Green Living
Wellness Wednesday – Volume 2 – Week 9
Wellness Wednesday – Week 51
Wellness Wednesday – Week 41
Why Is Sleep Important?
Sleep plays a vital role in good health and well-being throughout your life. Getting enough quality sleep at the right times can help protect your mental health, physical health, quality of life, and safety.
The way you feel while you’re awake depends in part on what happens while you’re sleeping. During sleep, your body is working to support healthy brain function and maintain your physical health. In children and teens, sleep also helps support growth and development.
The damage from sleep deficiency can occur in an instant (such as a car crash), or it can harm you over time. For example, ongoing sleep deficiency can raise your risk for some chronic health problems. It also can affect how well you think, react, work, learn, and get along with others.
Healthy Brain Function and Emotional Well-Being
Sleep helps your brain work properly. While you’re sleeping, your brain is preparing for the next day. It’s forming new pathways to help you learn and remember information.
Studies show that a good night’s sleep improves learning. Whether you’re learning math, how to play the piano, how to perfect your golf swing, or how to drive a car, sleep helps enhance your learning and problem-solving skills. Sleep also helps you pay attention, make decisions, and be creative.
Studies also show that sleep deficiency alters activity in some parts of the brain. If you’re sleep deficient, you may have trouble making decisions, solving problems, controlling your emotions and behavior, and coping with change. Sleep deficiency also has been linked to depression, suicide, and risk-taking behavior.
Children and teens who are sleep deficient may have problems getting along with others. They may feel angry and impulsive, have mood swings, feel sad or depressed, or lack motivation. They also may have problems paying attention, and they may get lower grades and feel stressed.
Physical Health
Sleep plays an important role in your physical health. For example, sleep is involved in healing and repair of your heart and blood vessels. Ongoing sleep deficiency is linked to an increased risk of heart disease, kidney disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and stroke.
Sleep deficiency also increases the risk of obesity. For example, one study of teenagers showed that with each hour of sleep lost, the odds of becoming obese went up. Sleep deficiency increases the risk of obesity in other age groups as well.
Sleep helps maintain a healthy balance of the hormones that make you feel hungry (ghrelin) or full (leptin). When you don’t get enough sleep, your level of ghrelin goes up and your level of leptin goes down. This makes you feel hungrier than when you’re well-rested.
Sleep also affects how your body reacts to insulin, the hormone that controls your blood glucose (sugar) level. Sleep deficiency results in a higher than normal blood sugar level, which may increase your risk for diabetes.
Sleep also supports healthy growth and development. Deep sleep triggers the body to release the hormone that promotes normal growth in children and teens. This hormone also boosts muscle mass and helps repair cells and tissues in children, teens, and adults. Sleep also plays a role in puberty and fertility.
Your immune system relies on sleep to stay healthy. This system defends your body against foreign or harmful substances. Ongoing sleep deficiency can change the way in which your immune system responds. For example, if you’re sleep deficient, you may have trouble fighting common infections.
Daytime Performance and Safety
Getting enough quality sleep at the right times helps you function well throughout the day. People who are sleep deficient are less productive at work and school. They take longer to finish tasks, have a slower reaction time, and make more mistakes.
After several nights of losing sleep—even a loss of just 1–2 hours per night—your ability to function suffers as if you haven’t slept at all for a day or two.
Lack of sleep also may lead to microsleep. Microsleep refers to brief moments of sleep that occur when you’re normally awake.
You can’t control microsleep, and you might not be aware of it. For example, have you ever driven somewhere and then not remembered part of the trip? If so, you may have experienced microsleep.
Even if you’re not driving, microsleep can affect how you function. If you’re listening to a lecture, for example, you might miss some of the information or feel like you don’t understand the point. In reality, though, you may have slept through part of the lecture and not been aware of it.
Some people aren’t aware of the risks of sleep deficiency. In fact, they may not even realize that they’re sleep deficient. Even with limited or poor-quality sleep, they may still think that they can function well.
For example, drowsy drivers may feel capable of driving. Yet, studies show that sleep deficiency harms your driving ability as much as, or more than, being drunk. It’s estimated that driver sleepiness is a factor in about 100,000 car accidents each year, resulting in about 1,500 deaths.
Drivers aren’t the only ones affected by sleep deficiency. It can affect people in all lines of work, including health care workers, pilots, students, lawyers, mechanics, and assembly line workers.
As a result, sleep deficiency is not only harmful on a personal level, but it also can cause large-scale damage. For example, sleep deficiency has played a role in human errors linked to tragic accidents, such as nuclear reactor meltdowns, grounding of large ships, and aviation accidents.
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/sdd/why
Wellness Wednesday – Week 34
Cold, Flu, or Allergy?
Know the Difference for Best Treatment
You’re feeling pretty lousy. You’ve got sniffles, sneezing, and a sore throat. Is it a cold, flu, or allergies? It can be hard to tell them apart because they share so many symptoms. But understanding the differences will help you choose the best treatment.
“If you know what you have, you won’t take medications that you don’t need, that aren’t effective, or that might even make your symptoms worse,” says NIH’s Dr. Teresa Hauguel, an expert on infectious diseases that
affect breathing.
Cold, flu, and allergy all affect your respiratory system, which can make it hard to breathe. Each condition has key symptoms that set them apart.
Colds and flu are caused by different viruses. “As a rule of thumb, the symptoms associated with the flu are more severe,” says Hauguel. Both illnesses can lead to a runny, stuffy nose; congestion; cough; and sore throat. But the flu can also cause high fever that lasts for 3-4 days, along with a headache, fatigue, and general aches and pain. These symptoms are less common when you have a cold.
“Allergies are a little different, because they aren’t caused by a virus,” Hauguel explains. “Instead, it’s your body’s immune system reacting to a trigger, or allergen, which is something you’re allergic to.” If you have allergies and breathe in things like pollen or pet dander, the immune cells in your nose and airways may overreact to these harmless substances. Your delicate respiratory tissues may then swell, and your nose may become stuffed up or runny.
“Allergies can also cause itchy, watery eyes, which you don’t normally have with a cold or flu,” Hauguel adds.
Allergy symptoms usually last as long as you’re exposed to the allergen, which may be about 6 weeks during pollen seasons in the spring, summer, or fall. Colds and flu rarely last beyond 2 weeks.
Most people with a cold or flu recover on their own without medical care. But check with a health care provider if symptoms last beyond 10 days or if symptoms aren’t relieved by over-the-counter medicines. For more about when to see a doctor, go to CDC’s Flu Page .
To treat colds or flu, get plenty of rest and drink lots of fluids. If you have the flu, pain relievers such as aspirin, acetaminophen, or ibuprofen can reduce fever or aches. Allergies can be treated with antihistamines or decongestants. See the “Wise Choices” box for more details.
Be careful to avoid “drug overlap” when taking medicines that list 2 or more active ingredients on the label. For example, if you take 2 different drugs that contain acetaminophen—one for a stuffy nose and the other for headache—you may be getting too much acetaminophen.
“Read medicine labels carefully—the warnings, side effects, dosages. If you have questions, talk to your doctor or pharmacist, especially if you have children who are sick,” Hauguel says. “You don’t want to overmedicate, and you don’t want to risk taking a medication that may interact with another.”
Wellness Wednesday – Week 17
Learn About the Safer Choice Label
EPA-Environmental Protection Agency reports a new label:
Time for Spring Cleaning? Check out the new label for environmental safety factors for you, your home, and family.
LOOK FOR THE SAFER CHOICE LABEL.
Finding cleaning and other products that are safer for you, your family, and the environment should be easy — that’s why the EPA developed a new “Safer Choice” label. All of us play a role in protecting our families’ health and the environment. Products with the Safer Choice label help consumers and commercial buyers identify and select products with safer chemical ingredients, without sacrificing quality or performance.
More than 2,000 products currently qualify to carry the Safer Choice label. Safer Choice products are available for your home at retail stores and for use in businesses like schools, hotels, offices, and sports venues.
For more information on products available go to : http://www2.epa.gov/saferchoice
Wellness Wednesday – Week 12
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends the following physical activity guidelines for adults:
Participate in moderate-intensity cardio physical activity on 3-5 days for a minimum of 150 minutes each week…
Or
Participate in vigorous-intensity cardio physical activity on 3-5 days for a minimum of 75 minutes each week…
And
Perform 8-10 strength-training exercises, 8-12 repetitions of each exercise twice each week.
Understanding and using the recommendation:
- Cardio or aerobic activity will help strengthen your heart and lungs, and manage weight.
- Moderate-intensity cardio activity means you are working hard enough to raise your heart rate, but are still able to talk while doing the activity. Examples of moderate-intensity activities are: walking, biking, swimming, and group aerobics.
- Vigorous-intensity cardio activity means you are breathing hard and fast, and your heart rate has gone up quite a bit. Examples of vigorous intensity activities are: jogging and swimming laps.
- Strength training helps to strengthen muscles and maintain lean muscle tissue. Examples of strength training activities are: lifting weights, using resistance bands, doing curl-ups and push-ups.
- Check with your health care provider before you begin a moderate-intensity physical activity program.
- Choose activities that you will enjoy.
- Begin slowly and set a realistic goal – “I will take a 10-minute walk during lunch on 3 days each week.”
- Record and reward your progress.
- Get support from family and friends.
- Plan for problems – have an indoor activity plan for bad weather days
ACTIVITY PYRAMID
Wellness Wednesday – Week 11
You may think it’s contrary to your goals to put more calories into your system when you’re sweating it out to burn them off, but exercise is the time your body most needs fuel. Trying to exercise without energy in your system is like trying to coax your car to run when it’s out of gas; you may be able to coast a bit (if you are faced downhill), but you certainly won’t get any power. If you deprive your body of the nutrients it needs to repair and refuel post-workout, you may find that your body does not perform the way you want it the next time you head to the gym. Although some exceptions exist, you are best off eating a healthy snack before and after your workout in order to lose weight.
Before a workout – a real sweat-inducing workout that lasts 45 minutes or longer, not a 20-minute stroll around the block – you need energy, preferably in the form of carbohydrates to get you moving. Carbs are the primary fuel source for the body. Without them, your body doesn’t suddenly start burning a whole lot of fat; instead, it turns to burning lean muscle. A meta analysis published in the “Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research” in February 2011 examined multiple studies on the topic of exercising in a unfed state. The analysis concluded that you will burn about the same amount of fat whether you eat before or after exercising. However, if you don’t eat, your body is more likely to burn muscle in addition to fat, and your intensity and total calorie burn will reduced. Regularly burning off muscle can lower your metabolism and make it harder to lose weight. Having a snack doesn’t have to be huge – 100 to 200 calories will do. Aim for food that is mostly carbohydrates with a little high-quality protein, especially if you plan to do cardio. Some examples are half of a whole-wheat bagel topped with a tablespoon of peanut butter; a banana with some low-fat yogurt; or a few almonds and an apple.
For more information on this article, visit: http://www.livestrong.com/article/399834-is-it-better-to-eat-before-or-after-a-workout-to-lose-weight/
How many calories does physical activity use?
A 154-pound man (5′ 10″) will use up about the number of calories listed doing each activity below. Those who weigh more will use more calories, and those who weigh less will use fewer. The calorie values listed include both calories used by the activity and the calories used for normal body functioning.
Wellness Wednesday – Week 3
Green your Environment (information courtesy of Alpha Botanical, Inc.)
Do you know that NASA research proves that houseplants remove toxins from the air? It is known by some that Indoor Plants are our greatest weapon against indoor pollutants. Plants remove harmful gases from the air you breathe and make your office visually appealing.
To clean the air in your office, NASA studies recommend having one plant for every 100 square feet of space. One plant that may work well in your office is Cat Palm, which needs low light and temperatures between 62-80 degrees. Another plant you may like is the Split-Leaf Philodendron, which requires medium light and ideal temperature about 62-80 degrees.
Alpha Botanical’s goals are to:
• Educate on the best way to care for house plants
• Reduce the fear that comes with trying to keep plants alive
• Educate on the best way to fight against Sick Building Syndrome (SBS)
• Help you create a better environment for yourself and your family.
Visit www.alphabotanical.com for more plants to choose from and more information about cleaning the air in your office!
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