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."
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
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