Can Overwork Ruin Your Health?

There is no question that Americans work longer hours, and have less vacation time, than their European counterparts. This makes us industrious and ambitious, right?

Maybe, but there is a downside, also. Just as with athletic and sports performance, the body needs to be able to recover from anything it does. If working long hours means getting too little sleep, and the stress becomes chronic, overwork may contribute to long-term health problems.

These days you can take work with you everywhere you go, and it takes some discipline to shut down. The blue lights from our electronic devices can interrupt sleep patterns, even when we shut them off for the night. The electro-magnetic influences created by all our electronics may be more taxing than we realize. Some studies indicate that the cell phones and computers are having a disturbing effect on cellular function. The electromagnetic field they emit passes through almost anything, including walls, and interferes with the normal waveform patterns of the body. We don’t know all the effects of this, and may not for many years. No one is regulating these energy fields. The best thing you can do is protect yourself, or balance any damage. Interference at a cellular level has serious potential. http://www.consumerhealth.org/articles/display.cfm?ID=19990303201129

If work is keeping you up at night, due to stress or putting in long hours, your health is at risk. No matter what many people claim, only a very small percentage can sustain themselves on less than seven hours of sleep. Studies show that sleep deprivation shows up in poor performance on tasks, and slower reaction time when driving. 

Long working hours, with insufficient recovery time may increase your risk of heart disease and Type II Diabetes. According to a Finnish study of people from 14 countries, people who worked longer than a 48-hour week were more likely to abuse alcohol.

People also tend to over-eat, particularly high calorie carbs, when tired and stressed. The body is asking for some relief, and the fastest and handiest is the junk food so readily available.

When both parents are in stressful jobs, family life may suffer, as may the quality of life for our children. Families must use daycare, there is no one preparing nutritious meals, and less time is spent together, possibly disrupting the moral and character development of our children, putting  more stress on families.

It has been said that 80% of the U.S. population has stressed adrenals, and the other 20% are in denial. One of the most important things you can do to help your body weather stress is to support your adrenal glands. They have everything to do with immune health, heart health, sleep, blood sugar balance, weight, muscle strength, and libido.

We now have an adrenal scorecard available. Call or email and we will send it to you and you can evaluate your own adrenal health, or that of a loved one. Then we can help you find the adrenal support that will safeguard your health. Ask for the Stress Assessment when you call. This is a good way to help someone you care about to see how stress may be negatively affecting their life.

Keep track of how you spend your time. Carve out more for walks, family, massages and funny movies. Don’t watch the nightly news, and cut back on caffeine. There are a dozen small things you can do to help your body recover from the demands you place on it. And we are here to help.

Stop a Runny Nose!

It is not just colds and flu that can make a nose run. Cold weather, sugary/fatty foods, congested liver/gall bladders, or allergies can also cause you to reach for a tissue. Just when you want to look your best for the Holidays, and not compete for the Rudolph contest, a runny nose can spoil your fun. Fight back with these healthy strategies.

Here are some tips to dry up quickly.

1)   Massage the points on the sides of your nose where the curve of your nostrils meets your cheek. Tap under your eyes, in the hollow, and down towards your cheeks and sides of the nose. Alternate these points, massage and then tapping.

2)   Find the point halfway between the bottom of your ribs on the right side, and your belly button. Massage the area firmly to release the gall bladder.

3)   Take “Cold Calm” from Boiron Homeopathics. This safe, natural medicine can stop a runny nose for a few hours, and can be used for children.

4)   Take Zypan and Multizyme for digestive aids. Sip some apple cider vinegardiluted in water. Sufficient stomach acid helps the liver/gall bladder work better. And extra digestive help may help you to sleep after feasting.

5)   Get plenty of sleep. If you feel stressed, or traveling, take extra adrenal support. Fatigued adrenal glands can produce symptoms that mimic a cold or allergy. If you suffer from any type of allergies, your adrenal glands are weak and need support!

6)   Lay off sugar. Sugar stresses the body in every way, from depleting minerals to lowering stomach acid, to weakening the immune system. Use Stevia and Xylitol for sweet treats that don’t compromise your health.

7)   Don’t overdo coffee, which also stresses your adrenals and dehydrates your body. Try Teecino herbal coffee, sip herbal tea, and drink extra water. Not a water fan? Try a naturally sparkling water like Pellegrino and flavor it with cucumber or fruit slices or flavored liquid Stevia.

8)   Come in for some soft tissue work on your liver. The sinuses are very affected by the ability of the liver and kidneys to detoxify. There are acupuncture reflexes and acupressure points that can offer relief, and even help a real cold or flu to move through quickly.

9)   Consider food intolerance testing if the runny nose is chronic. Keep a food journal, but know that it may take 48 hours before a food issue shows up in your nose.

10)   Avoid toxic people. Today someone asked me if I thought her body was allergic to the guy she is seeing. When she described his behavior to me I told her that it is probably not her body that is allergic, but SHE may be allergic to how he treats her!

Once you find out how well natural medicine can work for you, a runny nose won’t slow you down. It is just a symptom of a need to move something through your body more quickly.

May all the running in your life involve kids, dogs, and running around with people you love, and not your nose. And keep in mind that these tips work on people of all ages.

Feeling Really Good

How many days do you feel really good? Do you skip through your work, juggle your family and friends with ease, and have the time you need to prepare delicious and healthy meals, enjoy some “me” time and then get the deep, refreshing eight hours of sleep you need?

Me, neither. But I do know what to do when I am particularly frazzled or my immune system is under siege.

Our bodies are up against terrible odds for maintaining health and stamina. And when the body is stressed physically, or you are stressed mentally or emotionally, the flood of responses in the body can make you feel overwhelmed. Internal alarm bells sound. Stress hormones like cortisol kick in, blood supply is re-routed, digestion may be affected, and reserves of nutrients are depleted. The result may leave you drained and feeling at the end of your rope. In actuality, you may be having a bio-chemical response, and think that how you feel is the way it has to be.

From the botanical world there are a number of herbs that are real medicine for challenged, stressed bodies. Herbs are the basis for many pharmaceutical drugs. But drugs are made in labs by producing synthetic copies of the active ingredients of plant-based medicines. Our bodies were not designed to easily handle synthetic chemicals. Our bodies were not designed to live off chemical, synthetic foods, either. So, breaking them down so they are not toxic taxes kidneys and livers. And, after a time, a kind of living death occurs.  People on multiple drugs of any kind, and people eating only junk foods, develop bodies that are only half alive. This drags them down mentally and spiritually, also. The answer is never more synthetic chemicals.

We have been led to believe that herbs cannot be as effective as pharmaceutical meds. But many herbs are powerful medicines, if they are prepared correctly, using the strongest parts of the plant, carefully preserving the active constituents. Herbal preparations from Health Food Stores may have some use, but few are potent enough when you need strong medicine.

By test, the MediHerb company makes some of the strongest herbal medicine in the Western world. In Australia, herbal medicine is regulated and must be effective and potent.

If you are feeling less than ideal, give herbs a try for supporting your body. Drugs bypass normal body function. Herbs can help your body truly heal and repair.

Brain fog? Memory issues? Study difficulties. Try Bacopa complex. Bacopa is a brain tonic that assists mental function, concentration, memory, and the mental stress of study and work. It may assist ADHD symptoms, and it appears to protect against brain decline and Alzheimer’s.

Flu is already making the rounds. Andographis Complex is a herbal preparation for acute and sudden onset infections. It helps relieve fever and mucous congestion, and will also boost your natural immunity. You can keep Andographis around to help for times you need extra immune support, or you can take Andographis every day to prevent infections. For flu bugs that linger and move to the chest, Andographis with Congaplex or Immuplex, can pull you out of the illness fast. Add Pneumotrophin if you are prone to chest infections, or have a history of asthma, bronchitis or pneumonia. *

MediHerb also makes some wonderful liquid preparations. They are very potent, and the taste reflects this. If you need a sleep tonic, I can mix California Poppy, with Licorice to improve the taste and support adrenal glands, as well as calm the stomach.

There are some powerful herbs for helping you to handle stress and anxiety and I will write about them in my next blog.

Whole food nutrition is still your most important priority in supporting your health. Adding in herbal medicine will help you support your health at a cellular level so that you can have the kind of bodily well-being it takes to manage your world and enjoy your life.

*There are times when pharmaceutical antibiotics are lifesaving, so any illness should be evaluated on an individual basis. 

Anne Dunev, PhD, C.N. has over twenty years experience helping people feel better by finding the root cause of what is causing their symptoms. Addressing that with the correct natural and nutritional medicine is her strength. With help restoring balance and function, thousands of people are living happier, healthier lives.

Fighting That Afternoon Slump?

You know, right around three or four p.m. when you can barely keep your eyes open. You just run out of juice. And you want coffee, sweets or a shot of Red Bull just to keep going.

Since coffee at that hour may interfere with nighttime rest, sweets are not a good solution, and you know that Red Bull is not healthy, what can you do to get through your day? And how can you avoid eating the wrong snacks, when you are tired and your willpower is low?

First of all, how much sleep are you getting? If you are running on empty in the sleep department, your body will give out when it needs more rest.  So, listen to the signals.  If you routinely burn the midnight oil and stay up until one-two a.m. you are doing yourself a serious disservice, unless you can sleep ‘til noon. For the vast majority of us the body needs at least seven hours of sleep per night, and some need more. The consequences of insufficient sleep go beyond the afternoon yawns. Weight gain, lowered metabolic rate and risk of more serious disease states are all possible. http://healthysleep.med.harvard.edu/healthy/matters/consequences

This varies from person to person, but sleep deprivation is not a good way to catch up on your work. You will most often find that you don’t perform as well, drive as smartly, or act pleasantly, when you are sleep deprived. So, hit the sack earlier on a gradient. Get your adrenals checked if you routinely stay up and get a second wind. If you cannot go to sleep earlier, seek help. Call the office and make an appointment so that we can get your body resting well.

Secondly, consider what you eat at lunchtime. A carb-ful lunch may spike and then crash your blood sugar. Instead of a sandwich, pasta or pizza, choose salad and protein. Food intolerances may be revealed by how you feel after you eat. If you feel speeded up, drowsy, or lethargic, or have indigestion, you may have an intolerance to a food. If you are eating the same foods every day, it may be a food you eat commonly. I will be writing more about this in upcoming blogs. I have seen some dramatic improvements in health and well-being when a food intolerance is identified and the offending food omitted.

Third, even if you are eating well, if you are even a bit over your ideal weight chances are your metabolism and blood sugar are out of synch. A blood sugar balance program can put you on the right path and help you find out how energetic you can feel when you are eating correctly for your metabolism. You always hear people talking about eating for health, such as veggies and whole foods. These days there is more to it than that. You have to eat so that you don’t release too much insulin, causing the cells of the body to become resistant to the constant high levels of insulin. Insulin is the door opener to the cells to allow fuel (sugar in the blood) to enter. How do you know if your blood sugar is out of balance? Afternoon slump is one sign. And if your waist is bigger than your hips, that is another sign. Get help. Estimates that up to 30% of the population has Diabetes.https://www.diabeteseducator.org/news/aade-blog/aade-blog-details/karen-kemmis-pt-dpt-ms-cde-faade/2017/07/26/the-2017-national-diabetes-statistics-report-is-here

And many more are pre-Diabetic. Many people can be helped so that their Diabetes is arrested and their pancreas repairs. Pre-Diabetics don’t have to progress to a disease state. Diabetes Type II is one of the most easily controlled diseases, but it does take a firm plan and changes in your eating.

Fourth is being significantly overweight. An overweight body is a body that is burdened by the excess pounds that require miles of extra blood vessels and a strain on the muscles and tendons to manage the extra pounds. A pick-up truck is not built to carry the load that an 18-wheeler can handle. And our bodies are supposed to be like small trucks, not the big rigs. It is the crapo-hydrates that pile on the pounds. No one gains weight on greens, broccoli and fish. And when your body needs the extra nutrients to make the miles of new blood vessels and support the tendons and joints you can get hungry. And the more crapo-hydrates eaten, instead of healthy foods, the more hungry a person can become. It is a Merry-go-round ride of hunger, junk food and fatigue. The only answer is to get off. But don’t jump. Stop the Merry-go-round first, by doing a Detox/cleanse. Not only do people lose weight but they report feeling better than they have in years during and after the cleanse. And there is plenty of food allowed, so no hunger.

Find out what your particular needs are and get a game plan to help your body feel energetic all day long. If you are fighting that afternoon slump, we can help. Ask yourself if you really think it will get better if you don’t change something you are doing. Call the office to book. And meanwhile try some of our herbal supplements to give you a natural boost that still allows you to sleep at night.