Your heart pumps. Your kidneys filter. Your stomach digests. Your brain runs the show. But what about your hard-working, multitasking liver? It doesn’t receive the respect or admiration it so rightly deserves. Learning facts about the liver is the best way to awaken appreciation for your most under-the-radar organ.
This list of 27 facts will finally shine a much-deserved spotlight on the underrated organ’s anatomy, function, and how to support liver health. At the end, you can school your friends and family with facts about the liver that goes beyond the basics to spread the liver love around.
You aren’t alone in having a liver. Living things with spinal cords (vertebrates) also have livers. All of them. It’s that important.
The liver looks like it has a larger head section and a smaller tail. But it can be further divided into thousands of lobules—tiny segments with their own ducts.
Your liver has the capacity to hold 10 percent of your body’s blood. It doesn’t always have that much, but it does go through a lot—handling about 1.5 liters every minute.
The liver isn’t just an organ—it’s also a gland. That’s because it secretes bile into the intestines.
As long as you have a quarter of your liver left, the organ can fully regenerate to original size and regain full function. This is more of an evolutionary necessity than a neat trick. And it’s the reason liver donors can give someone half their liver and survive.
Too much fat is bad for your liver. But it’s normal for this important organ to be comprised of about 10 percent fat.
Liver Facts to Explain the Organ’s Many Important Jobs
Speaking of fat, one of the hundreds of jobs the liver has is metabolizing fat. This is done through the bile produced in the liver.
Your liver can make up to a liter of metabolism-inducing bile every day.
Bile also plays a role in metabolizing your other macronutrients—proteins and carbohydrates. So, the liver’s bile production is key to breaking down a large swath of your diet and making sure it can be used to support your overall health.
The liver is more than a production facility and metabolism force. It also provides a warehouse for a variety of important nutrients—including glycogen (stored glucose), iron, copper, and a variety of fat-soluble vitamins.
What you put in your body is filtered by your liver. It takes out and deals with dietary nutrients, toxins, drugs, alcohol, and a few hormones.
Besides filtering, the liver has many functions connected to blood. Your body’s ability to form blood clots—with the support of vitamin K—is aided by the bile produced in your liver. It also:
creates an important protein in blood serum (albumin)
pieces together a hormone involved in blood pressure regulation (angiotensinogen)
handles bilirubin from broken down hemoglobin
Immunity is helped out by the liver. Your two types of immune protection—innate and adaptive—are both supported by processes in your second largest organ.
Your liver acts as a switching station that determines whether the body’s nutrient intake—delivered through the portal vein—is stored, further processed, placed in a detoxification process, or sent out as waste.
Detox is probably the first place your mind goes when you think of your liver. It deals with detoxifying the substances you take in with a two-phase approach. The first liver detoxification pathway (Phase I) neutralizes compounds, while Phase II deals with byproducts of the first phase and makes substances water soluble for removal.
Glutathione is one of the most important antioxidants in your body. You synthesize it and can find glutathione throughout your body. But it’s up to 10 times more concentrated in the liver. That’s because it plays a role in Phase II detoxification.
Facts to Help You Maintain Your Liver Health
If you can call organ meats popular (and that depends on your culture and preferences), liver would top the list. Edible animal livers are packed with protein, iron, and various vitamins.
Surprise—what you eat has a lot of impact on the organ that deals with your dietary intake. One important aspect of maintaining liver health is eating enough fiber. It works to help out this powerful detox organ through weight-management support and maintaining a healthy gut microbiome.
Even though fat is part of your liver’s composition, eating too many fatty foods can hamper the health of your body’s biggest detoxifying organ. Saturated fat is especially harmful, but omega-3 fatty acids and healthier options like olive oil are smart choices.
That caffeine jumpstarting your day and keeping your going in the afternoon is processed in your liver. But caffeinated beverages—especially coffee and green tea—have been shown to have benefits that help support liver health.
Weight management is important for overall health—and your liver is no different. Carrying extra weight strains the liver and can eventually impact function. Watching your diet and exercising regularly will help manage your weight and support your liver.
Easing up on your sugar intake is an important step for managing your weight. And it’s especially impactful for your liver—mostly due to the ties your liver has to glucose storage. One step you can take is switching from sugary drinks to plain water. It will also help you maintain healthy hydration levels.
A diet built on a broad foundation of fruits and vegetables is a must for optimal health. Along with an abundance of micronutrients you need for overall health, some plants provide liver-supporting benefits. Eat more broccoli, spinach, berries, grapefruit, and grapes to help maintain your liver health.
Your liver is in charge of dealing with the alcohol you drink. While drinking in moderation is more easily tolerated, too many wild nights can stack up and start impacting the degree to which your liver does its many jobs.
Medications have to be broken down by the liver so they can be effective. But mixing prescriptions, over-the-counter medicines, and even some supplements can cause issues for your liver. Make sure to follow usage instructions and tell your health-care providers and pharmacists all the supplements and medications you’re taking. They can help you avoid potentially harmful interactions.
Protecting your liver means taking proper precautions around environmental toxins. Cleaners and other chemicals you inhale have to be processed and neutralized in the liver. That protection is part of your biggest detoxification organ’s job, but you can make it easier by wearing proper personal protective equipment—like a mask—when dealing with chemicals.
Share These Facts About the Liver
The liver isn’t such a strange, magical detoxifier now. You know more liver facts that shed light on all the important functions and ways to keep yourself healthy. Don’t keep all this liver information to yourself. Share it to help your friends become liver lovers, too.
https://askthescientists.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/AdobeStock_139481127.jpeg11011814David BakerDavid Baker2020-11-18 10:00:492022-07-04 20:06:23To Know It is to Love It—Facts About the Liver
Dieting fills your thoughts with food—what you can eat, and, especially, what you can’t. It can also be exhausting and detrimental to your health and weight-management goals. Intermittent fasting or time-restricted eating helps shift your mind from asking “what can I eat” to “when is it best for me to eat.”
The transition is more than dislocating one issue and entrenching another. Focusing your feeding to specific times and incorporating measured intervals of fasting has shown benefits for weight and overall health. This has turned intermittent fasting (sometimes abbreviated IF) into a topic that keeps growing in popularity—from the health-conscious to the general public.
It’s time to go beyond the buzz to explore what this unique approach to eating is, has to offer, and how to start intermittent fasting.
What is Intermittent Fasting?
Proponents of the IF way of life say it’s a silver bullet for a whole host of health goals, while detractors dismiss the approach as just the latest fad—or worse, a “starvation diet.”
The concept of intermittent fasting itself is quite simple: consume food within a limited number of hours—also known as your “feeding window”—and abstain from eating and drinking most beverages during the other hours of the day.
IF has several eating schedules—you’ll dive into those later. You can even call it “time-restricted eating”—shifting focus to the eating part of the equation. No matter the name or schedule, the underlying philosophy of feast/fast cycles provides benefits, as well as a contrast to average diet types.
Is Intermittent Fasting Just Another Diet?
Not only is intermittent fasting not a fad diet, it’s not even really a diet. It doesn’t contain a prescribed list of foods to avoid or eat. Instead, the concept of periodic fasting is closer to a shift in lifestyle. And it’s been around for a long time. Human history is stuffed with examples of cycles of feasting and fast. The reason it seems strange or fad-like is that IF sidesteps common weight-loss maxims.
If you’ve ever struggled even slightly with your weight, you’ve likely heard some version of the idiom, “eat less and move more.” It’s understandable to think this logic makes perfect sense—burn more calories than you consume and you’ll lose weight. It’s the simple math of calorie balance that makes weight-management seem easy. But for most the simplicity and ease turns out to be mostly theoretical.
The human body is complex, and recent research shows that calorie consumption is only one factor at play when it comes to weight loss or gain. What else is there then? Every function in the human body is controlled by hormones. And a key hormone that influences weight gain is insulin.
How Does Intermittent Fasting Work?
The pancreas’ most powerful hormone—insulin—increases in your body whenever you eat. Insulin stimulates the absorption of glucose into muscle, fat, and liver cells. The cells either use this glucose for energy or it is converted to fat for long-term storage. This fact isn’t necessarily bad—having energy storage for lean times is necessary for human survival.
The inverse is also true of insulin: when you aren’t eating, blood glucose levels remain lower and levels of the hormone drop. This sparks your body to burn more stored fat as fuel when your body demands energy. And for those looking to lose weight, burning fat is a goal and a very good thing.
Obese people typically have higher insulin levels than folks within normal weight ranges. This is usually because their bodies are less sensitive to insulin, so it takes more insulin to get the same effect in the body.
Exercise has long been the go-to method for increasing insulin sensitivity, and in turn reducing levels of the hormone in the body. Research has also shown that intermittent fasting is another tool you can use to reduce insulin resistance.
Most traditional diets only take aim at improving what you eat or restricting calories, but without also addressing when you eat and how often you eat has its own benefits. Intermittent fasting helps lower your persistent insulin levels. This encourages your body to turn its stored fat into energy after burning through the sugars the body usually uses as fuel.
Along with rebuilding your body’s healthy response to insulin, intermittent fasting also helps you limit calories. That’s the basis of all weight-loss techniques. And intermittent fasting is another solution to help you burn more calories than you take in.
Experience the Benefits of Intermittent Fasting
If skipping a meal sounds hard, there’s plenty to help you push through. Here are some of the wide-ranging health benefits that can help propel you through the occasional cravings:
Weight Loss: This the primary goal of many intermittent fasters. Evidence and testimonials back this benefit, but it’s not a quick fix. Long term, reduced calorie intake and lower insulin levels can help you manage your weight. But achieving the amount of weight you want to lose may not happen immediately. Your patience can pay off, though.
Fat Burning: You’ve likely heard that if you don’t eat multiple times a day, your body will hold onto everything you eat because it thinks it’s starving. In other words, if you eat more, you’ll weigh less. Huh? Fasting has been around for thousands of years. Ancient human ancestors’ sporadic access to food, means the human body had to adapt to times of feast and famine. So when you’re fasted to the point of glycogen (stored sugars) depletion, your body burns fat. This change of fuel is important for weight loss, altering body composition, and supports overall wellness—from cardiovascular health to more optimal sleep.
Support for Metabolic Health: Intermittent fasting aims to help normalize your body’s relationship to insulin. Sensitivity to the important hormone is important because it helps maintain blood sugar levels. Studies have suggested intermittent fasting can help support a more normal insulin sensitivity. That means evidence points to periods of fasting helping maintain balanced insulin levels and support healthy blood-sugar outcomes.
Triggering Autophagy: When people choose to fast for non-weight reasons, it’s usually tied to autophagy. This cellular process is your body’s way to cleanup and manage cell damage. A variety of stressors—environmental, nutritional, and fasting—prompt your cells to basically take out the trash. This recycling program for damaged proteins helps supports optimal cellular health.
Better Cognitive Function: Your brain burns a lot of calories. But that doesn’t mean fasting will dampen your cognitive fire. Actually, quite the opposite. Intermittent fasting has ties to many brain benefits—from clearer thinking and memory help to protection and support for neural growth.
Improvements in Your Relationship with Food and Your Body: Diets make you almost obsess about food. Fasting periodically allows you to step back and consider food from a slight remove. If you only eat a limited amount of times, what you eat needs to be worth it. This can help you focus on healthy, delicious foods. Intermittent fasting also doesn’t judge food choices—so you can also escape the guilt of a slip-up. Fasting can connect you to your body. It helps you learn to listen to your hormonal signals about food—when you’re hungry and when you’re full.
Choose Your Own Fasting Adventure with Flexible Eating Schedules
Dieting can feel very inflexible. Eat this, don’t eat that. But food flexibility isn’t the only customizable aspect of intermittent fasting. There are many popular feeding-and-fasting schedules for you to pick from. Each offers slightly different challenges and benefits, so you can find what works best for your goals and your body.
You can look at fasting as a separation of hours feeding and fasting. Some common ratios are: 16:8, 18:6, and 20:4: The first number is your hours of fasting per day. The second is your eating window. Starting with a 16-hour fast is usually best for beginners.
Instead of focusing on hours you’re feeding or fasting, you can think about it in terms of meals. Two meals a day goes well with a 16:8 timeframe. That means skipping one meal—breakfast or dinner. With one meal a day, you’re further concentrating your eating to allow for longer fasts. You can choose the meal that works best for you. Also know you can add a snack or dessert if need be—just keep your feeding window short.
Alternate Day Fasting (ADF) is as simple as it sounds—cycling between days of feeding and fasting. That doesn’t make your feeding day a cheat-day eating extravaganza. But you should eat at least two meals a day when you can. Modified ADF involves doing a meal or snacks totaling 500 calories on your fast day.
You can even approach intermittent fasting on a weekly basis with non-consecutive fast days. Popular options involve choosing to eat five days and fast two, or going for four feeding and three fasting days. It allows some normalcy on feeding days and can help accommodate social pressures. Fasts on 5-2 or 4-3 optimally last 36 hours. That means eating dinner and waiting until lunch on your next feed day (two days later) to eat again.
Extended fasts are used sparingly. They go for 24-72 hours—a long time, which explains their more occasional nature. Fasting for such long periods is not for beginners and shouldn’t be attempted until you are fat-adapted and able to better read your body during fasts. They also should be done with proper precautions in place.
How to Start Intermittent Fasting—8 Quick Tips
Decide your eating window: Be realistic about what’s important and where you can make the sacrifice to fast. Also, be honest about where it’s non-negotiable. Is it best to eat in the morning? Would you rather only eat with your family or friends? Social considerations are important. Intermittent fasting is flexible, so you can tailor it to your life instead of letting a string of exceptions hamper your progress.
Educate yourself: You’ve come this far—so you’re off to a great start. Read more about your chosen fasting option to understand more about the science behind it. Plenty of information is available from those more experienced in intermittent fasting. Use their wisdom to learn where mistakes can be made. Also check out this helpful blog about IF challenges.
Fast clean: That means no cream or sugar in your coffee. The point of the fast is to avoid spiking your insulin.Sticking to unsweetened tea, coffee, and lots of plain water are your best bets. Even flavored, zero-calorie options could ramp up your appetite. And that rookie mistake can make you feel hungrier than you were before.
Open your window wisely: Plan how you’ll open your window, because your hunger could complicate or cloud your ability to choose wisely. Don’t go full bore after a longer fast. Start small. Listen to your body. Leading with foods that are high protein and high fat are great options—but find what works for you. If you aren’t mindful about how you open your window, consequences could await. You can be headed for gastric distress and a trip to the bathroom.
Turn to tech: Use apps to track your fast. Set alarms to remind you of the schedule you’re on. A smart scale is also a good way to keep track of your progress. Record notes about your experiences so you can pay attention to what works to open your window or beverages that inadvertently break your fast.
Be patient: It takes time to become used to your new eating approach. Your body is adjusting—go easy on yourself. Journaling, taking pics, and celebrating non-scale victories can help you push through until you start fully seeing and feeling the benefits of intermittent fasting.
Talk to your healthcare professional: Doctors are now more familiar with this approach to eating and can be helpful. They can also help you determine if fasting is right for you. A history of eating disorders, pregnancy or nursing, and being on certain medications may mean you should opt out of fasting or approach it carefully.
https://askthescientists.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/AdobeStock_290400974-1.jpeg16322449David BakerDavid Baker2020-11-10 09:00:512022-07-04 20:13:56A Feast of Answers to Your Intermittent Fasting Questions
The first three words that come to mind when you read “vitamin D” are probably essential, sunshine, and bones. That’s a good start, but it fails to fully capture the diverse duties of one of your body’s most necessary nutrients. And one area that’s often overlooked is the connection between vitamin D and immunity.
Vitamin D’s role in supporting and maintaining bone health is the basis for its classification as an essential vitamin. However, newer research has revealed how vitamin D supports immune health. This happens through the fat-soluble vitamin’s involvement in helping regulate several important processes related to normal cellular repair and healthy immune response. These findings, coupled with the observation about the health status of those deficient in vitamin D, have led to an increased interest into vitamin D’s role in supporting and maintaining good immune health.*
One Vitamin Supporting Two Sides of Immunity
The significance of vitamin D’s role in immune function was established and confirmed following the discovery that nearly all cells of the immune system contain vitamin D receptors. The effects of vitamin D on immune cells are very complex, but research has shown its functions support the innate and adaptive immune system.*
The innate (or first-response) immune system’s main function is to protect the body using physical barriers, chemicals, and certain immune responses. It also includes immune cells (neutrophils and macrophages) that can act as your normal, front-line cellular defenses. Although effective and quick, the innate immune system’s approach can possibly cause some collateral damage and lacks the inability to identify repeated exposures.
The adaptive immune system is slower, but more specific and methodical. Your adaptive response includes specific immune cells that coordinate the destruction of infected cells (T-lymphocytes) and that activate and secrete antibodies (B-lymphocytes). The adaptive system uses an immunological memory to quickly and vigorously defend against repeated exposures. This forms the principle behind natural or lifetime immunity after antibody-producing immune interactions.
4 Examples of How Vitamin D Supports Immune Health
Going through all of vitamin D’s roles in immune health could take up an entire textbook. But if you remember these four important impacts the nutrient has in helping support healthy immune defenses, you’ll be well on your way to understanding how important the sunshine vitamin is for maintaining health.*
1. Vitamin D supports the maturation and function of key immune cells*
Innate immunity is a coordinated effort involving many different cellular players. Macrophages and their monocyte precursors as well as T-lymphocytes (cytotoxic T-cells) all play vital roles in your innate immune response and cell-mediated immunity (those that occur without antibodies from your immune system’s memory).
Vitamin D is an important cog in the mechanics that support the normal maturation and differentiation of monocytes into macrophages. Once grown into specific macrophages, these immune cells support a healthy first-response cellular immune defense. They also participate in clean-up operations—eliminating or assimilating cellular waste. In addition, macrophages secrete a key immune protein called cathelicidin. The normal cathelicidin production of activated macrophages is largely dependent on the presence of adequate levels of vitamin D.*
2. Vitamin D supports antigen presentation*
In order to prompt defensive actions, immune cells—like lymphocytes—need to be exposed to antigens (specific proteins that alert the immune system). The most effective antigen-presenting cells are known as dendritic cells.
A major function of dendritic cells is to capture, process, and present antigens to the adaptive immune system and initiate T-cell-mediated immunity. Dendritic cells are critical to the development of immunological memory and tolerance. Vitamin D plays a key role in supporting the healthy maturation and regulation of human dendritic cells.*
3. Vitamin D plays a role in supporting your immune system’s natural ability to produce proteins required for it to function at an optimal level*
This connection between vitamin D and immunity provides biological weaponry your immune system needs to help keep you healthy. Vitamin D helps maintain proper regulation over production of specific proteins that support healthy immune function.*
A good illustration of this is seen in the lungs, where immune cells and epithelial cells are known to contain large numbers of vitamin D receptors. Researchers studying these vitamin D receptors in lung tissue found that activated vitamin D helps support the activity of a compound that maintain healthy immune function in the lungs. It also helps support the production of a protein that assists cells to perform their natural, normal abilities.*
4. Vitamin D lends a helping hand to your T-cells
Vitamin D’s ability to help support normal, healthy development and differentiation of immune cells extends to adaptive immunity, as well. T-cell types are helped by vitamin D.*
T-cells start out as inactive, or naïve, cells. To be helpful to your body’s defenses, they must first transition into either killer cells or helper cells to actively participate in immune response. The natural process of mobilization and activation to keep you healthy is supported by vitamin D. The essential vitamin also helps maintain the proper migration of T-cells to and away from specific tissues, like the skin, digestive tract, and lymph nodes.*
Using What You Know About Vitamin D and Immunity
This is a very basic overview of vitamin D’s role in immune function. The ways vitamin D helps maintain the health of the immune system is very complex and is a matter of balance. You don’t want your immune system too cranked up or too lazy. Maintaining a healthy vitamin D level is important for helping maintain the overall balance and normal functioning of your immune system.*
If you are unsure about your current vitamin D status, it is important to get it checked by your preferred health professional. Blood levels of 30 ng/ml-50 ng/ml are considered optimal by most experts.
So to help your immunity, keep your body well-stocked with vitamin D. Do it through smartly getting some sun. Also adjust your diet to include more foods enriched with vitamin D. You can also turn to supplementation if you live in higher latitudes or if poor food choices cause gaps in your diet that make optimal levels hard to achieve.*
*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food & Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
https://askthescientists.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/AdobeStock_213632761-1.jpeg16122480David BakerDavid Baker2020-11-09 10:00:502022-07-06 12:05:05Vitamin D and Immunity: How Vitamin D Supports Immune Health
Over the course of the year, seasons change, daylight varies, and—depending where you live—snow or rain may be eminent. But even in milder climates, you might find yourself affected by the “winter blues” from the lack of sunshine inherent with shorter days. This phenomenon is known as seasonal affective disorder (SAD). You may notice shifts in habits and feelings of well-being as the days grow longer and shorter.
So, no, you’re probably not stuck in a bad mood or going crazy. There’s a legitimate reason for feeling down when there’s less sunshine than normal. Learn what causes seasonal affective disorder and 10 ways to cope with the most common symptoms.
What Is Seasonal Affective Disorder?
Seasonal affective disorder is a biochemical imbalance in the brain. SAD is prompted by shorter daylight hours and less exposure to the sunshine your body uses as a sign to produce chemicals and hormones for wakefulness or sleepiness.
It’s estimated 10–20 percent of people globally are affected by SAD. Those living far from the equator are more likely to experience SAD, and the disorder is four times more common in women than men. Generally, you become less prone to SAD as you age, with 18-30 being the most at-risk age.
A number of symptoms and behaviors point to seasonal affective disorder, including:
Difficulty concentrating or making decisions
Loss of interest in activities or social events
Problems with sleep—both oversleeping and difficulty getting restful sleep
Overeating and craving simple carbohydrates
Changes in weight
Loss of energy
Restlessness or nervous habits
These symptoms are associated with SAD, but they also could be signs of a condition beyond the winter blues. It’s recommended to consult your health-care advisor if you experience any of these symptoms long-term.
The Science Behind SAD
Let’s shine a little more light on SAD. Seasonal affective disorder is caused by fluctuations in your circadian rhythm (your internal, biological clock). That’s why you’re more likely to experience SAD the further you are from the equator—the shorter the day, the greater the effect.
Your retinas normally receive special cues from exposure to sunlight, triggering the release of the neurotransmitter serotonin. Reduction in sun exposure causes a dip in this naturally produced brain chemical. With SAD, there are seasonal fluctuations in the regulation of serotonin levels in the brain, as well. Most people know serotonin for its mood-balancing properties, but it also helps your body maintain health from your bones to your bowels.
Insufficient light in the day may also cause an overproduction of melatonin, the hormone responsible for your sleep-wake cycle. So, condolences to those who live in Juneau (Alaska’s capital city) who receive only six hours and 22 minutes of sunlight during the winter solstice. Others have it even worse. Rjukan, Norway doesn’t naturally receive sunlight six months out of the year.
Coping with Seasonal Affective Disorder
SAD isn’t new. The disorder was first reported by scientist Norman E. Rosenthal in 1980 from The National Institute of Mental Health. Over time, studies and trials have found effective ways to cope with seasonal affective disorder.
Try these tips if you feel SAD symptoms. Even if you haven’t felt symptoms due to shorter days, anyone can benefit from these holistic lifestyle tips.
Seek Professional Advice
Common symptoms of seasonal affective disorder overlap with depression. If you think you’re experiencing depression, seek medical attention. For milder symptoms, consult your health-care advisor. Either way, it’s always good to talk with professionals before making lifestyle changes.
Eat A Healthy Diet
Eating a variety of wholesome foods is central to a life of good health. Certain nutrients, like vitamin D, help your body with normal bone mineralization, which might be affected by less exposure to the sun’s rays. Magnesium and coenzyme Q10 are used by the body to generate energy in your cells, and B vitamins play an important role in maintaining a healthy metabolism. Here are a few sources of these beneficial nutrients:
Vitamin D: fatty fish, cheese, egg yolks, mushrooms, and foods fortified with vitamin D
Magnesium: green leafy vegetables, avocados, bananas, raspberries, nuts, and seeds
B vitamins: whole grains, red meat, poultry, fish, beans, lentils, nuts, and seeds
One key indicator of seasonal affective disorder is craving simple carbohydrates like non-diet soda, baked treats, and breakfast cereals. These foods provide little satiety and often lead to more cravings. Reach for healthy fats, fiber-rich fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and lean protein sources. They’re more satisfying, and often include valuable nutrients like those listed above.
Make Sleep a Priority
There are many reasons to savor a good night’s sleep. Maintaining proper sleep habits is a lot of work, but the physiological benefits to restful slumber are well worth it. First, maintain a regular sleep-wake cycle. Go to bed at the same time every night whenever possible, and set a waking alarm for the same time every day, seven days a week. This means no cheating on the weekends. Keep in mind, it can take four days to recover for every hour of “sleep debt” accrued. So, waking up at the same time will help your body adjust, and you should start to feel naturally tired at the end of the day.
Second, avoid invigorating activity within an hour of bedtime, and abstain from stimulants like coffee in the evening. Cocktails are off-limits, too. They can help you fall asleep, but alcohol inhibits REM sleep cycles. Find a screen-free, calming activity that works for you. Try meditation, writing in a journal, listening to music or a podcast, reading a book, or simply brewing the perfect pot of caffeine-free tea.
Beat the Winter Blues
The shorter the days, the more cognizant you need to be about spending time outside while it’s still light. Set a reminder. Otherwise, by the time you remember to head out, the sun may already be down. Try to take a brisk walk at lunch, go for a run, take phone calls outside, or do whatever you can to grab some time outdoors. Even in colder climates, you can find the motivation to get outside on the snowiest days.
It can be challenging to sneak in outdoor time. But, with the extra energy you’ll have from high-quality sleep, backed by fuel from healthy foods, your body will be up for the task.
Work It Out
For many folks, summertime means exploring their surroundings by foot without a second thought. As the days darken, it’s harder to carve out time for these activities. If you find yourself adventuring less as the days shorten, commit to working out several days a week to compensate. Adequate exercise is one of the best ways to cope with seasonal affective disorder. There are many physiological benefits to working out, and it’s another excuse to keep moving when the couch starts calling your name. Plus, working out can be a social activity, which has its own SAD-stomping benefits you’ll read about later.
You don’t have to drive to the gym to enjoy the benefits of a good sweat session. When it’s pitch-black out and the last thing you want to do is leave the house, there are plenty of workouts you can do at home.
Build a Brighter Day
If you’re like those living in Rjukan who seriously lack natural light sources, sometimes you have to make your own sunshine. There are various light therapy lamps available—nightstand lamps, glasses lined with gentle blue lights, even full-blown luminary saunas. Studies show that getting bright light first thing in the morning after waking, is better than light therapy later in the day. While this kind of SAD solution doesn’t work for everyone, it has been shown to be effective in several studies. So, it’s well worth a try to beat the winter blues.
Make Time to Socialize
A healthy social life brings a host of mental and physical benefits and is a great solution to cope with seasonal affective disorder. Bonus: it pushes you out of the house (or, if it’s your turn to host the party, spurs some extra cleaning). Socializing is associated with better overall health, and maintaining a larger social network is a key predictor of positive mental health outcomes throughout life.
Invite friends over for a snack tray social, casual trivia night, or hunker down with board games. Whatever you do doesn’t have to require a lot of effort or expense. Being together is enough to help tackle SAD symptoms.
Find Your Zen
Meditation has benefits beyond bedtime routines. Even a minute of mindfulness can bring a calm detachment, returning your mind to the present, and reminding you to keep calm and carry on. To help find your Zen, try this breathing exercise:
Assume a comfortable, relaxed position and close your eyes.
Breathe slowly, taking pauses between exhale and inhale.
Clear your mind and count out 50 breaths.
Each time a thought pops into your head—and, inevitably, many will—pause counting.
Continue breathing and recite the phrase “I am aware of ______,” listing the object of your thought.
Once your mind is clear again, resume counting breaths.
Serve Others
Donating your time in the service of others has many physical, mental, and social benefits. This makes it one of the best ways to cope with seasonal affective disorder. Taking your mind off your problems to focus on caring for others is a natural way to relieve the stresses that build up from lowered serotonin levels. Gratitude helps you deal with anxiety and grief by contributing to your brain’s release of dopamine and serotonin.
Write a Letter
Writing to friends and family is a good way to keep in touch, and it’s a wonderfully unexpected surprise for the recipient. Hand writing takes more effort than typing, but that’s the point. The brain processes differently when writing longhand versus typing. That’s because there’s more method and nuance when you pick up a pen. If you’re not sure where to begin, try writing a gratitude letter to yourself as a small reminder of why you’re grateful.
A Brighter Tomorrow
If you find yourself in the rut of seasonal affective disorder, remember there’s light at the end of the tunnel—literally. Seasons eventually change and longer, brighter days are ahead.
As you figure out the best ways to cope with seasonal affective disorder, you’ll notice how much overlap there is in the above list. Writing gratitude letters in the evening checks several boxes, as does volunteering to pack food at a local charity. So, focus on addressing your SAD symptoms in ways that fit your life.
Setbacks are to be expected. Don’t get discouraged. It’s natural to get frustrated when your body doesn’t just work the way it should. But it’s important to focus on your whole self, taking care of your body and mind. Bonus points if you do it all year long and not just when the winter blues set in. Ask for help if you need it, reach out to friends and family, or talk to a medical professional. Before you know it, even the darker, shorter days will look better and brighter.
https://askthescientists.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/SAD-article-1-AdobeStock_209268783.jpeg537835staffstaff2020-11-08 10:00:582022-11-08 10:46:21Beat the Winter Blues: Cope with Seasonal Affective Disorder
The world can swirl with chaos, anxiety, and stress that leaves you with one white-knuckled fist latched precariously to sanity. Finding time for yourself—for your health, for a deep breath—can be hard. But you can start a self-care routine to seek shelter from your personal hurricane of busyness and responsibility.
There’s nothing selfish about escaping into a self-care checklist to seek your center. Everyone needs a chance to exist solely for themselves and their health sometimes. And it’s not a complex process.
Caring for yourself is what it sounds like—committing the time and space to melt away your daily stresses and focus on you. Standing up for your needs can help you experience self-care benefits—from bolstered mental, emotional, and physical health to improved mood, energy, and resilience.
Taking the first step and starting a self-care routine can be the hardest part. Even the best intentions can land you neck-deep in an avalanche of appointments and to-dos. That’s why you need a plan and patience with yourself—because self-care is bigger than booking a single spa session.
Developing your self-care checklist is an individual process of assessing needs and seeking solutions. Peruse the following options to help you start a self-care routine that works for you. Pick and choose what helps achieve your goals, and—since self-care shouldn’t feel like a burden—focus on what you’ll find enjoyable. Most importantly, commit to carving out the time to put these self-care tips into practice.
Sound Sleep is a Solid Way to Start a Self-Care Routine
You hear over and over how much of your life is spent asleep. A third of your time may still not feel like enough, though. That’s because sleep is essential to build many of the pillars of wellness.
Set your bedtime alarm for a noisy reminder to cut the world off and prepare for the most me-centric activity you do. Make sure to practice good sleep habits:
avoid caffeine and alcohol close to bedtime
wind down with music, meditation, or stretching
turn off the screens
set a comfortable temperature
tuck in for at least seven hours
Your Self-Care Checklist Must Include Clearing Your Schedule
The world doesn’t care about your plans. It can steamroll your dinner reservation, interrupt evening me-time, or destroy a whole vacation. But the best way to keep your daily to-do’s from derailing a much-needed trip down your self-care checklist is to schedule time for yourself.
Block out your calendar—that means turning off the ringer on your phone, too—so you can dedicate time and energy to practicing the self-care tips that speak to you.
Claim Your Space and Maximize Its Calming Properties
Setting aside your own calming corner of the world can put you in the right physical and mental space for starting a self-care routine. But even the most soothing color scheme can’t overcome clutter and chaos in a room. Decluttering your life and spaces can help you find your center in a stressful world.
Some people like organizing and cleaning because it’s calming. Even if that’s not for you, creating a space that’s free of reminders of your daily stresses is a good idea. Meditation among the laundry landmines, toy traps, or—worst of all—stacks of work isn’t as calming as it could be.
Soothe with Sensory Experiences
Stress is a reaction to troublesome sensory information. So the self-care solution is to feed your body a buffet of soothing sensations.
Wrap yourself in soft, comfortable material—a robe or loungewear works. Refresh your mind with calming scents. Flip off the harsh blue lights that dominate your life and try soft candlelight instead. Fill the room with your favorite songs or the calming soundtrack of nature.
Run your favorite stress-fighting bath or dedicate an afternoon each week to fully embracing the hygge lifestyle. Head to the hammock in the backyard with a book. Hike a picturesque trail. Whatever comforting option you choose, stimulate your senses in a pleasing instead of punishing way.
Eat Up Healthy Dietary Options
Emotional eating is easily confused with self-care. But you don’t want to lose sight of the care part of self-care in your search for comfort.
Eating healthy foods isn’t a punishment. Quite the opposite. It’s a caring gesture key to feeling good. And it can be delicious, too. Feed your body nutritious meals and snacks that pack the vitamins and minerals needed to help you feel your best.
Opt for a plant-heavy approach with easy-to-digest foods that are also good for your gut. That way you can spend your self-care time feeling light and energetic instead of sluggish and slumped over from overdoing it on traditional comfort foods.
Attempt to Achieve Serenity Your Way
Serenity is the ultimate goal of any self-care routine. So stressing about finding the most relaxing and serene experiences is positively counterproductive.
Some people turn to meditation. And there’s evidence showing meditation benefits the brain and your stress levels. But that’s only if mediation works for you. It takes practice to perfect, so give yourself room for mediation to be a work-in-progress.
Yoga is great. It has a long history of peaceful practice. But if you are frustrated by yoga—because you are a beginner or your body simply doesn’t bend that way yet—skip it or find a form that works for you.
Your path to peace and serenity may not look like everybody else’s. And that’s OK. Try different approaches and stick with what feels right.
Stimulate Your Mind
Starting a self-care routine doesn’t mean putting yourself in a stimulation-free bubble. Using your brain for your enjoyment—not for work or figuring out other people’s problems—is a powerful way to care for yourself.
Stop if your mental activities start to feel like work. There are plenty of good options to engage your intellect in service of self-care:
read a book, short story, or magazine
play word, trivia, or brain games
have an enlightening conversation
critically think through a piece of pop culture you enjoy
write a story or journal entry
play a piece of music on your instrument of choice—or just jam without a structure
Experience the Calming Powers of the Outdoors
Nature can nurture your soul and buoy your mood. Study after study has shown why being outside is important for stress relief, focus, and calm.
Step out your door to take deep breathes of fresh air. Visit a nearby natural escape to experience the sights, sounds, and smells of the forest, beach, or park.
Social Support Reinforces Your Self-Care Efforts
Self-care doesn’t require isolation. Humans are social creatures who can benefit from contact with others. Keeping the interactions playful, fun, and easy-going will help you experience the mental and emotional benefits of maintaining your social health.
If you’re an introvert, don’t worry. Interact on your own terms to avoid being overwhelmed by interactions meant to help your mental state.
You might not be able to tell from some people’s social feeds, but nobody is perfect at self-care. Learning to care for yourself is a process.
Starting the self-care routine you need and deserve might not be as effective as you’d hoped the first time. Maybe you lose focus during mediation, a bug bites you on your peaceful nature walk, or the dog jumps into your bath.
Give yourself a break by practicing self-compassion and building in flexibility. Even imperfect self-care is a step in the right direction—toward a healthier, happier, less-stressed you.
https://askthescientists.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/AdobeStock_336717156.jpeg16322449David BakerDavid Baker2020-10-27 09:16:512022-07-06 12:06:38How to Start a Self-Care Routine for Your Health and Happiness
Weight loss is the most popular reason people exercise. But losing weight is far from the only exercise benefit. Working out can support the health of all aspects of your body.
Here’s a full-body overview of other exercise benefits. From your brain to lungs and joints, learn why you should exercise for more than weight loss.
Brain
Your body’s command center needs exercise just as much as your waistline does. Moving your body for a few minutes every day is a great way to keep your brain in shape.
The brain relies on building new connections between neurons so you can store important information throughout your life. This action of building new bridges between brain cells is called neuroplasticity, and it increases through exercise.
Scientists believe neuroplasticity and exercise are linked because of the increase in blood flow to the brain during physical activity. With plenty of blood and oxygen circulating in your brain, regions like the hippocampus can wire new neural pathways. This can help your memory adapt and continue to improve through your lifetime.
Aging is hard on your brain. So, exercise is one thing you can do to make the transition into later life more manageable. Regular exercise has been shown to support healthy recall skills and can slow the progression of age-related memory decline.
In one study, researchers noted that even light exercise and a minimum of 7,500 daily steps were associated with an increase in total brain volume. Higher brain volume can indicate enhanced neuroplasticity in the brain. That’s how exercise can help keep your mind and learning abilities sharp as you age.
If you want to exercise to boost your brain power, cardiovascular exercises are best. The bursts of movement during cardio elevate your heart rate and send blood pumping to all areas of your body—your brain included. Cardio doesn’t need to be intense to get the job done. Your brain will benefit from a regular evening walk, bike ride, or swim in the pool. Anything that pumps your blood is great for your brain.
Mood and Hormones
People that exercise can count on a better mood as their reward—not just weight loss. The link between mood and exercise is a strong one. And it can be a great motivator to work out more.
It all starts with aerobics. Faster paced, cardiovascular movements can reduce the amount of stress hormones circulating in your blood. These hormones (like adrenaline and cortisol) often contribute to feelings of stress, anxiety, and worry. Too much of any stress hormone can even interfere with your sleep habits. This leaves you tired and unprepared to tackle your daily tasks.
Regular aerobic exercise does more than just decrease the presence of these stress hormones. Cardio and other blood-pumping workouts can even add in feel-good hormones to your bloodstream.
Endorphins are hormones produced by your brain in response to exercise. They act like natural painkillers and stress-relievers. Some people even call the rush of endorphins you experience after exercise a “runner’s high.”
Runner or not, you will like the way you feel when endorphins enter circulation. These mood-lifting biochemicals bring on a sense of euphoria and can even help combat anxiety and depression. In addition, they help you relax and calm down.
Let exercise be your go-to way to pick yourself up after a hard day. A light jog, game of tennis, or trip to the park with your family, is all you need to feel the effects of endorphins. At the same time, you’ll be reducing stress hormones and putting yourself at ease.
Heart
One of the first organs in your body to see the benefits of regular exercise is your heart. Your cardiovascular system becomes more efficient as you grow fitter. Treat your heart to some endurance training and exercise for the health of your ticker.
As your fitness level improves, you might notice your resting heart rate slow a bit. That’s because exercise makes your heart stronger and more efficient at pumping blood. A slower heart rate is a sign that your heart doesn’t need to work as hard to circulate your blood. Each heartbeat packs a little more force and pumps blood with less energy expended.
Exercise benefits your heart in other ways, too. Regular physical activity is linked to reducing fatty plaque build-up in arteries. This thickening and hardening of vessel walls can make it harder for your heart to push blood to the places it needs to be. Keeping arteries clear of hardened fat is another perk of working out.
Cardio exercises are the kind of workouts your heart needs. You’ll know you’re doing cardio when you can feel your heartbeat start to quicken. Jumping-jacks, plyometrics, running, and other fast-moving exercises are great options for cardio. Take the opportunity to work-out for your heart the next time you exercise.
Lungs
Tough workouts can leave you feeling breathless. But exercising on a regular basis can help combat this feeling of breathlessness. Aerobic movements can increase the volume of air your lungs can take in with each breath. This measurement is called lung capacity. As lung capacity increases, so does the amount of oxygen available to the muscles powering your workout.
Try breathing exercises to boost your lung capacity. You can incorporate them into your daily exercise or practice them while resting. Deep, diaphragmatic breathing and pursed-lips breathing are two methods you can use to expand your lung capacity.
Just Breathe
To do diaphragmatic breathing, place you hand on your abdomen just beneath your rib cage. Breathe deeply and focus on expanding your abdomen and stomach as you inhale. To exhale, purse your lips together like you would to suck through a straw or give someone a kiss. Push the breath out of your pursed lips slowly.
Bones and Joints
A common myth surrounding joint health is that regular exercise can lead to damaged joints. Consistent, moderate exercise can actually increase bone mass and strength, while protecting joints from swelling, pain, and erosion.
Stronger joints start with stronger bones. When muscles are activated during physical activity, they push and pull on the bones they attach to. Tension from working muscles encourages bone cells to multiply and thicken. As a result, your bone density improves.
This relationship between bone strength and exercise is important. It means that the more consistently you exercise, the stronger your bones become. And the strong bones you develop through regular movement will fare better as you age.
Another reason you should exercise for more than weight loss is to relieve stress on your joints. Swelling and stiffness can happen when your joints aren’t cared for properly. Discomfort in the joints might make exercise seem like a chore.
Don’t give in to the temptation to skip a workout. Movement and regular use of your joints can help them feel great. Daily exercise is a great way to reduce aching and promote strength in your joints.
Bodyweight exercises like push-ups, lunges, squats, and burpees are excellent bone-strengthening activities. Try to hit each muscle groups when you exercise to ensure every bone and joint benefits from your workout.
Immune System
Entire body systems, like your immune system, thrive when you exercise regularly. That’s because exercise has perks that can help keep you healthy.
Exercise promotes the turnover and exchange of leukocytes (white blood cells.) Leukocytes are part of your innate immune response and fight against pathogens that invade your body. When you exercise, the leukocytes that protect you from getting sick are regenerated.
Your immune system needs regular physical activity to defend you from sickness later in life, too. It turns out that along with the rest of your body, your immune system ages, too. Exercise stimulates immune activity that helps keep healthy and free from infection. A habit of everyday exercise can help you maintain immunity in the face of possible age-related decline.
To exercise for your immune system, find an activity that promotes circulation. Aerobic exercises and full-body movements trigger the white-blood-cell turnover that maintains your immunity. Dancing, jogging, tennis, and volleyball are great ways to move your whole body and support your immune defenses.
Working Out for Your Whole Body
Moving your muscles on a regular basis does wonders for your overall wellness. Remember, you can exercise for more than weight loss. So, try to find another factor that motivates you to exercise.
https://askthescientists.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/AdobeStock_335852816.png501835Sydney SprouseSydney Sprouse2020-09-25 09:00:002022-07-06 12:07:45More Motivation to Move: Exercise Benefits Beyond Weight Loss
You need all 13 of the essential vitamins and 14 essential minerals to maintain health. But let’s be honest—some essential micronutrients perform a larger variety of jobs than others.
No offense to nutrients like molybdenum—with its focus on supporting detoxification processes—but the list below highlights the 10 multitasking micronutrients you need to acquire from your diet.
Vitamin D
The sunshine vitamin is a fat-soluble force for good all over your body. The spotlight shines brightly on vitamin D’s role in supporting bone health—by helping maintain balanced levels of calcium in your blood.
But vitamin D also helps:
Support healthy immune function
Maintain a balanced mood
Support cardiovascular health by helping maintain healthy blood pressure already in the normal range
Exposing your skin to the sun will help your body make vitamin D. You can also add a supplement, fatty fish, and fortified dairy or grains to your diet.
It’s called a macromineral for a reason. Your body’s vociferous appetite for magnesium stems from the mineral’s participation in 300-plus enzyme systems. This nutritional jack-of-all-trades plays a role in:
Supporting energy production
Helping maintain healthy calcium levels
Supporting normal, healthy insulin function and blood glucose levels already in the normal range
Being a fat-soluble-free-radical fighter is just the start of vitamin A’s supernutrient origin story. Sure, it acts as a powerful antioxidant. But did you know its support for healthy cellular differentiation expands vitamin A’s role throughout your body?
Your eyes, skin, reproductive system, as well as organs and tissues throughout your body are supported by this essential nutrient. It also helps maintain healthy cell growth and communication, supports healthy immune function, and is a component in a key protein for your vision.
You can call it vitamin B7 or biotin. Either way, it will help all over your body—from supporting energy production to maintaining healthy cell signaling.
Biotin is also frequently talked about in the context of supporting healthy hair. But it does so much more. It also helps maintain healthy bones and normal gene expression, while supporting the production of glucose from sources other than carbohydrates.
It’s no small feat being second to calcium on the list of the body’s abundant minerals. That’s how important phosphorous is, though. You need it to support energy production—and you have adenosine triphosphate (ATP) to thank for that.
Phosphorous also:
Supports bone and cellular health
Helps maintain healthy cell signaling
Supports protein synthesis
Works with B vitamins to help support heart, kidney, muscle, and nerve health
You might not need as much zinc as other minerals, but it still is involved in 300-plus enzymes and many important bodily system and functions.
Immune support may spring to your mind first. Zinc does help maintain healthy immunity. One of the biggest roles it plays in your health starts at the genetic level. Zinc helps support healthy DNA construction and repair. And then it also is a structural component of proteins related to gene expression.
Supporting the health of your kidneys, eyes, muscles, bones, and skin also falls under the job description for zinc. So does antioxidant activity, support for the production of a component of blood, and aiding the absorption of folate into cells.
https://askthescientists.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/AdobeStock_299873653.jpg501835David BakerDavid Baker2020-09-22 08:00:322022-07-06 12:11:3610 Micronutrients that Work the Hardest for Your Health
COVID-19 has people are stuck in their houses, video conferencing from their kitchen tables, creating home workouts, and staying distant to stay safe. Joe De Sena, the founder and CEO of Spartan, has another suggestion.
“Socially distance from your kitchen.”
If you’ve read about or participated in a Spartan Race, it’s no surprise De Sena wants people outside and moving. It’s a key part of his Spartan doctrine. To dig deeper into De Sena’s health and fitness philosophy—with a focus on Spartan preparation at home–Ask the Scientists’ Austin Winegar conducted a wide-ranging interview.
Inside Joe De Sena’s Spartan Mindset
Austin Winegar: What parts of the body would you focus on for Spartan preparation? And why do you think those are the most important areas?
Joe De Sena: The number one thing we’re motivated by is the avoidance of discomfort. There are a few of us that are outliers or maniacs that wake up early and get after it. So, my answer to that question has to be very digestible, very possible for folks to engage in. I would say, at a minimum, it’s 30 burpees, 30 of the best pullups you could muster up, and it’s a one-mile walk or run. Obviously, I can go much deeper than that, but I’ll scare people if I do. So, I’ve tried to tone down my message to something really scalable. Walk, crawl, whatever—one mile. Park a little further away from the grocery store when you shopping. Anybody could do 30 burpees in two minutes—even stretch it out to three minutes. And if you can’t do a pull-up, jump up 30 times. If you just did that, it’d change your whole life.
AW: Digestible things that are realistic is your number one recommendation?
JD: It’s gotta be realistic. It’s gotta be something people will actually do. I could give you a giant list that looks like one of those scrolls a king would drop, of things I’d want people to do every day. But nobody’s doing it. I’ve been putting on races for 20 years. And for 10 of those years I used to have to lie to people and tell them they were coming to a barbecue, because they don’t want to do it. ‘Joe, why are we getting up at 5 a.m. for a barbecue?’ ‘Well, we gotta carry the barbecue up the mountain.’ Little did they know they were the ones that were going to be getting barbecued. True story. I’m not kidding.
I would also do hot yoga as often as I could. I would sit in a sauna post-workout. I would take cold showers. I would take stairs instead of elevators. I would carry a kettlebell. I do thousands of crunches. It depends on how far you want me to go with the answer to that question. Yes, I have opinions on physical fitness and diet, but you gotta give people bite-sized pieces.
AW: I’m inclined to agree with your approach. Rather than it being one movement or exercise, it’s probably more important to push whatever your current capabilities are and step it up more every day.
JD: I’d rather see you do it every day—seven days a week—than get after it once, buy a gym membership, go in for two weeks, then disappear for two months. Consistency is everything. Consistency in general, in everything, in life. Stick-to-it-ness. Write it down, be disciplined about it. Forget about motivation. Motivation is fleeting. You might have it, or you might not. Just create a narrative that you constantly talk about in the public. ‘I do 30 burpees every day. I walk one mile, no matter what—rain, snow, shine. I do my 30 pullups even though I’m not good at one pullup. Every single day.’ You say it over and over and before you know it, if you don’t do it, you’ll be a fraud. You gotta do it.
AW: What about diet? Do you follow the same strictness?
JD: I would say if you had the Joe Spartan food pyramid, the very top would be animal protein. The middle would be nuts, oils, and avocados. And the bottom would be veggies.
I would say you must, with all three meals, have a small bowl of salad. And that doesn’t mean covered in ranch dressing, but raw veggies with every meal. If you’re eating eggs—it sounds crazy—but I’ve actually acquired a taste for salad and eggs and sprouts. I don’t need any dressing.
AW: What about Spartan-specific preparation? How much preparation should people do in the weeks leading up to an event?
JD: Do you want to win it?
AW: Let’s say you want to be competitive—upper half—but don’t need to be the first-place person.
JD: We have multiple distance events—three miles, eight miles, 13 miles, 26 miles. Why don’t we keep this to three miles. If your staple training diet was what we said—30-30-1—if you did three days a week of hot yoga on top. ‘Why would we do hot yoga, Joe?’ Because the only thing that’s going to stop you from doing well is injury. So, to avoid injury we have to keep you mobile and flexible. I’m a big believer in that. I would get one five-mile run in a week, and I would spend some time on a rope. Out at a Spartan race, a lot of people struggle with the rope. The pullups will get you through the other hanging things. You’re going to need some grip strength, so I would spend a lot of time on a rope every week.
Let’s say you gotta do 10 rope climbs a week. One five mile run. And three classes of hot yoga. On top of that basic 30-30-1. You’d crush it. You’d do great. And fitness starts in the kitchen, so you want to be eating healthy. You don’t want to be doubling up on chocolate cake while you’re doing this.
AW: How do people set up ropes in smaller spaces?
JD: You could literally hang it off of a pullup bar. It’s not going to be ideal, but if you had no other choice, you’d start sitting down. In the beginning, you aren’t going to be able to get off your butt with your legs straight out like a gymnast and climb up. But you could leave your heels on the ground and work your way up to a standing position and work your way back down to a sitting position. You do it enough times to where your grip strength is able to get you standing up and sitting down.
AW: What’s people’s usual weakness?
JD: Grip strength, in general, is going to break you in a Spartan Race because there’s so many things to hold onto if you’re not used to it. Also, on the rope, it’s technique. You could deal with the lack of technique if you can get your hands strong enough. You’ll get sucked up in the vortex of the people and the music and you’ll get up that rope and ring the bell.
AW: What are the bodyweight exercises you’d have people do?
JD: We do them all. Reverse lunges. Leonidas burpees—which is a double perfect pushup at the bottom. Inverted pushups. I love all kinds of yoga poses. I’ve basically taken a bunch of yoga poses and turned them into callisthenic exercises. So, I’m working on mobility and flexibility at the same time I’m getting a workout.
AW: Why is a healthy approach to life important for people, in general, and not just those looking forward to Spartan Races?
JD: I’m glad you asked that question, because it’s the biggest thing we didn’t talk about. You guys have watched boxing matches throughout your life. The interesting thing about most of those boxers is they fall out of shape. As soon as they get a date on the calendar, they start getting in shape for the fight. And most people are like that. If they don’t have something on the calendar, they don’t get after it.
When I think about why I started Spartan, I recognized 30 years ago if I didn’t have a date on the calendar, I wasn’t training hard enough. I’d go through the motions, but as soon as there’s a date on the calendar—a fight that’s on the calendar, whatever that fight means in your life—you get after it. You work out a little harder. You put down that cookie. You go to bed a little earlier. You get serious. That’s why it’s so important—it doesn’t have to be a Spartan Race, though I wish it were—but it could be anything hard, anything challenging that forces people to change their habits for the better.
Life and health all come down to blood flow and circulation and what you’re putting in your mouth. So, I think of a body like a swimming pool. A swimming pool is 20,000 gallons of water, and the human body is seven gallons of water—depending on your size. A swimming pool has a pump and filter. You have a pump and filter. And a 20,000-gallon pool, if I started throwing French fries and coffee drinks and ketchup and all kinds of things in that pool, and then I turned the pump off and the filters got dirty, it turns black pretty quick. So, we’re expecting this little swimming pool, our body, with this little pump and a few filters to keep clean with all the stuff we keep stuffing into our mouths. Then we aren’t running the pump because we’re sitting on the couch and we’re not cleaning the filters. So, that’s why it’s important for everybody.
Start Your Spartan Journey to Better Health
Now that you’re pumped and ready to turn up the heat on your fitness journey, start with Joe’s 30-30-1 advice. Then try to build out with more home workouts you can try to supplement the Spartan advice you just received.
https://askthescientists.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/AdobeStock_223598035.jpg501835staffstaff2020-09-18 09:00:112022-07-06 12:23:42Talking Spartan Prep, Home Workouts, and Health with Spartan Founder Joe De Sena
Staying on top of your health requires more than seeing your healthcare provider for an annual check-up. It means monitoring key health indicators frequently at home. These measures can help you meet the World Health Organization’s definition of health: a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being—not just the lack of a disease. And that’s why tracking your health data can be an important tool for maintaining your overall health and wellness.
There are five main health checks (called vital signs) that are regularly assessed whenever you see a physician. But you can also track these important measures of health—and more—at home.
Blood Pressure
This simple health indicator of the cardiovascular system measures how hard your heart has to work to pump blood through arteries and throughout your body. It measures the force of blood pushing against the blood vessel walls. High blood pressure (called hypertension) is often referred to as the “silent killer” because there are typically no symptoms associated with this condition.
Regularly measuring blood pressure is so important that there are published guidelines on how to take it properly. And healthcare professionals must routinely learn to take blood pressure measurements correctly during their education. While the manual measurement of blood pressure using a mercury sphygmomanometer (also called a blood pressure cuff) and a stethoscope has long been held as the gold standard, automated devices are now routinely used in clinical practice.
These automated blood pressure machines are the easiest way to track your blood pressure at home and monitor cardiovascular health. This type of device includes a digital monitor that displays blood pressure results (numbers) on a small screen. The top (or first) number displayed on the screen is called the systolic number, which indicates the pressure inside the artery when the heart is contracting (or pumping blood). The second (or bottom) number on the screen is called the diastolic number—the measure of the pressure inside the artery when the heart is resting in-between beats.
Higher numbers can indicate that the heart is working extra hard to pump blood through your arteries. This may be the result of a temporary external influence—like feeling stressed, scared or excited. It could be the result of heavy exercise that causes a temporary rise in blood pressure to increase flow to deliver extra oxygen and essential nutrients throughout your body.
Or the high number could be caused by an internal force, such as the buildup of plaque in arteries. This can cause blood vessels to become narrowed and less flexible over time.
The American Heart Association (AHA) recommends selecting an automatic, upper arm (bicep) cuff digital blood pressure monitoring device. It’s important to do your research and select a machine that fits your arm and that has been validated for accuracy. Your physician or a pharmacist can help suggest the best type of device for you to use at home. It’s also important to read and follow all instructions and directions provided for setting up your new blood pressure device or have your healthcare provider show you how.
Taking one blood pressure measurement tells you what your blood pressure is right now. It’s not an accurate measurement of overall cardiovascular health. Checking blood pressure routinely, whether that means daily, or a few times a week is a much better indicator. Readings can also vary depending on the time of day, the activity you may have just completed, if you are stressed or even sick. That’s why it’s important to record the results to better track your health data. It’s also preferable to measure blood pressure about the same time each day.
Tips for Taking Your Blood Pressure
For better accuracy it’s important not to smoke, drink caffeine and alcohol, or exercise within 30 minutes of checking blood pressure. It’s also helpful to sit quietly with your back straight and supported (a chair works well) for 5-10 minutes first to help you relax. Place your feet are flat against the floor and don’t cross your legs.
The arm you’re using to measure blood pressure should be resting on a flat surface (a table works well) with the upper arm positioned at the level of your heart with the palm of your hand facing up. Position the cuff so that the bottom edge of the cuff is placed directly above the bend of your elbow, and try not to take a measurement over clothes. Take two or three readings about one-to-two minutes apart and record the date, time, and results each time you measure your blood pressure.
What Your Numbers Mean
A healthy, normal blood pressure is considered anything less than 120/80. Your blood pressure could vary depending on your gender, age, weight, and any medical conditions you have. If you do register a blood pressure reading that’s higher than ideal, wait two to five minutes and recheck. Consult your physician if you consistently have higher blood pressure. A higher pressure reading means the heart is working extra hard to pump blood out to circulate throughout your body. A chronically elevated blood pressure is called hypertension and it’s known to contribute to a variety of health conditions.
Healthcare experts from the American Heart Association, the American College of Cardiology, and many others officially updated guidelines for blood pressure numbers in adults in 2017. These new definitions lowered the numbers used for making a diagnosis of hypertension. This means many people who were not previously considered to have high blood pressure are now considered to be hypertensive.
2017 Updated Blood Pressure Categories
Systolic
Diastolic
Normal
Less than 120
and
Less than 80
Elevated
120-129
and
Less than 80
Hypertension- Stage 1
130-139
or
80-89
Hypertension- Stage 2
140 and higher
or
90 or higher
Hypertensive Crisis
Higher than 180
And/or
Higher than 120
Data obtained from the American Heart Association
Blood flow is your internal transportation system designed to distribute oxygen and essential nutrients throughout your entire body. That’s why it’s so important to make sure this system runs smoothly. Tracking your blood pressure results over time provides a “snap-shot” of your heart health. And this information may provide the needed motivation to improve lifestyle measures known to support healthy blood pressure and overall heart health. It may also motivate you to consult with your healthcare provider to determine the best treatment options for higher blood pressure numbers.
Heart (or Pulse) Rate
Heart or pulse rate is a measurement of how many times your heart beats (complete heart-muscle contractions) in one minute. Measuring your heart rate is considered an indicator of heart muscle function and is another important measure of health.
A resting heart rate is how many times your heart beats while you are rested or relaxed. This number is different from the amount of beats that occur when you are physically active or stressed. The average heart rate for a healthy adult is between 60 and 100 beats per minute. But age and activity levels can influence heart rate. It may be higher when exercising and lower during times of inactivity. Other factors that can influence heart rate include stress and anxiety, caffeine or other stimulants, certain medications, body position (standing, sitting or lying down), body temperature, and some medical conditions.
How to Check Your Heart Rate
You can check your heart rate at your wrist or on the side of your neck using two fingers. Alternatively, you can see your heart rate measurement when checking blood pressure with a digital blood pressure monitoring device, when using a pulse oximeter to check oxygen saturation levels, and on a smart watch, wearable, or app.
To check your pulse rate using your wrist, use the index and middle finger of your dominant hand and position them so that the tips of the two fingers align. Press them lightly on the inside of your opposite wrist just below the base of your thumb in the soft space under your wrist bone to feel the radial artery beneath the skin. When monitoring pulse rate in the neck (carotid artery), lightly press the same two fingers on the side your neck, just beneath the jawbone to the side of your windpipe.
Count the numbers of beats for 15 seconds and multiple that number by four to see your heart rate. For the best accuracy, repeat this procedure two or three times and use the average of these numbers.
Respirations occur when you breathe in and out. Breathing provides the oxygen required for every cell in the body to function properly. During the respiration process, air is moved in and out of the lungs. This process facilitates gas exchange by bringing oxygen in and pushing carbon dioxide out.
A respiratory (breathing) rate is the number of breaths taken in one minute. And it’s easy to measure. Respiratory rate is measured by counting the numbers of breaths taken (the number of times your chest rises and falls) for one minute. Remember that one rise and one fall are counted as one breath.
When checking respiratory rate, it’s best to sit upright in a chair. But it can be measured lying down if needed. A healthy adult respiration rate is between 12 to 20 times a minute.
Body Temperature
Your body has an internal thermostat and its proper functioning is important. That makes temperature another important vital sign used to assess overall health. Temperature checks are a routine part of any visit to a healthcare provider. But it can also be checked at home if you or a loved one isn’t feeling well, or are just curious what your temperature is. It’s easy to check body temperature with a thermometer.
Your body does a good job of regulating body temperature to keep you healthy. And it’s normal for it to fluctuate in a healthy range throughout the day and throughout your life. Body temperature is also influenced by age, gender, certain medicines, and diseases.
You’ve probably heard the right body temperature is 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit (or 37 degrees Celsius). It was long considered the normal number for assessing a healthy temperature based on data from as early as the 1800s. But newer research shows that a normal, healthy adult temperature can range significantly, averaging between 97 and 99 degrees Fahrenheit depending on the person.
How to Pick Your Thermometer
There are options when it comes to choosing a thermometer to check body temperature at home:
A digital thermometer uses electronic heat sensors to record body temperature. This no-contact thermometer is typically used to measure temperature when pointed at the forehead.
A digital ear thermometer (also called a tympanic thermometer) uses an infrared ray to measure the temperature inside of the ear canal.
A temporal artery thermometer uses an infrared scanner to measure the temperature of the temporal artery in the forehead. This thermometer is gently swiped across the forehead lightly touching the skin. It should be cleaned between uses.
The mercury thermometer is no longer recommended due to the possibility of the glass getting broken and allowing the toxic mercury to escape and cause contamination. Digital, oral thermometers are good replacements for those used to this type of device.
While thermometers are available in a variety of styles, it’s important to note that not all thermometers provide the same quality and accuracy. So if you’re not sure which one to buy, ask your pharmacist or physician for advice on selecting the best thermometer for home use.
Oxygen Saturation (SpO2)
This metric of health measures the amount of oxygen in red blood cells—also referred to as oxygen saturation. Your body closely regulates your blood-oxygen levels because maintaining a precise balance is vital for health.
A measurement of your blood oxygen is called an O2 Sat (SpO2) when using a pulse oximeter—a noninvasive way to obtain this important measure of health. Pulse oximeters are typically small electronic devices that clip on the end of your index finger. This vital sign is another metric of health that’s routinely checked when you visit a healthcare provider.
A normal, healthy pulse oximeter reading typically ranges in the mid 90s up to 100 percent. A value below 90 percent is considered low and should be medically evaluated by a healthcare professional.
Pulse oximetry is also used in athletic training and can also be found in gyms and fitness centers. It can provide important information for athletes and amateurs during workouts to help improve endurance, speed, and overall performance.
Advances in technology and direct-to-the-public sales have made it easy to purchase a variety of medical-type devices without the need of a doctor’s order. This includes pulse oximeters. When choosing a device, it’s important to buy it from a reputable company and check to see of the device has been clinically validated for accuracy, otherwise it could be a waste of time and money.
Pulse oximeters have the technology (depending on the brand and model) to measure important vital signs including: oxygen saturation, pulse rate, breathing rate, and more from a fingertip. All these health indicators can help you support your respiratory health. Although SpO2 may not be necessarily relevant for everyone.
Other Important Measures of Health
Blood Glucose
Glucose is a simple carbohydrate (sugar) used as the primary fuel for your cells, and is an essential energy source for your brain and nervous system. Your body converts certain foods to glucose that it needs for energy. It’s normal for the amount of glucose in your blood to fluctuate throughout the day.
Measuring blood glucose is part of an annual visit to your doctor to make sure you’re healthy, and to screen for diabetes or prediabetes. A normal fasting blood glucose level is defined as 70 to 99 mg/dL (3.9 to 5.5 mmol/L). Maintaining normal blood glucose levels is an important part of keeping your body healthy.
Since screening glucose levels is part of an annual physical, health professionals don’t routinely recommend regularly checking blood glucose levels at home unless you are diabetic or have prediabetes. However, if you want to check your blood glucose more often than annually, you can purchase a glucometer and the required supplies at a pharmacy or online. Make sure to educate yourself on the appropriate use of this device, what the results mean, and the best way to dispose of the used supplies. Monitoring blood glucose can help you determine how different foods and activities may influence your blood glucose values.
Sleep
Sleep is important and necessary to maintain good health. During sleep, your body repairs tissues and other cells, and bolsters your immune system. Adults require 7-9 hours of nightly sleep in order to promote optimal health. Unfortunately many are still sleep deprived.
While not as accurate as a professional sleep assessment, a personal sleep tracking device or app can help monitor nightly sleep patterns. This can help provide insight into your sleep habits so you can take steps to improve them.
There are different types of devices to choose from, including wearable and non-wearable options in all shapes and sizes. It’s important to decide what you really want out of a device before making a purchase.
Many smart watches provide sleep-tracking data that you can connect to an app on your phone. Commonly provided data includes: type of sleep (deep, light, REM), how often you wake, and for how long you sleep. Some also provide SpO2 data which is an important metric for health maintenance. The use of these convenient devices allows you to keep track of your sleep metrics and measure progress towards your sleep goals over time.
Activity
Your body is made to move—a lot. But it doesn’t have to be strenuous. Walking is a great way to support overall health. This form of exercise provides benefits for managing body weight, supporting heart health and normal, healthy blood pressure, and even mood and cognition. And walking is considered a low-impact form of exercise because it’s easier on joints. Low-impact exercise also helps maintain and build muscle mass that can decrease with age.
Wearable trackers—like those available on smart watches and other devices—are a great way to monitor steps. The World Health Organization (and many other health professionals and organizations) recommend adults 18–64 perform at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity per week. A wearable tracker is an easier way to monitor steps, distance, and time so you can meet your fitness goals.
Know Your Numbers to Stay Healthy
Staying on top of your health can be improved greatly by measuring and tracking different metrics. And there are all kinds of apps for your smart watch and phone that can track just about any health indicator you want to know and monitor. Choose carefully, and avoid information overload. You don’t want to spend all your time worrying about and monitoring your health on a device.
If you don’t want to track every aspect of your life, here are some other ways to support your health that don’t require tracking:
Include more fresh, natural whole foods and less processed foods in your diet
Eat at regular times, and only until you feel full
Stand up and move your body on a regular daily basis
https://askthescientists.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/AdobeStock_83645447.jpg501835Toni McKinnonToni McKinnon2020-09-08 10:00:442022-07-06 12:29:57Measures of Health: Learn to Track 5 Main Health Indicators
Hydration is typically approached one glass of water at a time. You aren’t wrong to try that when tracking your liquid intake. Drinking plenty of plain water really is the best way to attain healthy hydration. But you can also easily add several hydrating foods to your daily menu to help out.
It’s important to do everything you can to stay properly hydrated because it’s essential for good overall health. Healthy hydration helps your body remain in the state of homeostasis it craves. And the combination of liquids and water-rich foods will help your body experience the benefits of proper, healthy hydration. Those include supporting:
healthy, normal cognition and focus
circulation (since water makes up a big portion of your blood)
the functions of your vital organs to literally keep you alive
Maximize Your Hydration Mix with Water-Rich Foods
Your body—from head to toe—needs water. The sources you tap for that healthy hydration is up to you. Studies have found a wide range for total water intake that comes from food. Variations by culture, age, and other factors account for anywhere between 20 and 40 percent of water coming from food.
Or would you rather maximize your diet by loading up your plate with hydrating foods throughout the day? You’re in luck. There are obvious options you’ll find on any list of water-rich foods—watermelon, cucumber, citrus fruit, a variety of berries, celery, lettuce, squash, tomatoes, and grapes.
There are also some foods that could be real surprises to you. Scroll through the list of eight common grocery store items you might not reach for first while filling your cart with hydrating foods.
Shrimp
From the ocean to your table, this popular seafood item is packed with water. Its moisture content falls somewhere between 70 and 79 percent, depending on processing. Protein sources—from chicken breasts to beef tenderloin—shouldn’t be overlooked as an avenue for adding hydration to the diet, as well. Shrimp are a delicious place to start.
Carrots
These colorful root vegetables, on first glance, don’t appear to be a juicy option for hydration. But the truth is that carrots contain about 88 percent water. That might be one of the reasons they’re so popular with people who make their own juice.
Yogurt
You’d think it would be the water content (over 80 percent) that has yogurt on a list of hydrating foods. That’s certainly part of the appeal. But potassium and the other electrolyte minerals in this fermented dairy product provide an enhanced hydration boost.
Cottage Cheese
By weight, cottage cheese is about 80 percent water. Couple that with protein and lots of nutrients and the creamy curds become a hydrating—and filling—addition to any meal.
Cruciferous Vegetables (Broccoli, Cauliflower, and Cabbage)
Maybe you could have guessed cabbage is full of water—it does look like lettuce on steroids after all. Broccoli and cauliflower, though? They don’t seem like hydrating, water-rich foods. Cauliflower has a water percentage in the low nineties, and broccoli clocks in around 88 percent. Keeping these vegetables as close to raw as possible will help them remain moisture-packed options.
Boiled Eggs
At 75 percent water, chicken eggs aren’t as flooded with moisture as some foods on this list. But you might think boiling an egg would ruin it’s hydrating potential, right? The fact is, that 75 percent water content remains and combines with high protein levels and a bounty of essential nutrients to make boiled eggs another hydrating addition to a salad.
Bananas
Hidden beneath that bright yellow peel is a healthy, hydrating snack. Bananas are about three quarters water (75 percent), with a lot of fiber and potassium. That makes bananas an appealing addition to your list of hydrating foods.
Boiled or Baked Potatoes
Potatoes grow underground, soaking up all the water and nutrients the soil has to offer. When they’re harvested—and even after cooking—these popular tubers still sport a water content percentage in the high seventies.
Fill Up on Hydrating Foods to Help Buoy Your Health
Humans don’t have the option to go waterless. You don’t live very long without water. Even if you don’t take in enough each day, you’ll experience a parched and arid existence.
But satisfying your thirst isn’t exactly the same as keeping yourself properly hydrated. That’s because the mix of hydrating foods and beverages requires thinking outside the glass when it comes to water intake.
Luckily, you have a raft of healthy and delicious, water-rich foods from which to choose. They’re also easy to incorporate into your weekly meal planning. Just remember that cooking some of these hydrating foods will impact their final moisture content. So, plan on preparing them in a way that maximizes their hydrating benefits.
https://askthescientists.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/AdobeStock_186005753.jpg501835David BakerDavid Baker2020-09-08 10:00:282022-07-06 12:33:29Hydrating Foods to Keep Your Health Afloat
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