tell if he or she spend most of the time indoor or outdoor. Fair skin individuals, tend to be deficient in sun exposure as well as Vitamin D level too. Why spending good amount of time outdoor during day time is critical? How does sunlight exposure matters to health and even related to fitness?
Imagine, a person who is awaken before the sun rise, headed to the studio set and work all day indoor, exposing to bright lights. At the same time, it's raining outside during the day, with moderately bright sunlight during showers. Study has shown that exposure to bright sunlight after 30-60 mins upon awaken from sleep during morning, will initiate the 'cortisol awakening response'. Meaning, the circadian rhythm kick start for that day itself, to initiate a supposedly proper rhythm for day and night cycle. Exposure to natural strong sunlight for just minutes in the morning, triumphed the strong artificial lights indoor for the entire day.
A typical individual who head to work early in the morning, being transported by car or commuter, generally lack of sunlight exposure and intensity, losing the ability to kickstart the circadian rhythm for the day itself. If any of you have tried before, spending time outdoor in the morning or daytime during summer or hot weather, you tend to be able to fall asleep earlier in the night, and achieve quality sleep during night time. The cortisol and melatonin cycle is crucial, as part of hormonal cycle and without distressing the adrenals.
Not getting enough time outdoors during the day or living in a place far from equator where there are more dark hours than sunlit ones especially in the winter time can alter melatonin secretion. Bear in mind, if your melatonin is low, your sleep is going to be lousy. Lack of REM sleep, then you may not dream, which is actually necessary for your mental health. Poor sleep, poor recovery, poor fitness. Apart from that, there are also some sleep medications may interfere with quality restorative sleep.
As you may wonder, after pulling an all nighter staying awake or flying across multiple timezones, you fall sick a day or two after that. Melatonin primes your immune function and thus, stimulates inflammation, while cortisol tends to dampen immunity and reduce inflammation. That's how these two chemicals work together in a modulatory pattern. Cortisol is not the villain here, and there is no bad guys nor good guys, as each different chemical or hormones in the body play it's own important role to ensure the body function optimally.
For people who suffer from insomnia or any sleep related problems, it would be ridiculous to think that it is due to deficiency in sleeping pills. For some, taking melatonin supplement may help for short term aid of making one sleep better, but this is not recommended for long term fix. Even for any holistic protocol or approach towards insomnia or similar sleep related disorder, relying on melatonin supplement could make the condition worst if prolonged application. Reason? It disrupt the natural rhythm of the body ability to regulate circadian and potentially disturbs the integrity of the pituitary gland. Bear in mind, oral melatonin typically does not cross the blood brain barrier and can down regulate endogenous melatonin from being produced in the brain, which is needed for healthy detoxification there. If one feels better and can sleep well after taking melatonin supplement, it is likely you have leaky brain! Both good and bad news at the same time.
As for some naturopathic doctors or practitioners, they may recommend or prescribe at bioidentical hormones, but it should not be used as a long term fix for any hormonal depletion or dsyregulation. it does not matter if you are 30's or 60's. It will impact on your circadian rhythm, but for some patients, a quick short term application could help them in various ways.
For many years, I've personally known may people including fitness enthusiasts and even personal trainers, who live on processed foods or refined carbs diet, and burning off their adrenals even further by performing exercises which flood the body with elevated cortisol production. Some may think that as long as I can run 5 km daily for the last 8-10 years, or having the ability to do Crossfit day in day out, I'm healthy and fit. That is just another sign of these individuals shooting their adrenals from all possible angles.
There is virtually no way for the body to make seratonin and melatonin for bedtime, if you are bombarding yourself with junk loaded garbage. Eating primarily carbs or sugars from grains, wheat and processed or fast foods will inhibit the conversion of tryptophan to these crucial neurotransmitters. One may think that they can fall asleep when they hit the bed at 1 or 2am. Remember, it is not because of ideal levels of melatonin produced by the body, but it is the exhausted adrenals from the daytime stressors which drained the energy levels and flat you out entirely.
Try choose a random workday, you will notice many people around your workplace gulping down soft drinks, coffee (the green logo cup), and teas (caffeinated) just to keep the energy going at office, those will accompanied with carbs loaded lunch and breakfast, as the cravings and dependency on sugar, gluten and caffeine become bad to worst overtime. Buying fake energy with these stimulants during the day, will knock off your adrenals, and for the ones who is chronically stressed out from other factors such as job, relationship and family issues, this is a big whopping nail in the coffin.
We have more people who suffer from depression and sleep disorders then ever before. With the increase of sleeping pills and SSRI prescriptions for 'zombies' and depressive patients, the rates of these disabilities are on a record high, and it does not tally with the overly prescribed drugs for these conditions. The rates of depression should be all time low, and we should see more people hitting REM sleep with less insomnia cases. But why it's the opposite instead? It just doesn't make any sense at all.
Meanwhile, below are some of the simple things you can do, for a better restorative sleep, and without most nights of quality sleep, there is no way your immune system can reach it's maximum healing potential.
What to do before bedtime?
- No work nor any electronic devices usage by 9pm (or at least an hour before bedtime).
- Switch off all wireless devices and set mobile phone to airplane mode (wireless router, radio, etc)
- Avoid caffeinated beverages in the afternoons
- Avoid odd hour shift work or late night outings
- Ensure adequate amount of protein (animal based) during dinner
- Try add a tablespoon of coconut oil with dinner, or before sleep
- Drink tulsi herb (tea form) instead of melatonin supplement, before bedtime.
For people who suffer from insomnia or any sleep related problems, it would be ridiculous to think that it is due to deficiency in sleeping pills. For some, taking melatonin supplement may help for short term aid of making one sleep better, but this is not recommended for long term fix. Even for any holistic protocol or approach towards insomnia or similar sleep related disorder, relying on melatonin supplement could make the condition worst if prolonged application. Reason? It disrupt the natural rhythm of the body ability to regulate circadian and potentially disturbs the integrity of the pituitary gland. Bear in mind, oral melatonin typically does not cross the blood brain barrier and can down regulate endogenous melatonin from being produced in the brain, which is needed for healthy detoxification there. If one feels better and can sleep well after taking melatonin supplement, it is likely you have leaky brain! Both good and bad news at the same time.
As for some naturopathic doctors or practitioners, they may recommend or prescribe at bioidentical hormones, but it should not be used as a long term fix for any hormonal depletion or dsyregulation. it does not matter if you are 30's or 60's. It will impact on your circadian rhythm, but for some patients, a quick short term application could help them in various ways.
For many years, I've personally known may people including fitness enthusiasts and even personal trainers, who live on processed foods or refined carbs diet, and burning off their adrenals even further by performing exercises which flood the body with elevated cortisol production. Some may think that as long as I can run 5 km daily for the last 8-10 years, or having the ability to do Crossfit day in day out, I'm healthy and fit. That is just another sign of these individuals shooting their adrenals from all possible angles.
There is virtually no way for the body to make seratonin and melatonin for bedtime, if you are bombarding yourself with junk loaded garbage. Eating primarily carbs or sugars from grains, wheat and processed or fast foods will inhibit the conversion of tryptophan to these crucial neurotransmitters. One may think that they can fall asleep when they hit the bed at 1 or 2am. Remember, it is not because of ideal levels of melatonin produced by the body, but it is the exhausted adrenals from the daytime stressors which drained the energy levels and flat you out entirely.
Try choose a random workday, you will notice many people around your workplace gulping down soft drinks, coffee (the green logo cup), and teas (caffeinated) just to keep the energy going at office, those will accompanied with carbs loaded lunch and breakfast, as the cravings and dependency on sugar, gluten and caffeine become bad to worst overtime. Buying fake energy with these stimulants during the day, will knock off your adrenals, and for the ones who is chronically stressed out from other factors such as job, relationship and family issues, this is a big whopping nail in the coffin.
We have more people who suffer from depression and sleep disorders then ever before. With the increase of sleeping pills and SSRI prescriptions for 'zombies' and depressive patients, the rates of these disabilities are on a record high, and it does not tally with the overly prescribed drugs for these conditions. The rates of depression should be all time low, and we should see more people hitting REM sleep with less insomnia cases. But why it's the opposite instead? It just doesn't make any sense at all.
Meanwhile, below are some of the simple things you can do, for a better restorative sleep, and without most nights of quality sleep, there is no way your immune system can reach it's maximum healing potential.
What to do before bedtime?
- No work nor any electronic devices usage by 9pm (or at least an hour before bedtime).
- Switch off all wireless devices and set mobile phone to airplane mode (wireless router, radio, etc)
- Avoid caffeinated beverages in the afternoons
- Avoid odd hour shift work or late night outings
- Ensure adequate amount of protein (animal based) during dinner
- Try add a tablespoon of coconut oil with dinner, or before sleep
- Drink tulsi herb (tea form) instead of melatonin supplement, before bedtime.
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