Stop Cell Damage and Improve Skin Health

 

I need you to stop what you are doing RIGHT NOW and go find some dark chocolate, it could save your life!

            Okay, maybe that was a *little* dramatic. But without antioxidants to protect your body from oxidation, free radicals are free to destroy cells, aid in the aging process (in a very negative way) and can play a big part in cancer and diseases developing! And where do you find these lifesaving, skin aiding antioxidants? Dark chocolate! Okay and some other places, but let’s focus on the positive here.

            But let’s break it down a little further as to what we are actually talking about here- what are antioxidants, free radicals and oxidation and why is one vitally important and the other two we want to avoid?

            Antioxidants are literally just “substances that can prevent or slow damage to cells caused by free radicals” and “is not really the name of a substance, but rather it describes what a range of substances can do” according to Medical News Today.

            Antioxidants can be found in Vitamins A, C, and E; dark chocolate; (please note here very specifically the dark in dark chocolate- the higher the cocoa count, the better the chocolate is for you overall and the higher the antioxidant count. Milk and white chocolate don’t make the cut here…) most of your berries- cranberries, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, etc.; and your very vibrantly colored veggies- kale, beets, spinach; and let’s not forget your beans. Your body does not produce many antioxidants on its own and it reliant upon outside sources to help it along in fight these free radicals. 

Peppermint is a wonderful antioxidant with many health benefits - Learn More

 

            Now, what is oxidation and why are free radicals so bad? Let’s look back to the Medical News Today article which states: “Free radicals are waste substances produced by cells as the body processes food and reacts to the environment. If the body cannot process and remove free radicals efficiently, oxidative stress can result. This can harm cells and body function. Free radicals are also known as reactive oxygen species (ROS).”

            However, free radicals are not always bad. When there is an even ratio of free radicals to antioxidants, these free radicals can help ward off pathogens and actually protect the body. But when they are too many free radicals, which are unbalanced electrons, they can go around the body and link to other molecules, in turn, causing long-chains in the body. This creates oxidative stress. (If you are confused by this, please do not feel alone as this is quite unwieldy to try and break down.)

            Free radicals attack the fatty tissue, make you age faster, and can cause damage to the DNA of your cells. So. Eat your antioxidants, cranberries today can save you from premature wrinkles. Oh, and a plethora of other diseases and cancers! 

 

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The Health Benefits Of Fruit

 

Bananas, Apples, Mangos, Starfruit, Strawberries, Cherries, Peaches, Plums and Pears- the list of options goes on and on, which is fantastic, because it’s fruit week! Despite most of us no longer being seafarers and having to worry about contracting scurvy due to our lack of Vitamin C, this does not negate the absolute importance of including plenty of fruits into your diet.

                Fruit has so many benefits for your body. They are high in vitamins and water, gives you a healthy energy spike from the sugar, and it’s fantastic for your skin thanks to all the antioxidants. Now people always say “fruit is good for you” but then we don’t and why not? I really feel it boils down to what you are choosing to eat that will either be an incentive for you to eat more or a deterrent to not be coming back to your fruit bowl. Before the price tag makes you high tail it in another direction, remember: the money you spend now investing in your health is money, time and sickness you won’t have to pay in the future and will do you wonders in terms of your health.

Take the time to try out a whole bunch of different fruits. You may not like apples but find you love pomegranates. Although you are getting different benefits from each different type, you will not be losing out by incorporating more into your diet. Turns out, I hate bananas, the texture and smell are too much for me to handle. But I LOVE peaches, I could eat a peach a day and still want more peaches. Diet Health Club did a study and as it turns out, peaches are good for lowering cholesterol, rejuvenating skin tissue, treating infectious disease and helping remove excess fat layers. Buying bananas is a waste of money for me, but peaches make my skin glow.             

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                Because each type of fruit has different nutrients, every time you eat a piece of fruit, you are doing your body a service. Mangoes and cranberries are rich in antioxidant which fight free radicals. Raspberries and apples provide your belly with lots of fiber to help aid your digestion. Oranges, papaya, and kiwi are all high in Vitamin C and indulging in grapefruits gives your body amazing detoxifying results. And let’s not forget low grade chronic inflammation we have discussed ad nauseam by now: Cherries, avocados and blueberries can all fight inflammation.

                The great thing about fruit too, is you can eat it raw, in a smoothie, or canned from last seasons harvest. The most important thing to look out for however, if you are not eating it raw, is that sugar content in anything you buy. The sugars found in fruit are easily and quickly processed by your body. But processed sugars such as high fructose corn syrup or sucrose you body DOES NOT assimilate the same way as they have been treated with preservatives and have been processed. Taking something healthy then adding sugar to it just leaves your body with a jumble to process through and skyrockets your blood sugar and insulin levels. Better to just avoid any added sugars.

                Due to this sugar content, fruit is a healthy way to get an energy boost as it raises your blood sugar level to give you the energy but won’t give you the same crash which say, coffee, will do. If you’re in need of a little pick me up. As we’re speaking, pear juice is running down my arm, as that is today’s choice for a little boost.

                Please keep in mind, as much as we would all love apple pie or peach cobbler; as far as counting them as adding more fruit to our diets, it sadly does not count…  

 

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More Energy With Better Sleep

This week, I’ve got some very exciting homework for you- GET SOME SLEEP! As reported by the American Sleep Apnea Association “More than 50 million Americans already suffer from over 80 different sleep disorders and another 20 to 30 million suffer intermittent sleep problems each year.” They also state that “25% of U.S. adults reporting insufficient sleep or rest at least 15 out of every 30 days.”

            Dr. Tracy Marks, with Marks Psychiatry, defines chronic sleep loss as “having a loss of sleep, too much sleep or broken sleep for 4 or more nights per week for over one month’s period.” During sleep your brain not only gets to rest, but it gets to process all of your day’s events and heal and regenerate itself and the rest of your organs. Without sleep, however, not only can we become irritable and cranky, but it can also lead to immunity drop, weight gain, impaired memory, lowered sex drive, and lowered cognition abilities (think slower reflexes). When we aren’t getting enough sleep, it dramatically affects us past just being drowsy - our entire health is at risk of becoming compromised.

            How many nights a week do you find yourself on your phone, scrolling through emails and checking social media or binge watching another episode of your favorite show? Or come evening time we are sitting at dinner with loved ones, but or mind is off in a thousand places rehashing our day, making a mental list of what we have to accomplish tomorrow and all the places the kids need to be and in turn. Very few of us really allow our brains downtime to just sit and relax throughout the night before drifting off to sleep. The constant activity mixed with the blue lights from our screens effectively knocks our circadian rhythm completely out of whack.

Before we continue, let’s define a couple of terms we hear often, but without explanation, to pin-point their correlation to sleep and their importance.

Melatonin- This is the hormone correlated with the circadian rhythm, when it gets dark, your body should naturally start releasing melatonin to help us wind down then go to sleep.

What is our circadian rhythm? Basically, it’s the internal clock we all have that wakes us up in the mornings and lets us drift off to sleep at night. When this gets messed up, our ability to go to sleep then stay away during the day is thrown off-kilter.

How does blue light (specifically from screens) affect our sleep? The blue light that we absorb tricks our body into believing that it is daylight and to stay awake. In turn, this alters our bodies melatonin response.

Dr. Andrew Huberman, neuroscientist at Stanford, released The Other Pandemic (and a Real Solution): Light, Optic Flow & Health (a video on Instagram) going into detail describing our internal mechanisms and why we need to be conscientious about what times of day we are getting light. 

Huberman says that how we interact with light both in the morning and evening are vital to pay attention to. We need to be getting lots of light in the day and none at night, as we are NOT nocturnal beings. He articulates further that viewing natural light early in the morning around sunrise sends a trigger to the melanopsin cells in the brain, these detect visible light then send a message to the body clock (aka suprachiasmatic nucleus) that it’s time to get going. Huberman suggests we get 2-10 minutes of light directly from the sun in the mornings. (Please note, this is not saying to look directly at the sun, just get its light.)  

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A lot of research has shown that not sleeping at night can lead to weight gain, but why is that? Huberman says it equally as important however, is to NOT GET BRIGHT LIGHT at night from screens, especially from 10 or 11pm-4am, as this triggers a prodepressive circuit which in turn throws off blood sugar regulation. To answer the earlier question: seeing light increases our cortisol levels, which is our body’s stress hormone, which is a good thing in the morning. But, when our cortisol levels spike, our blood sugar levels also rise. If we are looking at these blue lights throughout the night, we are triggering that cortisol response excessively it can lead to Cushing syndrome. This can in turn leads to weight gain and diabetes since we have so much extra and unnecessary glucose running through our blood.  

Some natural ways to help sleep maybe come a little easier, would be to try Ashwagandha, Hops, Chamomile, or Valerian. (Which can be taken as supplements or drank in tea.) Another way to help aid sleep is to take Calcium and Magnesium as calcium works with tryptophan to create melatonin and magnesium helps lowers cortisol levels!

Sleepless nights are no fun, and if you’re anything like me, can lead to you being an awfully cranky individual the next day. But even further than just being ill tempered, a lack of sleep can spur many other long-term health effects. So if you are having sleeping troubles, it would behoove you to seek further sleep aid, and please reach out to a specialist!

 

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