Health and Fitness, March, 2019

[Harriet]

Happy March! A sense of eagerness is in the air. Calmer temperatures are likely on the way, with optimism! We hope to bound out of bed every morning with the energy and alertness to stick with our plans and learn something, too!

Each morning, will you look back at the bed and be grateful for the last (hopefully an opportunity for 8) hours? It's not just a jump-start. Everything you will do during that day will be benefited by the sleep you just finished. Everything you learn during the day will wait to be suggested to your brain for memory that night, and without sleep you may have to re-learn it.

Preeminent neuroscientist Matthew Walker explains what he calls "an explosion of discoveries over the past 20 years", all about sleep, this way :

Based on a rich, new scientific understanding of sleep, we no longer have to ask what sleep is good for. Instead, we are now forced to wonder whether there are any biological functions that do not benefit by a good night's sleep. So far, the results of thousands of studies insist that, no, there aren't.

Emerging from this research renaissance is an unequivocal message : sleep is the single most effective thing we can do to reset our brain and body health each day - Mother Nature's best effort yet at contra-death.

Along with all our other Healthy Habits, let's get some sleep!

[Nancy]

I got the 30 min. Done on the stat bike today.

[LadyMaverick]

Harriet - Thank you for the March thread and sleep encouragement.

Nancy - you are so consistent on exercise. POTB!

I visited ER during the night. I was experiencing heart palpitations and upper abdominal pain bad enough that I couldn't lay down and sleep. After 2 hours of doing multiple testing, they gave me a shot to relax the abdominal spasms and sent me home. I am thankful.

The logical side of me wants to have answers. I want to map out cause and effect. But the body doesn't seem to always be logical or maybe I don't have all the pieces to the puzzle and knowledge to understand them.

REminding myself to focus on the basics. Take care of what is in my control

[Twins' Mom]

Oh my goodness, LadyM. Nothing showed up on their testing?

Yes, I like cause and effect also.

[LadyMaverick]

The first EKG resulted in a followup EKG and me wearing a monitor for a couple of hours. They did flu swab, urine test, blood work and manipulated my upper abdominal. All the test came back good. They especially were looking at the liver enzymes and they were good. I'm not sure the shot of Bentyl did much good. I couldn't really tell a difference.

I am not hungry at all but forced myself to eat a big green salad and some chicken. I'm just letting time pass and hoping whatever this is will work itself out. I'll check with the doctor on Monday if it hasn't resolved itself.

[Nancy]

Thanks LM
Did 30 min. On the stat bike today.

[Harriet]

((LadyM)) what a frustrating and upsetting way to spend an evening. Is your dr in the same "system" as the ER where you were seen? They can share info easily these days if they are, and you don't have to be the "point man" with responsibility for trying to remember everything. Maybe your dr could scratch his or her head over this for you. Big hugs.

The book Why We Sleep continues to inspire me, as you can tell. I was determined to read the whole, straight through, and not skip to the end where the tips for healthy sleep are. But the book just covers so much that somewhere between the percentages of sports/athletic performance benefits of enough sleep, and the emotional irrationality following sleep loss, I took a break and went to the tips.

There are 12, but his number 1 is stick to a sleep schedule, including the idea I've heard before of setting your alarm for the time to get ready for bed. Number 2 is that exercise is great but get it finished no later than 2 hours before bedtime. (oops for me) Number 3 is avoid stimulants like caffeine (makes it hard to fall asleep) and nicotine (causes too-light sleep and too-early awakening). Number 4 no alcohol near bedtime and no heavy use (robs REM sleep and causes awakening in the middle of the night). Number 5 is avoid large meals and beverages late at night (indigestion interferes with sleep). Number 6 is research your meds to see which may cause insomnia or disrupted sleep and get dr or pharmacist's advice about timing them differently.

Must tell you his number 7, which is that naps are fine but have them finished by 3:00 p.m. so they won't interfere with falling asleep that evening. That helps me because there are just days my body demands a nap and now I know a clear way to decide yes or no - if it's early enough I can nap, but too late and I need to shake myself awake!

[Twins' Mom]

Good tips, Harriet. What does it say about screens i.e. phone, iPad, computers, in the evening?

I have been taking both melatonin and benadryl in the evening. I think I should scale back the benadryl since I'm sleeping well again.

I'm debating whether to restart on my walking 8K steps again. I think the last week I did it anywhere near consistently was before the colonoscopy on Feb 13. Do I have the energy? or...the chicken and the egg.... Will it give me energy? And the days are longer so doing it in the day time will help as well, right?

I have lost six pounds since the beginning of the year - this is using my spreadsheet where I record daily weight and it computes a 10 day running average weight, so daily variations are smoothed out. Most of the weight loss is attributable to this flare up of the TM (Trigeminal neuralgia) because 4.8 lbs came off in the month of February. I'm only a pound off from the "morning of colonoscopy" weight.

A painful way to lose weight but I'll take the weight loss.

[Ramblinrose]

LadyM...
Problems
With my heart rate, BP and sever upper abdominal pain are what sent me to the hospital two times before they discovered my hiatal hernia. At no time did I have any signs of heart burn. Both times I thought I mihjt be having a hear attack. My BP was 190/90 and my heart rate was 93. Normally my BP is 115/70 and heart rate 50. Internal stress is a major cause of this so keep that in mind.

[RunKitty]

((LadyMaverick))

Harriet, those sound like good sleep tips. I have never had any trouble sleeping and I think I do most of the tips already. What are the others? My phone automatically sounds an alarm for me to start getting ready for bed. That is helpful. I exercise before breakfast, so that's not a problem and I stop drinking tea (or anything else) by 5 p.m. Actually, I can drink tea and fall asleep immediately anyway. My dad used to have a huge mug of coffee and a small dessert right before bedtime for years. I once drank a big can of energy drink because it was the only thing in the hotel fridge and fell asleep right after finishing it. I don't drink alcohol. I don't eat after 5 p.m., and I don't take any meds. I rarelyp take naps, but if I do, even if late in the day, I can'still fall asleep at my normal time. I'm interested in the other tips. My dh has always had trouble sleeping, so I will pass these along to him.