Blog 27 31st October 2016
Well Labour Day here in NZ and it was lovely having a three day weekend. I hope people rested and enjoyed the time to “stop and smell the roses”. Rest is equally important as play and work. Our bodies need to restore.
I was reading the New Scientist 15th October 2016 and it discussed “Running on Empty”. Interesting as it came up with several reasons and effects. It reports that about 30% of people complained of tiredness and in fact went to their doctor about it.
Basically the reasons that they have found is a lack of restful sleep, people may have a good amount of it about 6 ½ hours to 8 but they may not feel rested. This can happen if our biorhythms are upset, looking at screens, being active too close to bedtime, drinking stimulants – coffee. But this may not be the only reason.
Then there is a problem with inflammation, low grade virus’, too much sugar, not enough fruits and vegetables, if you are obese then the leptin hormone being released, feeling hungry much of the time also releases cytokines which are responsible for inflammation in the body and fat stores it. Therefore more is going around the circulation and this brings on fatigue or feeling drained much like how you feel when you have a cold. Tired and everything is an effort.
Dopamine the neuro transmitter or the lack of it also brings on fatigue, as happened in Parkinson’s disease. No dopamine and you feel tired and lethargic, this also happened in depression, lack of dopamine, exhaustion, tiredness and generally feeling like s@#t.
Lack of good nutrients daily like B vitamins have no real scientific proof that supplements help but if our diet is full of processed foods we won’t be getting them. They are water soluble like Vitamin C so we have to have them in daily doses.
The article said that exercise helps with the body, even though that is probably the last thing you want to do when exhausted. Try a 15 minute walk to start and hang on to that feeling you get when you come back, hopefully feeling much more energised.
Lots of thinking in your job can also make you feel drained, so much so that your muscles can feel fatigued if exercising. Feed your brain with good stuff, fruit, eggplants, protein, and of course good old eggs – these are great a whole food and so simple to take to work. Hard boil them, eat with salt and pepper, although that is not everyone’s thing. They can be pretty smelly 🙂
The high energy drinks if consumed a lot can be pretty harsh on the adrenals and sleep gland (pineal) and not allow you to rest that well. Can give you the tremors and mess with the heart and adrenals. The drinks trigger the adrenals to release cortisol and this can be highly detrimental to the health. In small rodents the cortisol carousing around the body then brings on internal bleeding and they die. Not ideal for us…