14 Tips for a Good Nights Sleep

Proper sleep allows our body to heal and process all the information from our day. Depression, aggression, poor concentration and poor immunity are common side effects of not getting enough sleep. I discovered a lot of these when my first son Bodhi was born. Here he is looking about as angelic as you could get.... little bugger.

So here are my 14 tips to getting a good night sleep.

1. Make sure your bedroom is dark. Any light in the room will inhibit your pineal gland from producing melatonin, the hormone which leads to sleep.
2. No TV or other stimulating activities (eg a good suspense novel) before bed and definitely get the TV out of the bedroom. (hmm..... the effects of TV and how to combat them should be another topic, I'll put it on the list)
3. You know those nights you lay there thinking about something important (or not so) and it just goes round and round your head and won't let you sleep. Journaling is really helpful here. Let the thoughts in and write them done.Keep the room cooler.
4. A drop in temperature is another signal our body uses to indicate sleep time. Many people have their beds and bedrooms far to hot for a good nights sleep. And while I'm thinking about don't leave the electric heater on while you're sleeping on it. I don't want to be part of a "effects of electromagnetic fields during sleep" study, do you? You might want socks to keep your feet warm though.
5. No caffeine before in the afternoon. Obviously this will keep you awake and in some people the effects can be long lasting.
6. Watch what and when you eat. Overeating and eating certain foods late at night will keep you up. Dairy and wheat are common causes. (Pizza late at night does it for me.)
7. 30 minutes of exercise per day will help you sleep better at night. Don't exercise just before bed though.
8. Have a regular bed time routine, it might include, brushing your teeth, reading, a bath/shower, some gentle stretches or prayer/meditation. Going to the toilet right before bed with reduce your chances of having to go in the middle of the night. The bath will also raise your body temperature so that when it falls you are more likely to fall sleep.
9. Go to bed earlier and at the same time to help you body establish and maintain a regular sleep clock. Hopefully you are asleep by 10pm. Wake up and get ut of bed at the same time too. You may not be able to control when you fall asleep but you can definitely decide when you get up.
10. Bed is for sleep and nothing else. you don't want to subconsciously attach your bed with reading, midnight snacks or watching tv for instance.
11. Lose weight. Being overweight increases your chances of sleep apnoea.
12. Lavendar essential oil is awesome at helping relax you off to sleep. You could put some drops on a tissue on you pillow, rub some into you hands and checks, have it in a oil burner (preferably electric one, we don't want to burn the house down in your sleep), or put some in your bath.
13. Listen to some white noise or relaxation music. Our boys love their "sleepy music" at bedtime.
14. Get rid of the bright noisy alarm clock. It's not a very nice way to wake up and the light will inhibit the pineal gland, plus it's not helpful if you are lying there watching the clock go from 1:00am to 4:00am. If you need something to wake you up at a required time find a gentler alarm. I use my ipod which plays a gentle alarm. The other benefit is that it doesn't wake the boys. When they wake early my wife isn't happy and when my wife isn't happy .......

PS - there is one other activity you can use you bed for!

Immune Boosting Foods

Last week i wrote about the swine flu scare sweeping across our media and it appears that Australia has recorded its first confirmed case of the virus. It was inevitable, the best way to avoid it is by strengthening your own immune system, and it turns out that what we eat can either stimulate or depress our immune system, funny that hey? So as promised last week here is our list of Immune Boosting Foods

Fruits and vegetables

No brainer there, but the truth is Australians just don't eat enough of them. Fruits and Veges are full of Vitamin C , especially oranges, berries, red capsicum, parsley, broccoli and cabbage, which is eesential for wound healing and boosting the immune system. Vitamin C works as an antioxidant, mobilises your immune systems soldiers, your neutrophils and lymphocytes, and increases your production of interferon paralysing the virus or tumour cells. I know there is a lot of hype about vitamin C, but it really is that good!

Yellow and orange vegetables

Pumpkin, carrots sweet potato, apricots, and mangos also provide heaps of Vitamin A and Beta-Carotene, essential for scavenging free radicals and regulating you immune system.

Green Leafy Vegetables, avocados, wheat germ, whole oats, fruits and cold pressed olive oil

The leafy green vegetables are conidered superfoods, they are absolutely packed with nutrients, especially vitamin C and E, Beta carotene, iron, calcium, omega 3 oils and folic acid. Vitamin E seems work closely with Vitamin C in reducing free radicals and protects you heart and blood vessels from atherosclerosis.

Omega 3 Oils

Found in oily fish, flaxseed oil, soy and walnut oil, green leafy veges, seaweeds, nuts, seeds, legumes and wholegrain cereals, the omega 3 oils have a powerful anti-inflammatory effect an can alter the gene expression for things like your B cells and T cells, essential for your immune system.

Mushrooms

Especially shitake and maitake mushrooms help in the production of white blood cells, Green and Black Tea Green and black tea are good sources of polyphenols, another antioxidant.

Garlic

Garlic is awesome for your immune system. In addition to increasing your immune cell's potency, allicin the potent chemical in garlic and onions is antibacterial and antimicrobial. Apparently it's pretty good at warding of vampires too!

Some More Notes

• Add some cold pressed virgin olive oil to you salads, it will help you absorb more nutrients.
• Unfortunately although these founds are packed with these nutrients, cooking, heating, preserving, and just sitting on the shelf depletes the nutrient stores rapidly.For example 90% of vitamin C is lost when cooking and canning fruits and vegetables.
• Up to 25% more nutrients are found in organic foods compared to conventionally grown foods aswell.

The Swine Flu Pandemic/Scare

Welcome to our first Health & Wellness Weekly

I though we would start with the big health issue that is all over the news at the moment the Swine Flu Pandemic.

What is Swine Flu?

Swine flu is a contagious respiratory disease that usually affects pigs but can also occur in humans. It is caused by a variety of influenza A viruses. Pig to human transmission is very rare and usually only happens where the human has been working closely with infected pigs, for example farm workers and vets. When swine flu does infect humans it is usually very mild and often totally asymptomatic. The current strain of swine flu is called influenza A(H1N1) and is called swine flu because it contains some genetic material similar to other strains of swine flu. Currently the only confirmed cases of this swine flu in pigs has been in some Canadian pigs and it is thought they received it from a Mexican farm worker.

Symptoms of swine flu are usually milder than influenza infections and include:

• fever
  
• cough
  
• sore throat
  
• body aches
  
• headache
  
• chills
  
• and fatigue
  

So what is the current pandemic all about?

A new strain of influenza A virus was discovered on 14th April after a diabetic woman from mexico died. Since then the virus has spread to about twenty countries and there have been 42 confirmed deaths. Comparisons to the 1918 flu which killed 50 to 100 million people worldwide are incredibly exaggerated. The healthy young adults died from the 1918 flu due to a cytokine storm, an overactive immune system. Thats why young, ill and old people with weakened immune systems were spared. Despite some news reports saying so current swine flu isn't following that pattern at all. The first case was a diabetic woman, the 1st US case was a Mexican toddler and the 1st US citizen was a woman in her 30's with underlying health problems.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) and Centre for Disease Control (CDC) are concered about this pandemic because it's a new strain that we don't know much about which is transmitted human to human.

What can I do?

The Hitchhikers Guide the Galaxy has some pretty good advice on it's cover "Don't Panic". Fortunately swine flu is a very mild form of influenza in humans so the best advice is to follow common sense really. The flu virus is transmitted by coughing and sneezing or touching something with the virus on it and then touching your nose or mouth so washing your hands regularly with soap and water and maintain a strong immune system and healthy body by:

• make sure your spine is checked and adjusted regularly since a healthy immune system requires a healthy nervous system to coordinate all its actions.
  
• avoid sugar and processed foods and address your stress levels, which all weaken your immune system.
  
• get enough rest, if you are tired or run down then your immune system will have trouble fighting any virus', bacteria, or fungus' that come your way.
  
• eat lots of garlic, garlic works like a broadspectrum antibiotic and antiviral, expect that no resistance can be built up to it.
  
• avoid hospitals and toxic substances, hospitals are a breeding ground of all sorts of exotic bacteria and virus.
  

Next Week: Immune Boosting Foods

Do you know someone who would like this article? Feel free to pass it on.

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Dr Simon Porteous, Chiropractor
The Parade Chiropractic Centre
292 The Parade KENSINGTON SA 5068

phone: 08 8333 2715 www.paradechiropractic.com.au