Catch Those Zzzz’s. It’s Good For Your Health!
Have you said “bye bye” to sleeping through the night?
Are you feeling exhausted or “running on stress hormones” all day?
Do not fear, I have some great tips (and an amazing recipe) for you!
The science of sleep is fascinating, complicated and growing
Sleep is this daily thing that we all do and yet we’re just beginning to understand all of the ways it helps us and all of the factors that can affect it.
Lack of sleep affects just about everything in your body and mind. People who get less sleep tend to be at higher risk for many health issues like diabetes, heart disease, and certain types of cancer; not to mention effects like slower metabolism, weight gain, hormone imbalance and inflammation. And don’t forget the impact lack of sleep can have on moods, memory and decision-making skills.
Do you know that lack of sleep may even negate the health benefits of your exercise program?
OMG – What aspect of health does sleep not affect???
Knowing this, it’s easy to see the three main purposes of sleep:
- To restore our body and mind. Our bodies repair, grow and even “detoxify” our brains while we sleep.
- To improve our brain’s ability to learn and remember things, technically known as “synaptic plasticity”.
- To conserve some energy so we’re not just actively “out and about” 24-hours a day, every day.
Do you know how much sleep adults need? It’s less than your growing kids need but you may be surprised that it’s recommended that all adults get 7 – 9 hours a night. For real!
Try not to skimp!
Tips for better sleep
- The biggest tip is definitely to try to get yourself into a consistent sleep schedule. Make it a priority and you’re more likely to achieve it. This means turning off your lights 8 hours before your alarm goes off. Seven. Days. A. Week. I know weekends can easily throw this off but by making sleep a priority for a few weeks your body and mind will adjust and thank you for it.
- Balance your blood sugar throughout the day. You know, eat less refined and processed foods and more whole foods (full of blood-sugar-balancing fiber). Choose the whole orange instead of the juice (or orange-flavoured snack). Make sure you’re getting some protein every time you eat.
- During the day get some sunshine and exercise. These things tell your body it’s daytime; time for being productive, active and alert. By doing this during the day it will help you wind down more easily in the evening.
- Cut off your caffeine and added sugar intake after 12pm. Whole foods like fruits and veggies are fine, it’s the “added” sugar we’re minimizing. Yes, this includes your beloved chai latte. Both caffeine and added sugar can keep your mind a bit more active than you want it to be come evening.
- Have a relaxing bedtime routine that starts 1 hour before your “lights out” time (that is 8 – 10 hours before your alarm is set to go off). This would include dimming your artificial lights, nixing screen time and perhaps reading an (actual, not “e”) book or having a bath.
So how many of these tips can you start implementing today?
Recipe (Caffeine-free latte for your afternoon “coffee break”): Caffeine-Free Chai Latte
Serves 1-2
1 bag of rooibos chai tea (rooibos is naturally caffeine-free)
2 cups of boiling water
1 tablespoon tahini
1 tablespoon almond butter (creamy is preferred)
2 dates (optional)
Cover the teabag and dates (if using) with 2 cups of boiling water and steep for a few minutes.
Discard the tea bag & place tea, soaked dates, tahini & almond butter into a blender.
Blend until creamy.
Serve and Enjoy!
Tip: You can try this with other nut or seed butters to see which flavour combination you like the best. Cashew butter anyone?
References:
Breast Cancer Treatments and Heart Disease. What You Need to Know
February is Heart Month in Canada. It is a time during which awareness is raised about the importance of cardiovascular health and ways to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease are discussed. Coinciding with Heart Month is a recent release in the journal Circulation. In this issue the American Heart Association warned that breast cancer patients and survivors who have undergone certain chemotherapy and radiation treatments could be at risk for heart failure and other cardiac problems both in the near term and sometimes years after treatment. The American Heart Association was quick to state that they are not recommending that treatments should be avoided. What they are saying is that the study offers to us the understanding that counteracting these possible cardiovascular side effects of treatment should be attended to by breast cancer patients and their oncologists.
I found this excerpt from the study of particular interest:
Improvements in early detection and treatment of breast cancer have led to an increasing number of breast cancer survivors who are at risk of long-term cardiac complications from cancer treatments. For older women, CVD (cardiovascular disease) poses a greater mortality threat than breast cancer itself.
So what does attending to our cardiovascular health look like after treatment?
I don’t think that is it surprising to learn that the primary tenets of a heart healthy lifestyle include regular exercise and maintaining a healthy diet.
Regular Exercise
Exercise has many positive effects on our cardiovascular health, including managing weight, regulating cholesterol and controlling blood pressure. Exercise is anything that makes you move your body and burn calories. For overall heart health American Heart Association recommends
- At least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity at least 5 days per week for a total of 150
OR
- At least 25 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity at least 3 days per week for a total of 75 minutes; or a combination of moderate- and vigorous-intensity aerobic activity
AND
- Moderate- to high-intensity muscle-strengthening activity at least 2 days per week for additional health benefits.
Healthy Diet
Eating a healthy diet is vital for heart health. A heart healthy diet should:
- include a wide variety of whole foods
- be devoid of processed foods
- be primarily vegetarian
- be as organic as possible
- aim for 30-40 grams of fiber a day
Diet and lifestyle are where we must start in building a heart healthy lifestyle after breast cancer treatment. And this is a plan for life.
When we know the possible side effects of treatment we can start to build a strategy to get ahead of them, at worst minimizing them and at best avoiding them all together.
5 Tips to Start Your Cancer Prevention Diet
A common thread among cancer patients is chronic inflammation. In an acute reaction, inflammation is a natural and beneficial response by our immune system to rid the body of unwanted pathogens. However, inflammation in a sustained and chronic engagement impairs and weakens our immune system.
Among many factors influencing inflammation is our diet. Diet can either mitigate or fuel the fire of inflammation as exampled by a new study published January 18, 2018 in the journal JAMA Oncology entitled “Association of Dietary Inflammatory Potential With Colorectal Cancer Risk in Men and Women”. This study highlights how processed meat and other foods have inflammation-promoting properties that can be a risk factor for colorectal cancer in both men and women.
This was a cohort study that followed 121 050 adults for 26 years. Its purpose was to examine whether pro-inflammatory diets are associated with increased colorectal cancer risk.
The study showed that:
intake of pro-inflammatory diets as evidenced by higher scores on an empirical dietary inflammatory pattern score was associated with a significantly higher risk of developing colorectal cancer in both men and women.
The findings are not too surprising. And although not a part of this study, the underlying premise may extend to more cancers.
Food matters. What we choose to plate and palate impacts our health.
Changing our diet can be an intimidating notion so let’s start with some basics tips for a cancer prevention diet.
5 Tips to Start Your Cancer Prevention diet
- Eat whole foods. Avoid the processed ones.
- Cover at least 80% of your plate with vegetables.
- Choose a variety of fruits and vegetables to get a complete source of vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients. Think a rainbow of colours!
- Increase your fiber intake. Aim for between 30-40 grams of fiber daily. This may seem like a lot but if you adhere closely to tips 1 through 3 you are well on your way!
- Eat organic foods as much as possible. This will help to reduce the toxic burden on your body and will increase the nutrient content of your food.
Implement these tips over time and avoid the all or nothing attitude.
Great journeys begin with small steps!
Be well…
Bringing Gratitude in to our Lives
Admit it or not, we have become a society of protesters and moaners. With all the adverse press, hate crimes and general lack of thankfulness, our brains seemed to be wired for the negative. But what if we could rewire our brains; shift ourselves from a complaint-based life to one of appreciation? Studies have shown that the brain can rewire itself based on what we pay attention to and how we exercise our brain. Imagine what would happen if we cultivated a daily practice of thankfulness and gratitude?
It’s so easy to be thankful when things are going well in our lives; the sun is always shining, there’s a skip in our step. It’s much harder to find that silver lining when tragedy hits or we encounter setbacks. While we have no control over our feelings, we can control how we allow those feelings to govern us. Part of regulating those feelings is understanding them. When we start to examine life outside of the boundaries of our suffering, we can see that the world comes together to help us. As an example, many years ago my van broke down on my way home from grocery shopping. Two of my children, toddlers at the time, were with me and I was panicked and worried. During that time, all I focused on was what was happening in that moment. That’s where we get stuck, focusing on the here and now. Looking back, I realized things weren’t as bad as I thought. I was safe, my kids were safe and I had people available to help me out. This paradigm of self-reflection and cultivating gratitude are an important relationship. Much like going to the gym and exercising our muscles, repeatedly ‘flexing’ our gratefulness will help develop it and over time, we will have a different perspective on how things went in our daily lives.
Gregg Krech of the ToDo Institute and former guest on TheHealthHub, laid out some questions to help with daily self-reflection; he reflected daily on these question while studying in Japan:
- What did I receive?
- What did I give?
- What difficulties and troubles did I cause others?
It’s that last question that I reflect upon most. Once we start looking at our treatment of others and acknowledging our shortfalls, we can then start to change. Can you imagine this world if everyone did this?!
My challenge to you: every night, take 20-25 minutes to review your day and ask those questions. No one needs to know your answers or even what you did that day. This is only for you, so be honest. Not only will you see your daily perspective change because you are conscious of having to truthfully answer those questions at the end of the day, but you may also be surprised at what you find out about yourself.
Kelly Northey, Contributor to TheHealthHub
“Bringing Gratitude in to Our Lives”
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