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Nov 03 2016

Hey Santa Fe, Here Is How Exercise Can Affect Your Sleep

Hey Santa Fe, Here Is How Exercise Can Affect Your Sleep

Sleep.

It’s one of the most critical, yet most often overlooked components to leading a healthy life.

As we train our bodies through exercise, we use precious energy and we need more sleep in order to replenish this lost resource.

The benefits of a good night’s sleep (between seven and nine hours a night) are numerous. This period of rest is crucial for muscle growth, increases blood supply, and repairs damage done to the body during exercise.

But what happens if we overtrain our bodies? How does pushing ourselves affect our ability to recover through sleep?

A study performed by the Journal of Sports Sciences found that if overtraining occurs, there is actually a decrease in our ability to sleep, recover, and perform.

The study followed 13 cyclists who were put through a period of intense training. Researchers found that after nine days of this training, the athletes had a drastic reduction in sleep quality.

The interesting part is that while the athletes were getting worse sleep, they were spending more time in bed. Throughout the night, they woke up frequently and got less sleep.

This lack of sleep, or “exercise-induced insomnia” occurs when we push our bodies passed their current level. The inability to sleep can be attributed to several problems that stem from overtraining.

When we exercise, our body produces a hormone called adrenaline

Adrenaline has a key role to play in the training process, as it helps with things like blood flow to the muscles and mental alertness.

Adrenaline is what gives you what you need to make it through your workout. However, it also has a negative effect on your ability to doze off.

When your body produces adrenaline, it is preparing to face a demanding physical task. The more strenuous the activity, the more adrenaline is present in your bloodstream.

Once this task is over however, your body may have some difficulty shutting down.

Another potential cause of exercise-induced insomnia is cortisol. Cortisol, like adrenaline, is a hormone produced by your body that helps during physical activity.

Cortisol helps your body to increase glucose concentration in your bloodstream. This gets energy to your muscles so they can perform the task you are asking them to do.

Cortisol also has a role to play in your body’s natural sleep patterns. When you wake up, your body is running with its highest level of cortisol. As you go throughout your day, the amount of the hormone gradually decreases, eventually hitting a point that signals to your body to go to sleep.

However, when you exercise you are giving your body a signal to produce more cortisol, and this can throw a wrench in your body’s sleep cycle. Scientists have found that elevated levels of cortisol can make it more difficult to fall asleep.

Among these hormonal issues, there may be other problems that exercise can have on your sleep.

Many exercise supplements, particularly in endurance sports, contain caffeine. This aids in focus during the activity, but can cause serious problems when it comes time to catch some z’s. Studies have found that when caffeine is ingested, cortisol levels can remain elevated for up to 18 hours!

Luckily, there are some steps you can take to prevent or ease this problem.

Staying hydrated and properly fueling yourself can help reduce your body’s need for cortisol production. High levels of stress can also increase cortisol. Experts prescribe allotting for times of meditation or relaxation to help combat the effects stress can have.

If overtraining is causing problems with your sleep, you should also take a break from exercising or decrease your workload. Give your body a couple days of rest and recuperation.

Your diet also offers a path to a solution.

When suffering from insomnia, eat clean meals with high levels of protein and iron, and drink plenty of water. Avoid food high in sugar and simple carbohydrates, as these can spike your blood sugar levels and cause a hormonal imbalance.

Eliminating or reducing your daily caffeine intake can also have a positive impact on your ability to sleep. Studies have shown that one cup of coffee can increase cortisol levels by up to 30%. Avoid supplements that have caffeine in them, particularly if you exercise later in the day.

Fear of overtraining is not a reason to avoid exercise.

Focus on doing what is right for you and listen to what your body is telling you.

When done properly, exercise is a vital component to getting a good night’s sleep and ultimately improving your health.

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Oct 13 2016

Hey Santa Fe, Bet You Didn’t Know This About Splenda® …

For years, Splenda has been one of the top-selling artificial sweeteners that promises to help you maintain a healthy weight because it’s calorie-free.

Well, a VERY recent study shows sucralose (Splenda®) may have a dirty little secret …

Research published in the May 2013 edition of Diabetes Care shows that drinking even a minimal amount of sucralose may not be so good for you, even though it’s calorie free.

The study recruited 17 obese individuals who normally did NOT consume artificial sweeteners and did NOT have diabetes. The researchers then conducted the experiment twice.

First, the patients were given water before given a glucose challenge test (that’s where patients are given sugar, and then have their blood tested to see how the body responds).

Then, the next time the participants came in, they were given sucralose (Splenda®) to drink instead of water before the glucose challenge test.

As it turns out, the body reacts to sucralose in a similar way as it would to sugar. The study’s lead author, M. Yanina Pepino, PhD, stated:

“Insulin levels also rose about 20 percent higher [with sucralose]. So the artificial sweetener was related to an enhanced blood insulin and glucose response.” [1]

Why are these results so shocking? Because if your body routinely secretes more insulin than it needs to, it can lead to type-2 diabetes. And it’s alarming, because most people have been under the impression that calorie free sweeteners are “okay” because they won’t add to your waistline. But even though they won’t add to your calorie count, they can be just as damaging as sugar to your overall health.

A recent opinion paper in the July 2013 edition of Trends in Endocrinology & Metabolism reviewed a number of studies and found that drinking artificially sweetened beverages can be just as bad as drinking sugary drinks.

They pose the same risk for type-2 diabetes, obesity, metabolic syndrome, stroke and even heart disease. Worse yet, just one artificially sweetened drink is enough to significantly raise your risk for getting the bad health effects. [2]

So what can you do?

The best thing is to stick to drinking only water, just like our ancestors.

But if you need a little more variety, here are a few things you could do to provide a tasty way to add some “flavor” without sugar or plenty of calories.

Use stevia or xylitol. Both are all-natural, no-calorie sweeteners.

Stick to unsweetened tea. This is also a great option to give you some variety so you don’t have to drink water all the time.

Add mint and lime to your water. It tastes great and if you want to sweeten it a little, just add a bit of stevia.

So now you know Splenda’s® “dirty little secret.” Avoid it if you can, along with other fake sweeteners. Following the tips here will keep things interesting in the beverage department, while still keeping your health in first place. Your body will thank you!

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References:

[1] M. Y. Pepino, C. D. Tiemann, B. W. Patterson, B. M. Wice, S. Klein. Sucralose

Affects Glycemic and Hormonal Responses to an Oral Glucose Load. Diabetes Care, 2013; DOI: 10.2337/dc12-2221

[2] Swithers, Susan “Artificial sweeteners produce the counterintuitive effect of inducing metabolic derangements” Trends in Endocrinology & Metabolism, 11 July 2013

Sep 17 2016

ELDOA In Santa Fe For Less Shoulder And Neck Pain

How ELDOA’s Increase Spinal Mobility And Get Rid Of Neck And Shoulder Pain

Do your shoulders slump and round when you walk, sit, or stand?
Do you have trouble keeping your chest up when squatting?

Does it hurt lifting heavy things off the ground?
Do you get lower back or neck pain when doing twisting or rotational movements?
Have you resigned yourself to living with that nagging rotator cuff pain that flares up during workouts and in bed?

If you answered “yes” to any of those (and most people will answer yes to at least one), you may have poor thoracic spine mobility. Even if you don’t notice any of the symptoms leaping out at you, it never hurts to get more mobility, especially in the thoracic spine. And establishing good habits by actively maintaining and training mobility, as opposed to being content with what you have (even if it’s not optimum), is always a good move.

After the hips, thoracic spine mobility is probably the most crucial aspect of mobility. At least with the hips, though, people can identify them and grasp the concept of hip mobility just by reading text on the computer. Sticking your hips back is pretty self-explanatory. What about the thoracic spine? It’s a bit more nebulous.

Do you know how to use your thoracic spine? Are you even aware that it exists? It’s not that people ignore the thoracic spine willfully; it’s that they’re unaware of any distinctions between spinal and lumbar vertebrae. They know about the spine, and imagine it to be a uniform vertebral column, equally capable of bending, twisting, and rotating along its length. This is totally understandable. “Spine” is what we hear, not “thoracic spine” or “lumbar spine” or “cervical spine,” but it’s much more than that.

The human spinal column is composed of five segments: the cervical spine, which extends up the neck to the base of the skull; the thoracic spine, which encompasses the shoulder and chest area; the lumbar spine, also known as the lower back; the sacrum; and, finally, the coccyx, or tail bone. Each performs a different role. Each has different capabilities, different functions. Most importantly, each segment of the spine is designed for a certain range of motion.

The thoracic spine is built for rotation, flexion, and extension. It is highly mobile – or, rather, it has the potential for lots of mobility. Because of its mobility, the thoracic spine must be used, must be moved. But it has to be known. If people are unable to visualize and feel the movement of the thoracic spine, or if they’re unable to even grasp the concept of its existence, they’ll just attempt to twist, rotate, flex, and bend with something familiar to them: the lumbar spine. That’s bad news.

The lumbar spine is built for stability. It’s supposed to support the weight of the body (plus any added weights) and resist excessive rotation and twisting. It remains stable and acts as a conduit for power generated by the hips and fed to the mobile thoracic spine. It is not meant to twist and bend. It can move, obviously, but it’s not meant to be wildly mobile. It’s meant to be solid, reliable.

You’ll find that an immobile thoracic spine isn’t just bad for the vertebrae themselves. It’s bad for your lower back and your shoulders, too. In fact, you’ll rarely feel actual pain along the twelve vertebrae that comprise your thoracic spine. Instead, your lower back will take over work for which it’s really not designed, getting chronic pain for its troubles, and your scapula (shoulder blades) will compensate by moving away from the spine, making overhead shoulder work difficult, dangerous, and painful, and a rotator cuff injury nearly inevitable. Everything in the body is linked, remember, and you can’t remove a major player from the equation without seriously affecting the balance.

Benefits of improved thoracic mobility are: Lack of kyphosis, a less painful, more stable lower back, more lung volume, Healthier shoulders, Greater range of motion …

Do use thoracic mobility to:
a. Lengthen and straighten your thoracic spine with ELDOA’s
b. Breathe more deeply
c. Enable your shoulders to roll further back without swaying the low back

Don’t use thoracic mobility to:
a. Hunch your thoracic spine
b. Hyper-extend your thoracic ligaments creating laxity in the ligaments and hyper-mobility in the thoracic spine.

So, it is important to develop thoracic mobility in a precise way that allows healthy spinal architecture and movement and not in a way that threatens your skeletal integrity or scaffolding. Loosening up the thoracic spine and then using that extra mobility to round or distort the spine further while sitting or standing is in some ways worse than being inflexible. It is therefore crucial to be conscious of posture as well, so that your whole spine is well-aligned throughout your day, and any extra mobility you create in your thoracic spine works to your advantage and towards making you straighter and taller.

In sum … do your ELDOA’s !!!

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Aug 25 2016

Santa Fe Are Your Shoes to Blame for Lower Back Pain?

By Jo Van Cutsem

When you think of the causes of back pain, things like sports injuries and heavy lifting probably quickly pop into your head. What you may not know, however, is that there is a less obvious, everyday culprit that can cause that pain: footwear. Your feet are the foundation for all of your movement, and any disruption at that source can put a lot of stress on the rest of your body. Because of this, making healthy decisions about your footwear can greatly reduce your risk for back pain.

Anyone with a job that entails standing for long periods of time, or who regularly has to carry considerable weight at work or at home is particularly vulnerable to the effects of poor footwear.

Connecting backache, and even neck ache to your shoes might not be quite so obvious, however, but the wrong kind of shoe can increase stress on the vertebrae, destabilize the spine and cause fatigue and wear in the muscles and ligaments supporting the spinal column.

It’s not just excessively high heels that can cause back problems; totally flat shoes providing no arch support and the new fitness trend for shoes that separate out the toes can also trigger a cascade of problems in the spine. Some shoes can cause immediate back pain, trigger old injuries to begin hurting again or cause chronic symptoms over time. Shoes affect the way we walk, the way we stand and how much stress is put on the spine as we go about our everyday activities.

A natural gait involves the heel touching the ground first as we step, with the foot’s arch then rolling inwards (referred to as ‘pronation’), then the ball of the foot and the toe make contact and these then provide the momentum to push off the ground again. Those wearing shoes that affect the gait may have either under pronation or over pronation, causing excess shock to the spine or the lower body to rotate inward. Both of these result in excess strain on the back.

Just as ballet flats are terrible for the feet and the spine, so are flip-flops. The peculiar gait necessary to keep flip-flops on the feet causes problems with the back, knees, hips and the feet themselves and such footwear should be avoided for anything other than incidental use at the pool.

When you think of your feet as the foundation for all body movement, it’s easy to understand why worn shoes are a bad idea. They simply don’t offer the support that you need to make sure that your body is moving efficiently and comfortably. Over time, worn shoes offer less shock absorption and arch support, and this can result in back pain as well as a permanent alteration to your gait. Because of this, it’s important to replace your shoes when you notice that they are starting to show wear.

No round-up of shoes bad for the back is complete without the mention of the dreaded stiletto. These narrow-heeled shoes are highly likely to cause a raft of health complications, including leg strain, hip strain, and back pain. High heeled shoes put all the stress on a single point of the foot and every step shoots that stress right up the spine. The body has to work incredibly hard to absorb this stress and balance the body and this can lead to fatigue, wear and tear and premature degeneration of the discs, ligaments, muscles and bones in the spine. Anything over a two inch heel is advised against and even lower heels should only be worn very occasionally as these too can destabilize the spine.

Athletic shoes, on the other hand, have quality cushioning and shock absorption since they are designed for physical activity. Because of this, they are some of the most comfortable, back-friendly footwear options.

Your choice of footwear, together with Eldoa-exercises, offers a daily opportunity to do right by your spine. So, next time you have back ache after a long day standing at work consider whether your shoes are to blame for your lower back pain.

Now, that you have read all the above information, you might understand why we prefer to go barefoot during the workout sessions at SolCore Fitness.

Thanks,

Jo Van Cutsem

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