Month: November 2021

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Sleep: Some Essential Facts You Likely Don’t Know

Dr. Tamara Kung, ND

Humans try all kinds of rational to shortchange sleep. Deep societal and cultural shifts have brought in an era where sleep is seen as second rate, an afterthought, a passive thing we do when there’s nothing else to do. We think sleeping means laziness and we’ve been actively fighting against it, with the false notion that we can be more productive and have something to show for our efforts. But what does sleeplessness really do?

As a result, two-thirds of adults around the world aren’t hitting the recommended 8 hours of sleep specified by the WHO and National Sleep Foundation. Countries where sleep time has declined the most, the US, UK, Japan, and South Korea, are seeing noticeable increases in physical disease and psychological disorders.

If that’s not enough, new research and scientific literature provide clear evidence that indicates the shorter your sleep, the shorter your lifespan.

Humans are the only species on Earth who deliberately deprive themselves of sleep. Sleep deprivation can be so devastating to our health that the WHO has classified shift work (jobs that are known to mess up our sleep), a probable carcinogen (being linked with prostate, breast, and colon cancer). The reality is, we are all Shift workers, which is defined as someone who stays awake for more than 3 hours between 10 pm-5 am more than once a week (official European definition).

Believe it or not, most of us fall under this definition because of how we live our lives. Do any of the following situations apply to you?

  • Traditional: Emergency responder, health care worker, flight attendants, pilots, ground transportation, food services, custodial staff, call centers, construction, manufacturing
  • Lifestyle: high school, college students, musicians, performing artists, new parents, in home caregivers, spouses of shift workers
  • Gig economy jobs: ride share services, food delivery services, freelancers
  • Jet Lag: traveling between across 2+ time zones in a day
  • Social Jet Lag: Sleeps and wakes 2+ hours later on weekends (more than 50% of population)
  • Digital Jet Lag: chatting with friends / colleagues, family several time zones away, over social media

Those that get paid massive sums for their physical jobs, professional athletes, have taken notice. The impact of sleep deprivation, or an erratic sleep schedule, has become a major priority for pros and elite athletes everywhere. World sports organizations like the International Olympic Committee have established guidelines for better quantity and quality sleep.

Why for athletes?

Because data shows that motor skills, reaction time, endurance levels all get boosted with 8 hours of quality sleep. Take NBA player, Andre Iguodala of the Golden State Warriors. Here are his stats on when he got 8 hours or more of sleep on a consistent basis compared to less than 8 hours.

  • 12% increase in minutes played
  • 29% increase in points/ minute
  • 2% increase in 3-point percentage 
  • 9% increase in free-throw percentage
  • 37% reduction in turnovers
  • 45% reduction in fouls committed 

This isn’t just for athletes though. We mere mortals also benefit as we try to gain more strength and endurance. When we’re sleep-deprived, we’re often burning more lean muscle mass and less fat which makes it really tough to build muscle. 

Getting enough sleep also drastically reduces the risk of injury. There’s nothing worse than being motivated to finally get active and then get injured and forced out against our best intentions! To put this into perspective, a study assessing sleep and injury risk in young athletes found the following:

  • 9 hours 15% chance of injury
  • 8 hours 34% chance of injury
  • 7 hours 62% chance of injury
  • 6 hours 74% chance of injury

Did you notice that the risk is not a linear one, it’s exponential with each hour of sleep loss!

What does sleep deprivation do for our brains? These are some of the major areas on how sleep affects our mental function and health. 

  • Impairs our ability to think on our feet 
  • Ability to take on new information becomes severely impaired
  • Reactions are blunted (less witty comebacks, or articulate responses) 
  • Increased chance we do something we’ll regret
    • Going for the junk food/ chips vs. healthier fruits/ veggie snacks
  • Long & short-term memory gets dulled – learning new skills, language, topic, becomes overwhelmingly more difficult vs. those who get sufficient sleep are more likely to master skills
  • Increases susceptibility to more extreme mood swings, and on top of that, it’s biased towards a more negative state (anger, anxiety, irritability) 
  • Significantly raises your risk for Alzheimer’s

How does sleep impact so many cognitive processes? 

When you’re asleep, a big neurological bath washes over your brain, clearing it of waste products (garbage) and toxins (tau proteins associated with Alzheimer’s) accumulated throughout the day. Additionally:

  • Sleep enriches our ability to learn, organize memories for storage and easy retrieval, make logical choices.
  • Recalibrates our emotional brain circuits to navigate day to day challenges with a cool-headed composure. 
  • A good night’s sleep promotes those “aha!” moments, where you figure out a novel solution to a problem you were previously stuck on. The saying “Sleep on it.” has its merits, as being uncovered through studies of sleep and dreaming. 

Tips for Unlocking Your Sleep Super Power

Just like everything else we value, sleep comes with our actions and the work we put into it. That being said, working on your sleep doesn’t have to be a drag. It should be something that feels good, is calming, relaxing, and something you look forward to enjoying.

Tip 1: A good night’s sleep comes begins with your daylight exposure. Aim for 30 minutes of outdoor daylight (overcast counts!) without sunglasses. This helps set your circadian rhythm up so that it guides you to sleepiness at the end of the day. Most effective for those who have trouble falling asleep before midnight.

Tip 2: Smaller dinners and finishing your meals before 7 pm is ideal. Late-night snacking tricks your body back into daytime mode and becomes stimulating. These mismatched signals of the environment and what we’re trying to achieve at night leave us tossing and turning. Instead of snacking, make a cozy tea and or go for a walk, stretch or a good read. 

Tip 3: Put on blue light blocking glasses after dinner and leave them on until you turn the last light off (never during the daylight hours because blue light is helpful in the daytime). Clear lenses block 15-30%, while orange lenses block 98%. opt for orange if you can. Here is a link for some sleek Bono glasses. 

Tip 4: Create a sleep sanctuary. Imagine the sensation you have walking into your favourite yoga session. The room is inviting, cozy and if someone brought in their phone, you’d zero in on them and internally yell “get that outta here!”. That’s how your bedroom should feel. Bring in plants, cozy pillows, dim the lighting and leave your devices (phone, computers, tablets) outside. 

Building a new routine takes practice, but each time you practice, you are voting for the path you want to live in.

I’ll leave you with this:

“Just in, scientists have discovered a revolutionary new treatment that makes you live longer. It also enhances your memory and makes you more creative. It makes you look more attractive, keeps you slim, and lowers food cravings. It protects you from cancer and dementia, and wards off colds and flu. It lowers your risk for heart attacks, strokes, and diabetes. You’ll feel happier, less depressed, less anxious. You’ll also be a much better athlete. Interested?”

If this were a drug, it’d be unbelievable! Many of us would pay big money for just a small dose of this!

This ad describes not a tincture, a new superfood, or drug, but the proven benefits of a full night’s sleep. Yours to pick up on repeat prescriptions every day!

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Mindfulness: Training For Your Brain

Tim Irvine

The rise in the popularity of mindfulness has been a big help to people everywhere. With awareness of mental health issues being much greater in general, mindfulness is a tool that can help our brains manage better. At least that’s what people tell us. What does science say? In short, it’s the real deal!

At this time, there is still a lack of volume of good, credible research to concretely back up all of the benefits that are claimed. The good news is, there is solid research proving some of the claims, and there is more of this good work coming.

The most conclusive benefits have been identified across several studies. Most of those studies focus on meditation as the trait being examined. It is also the most prominent component of mindfulness practice, even though there are various styles. These styles need their own individual examination to tease out the differences between them, but in general, meditation has been shown to clearly benefit in several ways.

Improvements In Attention

If you think about our typical daily environments, they are full of literal and figurative noise. This noise is fatiguing and when coupled with the incredibly fast-paced lives we now live, our attention spans suffer. Mindfulness has been shown to sharpen our attention and focus at the moment, but also over the long term.

Increased Grey matter

This one is a physical change, but it shows itself behaviorally because the prefrontal cortex is positively affected. This part of the brain governs the emotional regulation of external stimuli, our reactions to those stimuli, as well other higher-level functions. Training our brains with mindfulness meditation increases the size of this area and others, and this allows us to manage better emotionally.

Stress Resilience

Mindfulness practices appear to decrease the activity in the amygdala. When this part of the brain is stimulated, it is done so by fearful or very stressful situations. That’s why a mindfulness practice helps reduce our responses to stress and fear. When done so over a longer period, our capacity to be resilient in stressful situations improves as well.

Reduced Anxiety

Just 8 weeks of brief, daily meditation can lower anxiety. This was found in a study that used the Trier Social Stress Test, which is an anxiety measurement tool. The really great thing in their findings was that this applied to those individuals that did not have previous experience meditating. This means that you don’t have to be a meditation guru to benefit in this way, you just need to commit for eight weeks or more.

One other consideration in this conversation is how we’ve come to this point in the first place. From an evolutionary standpoint, we would have had many situations where we were by ourselves in nature, content and performing tasks we enjoyed. This would have provided a great deal of mindful time for our brains. That’s not to say there wasn’t stress, but we certainly were not bombarded with ‘noise’, information, and people like we have in our modern society. So take this as a hint to get outside in nature and do some things you love. Meditating in nature may even compound the benefits. You will reap similar rewards to the mindfulness practice you perform in your home.

Happy brain training!!

https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/the_state_of_mindfulness_science

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S016643281830322X

https://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/psychpedia/prefrontal-cortex

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Forest Bathing – What it is and why you should do it

Tim Irvine

Last weekend I spent three spectacular days hiking on the Bruce Trail here in southern Ontario. It reminded me about how important getting into nature is for our physical and mental health. It also reminded me that I had to let more people know about the practice of forest bathing. No, I didn’t take my clothes off and roll around in the leaves, I just had to be in the forest for a good chunk of time.

Forest Bathing is an Asian concept that has been around since the early 1980s. It was officially named in Japan as Shinrin-Yoku but quickly gained momentum in China as well. You can imagine that living in some of the most densely populated cities in the world created a need to get back to nature in some meaningful way. Our modern, fast-paced, and stressful lifestyles create the tension we are not always aware of but is consistently there. One of the ways to effectively deal with this tension is to get out in nature.

This concept isn’t new, but the conscious practice of it is. I would argue that getting into nature in any way possible is helpful, but Forest Bathing suggests that being stationary, or moving very slowly, in nature is the most effective way to get the benefits. That could be swinging in a hammock, sitting on a stump, hanging out by a stream, or any other way to be still and at one with your natural surroundings. The length of time can vary from 30 minutes to hours. It’s really your choice.

Research on this subject is fairly sparse overall, but what has been done has shown a direct relationship with time spent in forests with a reduction in physical and psychological symptoms of stress. While time spent in any type of forest is valuable, it appears that evergreens, such as fir, pine, cedar and spruce, provide the greatest benefits. This is due to their production of phytoncides which help to protect them against rot and mildew.

To put a bit more of an objective spin on this, adding some metrics can be helpful. It can be as simple as measuring your heart rate before and after you ‘bathe’, or something more involved if you have the type of wearable technology that can provide blood pressure or brain activity. You can also subjectively score your level of anxiety before and after to provide a reference of how this works.

Even with a lack of substantial research, people are using forests as part of the treatment of many mental health-related issues. While the empirical evidence is not there to support it yet, it seems logical based on the simple fact that we take a break from the stressful environments of city life. This would explain why the rooms with a view in hotels are the ones most sought after. Our instinct is to be in those types of environments but often ignore them. That’s the problem with city life, we train ourselves to ignore what we intuitively know we should have. For more on this subject, you can check out a great read entitled Your Better Instincts by Dr. Stacy Irvine.

The key is to make sure you can get yourself into a forest or natural environment as often as possible. We know enough to know it works, so it’s something we all need to incorporate into our daily or weekly routines. Happy bathing!

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2793341/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7504269/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5580555/

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Are Artificial Sweeteners Causing Big Problems?

By Tamara Kung, ND

Sugar is bad, so artificial sweeteners without all the extra calories must be good, right??

Let’s look at the facts to improve our understanding of this critical area of nutrition. It’s important to first understand how insulin works and how added sweeteners affect it.

Insulin is your growth and storage hormone (“Hormone of Abundance”) and it allows your body to either use sugar (glucose) for energy, or to store it (fat) for when our intake of energy is low. Our body isn’t good at multitasking, so when it’s storing, it’s NOT burning. This is imbalance number one and why weight gain happens when we have too much fuel of certain types.

Insulin is triggered most by processed foods because they contain added sugars, artificial sweeteners, and simple carbohydrates like white flour. A diet rich in processed foods can lead to Insulin resistance which occurs when our cells no longer respond to overly repetitive signalling of insulin. This means cells won’t open their doors to let blood sugar (energy) in, thereby keeping our blood sugars elevated.

Picture This:

  • Imagine insulin to be the kids who ring your doorbell to trick or treat. If that doorbell keeps ringing after Halloween, that will get annoying, and you will eventually stop opening the door. 
  • Your cells do the same. If insulin is always around, ringing your cell’s door (ie. eating sugar/artificially sweetened foods or drinks regularly), your cells will ignore it and become insulin resistant.
  • In response, your body will increase the amount of insulin (more doorbell rings), and increased insulin drives the development of diabetes, and other diseases related to weight gain.

When people are in this state, the first step is to take a break from insulin-triggering foods and curb the cravings so our cells can become more sensitive to insulin. Less insulin means less time storing fat and promoting energy production and growth. Less insulin means more time burning fat. 

Now that you have the basics of insulin, let’s look at artificial sweeteners specifically.

When we consume artificial sweeteners, insulin still goes up despite not having any actual sugar calories coming in. This is because our bodies are smart, and our taste buds sense sweetness which signals our gut to prepare for sugar. The insulin spike from artificial sweeteners causes our body to store blood sugar in our cells, and this can lead to low blood sugar. Low blood sugar can, in turn, make us feel weak, hungry, or even hangry.  That’s why people who consume diet sweeteners can eat more, and feel less satiated and thus, overconsume. 

The studies on artificial sweeteners are starting to come in due to the increased use and interest in their long-term effects. Here are two incredible examples.

One study divided volunteers into four groups who had the same diet for over six months, except for the following differences:

Group 1 = A litre of sugared soda a day

Group 2 = A litre of diet soda per day

Group 3 = A litre of milk per day

Group 4 = A litre of water per day

  • The soda group gained 22 lbs, the diet soda group gained 3.5 lbs, the milk group stayed the same, the water group lost 4.5 lbs. 

A gain of 3.5lbs is better than 22lbs, but why did they still gain weight without the extra calories? And why did the milk group not gain any weight despite having the same number of calories as sugary soda? It has to do with insulin, meaning diet sweeteners still cause an insulin release, while the lactose and fat in milk, didn’t. In a follow-up study, they took diet soda drinkers and switched them to only water, and they lost another 6 lbs. Both diet soda and water contain no sugar, so why did their weight change? You guessed it, insulin! The sweet taste alone can stimulate appetite and insulin release which drives fat storage. 

The second study was long-term and followed 918 women for 7 years to better understand the regular consumption of artificially sweetened beverages (ASB). The study found that artificially sweetened beverages during pregnancy can affect the birth size and increase the risk that a child will be overweight/ obese by seven years of age. 

  • Specifically, there was almost a two-fold increase of overweight/obese children seven years later in the mothers who drank ASB daily while pregnant (compared to mothers who never did).  
  • The study also looked at the difference when mothers substituted their regular sodas for diet sodas (with the hope of making a healthier choice), but the results didn’t show any significant reduction in risk in childhood overweight/ obesity. 
  • There was a reduced risk in mothers who substituted sugar sweetened beverages for water! 

Diet sweeteners also change the composition of the microbiome in your gut, shifting the balance from good to bad bacteria. Studies have shown that this leads to glucose intolerance and may contribute to leaky gut, inflammation, and increased deposition of visceral fat, driving metabolic syndrome. The research is starting to come out, but many studies still need to be done on this topic so stay tuned!

The bottom line is, the impact of hyper-sweet, sugary or artificially sweetened food is negative for our health. This is especially true for our children because their taste buds become groomed to crave intensely sweet foods. No longer will a juicy peach, or flavourful strawberries satisfy them as their taste buds will be too ‘numb’ if exposed to hyper-sweet tastes too often. For adults, it’s not too late! Our taste buds can change completely in as little as 10 days if we let them.  Water is your ultimate beverage, and fruit, nature’s candy, has your back since they are packed with a bounty of antioxidants and fibre to nourish and give you health in return for a sweet treat. 

More research is needed, but the early message is clear. Trust real food and you will avoid these insulin high jacking sweetener issues.

Health Reports: Added, free and total sugar content and consumption of foods and beverages in Canada. (2020). Retrieved from https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/82-003-x/2020010/article/00002-eng.htm

Harvard Health Publishing. Artificial sweeteners. sugar free, but at what cost. Retrieved from

https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/artificial-sweeteners-sugar-free-but-at-what-cost-201207165030

Yang, Q. (2010). Gain weight by ‘going diet?’ Artificial sweeteners and the neurobiology of sugar cravings: Neuroscience, Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine 83(2): 101-8. Retrieved from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2892765/pdf/yjbm_83_2_101.pdf

Purdue University. The study of soft drinks including diet sodas contributes to increased sugar intake and calorie consumption in children. Retrieved from:

https://www.purdue.edu/hhs/news/2019/05/study-soft-drinks-including-diet-sodas-contribute-to-increased-sugar-intake-and-total-calorie-consumption-in-children/

Ruiz-Ojeda FJ, Plaza-Díaz J, Sáez-Lara MJ, Gil A. Effects of Sweeteners on the Gut Microbiota: A Review of Experimental Studies and Clinical Trials [published correction appears in Adv Nutr. 2020 Mar 1;11(2):468]. Adv Nutr. 2019;10(suppl_1):S31-S48. doi:10.1093/advances/nmy037. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6363527/

Tandel KR. Sugar substitutes: Health controversy over perceived benefits. J Pharmacol Pharmacother. 2011;2(4):236-243. doi:10.4103/0976-500X.85936. Retrieved from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3198517/

Zhu Y, Olsen SF, Mendola P, et al. Maternal consumption of artificially sweetened beverages during pregnancy, and offspring growth through 7 years of age: a prospective cohort study. Int J Epidemiol. 2017;46(5):1499-1508. doi:10.1093/ije/dyx095. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5837735/