Fall Asleep Faster With Carbs

How To Fall Asleep Faster – Carb Load In The Evening

Newish research is out and conclusive in a very strange way that I’m not sure I believe very much. I only post this out of interest because I haven’t been sleeping very well this week. Not sure why but maybe it’s because I haven’t been eating enough bread and pasta. It seems that if I eat carbs in the evening I may just be able to fall asleep faster.

Carbohydrate Sleep Study

The following study details some of the findings on carbs and sleep. Take from it what you will.

"Counting sheep might not help you fall asleep faster, but counting carbs will. Researchers from the University of Sydney found that eating a meal rich in carbs, such as whole-grain toast or rice, four hour’s before bedtime can shave 10 minutes off the amount of time it takes to fall asleep. The study’s authors say that high-carb foods increase serotonin circulation, which has a calming and relaxing effect."

I’ve got to be honest, as I previously said; this finding on sleep and carbs doesn’t jump out at me as important or relevant. I don’t know about you but I can’t imagine a piece of toast at dinner helping me to fall asleep faster when I go to bed, evening carbs, really?

I do think a nice Thanksgiving Day turkey dinner would put me to sleep in the mid-afternoon after the football game but toast at 7pm just seems a little lacking. Then again, I don’t suffer from insomnia like others. My sleep problems are probably from staying up too late playing video games. For some others who have legitimate problems falling asleep (i.e. sleep apnea, insomnia, restless leg syndrome) this might be a valid approach to try. After all; sleep problems are indirectly responsible for many health issues so addressing them is more than just addressing your comfort.

Fall Asleep Faster With Exercise

I do feel that sleep will come easier if you get active throughout your day. This isn’t quite as easy are carb loading at dinner time but I’m confident that it will work for most. In my opinion the human body was built to work hard. In fact it did work hard for thousands of years and only recently it sits at desks and on couches. Work these days is nothing. It’s no wonder so many people have trouble falling asleep when we hardly work at all. Try getting off your butt and exercising and make your body tired. You’ll probably fall asleep faster and help you live a longer life. Just check out this old post on sleep and life expectancy for more reading on the subject.

Source
This quote was found in the February 2008 issue of Best Life magazine.

Heart Attack Recovery

Staying Positive During Heart Attack Recovery Could Save Your Life

If you've recently had a heart attack and are going through heart attack recovery you should know that staying positive and having the right attitude is not just something people say to you to make you feel better. There is actually science behind it that proves that a positive attitude does indeed aid in heart attack recovery success. Check out the following findings from the Mayo Clinic.

Heart Attack Recovery Finding

"Taking care of both mental and physical health is vital in the first 30 days after a heart attack. A Mayo Clinic study of 3,000 people found that failure of heart attack recovery is four times higher in that first month, while a German study determined that not being depressed is a key factor in surviving after your heart attack recovery period.

Scientists are still debating the value of incorporating depression screening into a patient’s heart care, so you’ll have to take matters into your own hands and call your doctor if you experience a major downshift in mood or other symptoms of depression. Roughly 15 to 20 percent of patients suffer from depression after a heart attack, according to the Mayo Clinic."

Longevity and Positive Attitude

It’s widely known that some of the oldest living people in the world are typically high spirited people. A good outlook on life can generally be expected to increase human longevity so it seems to me to be of no surprise that a good mood helps for successful recovery from heart attacks.

In fact; considering the underlying generality that good moods make people live longer, I wouldn’t be surprised to see similar statistics of mood and recovery from other conditions. My gut tells me that a good mood free from depression likely increases the odds of recovery from any major sickness, not just heart attacks.  Stroke risk factors are probably improved and stress is likely lower.

Source
This quote originated from the March 2009 issue of Best Life magazine.

Eating Too Fast

#1 Eating-Weight Loss Tip

Slow down! You are eating too fast!

New research and old research and general common sense tells us that eating too fast causes you to gain weight. The best eating for weight loss tip I can give you is to simply slow down. See the following details on a recent study backing up this weight loss claim.

Speed of Eating & Weight Loss

"84 - Percentage more likely you are to be overweight if you eat quickly, according to research in the British Medical Journal. Wolfing down food messes with the body's natural appetite kill switch."

This indirectly says that if you eat slowly you are 42 percent more likely to not be overweight. Eating quickly can cause you to eat more food before your brain tells you you are full. This also means that if you eat slowly you will eat less food and as a result take in less calories which can reduce inflammation and support healthy memory and brain function... also eating less food means not having to spend as much at the grocery store. Double bonus.

More Weight Loss Tips

I recently wrote a long dissertation on how to lose 10 pounds. If you are really looking to lose more weight then I suggest taking a look at this post and give it a go... just make sure you don't eat too fast. :)

Source
This quote is from the March 2009 issue of Best Life magazine.

The Insulin Resistance Diet

The Insulin Resistance Diet Helps Stop Insulin Resistance

Insulin resistance and it’s bigger and scarier brother type-2 diabetes have been on my mind a lot lately. I think this is because I know a few people with both conditions and I know many people who are at risk for them. The condition scares me.

The funny thing is that neither I nor my wife show any risk signs for developing insulin resistance. Despite this however I’ve learned a fair amount about the condition over the last few months and have learned a bit about constructing an insulin resistance diet that should help stop insulin resistance and begin reversing insulin resistance.

Before I go into the concepts behind adhering to an insulin resistance diet however I thought I’d note why this diet is applicable to human longevity even in those who are not at risk for developing the disease. The reason is actually quite simple; the food consumption that contributes to insulin resistance also contributes to arterial plaque buildup, poor cholesterol levels, and arterial hypertension. Obviously each of these contributes to number one on the leading causes of death list published by the CDC: Heart Disease.

Essentially by following a sound insulin resistance diet I feel that I can both support healthy insulin production and lower my risks of developing atherosclerosis and heart disease. There is also a popular book on the subject titled: "The Insulin Resistance Diet: How to Turn Off Your Body's Fat-Making Machine" which is invaluable to learning more about how to change your diet for the better. Check it out for deeper coverage of this topic.

How To Follow An Insulin Resistance Diet

Click For More Details

The insulin resistance diet is really all about reducing insulin resistance by limiting the amount of refined sugars that you consume. These sugars are bad for your body because they are typically full of empty calories that have no nutritional value. They also cause your blood sugar levels to increase quickly and in bad cases they spike faster than insulin production can keep up with.

Additionally, following an insulin resistance diet requires consuming a fairly high amount of fiber throughout the day. This fiber acts to regulate blood sugar spikes and can be found in many foods especially cereals, fruits, and vegetables. Strangely I’ve found that I don’t typically eat many fruits for whatever reason but I eat tons of veggies so I guess I’m good on that front.

Other foods to pack into an insulin resistance diet include Brussels sprouts, kale, broccoli and other foods high in vitamin K, foods rich in Chromium such as ham or turkey, and seasoning foods with cinnamon and with a mixture of black pepper and turmeric.

If you want to read more about this diet in far greater detail then please review the popular and bestselling book shown above - or check out The Ultimate Diabetic Cookbook which can help you follow an Insulin Resistance Diet if you have pre-diabetes or a diabetic diet if your condition is more advanced.

Stop Insulin Resistance With Exercise

If you can mange to change your diet to include foods such as these more often then you can also pack some punch into stopping insulin resistance in its tracks by exercising a little more. This trips many people up but it is the number one way to stop insulin resistance.

As I previously said; I don’t have any of the warning signs for insulin resistance but following a diet such as this will also help a great deal in minimizing the risks for heart disease and should help increase life expectancy so why don’t you join me? It’ll be good for you.

Live Longer with Good Personality Traits

Certain findings on the human lifespan have been well known for a long time. You can effectively live longer by remaining calm and easygoing in life while maintaining a moderate to high level of physical activity. New studies however have shown that you can also live longer by changing your personality in positive ways.

Live Longer By Staying Calm and Active

The Baltimore Sun reported on the National Institute of Aging’s (NIA) recent research on data collected from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging. The findings of this NIA research show that in addition to calm and active people living longer lives, those who were emotionally stabile, organized, disciplined, conscientious, and resourceful also tended to live longer.

Conversely there were other personality traits that didn’t lead to longer life but instead led to the opposite.

The NIA study found that anger, emotional instability, anxiousness and depression all led to shorter lives.

This suggests that if you already do all the right things to avoid diseases such as heart disease and diabetes by staying active, not getting stressed out, and eating right, you can take it one step further and change your personality for the better to increase your chances for living longer even still.

Longevity and Personality

Similar to these findings the Sun recalls a earlier study on longevity and personality published in 2003:

"This study is not new news. Most people know that happiness and an active lifestyle lead to good health. In a similar 2003 study, also published in Psychosomatic medicine, researchers found that men with Type A personalities - "competitive, impatient, uptight" - had heart attacks earlier than those who did not have a Type A personality.

It is important to note that personality or activity level is not fixed or predetermined, and that it can be proactively changed by an individual.

So if you find that you are a Type A personality living a sedentary lifestyle, seek ways to change that. Helpful tools may include formal psychiatric and psychological intervention; hobbies; a new sport; activities such as walking, tai chi, or yoga; spirituality; a career overhaul, or self-help."

For more information on how to live longer by changing your diet see my previous post which is fairly comprehensive titled: How To Live A Longer Life. You can also check out my post on human longevity tips.

Source
Baltimore Sun - http://www.baltimoresun.com/health/sns-health-emotionally-stable-live-longer,0,6511596.story
Psychosomatic Medicine Jul/Aug '09