Sleep Deprivation : Am I getting quality sleep?

Another health talk event took place recently at my work place and another 'specialist' doctor from a private hospital came by to give her presentation. This time, the health talk focus on 'Stress Management'. It was one of the most shocking health talks I have ever attended, and worst still, it was conducted by a medical professional.

What was presented during the health talk? The following, is the advise by that medical doctor...

"You can eat whatever you want to stay healthy. You can drink whiskey daily, and life is not worth it without coffee. It is not worth it to prepare and bring your own healthy home cook meals to office at work. You should stay awake late at night do the things you want such as watching your favorite TV show and going to bed on time is not important. We only need 6 hours a day of sleep and that is sufficient."

I felt as if she is giving advise to the audience based on her own lifestyle and liking. Maybe the doctor has her own opinions and how she lives her life, but giving such misinformed and poor health advise will only misguide the already unhealthy group of people in this country. The first advise itself is a death sentence for everyone, to eat anything you want to stay healthy? Most people don't realized that most conventional medical doctors have less then a handful hours of lectures in diet and nutrition in their 5-6 years of medical degree. 

By eating whatever you want during the day or at night, it will most likely impair your sleep quality due to blood sugar dsyregulation and impacting your adrenals at the same time. Wonder why you are awake by 2-3 am in some nights? And by consuming regular coffee daily, the caffeine will trigger stress hormones and the effect of half-life (6 hours) will only decrease depending on the last consumed timing. If you hit that cup of joe by 2pm, your adrenals will release cortisol and epinephrine, but cortisol will remain circulating in the blood for up to 6 hours, meaning by 8pm, the half-life potency will only decrease to 50%. This will surely making exhausted by the end of the day, feeling wired but tired and being able to sleep naturally by 10pm is almost impossible. Besides, most consumed coffee products are processed and non-organic, high in pesticides, mold and mycotoxins. 

If you have read my previous posts about sleep, I have explained in details how sleep deprivation can cause long list of physiological and psychological problems. Not to mention weight gain, diabetic and out of sync circadian rhythm. A more serious complications, increased risk of heart disease, cancer, intestinal permeability, autoimmune disease, and of course, reduced healing capacity. 

As most people either don't know what to do about it, for some, the need for sleeping pills or eating a high sugar/carbs meal before bed. As I have blogged about some of the ways to have better sleep, below are some of the 'revised and tuned' versions of getting deep restorative sleep. The number one remedy for anti-aging, healing and feeling focus and happy. 

Ways to sleep better: 

1) Oxytocin- release activity (sleep naked with your partner, enable more hugs, great sex)

A 2009 study published by the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, had the following say about oxytocin.

"Oxytocin can induce anti-stress-like effects such as reduction of blood pressure and cortisol levels. it increase pain thresholds, and stimulates various types of positive social interactions. In addition, it promote growth and healing."

The release of this hormone not only beneficial to your relationship, but also to your health. It is also known as the love hormone. One of the ways to trigger the release of such hormone is getting regular sleep with your partner in NAKED form. The bonding skin to skin with someone you love during sleep will trigger oxytocin. Another way is to give someone as many hugs as  you could on daily basis. Finally, favorite topic of all, SEX. Not only mind-blowing, toes-curling orgasmic sex will triggers huge amount of oxytocin and endorphins, it is a potent sleep booster! It numb your senses and decrease pain, making your eyes so heavy, falling asleep in no time, hitting that deep REM sleep. Oxytocin release up to 5 times more then normal level during this copulating process. 

2) Sleep with the moon, wake up with the sun (circadian rhythm)

A study published in the Annals of Epidemiology showed that getting regular less than six hours of sleep per night can lead to an increased risk of both heart disease and type 2 Diabetes. The researchers analyzed six years worth of data from just under 1500 participants, all between the ages of 35 and 79. On their results, the study authors wrote,

"Short sleep duration was associated with an elevated risk of IFG (incident-impaired fasting glucose). Not only can this elevated blood sugar lead to heart disease and diabetes, it can also lead to gain weight, which comes with its own risk of debilitating health issues, as well."

Now, most people don't realize that we have all been sleeping according to circadian rhythm since humans evolved thousands if not millions of years ago. Before artificial lights were invented, all of us have had quality sleep cycle. I remember my parents said that my great grandmother go to bed as early as before 9pm, and wakes up by 6am. Those years before TV, computers and internet were commercialized, our old folks were living a healthy life, and insomnia was almost never heard of. People don't even know about sleeping pills nor any sleep supplements. We have an epidemic of sleep disorders and insomnia is one of the common symptom. Is insomnia a deficiency of sleeping pill? Definitely not. 

3) Shorter, quality, functional exercise (HIIT, weight training)

HIIT has been shown in studies to provide multiple benefits to the body, which  includes lower stress level, better sleep at night and more effective in burning body fat. It is a smarter way of training and less damaging to the body hormonally and physically. It has been shown to burn body fat up to 10 times more effective then steady state cardio. Bear in mind, prolonged cardio or endurance exercise has been shown to increased risk of heart disease. There are many studies which explain why and how elevated cortisol hormone cause damage to the heart muscles during these types of physical exercises. The goal of exercise, is to control the over stimulation of cortisol stress hormone during the session. Avoid performing strenuous exercise at night, and at least 3 hours before your bedtime (10pm). Cortisol suppress your sleep hormone melatonin, preventing you from quality restorative sleep.  

4) Disconnect!
Switch off all electronic devices including TV, radio, wireless router, mobile phone (airplane mode), artificial lights at home and inside the bedroom by latest 10pm. Unless you have something to attend, make it a routine to hit the bed by 10pm. All these man-made EMF and interference will disrupt your sleeping hormones receptors causing poor sleep quality.

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Journals/References:

http://www.jneurosci.org/content/35/28/10135.short
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2656292/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21075236
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22621349
http://www.journalsleep.org/viewabstract.aspx?pid=27617
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2902103/
http://www.annalsofepidemiology.org/article/s1047-2797(10)00113-4/abstract
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15834840
http://eurheartj.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2011/12/05/eurheartj.ehr397.abstract

WOD - Primal movement

When the chips are low, when you feel a little exhausted from work at office, and if you don't feel like being a mouse on a wheel at the gym for an hour or so, or shooting your adrenals in the loud music pumping RPM class late at night, you might go for nature-based outdoor primal movement.

As indoor buildings which include gyms are 95% more polluted then outdoor in terms of air quality, a short drill of primal movement outdoor around nature might just be the tonic for you after a stressful day at work. Unless you are cultivating energy (work-in exercise), a quality short whole body movement circuit (6-7 rounds) is beneficial yet does not produce high amount of cortisol production.

Avoid strenuous workout session at least 3 hours before you actual circadian rhythm (10pm), due to cortisol suppressing melatonin sleep hormone which can prevent you from getting quality deep sleep.

When you workout, your body breaks down, catabolic state. Your body rebuild itself (anabolic) during para-sympathetic phase during sleep.  Bottom line, you will achieve optimum growth and results if you go to bed early and feed your body with high quality nutrition from whole foods and non of that junk nor toxic protein powders.

Enjoy the nature and move freely and rediscover the inner child in you. Enjoy the short exercise video below shot at local training ground. 

Microwave oven - One of the most dangerous kitchenware ever invented!

As I observe many people in my workplace going in and out of the pantry, one of the most frequently used kitchen appliances is the microwave oven. Apart from the coffee machine, this would arguably rated as 2nd most used appliance in my workplace or most offices. It is also prized for convenience and common in most homes, as most people are not aware of the harmful affect of using microwave oven.

In reality, most people tend to spend most of their time at work (job), or doing something else which is lower priority or less important on their daily routine. Let's face it, social networking, watching late night TV, playing online games, etc. The same group of people usualy complain about having no time to prepare their foods or too expensive to spend on organic whole foods. What happen next? Regular take-away meals on daily basis, more exposure to microwave radiation on the foods, developing more digestive problems, setting up food intolerance, malnutrition, etc. 

Today, I will briefly share with you the 4 known issues with using microwave oven. It is hazardous and alarming to our body and health, and many more people should be aware of heating up foods with microwave oven, instead of being ignorant about it. One important note for breastfeeding mothers. If you are feeding your baby with your own milk/infant milk formula, DO NOT heat it with microwave oven before giving it to your infant! The baby's immune system is yet to fully developed and will incur more damage to the body then adult.

Why microwave oven is so dangerous? 

- It's a radiation based electrical appliance. It alter the particles and destroy most of the nutrients and live enzymes of the foods you are about to consume. In a nutshell, you are eating a nutrient depleted almost-dead meal. This will impair your digestion and assimiliation capacity and creating food intolerance in the process, if prolonged use of microwaved foods. 

- Assuming you are buying your meal from outside, packed in a so called 'microwavable plastic' container, or even bringing your own home-cooked non-organic meal in a low quality plastic tupperware. The heating process using microwave oven will leech the chemicals (easily more then 30-50) into your foods. These chemicals are known as obesogens (phthalates, atrazine, BPA, PFOA, etc), also known as estrogen mimickers or endocrine disrupters. It will make you fat, confuse your body mimicking higher amount of estrogen level and increased risk of cancer. 

- What is even worst, is it create a new breed of pesticides during radiation heating process from the existing amount of pesticides in the foods, creating a pesticides factory in your gut! A new host of pesticides never found by scientists and your liver has no idea how to metabolize these toxins. 

- Study has shown exposure to devices such as microwave oven, can affect the heart.

according to Dr. Magda Havas of Trent University. Dr. Havas says:

"This is the first study that documents immediate and dramatic changes in both heart rate and heart rate variability caused by an approved device that generates microwaves at 

levels well below (0.3 percent) federal guidelines in both Canada and the United States."

How to reduce the amount of obesogens exposure?

- Avoid drinking/shower unfiltered water

- Avoid drinking from cans and bottled water/beverages

- Be aware of air-fresheners and fragrance products

- Avoid cooking with no-stick pan and consuming microwave popcorn

Journals/References: 

http://www.jsonline.com/watchdog/watchdogreports/34532034.html

http://www.litalee.com/documents/Microwaves%20And%20Microwave%20Ovens.pdf 

http://healingtools.tripod.com/thn4.html

http://www.goodhealthinfo.net/radiation/health_efx_western.htm

http://www.magdahavas.com/2010/04/01/dect-phones-affect-the-heart/