Nutrition. Vitamins. You.
Subscribe Today! Please see below for a complete transcript of this episode. MENTAL FATIGUE, INVITE HEALTH PODCAST, EPISODE 613 Hosted by Amanda Williams, MD, MPH. *Intro Music* InViteⓇ Health Podcast Intro: [00:00:04] Welcome to the InViteⓇ Health Podcast where our degreed health care professionals are …
Moon Milk The Perfect Sleep Remedy Created By Melissa Bistricer, MS, RDN Our remedy for a restful nights sleep is referred to as moon milk. Moon milk has nothing to do with worshiping the moon rather it got its name for helping to calm you …
Exercise
Subscribe Today!
Please see below for a complete transcript of this episode.
Are Sleep And Exercise Correlated? – InViteⓇ Health Podcast, Episode 559
Hosted by Melissa Bistricer, MS, RDN
*Intro music*
InViteⓇ Health Podcast Intro: Welcome to the InViteⓇ Health Podcast, where our degreed healthcare professionals are excited to offer you the most important health and wellness information you need to make informed choices about your health. You can learn more about the products discussed in each of these episodes and all that InViteⓇ Health has to offer at www.invitehealth.com/podcast. First time customers can use promo code PODCAST at checkout for an additional 15% off your first purchase. Let’s get started!†
*Intro music*
Melissa Bistricer, MS, RDN: [00:00:39] Hello and welcome back to another podcast here at InViteⓇ Health. Sleep, something so many of us struggle with. Is it behavioral? Is it lifestyle? Is it diet related? There are so many factors that play a role in getting a good night’s sleep, but one specific one I want to focus on today is sleep in relation to exercise. Exercise has been seen to have so many benefits, like being able to reduce the risks of diseases such as cancer or diabetes, improving physical function and enhancing our quality of life. But first, nutrition, food for thought: sufficient sleep, exercise, healthy food, relationships and peace of mind are necessities, not luxuries.† [00:01:22]
[00:01:23] My name is Melissa Bistricer and I am a registered dietitian. I am so excited to bring to you the nutritional aspect of nutrients here at InViteⓇ Health. InViteⓇ Health promotes an integrative approach in providing vitamins into your daily life to increase your quality of life. In conjunction with nutrients it is also important to learn and include other lifestyle modifications like nutrition, exercise and sleep. These practices with the use of vitamins will promote optimal benefits in your daily life.† [00:01:51]
[00:01:53] Now let’s get talking about sleep and exercise. According to the CDC, one in every three adult in America do not get enough sleep on a regular basis. And the American Academy of Sleep, Medicine and Sleep Research Society, the recommendation for sleep for adults aged 18 to 60 years old is to sleep approximately 7 hours each night to promote optimal health and well-being. Research suggests that individuals who sleep less than 7 hours a day have an increased risk for developing chronic conditions such as obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke and frequent mental distresses. So how can we change that not being able to sleep for people? † [00:02:34]
IS SLEEP MORE IMPORTANT THAN NUTRITION AND EXERCISE? >> Read Now!
[00:02:35] Research suggests that sleep and exercise have a strong connection when someone who participates in moderate to vigorous exercise is shown to help increase their quality and time it takes them to fall asleep. Moderate, vigorous exercise as can be, walking briskly, dancing, jogging, running, or even gardening. Moderate aerobic exercise increases the amount of slowing waves in your brain to get sleep. When the wave function is slow that is referring to a deeper sleep where the brain and body are fully able to rejuvenate. Exercise also helps the benefit of being able to stabilize your mood and decompress the mind, which is a cognitive process that is important to transition the body to sleep. Yes, you heard me correctly. Exercise can help prevent the amount of time you lie aimlessly in bed at night counting sheep. † [00:03:24]
[00:03:26] Though the time of exercise may matter, some people who exercise closer to bedtime have seen an impact on them staying awake longer at night. So how does working out affect the mind? Aerobic exercise is like swimming, cycling, walking, rolling or elliptical causes the body to release endorphins. These chemicals essentially are creating a level of activity in the brain that keep someone awake. These people should exercise at least 1 to 2 hours before bed to give the endorphins enough time to be washed out and the brain time to wind down. Exercise also has the ability to raise your core body temperature. Imagine when you take a hot shower in the morning, it wakes yourself up. It’s the same idea. The elevation of our core temperature signals our body clock that it’s time to wake up. This takes about 30 to 90 minutes for the core body temperature to start to fall. The decline will help to facilitate sleepiness.† [00:04:19]
[00:04:20] Crazy enough exercise can also help to improve sleep in indirect ways as well. When someone participate in moderate to vigorous workouts that can decrease weight gain, ultimately decreasing the risk of obesity or being overweight, which is likely that they won’t experience obstructive sleep apnea. The specific psychology of sleep and exercise has not been completed. There are several studies that support the lack of sleep that has been associated with impaired cognitive performances, mood, glucose metabolism, appetite, regulation and immune function. Though the thought is, is that when we sleep that has an effect on the brain at an endocrine level to regulate hormones, metabolism and waste removal. Exercise has helped to improve fitness levels, changes in the body composition and sleep patterns. † [00:05:07]
[00:05:09] Sleep has a major impact on our overall health. It is essential to function in our day to day lives. During sleep, our body has the ability to process our memory, clear our brain metabolites, and restore our nerves, immune, skeletal and muscular systems. A poor night’s sleep can impact our bodily systems. Lack of sleep is also associated with with predisposed conditions such as cardiovascular disease, metabolic dysfunction, psychiatric disorders, or early mortality rate. Adequate sleep though is rare and research shows that 30% of employed adults sleep about 6 hours or fewer per night. Due to the low cost and the non-pharmacological treatment. Exercise has been the most accessible treatment to help disrupted sleep habits.† [00:05:53]
[00:05:55] A meta analysis has been shown that exercise training in a middle to older age adults has helped to improve the quality of sleep for these individuals. A common question: Does poor sleep have to do with physical inactivity? A study was done on a group of individuals who participated in physical activity with and without sleep disturbances. The study discovered that adults with poor sleeping habits were less active than those without sleeping complaints. The low activity level can be related to excess weight, low energy and high levels of fatigue and sleepiness. We can look at this at the flip side also, sleep can help to increase our ability to do more physical activity. The answer is yes, because when we sleep, we feel more rested and have more energy to feel less tired throughout the day. Increasing our active lifestyle and ability to exercise due to sleeping better at night.† [00:06:46]
[00:06:46] So how does exercise improve our sleep? Research has shown that physical activity again has helped to be more effective than more than some prescribed sleep medications. There are a couple of reasons, according to Cleveland Clinical. The first being daylight exposure can set your body’s clock. Exercise outside kills two birds with one stone you get exposure to light, which helps good sleeping and waking cycles and your more tired and relaxed from physical activity. Exercise can also help to relieve any stress or anxiety. † [00:07:16]
[00:07:17] So getting exposure can come in many different ways. Determine if you are affected by sleep deprivation due to behavioral choices, lifestyle choices, or diet choices. Many individuals have behavior issues impacting their sleep, such as shift work, smartphones or social networks being used during traditional sleep times. Also, another thing is that diet component that people tend to eat more during longer hours. They are awake without increasing physical activity. Some are too fatigued or tired to increase physical activity, which can actually end up helping their sleep cycle and improve their ability to participate in physical activity daily. Once you determine the issue at hand, you may want to be able to correct it with simply lifestyle modifications to help you have a more restful sleep.† [00:08:01]
NUTRIENTS FOR STRESS AND SLEEP SUPPORT – INVITE HEALTH PODCAST, EPISODE 507 >> Listen Now!
[00:08:01] So my advice is to assess where sleep deprivation is coming from and then fix that issue. You can also choose to add supplements like calcium, vitamin D, l-theanine or melatonin to help enhance your sleep. You can go check out the products sold at invitehealth.com and if you have any further questions, you can always chat with myself as a nutritionist or any of our other health care providers to assist you here at invitehealth.com or you can email me at mbistricer@invitehealth.com I am Melissa Bistricer, RDN ready to share the knowledge to help you modify your lifestyle to live a happier and more successful life. I’m looking forward to continuing to provide you with educational podcasts and blog posts. But again, nutrition, food for thought: sufficient sleep, exercise, healthy food, friendships and peace of mind are necessities, not luxuries. Have a great day and tune in for an next podcast coming your way soon. Don’t forget to follow us at invitehealth.com/podcast and remember to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.† [00:08:01]
*Exit Music*
Do you struggle with always having low energy? Are you tired of being tired? Well listen now to Amanda Williams, MD, MPH podcast about ways to help rejoice with energy again!
You’ve probably heard about how important the thyroid is for your overall health, but do you know why? Learn all about this powerful gland from Dr. Claire Arcidiacono, ND.
melatonin
Subscribe Today!
Please see below for a complete transcript of this episode.
Hosted by Amanda Williams, MPH
*Intro music*
InViteⓇ Health Podcast Intro: Welcome to the InViteⓇ Health Podcast, where our degreed healthcare professionals are excited to offer you the most important health and wellness information you need to make informed choices about your health. You can learn more about the products discussed in each of these episodes and all that InViteⓇ Health has to offer at www.invitehealth.com/podcast. First time customers can use promo code PODCAST at checkout for an additional 15% off your first purchase. Let’s get started!
*Intro music*
Amanda Williams, MPH:
[00:00:40] We all understand that getting a good night’s sleep is important for our overall health, and oftentimes we consider melatonin being the key to successful sleep. But did you also know that melatonin, this very important hormone, plays a critical role in so many other functions in our body? And today I want to talk about that.† [00:00:56]
[00:00:56] I’m Amanda Williams, MD, MPH, and when we think about melatonin, we understand this is our sleep hormone. It helps to regulate our circadian rhythm, our body’s internal clock and without adequate melatonin production, this can certainly have an impact on the quality of sleep that we have. But its role as a hormone in the body certainly goes well beyond that of just what we think of for sleep. And melatonin is a hormone that is produced primarily in the pineal gland within the brain. But we can also see that it is produced in other areas, other tissues within the body, including within the cells that make up our immune system. So this is why much of the research over the past couple of decades has been focusing on the impact of melatonin when it comes to immune health, when it comes to its potential anti-cancer activities. And this is where the interest really for me is so driving because when we recognize that certain hormones in the body do more than just one intended thing, then it really makes it quite fascinating to, to really see how it is that the endocrine system itself, how multimodal that actually is.† [00:02:19]
[00:02:20] When we think about things like immunosenescence and the aging of our immune system, which we know occurs just through the aging process itself. But when we can look and say, “Well, hey, you know, is melatonin and the rate at which melatonin is released, can this actually have an impact in terms of bolstering up our immune defenses?” And this is really quite interesting because one of the main causes of immunosenescence or the aging thereof, the immune system is due to the inadequate production of hormones that help to control the immune function itself. So when we think of melatonin, we now have to link that with our immune system and understanding that melatonin is working in different ways to help to enhance how our antibodies, for example, are responding to exposures to different viruses and bacterias and understanding how melatonin is actually playing a pretty important role when it comes to targeting inflammation and helping to enhance the activity of our T-cells. So there’s a lot more to melatonin than just sleep, and that’s what I wanted to zero in on today.† [00:03:29]
IMMUNE SYSTEM, PART 2: THE AGING IMMUNE SYSTEM – INVITE HEALTH PODCAST, EPISODE 492. Listen Now>>
[00:03:30] And there’s a wonderful amount of research showing melatonin impact, even when it comes to that gut-brain connection and also when it comes to weight loss. They did a really interesting study back in 2017, and it was published in the Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity Journal, looking at how melatonin supplementation actually lowered oxidative stress and helped to regulate our fat cells. And this was a first-time look into the power of hormones when it came to melatonin specifically, understanding that melatonin supplementation really helped to facilitate body weight loss or reducing body weight and at the same time, help to bolster up our antioxidant defenses, which is key because the more we can fend off the free radicals and ease inflammation in the body, the better we are doing when it comes to maintaining cellular longevity. So there’s so much information out there when it comes to the impact of melatonin so far removed from just maintaining proper circadian rhythm, which in and of itself if that was its only function, great.† [00:04:38]
[00:04:38] But we can see that it plays a role even as a neuroprotector when we think about our brain and we think about different neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and MS and starting to see that link of how melatonin is actually protecting the brain cells from those types of disease states, which is really very important when you think about future research going into looking at, you know, trying to find a breakthrough medicine, for example, for Alzheimer’s disease or trying to get better management of folks who have been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. So many of the different actions that we now understand about melatonin and how it’s impacting our aging process and helps us in terms of anti-aging comes down to, you know, how it’s regulating gene expression, how it’s targeting the inflammatory pathways, for example, and the different cytokines that are released, how we can now see its direct interaction with antibodies and those cellular immune cells to really allow the body that ability to fend off bacterial infection or a viral infection.† [00:05:46]
[00:05:47] We can also see how it is, and this was a lot of this research came through in that setting of brain health, was how melatonin is protecting and restoring the mitochondrial function, which is really very important because we know that with mitochondrial dysfunction, we get this lack of integrity within the cells. The cell starts to lose its focus and no longer is working the way that we need it to work. And so melatonin is actually helping with that. We can see the interaction of melatonin and sirtuin. We know that the sirtuins, SIRT1 in particular, is very important when it comes to maintaining cellular longevity. Looking at how it helps to enhance the production of endogenous antioxidants, things like superoxide dismutase and glutathione, for example. So there’s a lot of very important roles that melatonin, our sleep hormone, is actually playing in the human body, and it’s really, for me, an area of interest because oftentimes people will ask me about melatonin and, “Should I be taking melatonin? And if so, you know, how much should I take? And this is going to vary from one person to the next?” Obviously, we’re dealing with a hormone. But when you look at the science of how even high dose melatonin can really potentially wonderful benefits when it comes to say, for example, weight loss or when it comes to bolstering up the immune defenses, it really is quite fascinating. There was a study that showed how melatonin actually protect the kidneys after radiation treatment, and it’s like, “Well, who would have ever thought that melatonin would be this protector in chief?” And it is. And part of the reason that it does that is through its unique ability to help to support our endogenous antioxidants, that glutathione, that superoxide dismutase, thinking about things like catalase, for example, being able to build those levels back up to offset the negative impact that free radicals actually bring on is really quite fascinating in and of itself.† [00:07:58]
GRAY HAIR AND CATALASE – INVITE HEALTH PODCAST, EPISODE 343. Listen Now>>
[00:07:59] There was a study that the Journal of the American Medical Association, JAMA, that’s a huge, huge journal, that they came out and they talked about how there was a direct link between low levels of melatonin and a greater risk of developing type two diabetes. I mean, this is very interesting because now you can start to connect these dots and you say, okay, well, we know that sleep is important for our health. We recognize that melatonin, gut-based, is playing a role when it comes to fat metabolism and the way that our adipocytes are actually working, which is why you now see these weight loss studies done with melatonin. So it certainly makes sense that when you have low levels of melatonin, that this could potentially be linked to a metabolic condition such as type two diabetes. So thinking about its action in the body and how it’s affecting so many different tissues and this is the important thing about hormones, is that they are going systemically and they are having their little bit of impact over here and a little bit of impact over here. So we’re seeing how the melatonin receptors within the pancreas are actually working in a sense for energy metabolism and for that regulation of body weight. So there’s so much interesting research out there on melatonin. I just wanted to bring this to your attention because many times when we think about our sleep, we do think about melatonin, which is key. But we also have to understand that if we are walking around with a state of melatonin deficiencies, we’re lacking this key hormone, it can be impacting so many other things besides our sleep, and we know that quality of sleep matters. But we also recognize that our immune system matters, maintaining healthy weight and being able to fend off oxidative stress. All of these are key components to aging gracefully and melatonin, we now recognize as being a huge player in this, which is really quite interesting.† [00:09:57]
[00:09:58] So that is all that I have for you for today, I want to thank you so much for tuning in to the InViteⓇ Health Podcast. Remember, you can find all of our episodes for free wherever you listen to podcasts or by visiting invitehealth.com/podcast. Now do make sure that you subscribe or leave us a review. You can follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and we will see you next time for another episode of the InViteⓇ Health Podcast.† [00:09:58]
