Month: September 2022

Shift Work Sleep Deprivation: Why You Need To Ban The Snooze Button

As a sleep deprived shift worker, have you ever been tempted to grab an extra ten or fifteen minutes sleep by rolling over and hitting the snooze button on your alarm clock?

Now I want you to be honest with me here, because I’d say 99% of the shift working population are prone to the lure of the snooze button!

But did you know that the snooze button can actually make you feel even more tired?

Sound a little strange?

Well considering that most of us wake up feeling like we’ve had absolutely no sleep when we work shift work, the temptation to switch on the snooze button can become way too tempting. Because going without sleep for too long causes fatigue, drowsiness and can even lead to a decrease in alertness and lack of co-ordination.

In fact some people can even suffer from headaches and muscles pains, and become highly irritable when they don’t get enough sleep.

So what has this got to do with the snooze button on your alarm clock?

Well essentially the alarm interrupts your sleep cycle and your brain is then unable to complete its process of repair and rejuvenation. And if that’s not bad enough, when you go ahead and hit the snooze button, your brain enters another sleep cycle only to be interrupted again when the alarm clock goes off for a second time.

Now don’t get me wrong – in today’s busy world we can’t exactly throw away our alarm clocks and wake up to the sounds of chirping birds and sunlight streaming onto our face. Although this is a very attractive proposition as I’m sure you would agree.

The harsh reality is that shift workers need an alarm clock. Without it we would never make it into work on time – if at all!

But it’s important to realise that when your alarm clock goes off – you need to get up straight away. Shift work interferes with your sleep cycle – unquestionably, but hitting the snooze button will only make you feel even worse.

Of course if this is sounding way too hard, then try positioning your alarm clock away from your bed so that you actually have to get out of bed to turn it off! That way it’s much harder and less tempting for you to crawl back under the covers and sneak in that extra bit of snooze time.…

Fibromyalgia and Acupuncture: Finding Natural Relief

Chronic pain in multiple areas of the body, accompanied by insomnia and depression is how most patients describe fibromyalgia. Once thought to be a psychosomatic disorder (what’s in your mind is making your body worse) or a psychiatric disorder (it’s all in your mind), fibromyalgia is a recognized illness. As debilitating as it can be, relief can be found, and acupuncture and Chinese medicine can be a drug free, natural solution to find the relief you need.

Sometimes confused with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), fibromyalgia or fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) can leave you in constant pain and fatigue your body and mind. Though pain and fatigue are the most common symptoms reported, fibromyalgia syndrome is associated with a large variety of symptoms which might include:

Widespread painMuscle achesJoint stiffnessFatigueDepressionInsomniaHeadaches (migraines and/or tension)Difficulty concentrating (affectionately referred to as “fibrofog”)Hypersensitive to stressful situationsSensitivity to light and/or noiseTMJ syndromeAnxietyUrinary and/or pelvic problemsIrregular menstrual cycleMyofascial painWeight gainNauseaDizzinessSkin problemsSensitivity to many different chemicalsPoor memoryIBSHeart palpitationsMood swings

Keep in mind that a patient doesn’t need to have all of these symptoms to be diagnosed with FMS and usually patients have a few of these, with pain and fatigue being the primary symptoms. Patients with fibromyalgia have no actual visible damage to tissue, joints, bones or organs, so there isn’t a laboratory test that can confirm the patient has fibromyalgia. Instead, FMS can be diagnosed by pressing on 18 specific points on the body. If there is pain in at least 11 of the 18 points, as well as some of the other symptoms being present, a diagnosis of fibromyalgia can be given.

Acupuncture and Chinese medicine can be a godsend to many patients. In my experience, the combination of acupuncture and fire-cupping is most beneficial for pain relief. Chinese medicine divides fibromyalgia into four possible patterns and therefore each pattern must be treated accordingly. In any of these patterns, tremendous results can be seen with the patient finding immediate relief with usually just one treatment and lasting relief with a series of treatments. Cupping or fire-cupping is also extremely effective in treating the pain associated with fibromyalgia. In most patients, the addition of herbal formulas (put together for their specific symptoms) can be the final touch to relieve all the symptoms and help them to regain their life.

If you or someone you know is suffering from fibromyalgia, please check out all your treatment options and make visiting an acupuncturist a priority. Natural and lasting relief through acupuncture and Chinese medicine is a much better option than a life of pharmaceuticals or living with the pain, fatigue and other symptoms for your whole life.…

Origins of Fatigue

Fatigue is a huge issue in our fast paced world, where it is all too easy to “burn the candle at both ends”, eat too many fast foods, live a sedentary life and ignore our built-in time clock (the circadian rhythm ). Sometimes, despite doing all the right things, we, however, can still be affected by persistent fatigue that can cause great disruption in our life. An investigation by the Working Group of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians has found that prolonged fatigue which lasts longer than 1 month is present in 5-20% of the population. Chronic fatigue, lasting greater than six months, is prevalent in 1-10% of the population whilst a further 0.2% to 0.7% is diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome.

Whilst some types of depression are linked to fatigue, mild amounts of stress have actually found to be stimulating to our mitochondria function, which produces our cellular energy. High stress, on the other hand, can cause magnesium loss. Magnesium, zinc and iron deficiencies are both common causes of low energy production and should be investigated early in any corrective treatment, especially given that deficiencies of these minerals is present in around 60-85% of the US population. These minerals are readily available and could be tried before investigating other possible causes of your fatigue. Resveratrol, found in your favorite red wine, also has a stimulatory affect as CoQ10 and L-carnitine.

So what do you do if you have tried all of the stimulatory supplements without any resolve of your fatigue? My suggestion would be to investigate whether there are any underlying gut issues (such as bacterial overgrowth or candida) or problems with thyroid function. An overgrowth of candida albicans can frequently go undetected due to its often vague symptoms. A simple test – blood test or stool test – can detect the presence of candida overgrowth. This disorder can be treated effectively with the right natural health products and dietary intervention.

Similarly, an under functioning thyroid can also go undetected and untreated. This is largely due to the fact that borderline blood test results can still be considered as ‘normal’ by some practitioners. New evidence however suggests that subclinical hypothyroidism (where there is elevated thyroid stimulating hormone but normal thyroid hormone levels) is a common disorder found in 7-10% of people and can be responsible for a decreased production of energy in the mitochondria. It is therefore important to be treated for hypothyroidism, even if your results are viewed as ‘borderline normal’.

I ask my patients to give me a score out of 10, to help me evaluate what their energy and fatigue levels are like. A score of 10 is equal to the amount of energy needed to perform all of one’s daily activities and 0 is not enough energy to get out of bed. I consider that a consistently low energy level with a chosen score of 6 out of 10 or below is abnormal. Try keeping a diary of your energy levels. If you are feeling a little ‘flat’ and record energy levels of 6/10 or lower, you need to investigate why you feel this way. Don’t put up with less than optimal vitality. Remember that your fatigue will have an origin or cause, which can usually be easily identified and rectified, when you receive the right advice.…

Power-Napping – Switch Off to Power Up

It’s 2pm in the afternoon; Kelly and her colleagues are stuck at their workstations. Everyone looks dull, tired and sleepy and Kelly is no exception. It’s been a hectic day and the worst is yet to come because her boss is breathing down her neck for the report to be on his desk before the end of the day, her kids have to be picked from school and she really must pass by the grocery store to pick up some supplies. Kelly has to do all this but right now she is feeling really tired and stressed out, let alone sleepy. So she takes a quick 20 minute ‘power-nap’ to revitalize and reignite her. An hour later all her colleagues are asking her what the secret is because she seems to be back on top of her game.

Power-napping is a practice that will maximise the benefits of sleep against time. It is a sort of supplement to normal sleep, mostly when one is not getting enough sleep. James Maas, a Social Psychologist at Cornell University came up with the expression ‘power-nap’, a short sleep ending just before the beginning of deep sleep. It is intended to refresh and revitalize someone especially if they are having a sleep deficit. The exact duration of a power-nap varies from 15 to 30 minutes; not too short to leave you dizzy but not too long for one to enter a deep sleep.

For a long time, research has been carried out to ascertain what the exact benefits of this ‘power-napping’ really are. Without a doubt, plenty of positive results have been discovered including the improvement of certain memory functions. A team of doctors, led by Alan Hobson and Robert Stickgold at Harvard University discovered that a midday snooze reverses information overload and so they concluded that, “The bottom line is: we should stop feeling guilty about taking that ‘power-nap’ at work.” Having discovered that “burnout” irritation, frustration and poorer performance on a mental task can emerge as a day of training progresses, Sara Mednick, Stickgold and colleagues also proved that, in some cases, napping could boost performance to an individual’s top levels.

Individuals for whom a power-nap will be of great help will include those traveling between time zones, those working long hours and needing a break to re-focus, students with rigorous schedules or preparing for exams, busy mothers with young children and whoever else wants to supplement on their sleeping schedule so that they attain better results without falling asleep entirely. People who often take these power-naps eventually get to learn what duration, position, environment and related factors will help them attain maximum results.…