Do you go home being mentally exhausted but physically full of beans?
I know when I worked in IT I would often leave the office mentally very tired and depending upon how trying the day had been somtimes I was just mentally exhausted but often I was not physically tired. The simplest solution to this conundrum is to go down the gym and burn of the excess physical energy and going to the gym also helps to switch off from work. However there are times when we are injured or feeling run down when this is not possible, so then what can you do?
Recently I have seen a few people in clinic who are in this situation. This means they are stuggling to switch off from work and relax. So I wanted to share a few tips on how to handle this if it happens to you.
Depending upon the injury you can:
- Start taking the stairs at work – even if you can’t walk up all the flights of stairs for example if you are based on the top floor, you can walk up some flights and take the lift for the rest.
- Go swimming instead of going to the gym.
- Get of the train or tube one stop earlier and walk the rest of the way (this obviously depends upon your commute).
- Go for a walk in park or any type of greenery.
- A lot of museams in London have a late night opening, so why not go walk around a museam.
- If you have a garden, do some gardening.
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A light bulb moment
As someone who from time to time stuggles to digest wheat or more specifically gluten which in the past has created holes in my intestine walls (leaky gut syndrome), I was interested in a recent piece of research. Like a lot of people if I eat too much wheat or gluten then I start to bloat and get digestive issues. Researches have discovered that the reaction that some people have could be caused by fructans (the sugars in wheat, barley and rye). The researchers from Monash University (in Austrialia) suspected that the sugar cold be the real cuplrit because people with IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) still have some of the symptoms even after following a strict gluten free diet. In a 2013 research project, they noticed that the symptoms of people with gluten intolerance didn't change whether they ate food that was rich in gluten or not. They took 59 people with gluten intolerance and gaven them a different cereal bar to eat each week. Although the bars all looked the same, one contained gluten, another fructans and the third had neither ingreditant. The fructands bar increased bloating by 15% and gastrointestinal propblems by 13% and neither the gluten bar nor the one without either ingreditant had any effect. If frutans are the real problem then people with a gluten intollerance could use soy sauce as its low in sugars. While this research is interesting. For me its a bit of a light bulb moment. The reason is that I find that I can eat organic sourdough bread and I tollerate this much more. Organic sourdough bread has gluten but due to the backing process it sis very low in fructans. Reference http://www.gastrojournal.org/article/S0016-5085(17)36302-3/abstract
What helps fights colds? Part 1
Its that time of year when people tend to get colds, so I wanted to share some tips on natural ways to fight colds. Vitamin C The first thing I reach for when I feel I am run down or coming down with a cold is high dose Vitamin C. There is scientific evidence to suggest that taking vitamin C can shorten a cold by nearly 20%. Zinc One study showed that if kids take a zinc supplement they reduce the number of colds they get by 50%. If you take zinc when you start getting a cold it can help to shorten the duration of the cold. Pelargonium Sidoides An African herb is the key ingredient in Umcka ColdCare. Studies sho that this herbal remedy can help resolve coughs, especially chesty coughs and relieve sore throats. Salt For sore thoats, I normally gargle with salt water. Please be careful not to swollow it as it will make you vomit. I then make a tea, by adding hot water to a chunk (2 cms) of fresh ginger, a slice of lemon and tea spoon of honey. References Strohle, A., Hahn, A. 2009. Vitamin C and immune function. Med Monastsschr Pharm. Feb; 32(2):49-54. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19263912 Douglas RM, Hemilä H, Chalker E, Treacy B. Vitamin C for preventing and treating the common cold. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2007 Jul 18;(3):CD000980. Review. Update in: Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2013;1:CD000980 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17636648 Heydarian F, Behmanesh F, Daluee M, Kianifar H, Hematian M. The role of zinc sulfate in acute bronchiolitis in patients aged 2 to 23 months. Iran J Pediatr. 2011;21(2):231-4. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3446156/ Singh M, Das RR. Zinc for the common cold. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2013 Jun 18;(6):CD001364. Update in: Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2015;(4):CD001364 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23775705
How to live to 100
Here are some top tips on how to live to 100. These tips are from Dr Claudia Kawas at the University of California, on of the world's leading scientific researchers into longevity and scientists at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago and the scientists working on the Blue Zone project. Scientists studying lonevity are tyring to answer the question why doesn one person live until they are 94 while another dies at 75. Dr Claudia Kawas has spent 15 years studying "super-agers" - those who live until into their nineties and beyond while keeping their minds sharp. By studying the lifestyles of these "super-agers" scientists have discovered some common lifestyle habits and traits including:
- Drinking two cups of coffee a day
- Don't over eat
- Get out and socialise including talking to strangers
- Drink two glases of wine a day
- 15 mins of light exercise a day
- Positive thinking or optimistic outlook in life
- Resilience when bad things happen
- Having a purpose/ belief in life
- Put others including family first
- Be with the "right" people for you
- Healthy eating i.e. more plant based diets
