Got Sleep? Here’s A Wake Up Call!

Next week represents National Sleep Awareness Week, so if you have found yourself dozing off in the middle of day, at your desk or in the classroom, you are not alone in the CDC’s current wake up call.  More than one third of Americans get less than seven hours of sleep each night — a deficit that could put your health at risk, a new report  says.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analyzed sleep surveys of 74,571 adults in 12 states and is offering up its findings in a report released Thursday. In questions about habits within the prior 30 days, almost 38% of respondents said they had fallen asleep by accident and almost 5% said they had nodded off or fallen asleep while driving. 

The map below depicts age-adjusted percentage of adults who reported 30 days of insufficient rest or sleep during the preceding 30 days. Data is from the 2008 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, United States.

The health hazards of not getting enough sleep cannot be overlooked.  The official report is called the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, and it states that “sleep difficulties, some of which are preventable, are associated with chronic diseases, mental disorders, health-risk behaviors, limitations of daily functioning, injury and mortality.”  It’s true – multiple studies have demonstrated the negative health consequences of insufficient sleep, which appears to afflicting more and more people as the years go by.  In this way, it sounds eerily similar to ‘catching a bug’, like something that gets you from the outside – a plague of sorts - though it actually has everything to do with our modern accoutrements and lifestyle choices.

Whether staying up late to finish a project or update your  facebook and twitter accounts, or overstressed and unrelaxed after a hectic day and catching up with the nightly news, proper sleep is something that your body cannot do without.  There is a saying in health, that if you do not give to your body what your body requires, it will take it from you regardless.  The way you see this is through various physical and psychological imbalances.  Everything from erratic blood sugar fluctuations and higher cortisol to strange mood swings can be some of the first signs.  Dozing off is to be expected.  And this can happen just after even 1-2 nights of poor sleep.

So what’s the goal to shoot for?  The National Sleep Foundation recommends seven to nine hours of sleep per day for adults and 10 to 11 hours for school-age children.

One of the first things to aim for in improving any health condition, is to improve the quality of your sleep.  This is why I mention sleep as one of the components of The Big 3 (click).  For those of you interested in taking the survey used by the National Health And Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), click here and see how you score.

Night Night!

The Big 3

Continuing along with the theme of ‘effective simplicity’, I’d like to dive in some more with you on the 3 main areas to focus on regarding your health that you will derive the greatest benefit  and get the biggest bang for your buck from, if you simply apply these consistently.  This is what I call ‘The Big 3’ – nutrition, exercise, and sleep.  This is to help you sort through all the competing influences of health information that you read  and see in the magazines, newspaper articles and television shows, which if you are like most people, end up leaving you more confused and not sure what to do to improve your health. 

It goes something like this —- Should I use the microwave?  I heard it’s bad for you.  Oh yes, gotta throw out the plastic – bad for you too.  Drink goji juice.  Don’t eat starch and meat at the same time.  Never eat fruit with other foods.  Umm, let’s see, also have to eat oats to lower my cholesterol right?  Oh yeah, gotta stay away from egg yolks, because that will give me a heart attack.  And don’t put anything in aluminum foil – it will give me Alzheimer’s.   I have to get my heart rate in the ‘fat-burning zone’ to burn fat because other exercises will boost my cortisol too much and cause me to gain belly fat – can’t do that.  What’s that special pill my friend was telling me about?  She heard from someone somewhere that it cured their diabetes — gotta remember to ask her………you get the picture, on and on, ad nauseum.   While some of this may be true, where is the leverage?  What are the things that are going to make the most difference?  Enter ‘The Big 3′.

 ‘Big 1’: Nutrition

Perhaps the single most important factor in your nutrition is a diet that works for you to keep your blood sugar stable.  I have spoken extensively about the role of proper blood sugar management here and here.  Keeping your blood sugar stable will greatly contribute to greater energy levels which don’t rise and fall as the tides do, but stay steady and calm providing you with a sense of well-being including better mood and emotional balance.  Good blood sugar control is paramount to healthy aging; in fact, the aging process – how rapidly you age – is determined by the damage that high blood sugar exerts on your tissues over time.  Serious stuff here.

Appetite is directly tied into blood sugar levels, so when there is balance here, your appetite is normalized and you won’t constantly crave processed foods – the sweets and treats and refined baked goods that oftentimes for many of us are hard to resist.  Multiple studies have shown that processed, refined carbohydrates are the key players in the onset of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity and many forms of cancer; we know this well by now, but we need to get to a point where we don’t crave them because willpower will only get us so far in helping us avoid eating these ‘foods’.  Our bodies have to come to a point where there are no strong desires for them, and this is done simply through a process of regulating your blood sugar. 

So how do you know if your blood sugar is stable or not?  Please go back to my radio show posts I mentioned above, take a listen to them, and find out.  You’ll know by some reference ranges in your bloodwork such as fasting glucose and hemoglobin A1C, as well just seeing how you feel after eating meals.  For instance, if you find yourself tired or grumpy after eating, that particular combination of foods is probably not helpful to you.

So the question is, what to do about it.  Drawing from my own personal experience, my professional clinical experience in working with hundreds of people, and what the overwhelming majority of research studies done in this field has to say, a diet that is low in these highly refined carbohydrates is a starting point for everyone.  These are the ‘foods’ that cause massive disturbance in blood sugar levels, so of course you would want to avoid them.  What about whole grains?  For many of you, these can be worked in your diet just fine, but keep an eye out for the above symptoms, for these also can generate high blood sugar levels.  Note that some of you will simply not do well with whole grains – you could be genetically predisposed to blood sugar problems and thus it is not surprising that you don’t do well with them.  You may experience bloating or have the same energy crashes I mentioned above as with the simple, refined carbohydrates.  Furthermore, many of you are sensitive to gluten, a substance found in most grains, and that just adds to the problem, insult to injury.  If you are pre-diabetic or diabetic (type II), I would suggest to work with your doctor or healthcare provider to gain control over this, because with proper care and attention, your body may be able to recover, heal and return to good health.  Diet is key, no question about it, and as Hippocrates indeed stated so long ago, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine thy food.” 

What to eat?  Well, let’s take a good look around us, and in particular, around the grocery store, along the perimeter.  What’s there?  Fresh foods – fruits and vegetables, meat, chicken, seafood, eggs, dairy and cheese (if you are not intolerant).  I gave a whole 2 hour seminar recently where I spoke of the necessity of having the bulk of our diet come from these foods, in an effort to stabilize blood sugar levels, stabilize the important hormone insulin, and therefore vastly improve our health.  Ditch the soda, fruit juice and sports drink and develop the fresh taste of pure water.  No need to count calories on this type of approach, for your appetite normalizes, you feel fuller longer, and your energy levels consistently improve while your body composition and weight balance out.  Other benefits soon follow – lower blood sugar levels, improved cholesterol profiles, better blood pressure control, lowered inflammation – all major risk factors for chronic illness tend to improve.  I will write much more in this topic in future posts to do this piece justice.

 ‘Big 2’: Exercise

One quick, casual glance at the human body and you can immediately see that it was designed for movement.   The vast network of structural, functional muscles as they attach to the various bones in our body which act as levers for muscle to attach to, allow for swift and efficient movement, movement that has to occur regularly if there is going to be any use for our muscles and bones.  The fact of the matter is, that our muscles are very metabolically active tissue, meaning that they require lots of energy from food if they are used properly and they contribute a very very large portion to our overall health.  When used, energy requirements go up and lucky for us, we get to eat more.  The key here is, of course, used properly.  If we don’t use them, then we must lose them. 

In a time where we had to physically work for our food, our muscles were constantly being called into action and we did not have to think about exercise for it was a natural part of daily living and our survival depended on it.  With the advent of agriculture and the commodities of modern living, our physical exertions became less and less, and as a result we have become more sedentary.  The consequences of this have come at a high cost, because first and foremost, the more sedentary we are, the more our caloric needs go down – yet we leave in a time of abundance, with all types of artificial foods around us which trick our natural appetite and hunger mechanisms to the point where we cannot intuitively rely on them.  We then have to consciously curb portions, and one question to always ask here is – “how’s that working for you?”   Remember that willpower alone will only get you so far if you are constantly feeling hungry.   You gotta work the balance, and this balance relies on blood sugar.

Well guess what?  Exercise is well known to enhance insulin sensitivity, which helps maintain stable blood sugar levels.  That’s right, exercise is good medicine.  It effectively allows you to eat more carbohydrates than if you did not exercise, and that is most helpful in the sea of carbohydrate abundance we live in today.  Most people when they crave food, they crave chips, breads, pasta, cereal, cookies, crackers —- refined carbohydrates; they don’t crave meat, eggs, vegetables and fruits necessarily, do they? (Unless they’re pregnant of course, then all generalities go out the window!)  Well, part of this is because these carbohydrates cause a quick increase in serotonin in the brain, and that is a feel-good neurotransmitter – you are immediately rewarded with stress reduction when you eat these foods; however, the price you ultimately pay for that down the road is far greater.  Spiraling out of control glucose levels and associated inflammatory damage is occurring when this gets out of hand, and statistics do show that 50% of adult Americans will be either full blown diabetic or at the least pre-diabetic by 2020 if this continues.  Regular exercise and physical fitness allows us to get away with more carbohydrate in the diet, plain and simple, because the blood sugar is burned off for energy, not left floating around in the bloodstream causing harm.

So, exercise for good health and well-being.  Find something fun and stick to it consistently.  Explore what may be a new type of fun for you – try some yoga, pilates, strength training, swimming, biking, tennis, etc.  What is fun you will most likely continue with.  Find a friend to make this fun for you if you are the more social type and need motivation.  But by all means, as Nike is famous for saying, “Just Do It.”  Many more posts to come on this topic too.

 ‘Big 3’: Sleep

Ok, now right after reading this, turn out the lights and go to sleep.  Seriously?  Seriously folks.  What’s the average amount of sleep you get per night?  If you are like most people, then roughly about 6 to 6.5 hours per night.  That’s not going to cut it for optimal health and well-being.  It has been shown that the body will sleep about an average of 8.5 hours if left uninterrupted, and this is to facilitate the regeneration and repair of all tissues and organs in your body.  Your body grows most at night while asleep, if you are looking to put on muscle.  Your body works more diligently to combat infection while asleep, which is why oftentimes fevers are more pronounced at night.  Your conscious, active part of the nervous system takes a back seat to rest and lets other parts of the brain become more dominant so that it can wake up in the morning and do it all over again.  Once again, with the advent of modern living and technology, we have sacrificed sleep requirements for getting more things done.

You owe it to yourself to rearrange your priorities and responsibilities to slowly but surely allow for more sleep.  Many of you are wakeful at night and/or have difficulty falling asleep.  If it’s a chronic problem, seek attention and please view my previous posts on the importance of sleep and what you can do about it.  It’s that critical, because so many things in your health hang on this one very critical facet of life.  Case in point: a study was performed on two groups of Olympic athletes – people who were very fit and ate a healthy diet.  One group was the control group, where everything was the same, and the only difference  in the test group was that they were instructed to restrict their sleep to just under 6 hours.  Within 3 days, this control group developed blood sugar levels in the range of pre-diabetes!

Your quality of sleep is an effective barometer of how your body is dealing with stress.  Typically good sleep equates with good stress control.  You can probably see how poor stress control also dovetails into less healthy food choices and lack of motivation for physical activity.  Better sleep, better stress control, more motivation to live a healthier lifestyle.

The Road Ahead

How can you have more energy and experience a greater sense of well-being?  How can you most simply and effectively improve your health condition?  Acknowledge the  ‘Big 3’ and start letting the big changes into your life that are surely to follow.  No matter what your limitations may be, there is always something you can do to help yourself here, and if you need further help, please ask us.  This is who we are, and this is what we do.

I trust that this helps you as you read and hear about the next dietary or fitness trend that is due to hit the bookshelves, magazine stands and airwaves – ask yourself, how does it square up to the ‘Big 3’?  My hope is that this simplifies your understanding of what it takes to be healthy and feel well, for these 3 areas will always be the foundation of health.

A prosperous 2011 New Years to you and yours, and feel free to let me know what your thoughts are on the topic.  We always love to hear from you!

Ricardo Boye

The “Clock Out” Syndrome

In today’s world we find that there seems to be little time left in life to take care of our health and fitness needs. Everything around us is pre-packaged and marketed for the on the go, fast paced lifestyle. The evidence has revealed itself that this lifestyle has become destructive and is deteriorating our health. We are and have been too busy to take care of ourselves. This time of year we are busy with holiday parties and the grand Thanksgiving Day meal, where we not only stuff the turkey but we stuff ourselves as well, vowing to work it off after the New Year. Sound familiar? Do any of us stop to think how our society has found itself in such a devastating place, both financially and physically? I don’t believe it’s a coincidence that our country’s financial breakdown and our physical breakdown have been working out in a congruent manner. The patterns of behavior and habit are similar in both areas.

 When did we lose control and why do we seem to wait until something tragic happens before we consider our finances or our health? These are good questions to ponder in order for each of us to find a new starting point on the road map back to health.  Our society has been blessed in the past with great economic success allowing for the “American Dream” to become a reality for many hard working individuals. This level of success and priviledge also brought about quite a bit of responsibility as expenses rose with income.

 With the current pressures of keeping up and making ends meet, we lost sight of our most basic and primary needs: sleep, exercise and good nutrition. The stress to maintain lifestyles and to produce results in business led to what I call the “clock out syndrome”. When we get into overload we tend to “clock out” and go on auto pilot, subconscious patterns begin to take over. We will spend money without concern and eat mindlessly as a way of compensating for stress. Both of these habits tend to be emotional stabilizers for many people who are “busy”.  Sometimes years go by until something occurs that jolts us back to reality, we suddenly look in the mirror and are shocked by the reflection or we get devastating news from a doctor about our health. Why wait until it’s almost too late or too difficult to return to normalcy,to regain health and fitness?

Now is the time to take back the control that has always been yours to have, don’t wait for another year of broken resolutions! Start making choices with conscious deliberation regarding your heath, fitness and financial worlds. Use your resources to invest in education, fitness and health management through a variety of modalities. Did you know that just 3 months with a personal trainer can add years to your life, reduce body fat and lower your risk of diabetes and heart disease? If you are given the right instruction, you gain the ability to take care of yourself on a regular basis, forever. This is an actual cost savings over your lifetime, reducing the risks of costly healthcare in the future. Make the time for a professional massage once a month, it can lower cortisol levels and boost your immune system, taking away the finacial stress of dealing with doctors and insurance companies. Why not take the time and the resources that you have and begin to invest in your health? Let’s stop the “Clock out syndrome” before it’s too late and we teach our children how to perpetuate this pattern. Let’s instead model for them what it looks like to make heath and fitness a priority in 2011. Please take the time to let us know what your plan is to begin your journey to health, hire a personal trainer if you need help, your life is worth the investment!!! Have a Happy Thanksgiving, giving thanks expecially for your health and the health of your loved ones!