If you are anything like the average smartphone user, you spend about five hours per day on your device. In addition, you skim through work emails on vacation and check your social accounts before bed, poring over articles and double-tapping photos on Instagram. Maybe you aren’t aware of it, but the only time you truly unplug is when you’re asleep at night.
It turns out dependence on technology isn’t great for mental health. According to a 2016 University of Illinois study, mobile device addiction is linked to depression and anxiety—specifically when people use devices for escapism or to fill a void. Removing stress is an effective way to improve well being, but this becomes difficult when people become addicted to the very source of their anxiety. The good news? Awareness goes a long way, and there are a number of concrete steps you can take to disconnect in today’s connected world. Implement the following tips to unplug, improve your mental health, and ultimately boost your sense of fulfilment. 1. Leave work at work. Make a point of relaxing after work hours—especially on weekends and vacations. Rather than treating these times like lighter versions of your actual workday, refrain from checking your work email or accepting calls that aren’t urgent when you’re off the clock. If you feel your boundaries aren’t respected, gently inform your colleagues that constant connectedness can hinder workplace productivity. The 2016 study “Exhausted But Unable to Disconnect” reveals that it’s not only the time workers spend responding to emails after hours, but also the anticipatory stress, or the expectation of having to respond to after-work emails, that is stressing them out.3 Similarly, if you work from home, try to maintain standard work hours. Keep your clients informed of these hours and avoid returning to projects during your off time. A little self-imposed structure will help you disconnect in a big way. 2. Take a social media detox. Social media use has been linked to issues such as depression and social isolation. According to Brian Primack, director of the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Research on Media, Technology and Health, those who reported spending more than two hours a day on social media had double the likelihood of perceived social isolation than people who spent just half an hour per day on social platforms.4 This is why taking a social media detox can work wonders for your mental health. Either limit your use of social media to just once or twice per day or go cold turkey and take a full week off. Regardless of how you structure your break, the numbers are in your favour. 3. Engage in activities without your phone. Disconnect by taking up device-free activities such as hiking or yoga. Team sports are another compelling option. Know from the start that you are making a conscious decision to use your phone less frequently and get in shape while you unplug. For an added challenge, the next time you have the urge to look at your phone during what’s supposed to be a relaxing activity, go without your device. Rather than researching recipes online, grab a cookbook and spend a tech-free evening making dinner. Or if you’re meeting friends for drinks, leave your phone in the glove compartment of your car. In order to truly disconnect, you must get used to being without your device. 4. Disconnect with your loved ones. Have you ever planned a nice night with your family, only to find that everyone is glued to their phone? Rather than banning devices outright, you and your family can agree to disconnect at specific times. This will make it seem like you’re working together rather than monitoring one another’s technology use. So on dinner next Thursday, request that everyone go without their phone. Or plan a Sunday evening game night during which all devices must be in another room. Disconnect together in order to connect with one another. 5. Put all devices away before bed. This is a crucial piece of advice. Do not look at your phone, tablet, or computer screen before bed or you risk compromising the quality of your sleep. A pair of Michigan State University studies indicated that smartphone use keeps workers mentally engaged late at night, which can interfere with their productivity the next day.5 Not only that, but the blue light emissions from digital devices can throw your physiological clock out of whack. If you want to disconnect at night, keep your phone in another room for optimal results. No doubt, it will be waiting for you the next morning. 6. Commit to a daily meditation practice. Pick a time and place and commit to a routine meditation practice. Embrace the quiet environment, even if sitting still proves a challenge. If you can only spare 10 minutes each day, that’s perfectly fine—your mind and body will thank you for the break, no matter how short. These tips will help you unplug from your devices and disconnect from the chaos of your daily life. Make a point of taking time to unwind each day. In doing so, you will experience less stress and be more productive in the long term. References:
Submitted by the Metagenics Marketing Team
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Let’s set a scene. It’s 12:34 AM, and you’ve been lying in bed for about two hours, wide awake. You tell yourself to relax and go to sleep, but it doesn’t happen. Your mind is racing. “What is wrong with me?” you ask yourself. Oh no! You forgot to put the clothes in the dryer. “I guess I’ll just do that first thing in the morning.” The madness continues for another hour before you finally see the back of your eyelids.
Sleep issues plague countless people in the world, and for a variety of reasons. Those may be due to diet, lifestyle, or anxiety, among others. Lack of sleep can lead to health issues including confusion, lethargy, and memory loss. It’s hard to attack the day when your mind is in a fog. Maybe that’s why the coffee industry is booming? Personally, I experienced bouts of insomnia throughout my life and usually at the worst time possible. This is not ideal for someone battling Crohn’s disease and driving race cars at 180 mph, but I have some good news! There are a few lifestyle changes you can make to help improve the quantity and quality of your sleep. After tireless research and trial and error, I’ve created a plan to help get myself (and you) back on track. Functional Medicine was a critical aspect of my ability to obtain healthy, restful sleep. Before working with a medical provider to create a functional lifestyle plan, I was tired, dizzy, sluggish, and worn out! This functional lifestyle optimisation transformed all aspects of my health and daily life. However, sleep isn’t entirely about nutrition and diet. There are changes you can make to further your ability to get at least 7 ½ hours each night. Start with adjustments to your nighttime routine. Finish daily chores (dishes, trash, walking the dog, etc.) about two hours before your target sleep time. Next, work on nightly hygiene requirements and clothing. Brush your teeth, take a shower or bath if needed, finish bowel movements, and put on comfortable clothes. Give yourself about an hour to an hour and a half for winding down afterwards. Limit exposure to artificial light at this point. Too much, and your body will think it’s daytime. Hormones like cortisol will continue to get released, which keeps you up. But remember, cortisol is an essential hormone to help wake you in the morning! Get your surroundings in order. Make sure your room is dark with no artificial light. Cover up any small illumination from electronic devices (masking tape works well) and install blackout shades over the windows. Your body has various light receptors in the eyes and skin to tell itself it’s time to go to sleep. Keeping the room dark supports that process and promotes the release of hormones, such as melatonin. If you are easily startled at night by sounds, like me, then creating an atmosphere with continuous background noise or none at all can help tremendously. It’s hard to eliminate noise entirely, so work with various resources like your AC unit, sound machines, or your phone. I use an app on my iPhone that plays constant brown noise to smooth sudden sounds throughout the night. Temperature also plays a significant role. Keeping the room on the colder side will allow you to enjoy your bed and covers. No one wants to sweat during the night! Usually, you’ll find between 65 to 72 degrees as the perfect temperature. Don’t freeze yourself, though! Make sure you’re comfortable. Let’s talk about the bed. Humans spend a significant portion of their lives sleeping, so make your bed a sanctuary. I’ve tried various mattresses, and for me, a medium stiffness memory foam mattress is the perfect softness and support for a great night’s sleep. Find one that’s right for you, but make sure it limits your exposure to chemicals. Recapping. At this point you are physically ready for bed, lights are dimmed or off, the sound is consistent or eliminated, and the temperature is perfect. As you slide into bed, you are ready to relax and calm the mind. You are now set to enter the sleep zone! But how do you get there? Pick an activity (or multiple) such as reading, meditation, talking to a loved one, or journaling for the next hour. Avoid the TV, phone (yes, that means no Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Facebook…the list goes on), and anything work-related. Everyone is different, and some things that work for you may not work for someone else. That’s OK! For example, my ideal scenario is meditating and reading. About an hour before my target sleep time of 10 PM, I start with a guided meditation using the Head space app on my iPad. After meditating, I’ll read for 5 to 45 minutes. Sometimes, I find myself falling asleep only a few minutes after a long day of training or racing. While reading, I make sure to focus on the book and not alternative thoughts. My mind starts to relax, and before I know it, my eyes get heavy. At that point I know it’s time to fall asleep! Here are a few extra notes:
I know things aren’t always perfect, especially if you travel, have stress, or are burning the candle at both ends. All I can say is that your daily life will be much more productive with proper sleep. You’ll surprise yourself with the amount of work or chores you can accomplish in a short time when your mind and body are functioning at full capacity! Sleep is a crucial component of a happy, healthy life. Plus, it helps your memory! Your body requires rest to recover and rebuild. It enables you to regain the strength and stamina needed to approach each day with confidence and vigour to achieve your maximum potential. Lawson Aschenbach is a seven-time professional sports car racing champion. He started racing karts at the age of 8 and went on to win state, national, North American, and four Grand National Championships. In 2005, he finished on the podium in his first sports car race and then burst out onto the scene in 2006, winning the SPEED World Challenge GT Championship in his rookie year. Aschenbach has over 35 professional race wins and currently competes in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and Pirelli World Challenge Series. Lawson Aschenbach is a paid consultant and guest writer for Metagenics. By Deanna Minich, PhD, CNS
What are you thinking right now?What were you thinking a few minutes ago? It wouldn’t be a surprise if you couldn’t remember your thoughts. You’re certainly not alone, as most of us are not aware of our thoughts, much less realize their profound impact on our health. It’s been said that we think something on the order of 50,000 thoughts every day and that most of those thoughts are recycled and negative.1 If we conceive of every thought being powerful enough to change our physiological function as we know from the well-established placebo and nocebo effects, then it would make sense to ensure that we sift through all the mental information that we are feeding ourselves every day, right? Yet, most of us just let thoughts waft in and out without any discretion. For some of us, we might be up to speed on food and food labels, but we aren’t as diligent about “reading our thoughts.” Similarly, just like eating poor-quality food can lead to unwanted health impacts, so too can thinking poor-quality thoughts take us down a path of possible inflammation and stress, ultimately leading to potential imbalance and illness. Here’s what the studies tell us about the science of thinking on our health:
References
About Deanna MinichGuest blogger Dr. Deanna Minich is an internationally recognized health expert and author with more than 20 years of experience in nutrition, mind-body health, and functional medicine. Dr. Minich holds Master’s and Doctorate degrees in nutrition and has lectured extensively throughout the world on health topics, teaching patients and health professionals about nutrition. She is a Fellow of the American College of Nutrition, a Certified Nutrition Specialist, and a Certified Functional Medicine Practitioner. Currently, Dr. Minich teaches for the Institute for Functional Medicine and for the graduate program in functional medicine at the University of Western States. Her passion is bringing forth a colorful, whole-self approach to nourishment called Whole Detox and bridging the gaps between science, soul, and art in medicine. View all posts by Deanna Minich → If someone asked what image comes to mind when you hear the word “meditation,” do you picture an exotic scene with monks in saffron robes, sitting silently within temple walls, eyes closed, and faces serene? Although meditation remains a vital part of many cultures’ religious and spiritual practices, here in the West meditation has recently become, for the most part, separated from its roots and embraced as a stand-alone “mind technology” used to achieve better health, both physical and emotional.
Although it’s difficult to know exactly how many people practice meditation on a regular basis, according to a 2012 survey done by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Health, some 18 million U.S. adults practiced meditation in some form, including “…Mantra meditation, Mindfulness meditation, Spiritual meditation, and meditation used as a part of other practices (including yoga, tai chi, and qi gong).”1 A major reason for meditation’s wide acceptance here in North America was the Dalai Lama’s longstanding cooperation with Dr. Richie Davidson, a neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who met the Dalai Lama in 1992 and who has conducted scores of scientific studies on Buddhist monks who were experienced meditators. Some of Dr. Davidson’s early research involved flying monks in from Tibet and Nepal to the university, where they underwent various brain scans and other tests while they were meditating. Dr. Davidson has been interviewed many times about his research, and he never fails to express his amazement at his team’s findings: Experienced meditators could produce long, sustained bursts of gamma wave brain activity, many times at will. These findings had never been seen in an untrained mind and were so unexpected that at first the scientists thought their equipment had malfunctioned! Once these findings were made public, the doors were wide open for other researchers to look at meditation’s possible benefits on human health. Since then, numerous studies have been done documenting meditation’s beneficial effects on everything from sleep to stress reduction. Many of these studies have used mindfulness, a form of meditation that has become very popular here in the West. The method is deceptively simple: Step 1: Take a seatSit in a chair, on a meditation cushion, or even on a park bench. Just make sure you are comfortable. If you are in a chair or on a bench, keep both feet flat on the floor or ground. If you are sitting on a meditation cushion, cross your legs comfortably in front of you. Straighten your upper body so you’re not slouching, but don’t become unnaturally stiff. Let your hands rest on top of your thighs. Allow your gaze to drift downward. You don’t have to close your eyes, but if you want to, that’s okay too. Step 2: Bring your attention to your breathingSimply observe your breathing, the way the air moves through your nose and down into your lungs and then back out as you exhale, the rhythmic rise and fall of your chest or belly. There is no need to try to stop or control your thoughts. You couldn’t, even if you wanted to! Step 3: Refocus your mindWhen your mind wanders away from your breathing, as it invariably will, gently bring it back and refocus your attention on your breath. No matter how often this happens, just be with it. Don’t fight it or get mad at yourself. It’s all part of the process. You are not doing anything wrong! Step 4: Pay attentionWhen you are ready, lift your gaze or open your eyes if you had them closed. Take a moment to notice any sounds, then notice how your body feels and any thoughts or emotions you are experiencing. That’s all there is to it! The practice itself is very simple. It’s doing it consistently that is the work. And it’s this consistent practice where you will see results. When you are first beginning, it’s probably best to meditate for only a few minutes and then gradually work your way up to 45 minutes to an hour. So now that you know how to get started with mindfulness meditation practice, let’s look at five of the most powerful, scientifically supported benefits you can get from incorporating this practice into your daily life: 1. Meditation can enhance your immune system.A short-duration mindfulness practice of only eight weeks done in an office setting can significantly enhance your immune functioning. The subjects in this 2003 study in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine not only had an increase in immune functioning, but also had changes in their brains associated with positive emotions.2 2. Meditation can help ease physical pain.The number of people suffering from chronic painful conditions is staggering. More than 100 million Americans are reported to have chronic pain, and the usual methods of treatment have their own set of problems. Research shows that mindfulness meditation helps relieve pain.3 Plus, meditation, while pleasant, is nonaddictive! 3. Meditation can increase the grey matter in your brain.This is one instance where going grey is a good thing! Research published in 2005 in the journal Neuroreport showed that regular meditation resulted in thickening in areas of the brain associated with sensory, cognitive, and emotional processing.4 4. Meditation can help you age gracefully.Telomeres are molecular structures located at the end of your chromosomes and are involved in the replication of your DNA as well as insuring the stability of your chromosomes. As you age, your telomeres shorten. This shortening can serve as an early indicator of several age-related diseases. Stress, poor diet, smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, and other factors can serve to shorten your telomeres. Conversely, it has been suggested that a healthy diet, not smoking, and physical exercise can maintain or even increase telomere length. A 2016 study from the journal Mindfulness reviews the evidence that meditation leads to longer telomere length and also serves to strengthen this evidence by comparing the telomere length of experienced meditators to healthy controls who had never meditated. The meditators had significantly longer telomeres than the controls.5 5. Meditation may help ease depression and anxiety and help reduce stress.A 2014 meta-review article in JAMA Internal Medicine concluded that “…evidence suggests that mindfulness meditation programs could help reduce anxiety, depression, and pain in some clinical populations.”6 They recommended that physicians and other clinicians be prepared to speak with their patients about how a meditation program could help to relieve their psychological stress. There is abundant evidence showing scientific evidence for the health benefits, both physical and emotional, of a regular meditation practice. Almost anyone can do mindfulness meditation, as it requires no special equipment, doesn’t require any particular religious or spiritual orientation, and is simple to do. So take your seat and begin! References:
We all experience stress from time to time. The release of stress hormones, including adrenaline and cortisol, helps you cope with immediate challenges. But when your level of stress becomes chronic or goes beyond what your body can handle, it can compromise your physical, emotional, and mental health—which can make it even harder for you to cope with future stress and stressors.
Did you know you can control how your body reacts to friendly and not-so-friendly stressors? Finding quick and effective “tension tamers” that turn off the alarm response and turn on the relaxation response helps your body return to normal functioning following a stressful event. Try several of these techniques and find out what works best for you in times of stress. You’ll feel calmer within minutes!
You don’t have to make big changes in your life to reduce your stress level. Just lessen the impact that stressful occurrences can have on you. These quick and simple tips make it easy for you to change your response to stressors and live a more positive, fulfilling life. For more help with living a lower-stress lifestyle, talk to your healthcare practitioner. If modern life’s got you feeling frantic, you’re not alone. These days, it seems most of us are living in an almost constant state of ‘on,’ pulled in too many directions at once, pressured from all sides, over-tethered to tech and perpetually behind the eight-ball. Amidst the daily chaos, it can be mind-bogglingly challenging to find the respite that your brain and body so desperately need.
While a vacation by the sea or to the mountains always helps, in between getaways, it’s essential to find other ways to unwind your hyped-up mind, relax your too tense body, and feel more peaceful. How to do that without booking a trip to paradise? In a word: meditation. Yes, I know, you say you’ll get around to it when you’re less stressed, when the kids graduate college, when the cows come home, yada, yada, yada. But now, actually, when you’re in the middle of the “Stress-nado,” is as good a time as any to start (or re-start) your meditation practice. Not only is meditation an always-accessible, drug-free stress-buster, you’ll also be gifting your heart, brain and gut with system-wide health benefits no prescription drug can touch. Here are a few ideas to inspire your meditation practice and how to get started: Make meditation your emotional medication. Meditation cultivates adaptability and resilience and reduces reactivity. A steady practice can help you manage strong emotions and ride the choppy waves of life, be they in the form of an angry teenager, a demanding boss, bumper-to-bumper traffic, or just about anything in between. A regular meditation practice helps create a solid, more chilled-out foundation from which you can never be fully rocked. When you start the day from a calmer place, you’ll be less likely to fly off the handle when life triggers you – and that’s good news for everyone in your life. Think of it this way: meditation is medication without a single downside. Meditation will help keep your brain healthier, longer. Meditation also delivers plenty of physiological benefit too. This practice has a remarkably positive influence on keeping chromosomes young; helping to improve focus, attention, memory, processing speed, and creativity; and it may even slow brain aging, counteracting the age-related atrophy that can lead to cognitive decline and conditions like dementia. So, no more excuses, eh? Meditation will take the edge off anxiety and high blood pressure. Meditating is also linked to decreased blood pressure and reduced stress and anxiety, which is why a daily practice “primes the pump” for getting a good night’s sleep. You’ll help trigger the release of feel-good endorphins that boost mood, help curb anxiety and tame pain. You’ll also reduce stroke and heart disease risk. Best of all, you don’t need to retreat to a hut in Nepal to reap the enormous benefits of the practice. Regular sitting for as little as ten minutes a day can have positive effects. With practice, as your sessions grow longer, to 20 or 30 minutes or more, all those physiological and psychological benefits will to! Get into the groove – with as much assistance as you need. As for learning how to meditate, there are many options available. There are numerous books by established teachers and plenty of YouTube demos – all of which are great for getting your toes wet. But frankly, nothing beats working directly with a live instructor, in real time. Building a relationship with a teacher will help you develop and maintain a lifelong practice, and help keep you engaged and accountable through the peaks and valleys. Remember, meditation is a practice – the more you meditate, the better you’ll get at it, so be patient with yourself and keep practicing. For extra support between sessions with your teacher, you can also incorporate an app into your practice. Among them: Calm; The Mindfulness App; OMG! I Can Meditate! and Stop, Breathe & Think and Smiling Mind to name a few. Give brain and body a vacation, any time you need to. When you think meditation, images of ancient holy men in the Lotus position may come to mind. That, understandably, may not exactly be your speed. Feel free to sit with feet folded over your thighs if you like, but you can just as easily settle into a comfortable chair or meditate while standing, walking or lying down. Just shut your eyes (or keep them open, if you prefer) and focus on your breathing for a few moments and that will do the trick. The goal is to to put the brakes on your over-revved system and literally just breathe. You have the time. Seriously. You do. I know you’re probably saying, “But doc, there aren’t enough hours in the day!’ and yes, that’s true to a point. But I’m not asking you to put in hours every day. If you do, bravo! For everyone else, it’s about being creative with your time, and committing to a program that fits into the small slivers of time you do have, right now. Down the road, as your practice grows, you can make more time for meditation if you choose. But to begin, feel free to start small with these tips: 1. At the start or end of your day, trade 10 minutes of time-sucking social media, video games or TV for 10 minutes of meditation. 2. Two to three mornings a week, get up a few minutes earlier to meditate upon rising, before the rest of the family wakes up. 3. Meditate in the car before or after the drive, instead of listening to the news or making calls. 4. On the commuter train, put on a pair of noise canceling headphones, and meditate instead of reading email or the headlines. 5. At lunchtime, pop into a local house of worship and enjoy the silence while you meditate. 6. ‘Book a cushion’ at a drop-in meditation studio like MNDFL, for a 30-minute group lunchtime session. For the one out of six Americans sleeping less than seven hours per night, a sleep debt may feel “normal.”1 But, similar to a financial debt, the real cost may not be immediately apparent and can be damaging with time.
Sleep debt is costly for your body, even a few nights of insufficient sleep can leave you sleepy, with slower reaction times, foggy thinking, overall decreased performance, and, perhaps, a less than sunny disposition. Less noticeable is the disruption that may happen silently inside of our body: The effects of long-term sleep deprivation can possibly lead to negative health consequences. Weekend catch-up sleep: does it work? Extra weekend shut-eye is a coveted treasure for the sleep-deprived. While we know it makes us feel better, can those extra hours of sleep reverse the health risks of a sleep-poor Monday-Friday? Catch-up sleep and weight gain Studies have found a consistent link between sleep deficiency and weight gain—even over a very short time frame.2 In fact, when it comes to weight, every hour of sleep counts—not only for weight gain but also preventing it. In a study of over 2,000 participants, those who slept longer on the weekends, nearly two hours longer on average, had a significantly lower body mass index (BMI) than those who didn’t. Further, every extra hour of weekend catch-up sleep was associated with a significantly lower body mass.3 Strategies to help you get—and stay—out of sleep debt, so short-term, catch-up sleep can be helpful for paying back your sleep debt. But it shouldn’t be your only strategy. In addition to eliminating lifestyle-related sleep issues (over scheduling, limiting caffeine and electronics before bed, room temperature and darkness, etc.), you may want to consider dietary supplements that help support relaxation and healthy sleep.* Some ingredients that can help support rest and relaxation include:
There are a number of specialised formulas that contain the above ingredients which can help you relax and relieve occasional sleeplessness.* Talk to your healthcare practitioner to determine which options are best for your individual needs. *These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
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Certain persons, considered experts, may disagree with one or more of the foregoing statements, but the same are deemed, nevertheless, to be based on sound and reliable authority. No such statements shall be construed as a claim or representation as to Metagenics products, that they are offered for the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment or prevention of any disease. |