Nopalea

There is a thief on the loose. It is stealing the ability of people to be healthy, think clearly and live a satisfying life. It is called sleep deprivation.

There are four common causes of disease: trauma, toxicity, deficiency and stress. Severe sleep deficiency affects more than 70 million people in North America – about 25% of the general population or 1 in 4 people. Episodes of mild sleep deficiency affect just about all of us. Sleep deficiency has been directly linked to more than 70 diseases and conditions, including:

* Heart attacks
* Stroke
* Cancer
* Diabetes
* Obesity

Since sleep deficiency is a cause or contributor to a poor quality of life and so many horrible diseases, doesn’t it make sense to do what we can to ensure peaceful sleep?

What is normal?
Men and women should go to sleep between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. and wake between 5 a.m. and 7 a.m. They should sleep between 7.5 and 9 hours every night. It should take between 5 and 15 minutes to fall asleep and you should remain asleep all night. Sleep should be peaceful: there should be no thrashing, teeth-grinding, snoring or fitful sleep. Nightmares and night terrors are not normal; they should be investigated and resolved if they occur commonly. You should dream, but you may not always remember your dreams.

How do I know?
Many people have a sleeping disorder and do not know it. A bed partner may be a good source of information about sleeping habits, but there are two good signs of disturbed sleep requiring intervention:

* Fatigue – Fatigue is obvious, right? If you sleep all night and wake up feeling tired it means there is a problem. If you are sleepy throughout the day, have difficulty concentrating and tend to doze off if you sit still, then you are obviously sleep deficient, no matter how many hours you actually spent asleep.

* Hunger – The relationship between hunger and sleep is not so obvious. There is a balance between hormones that promote hunger and those that make us feel that our appetite has been satisfied. If you sleep well you should be hungry in the morning. If you sleep poorly you will not be hungry for several hours after you wake up. If you sleep well you should have no difficulty controlling evening hunger. If you sleep poorly you will be an uncontrollable eating machine in the evening! Evening hunger is often a sign of poor sleep.

…And my brain?
As we age, there is a tendency for our brain to actually shrink. Adequate amounts of sleep, Vitamin B-12 and Omega-3 DHA can help reduce this tendency and conserve your brain volume as you age. Perhaps even more important than the size of your brain is the ability to think. Sleep helps here, too.

A study published in Nature in 2004 gave problem-solving puzzles to people who had adequate sleep at night, people who slept during the day and people who were sleep deprived. The test was very interesting because you had to solve eight different puzzles. The puzzles were not obviously linked, but were connected by a hidden rule requiring a special human trait called “insight.”

The human brain functions differently than animal brains. One of the unique qualities of humans is the ability to re-think and restructure our approach to problems based on abstract observations. We can gain this kind of insight by connecting things that don’t obviously appear connected and use this abstract knowledge to improve our circumstances.

People who sleep better at night have twice the insight of those who are either sleep deprived or who sleep during the daytime. Our brains simply work better when we sleep peacefully at night.

Sleep requires nutrients
Sleep is a very energy-intensive process. For peaceful sleep, we should take our Foundation nutrients to fuel the process of sleep. If we are having difficulty getting good sleep, try TriVita Peaceful Sleep™ – one of my favorite formulas!

Sleeping peacefully is a way to thwart the thief that is stealing the health of people all around the world. What’s more, sleeping peacefully may just be the cure for a generation of people lacking true insight!
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Take Control of Your Health

* Make sleep a priority; set aside time for optimum sleep
* Limit caffeine to morning only – if at all
* Turn down lights in the evening
* Turn off computers, television and video terminals
* Practice deep breathing for 20 minutes at bedtime
* Take Foundation nutrients to fuel sleep
* Use TriVita Peaceful Sleep to help re-establish a normal sleep routine

If you suffer from pain and inflammation, Nopalea is another great product from TriVita that can help your body help itself to reduce toxins, inflammation and pain, less pain may help you sleep better.

Tis the Season…

Winter is the season for an especially disabling form of depression called Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD. SAD is characterized by sadness, fatigue and difficulty concentrating – as are many forms of depression. But SAD is not triggered by loss or conflicted thinking. Rather, SAD is brought on by a change in brain chemistry associated with insufficient sunlight.

Sunlight promotes health in our body and mind. It is intrinsically linked to sleep – the more bright sunshine you get in the morning, the better you will sleep at night. Sunshine connects with cholesterol in your skin to form Vitamin D. Good sleep and sufficient Vitamin D are associated with true wellness.

Is the sun our enemy?

Humans have existed on Earth for many thousands of years. Until recently, we spent our days in the sun. Humans are diurnal; we are awake in the daytime and asleep at night. We are designed to live in sunlight. Our skin interacts with sunlight to create Vitamin D, our eyes interact with sunlight to deepen the sleep cycle, and our brain interacts with sunlight to balance brain chemistry and promote a happy mood.

Healthy levels of Vitamin D, deep sleep and a happy mood are all good for us. So it stands to reason that sunlight would be good for us too, right?
                
The dark side of light

Sunlight activates melanocytes. These are pigment-containing cells in our skin that help protect us from too much sun by turning dark. Most people will “tan” or darken in the sun. If sun exposure is prolonged or too intense for this melanocyte system, we will “burn.”

Overexposure to the sun creates oxidative stress similar to radiation burns from a nuclear bomb. And why not? The sun itself is a huge nuclear furnace. This radiation burn will start a chain reaction in the melanocyte and other cells. This may lead to cancer in a year or two or in a decade or two. Oxidative stress from sunburn is insidious and relentless.

Where’s the balance?

The increase in insomnia and seasonal depression tells us that we are not getting enough early morning sun. We need more sunlight. So, how do we make it safe?

First, recognize the need for sun and the need for caution. Plan your sun exposure so that you maximize the benefits while minimizing the risks. For instance, get your sunlight early in the day. Early morning sunlight does not have the intense ultra-violet rays that midday sun does. So, take a 20-minute walk in the early part of the day with your skin exposed to sunlight. This will give you the benefits without the risks of overexposure.

Alternately, take a 20-minute walk in the evening with your skin exposed to sunlight. There are fewer UV rays in the evening than at midday, though more than in the morning. This will have a less dramatic effect than morning sun but will still provide you with many of the same benefits.

Never expose your skin to midday sun for long periods of time. Wear clothing that covers most of your skin and wear a hat that provides shade for your face and ears.

Light and other therapies

Under the direction of a competent physician, light boxes, exercise and certain medications can be used to treat SAD. A light box is a bright, full-spectrum light that triggers the same response in your brain as early morning sunlight. Exercise also works well. An exercise prescription often has a person doing an aerobic workout for an hour or more in indirect sunlight. Medications have not been shown to effectively treat serious cases of SAD, though one drug may help prevent relapses once the problem is in remission.

Nutrients have a role in recovery from SAD as well. For example, melatonin in the afternoon is helpful in relieving SAD. Other nutrients of interest are Vitamin B-12 and Vitamin D. All three nutrients are contained in TriVita’s Bone Growth Factor, though most adults will need to take their B-12 sublingually to gain much benefit. Exercise produces chemicals in your brain called endorphins. These anti-depressant chemicals are built upon the amino acid l-Phenylalanine (LPA). LPA is contained in Energy Now!.

Essential Fatty Acids (EFA) and the adaptogen Rhodiola rosea are also useful in many forms of depression.

However, nothing is as important for relieving SAD as sunlight. For most of us, sunlight may be the difference between vitality and poor health – even between life and death! Get your sunlight, but be careful: too much of a good thing can always turn out bad.

“There is just one way to treat a cold, and that is with contempt.” Sir William Osler

Ok, so you have read all those articles about prevention, but now you actually have a cold. What do you do now? A quick review of the transmission of trigger viruses and the interaction between viruses and your immune system can open the doors on a strategy to ease the symptoms and shorten the duration of a cold.

Is it a cold or the flu?
A cold is associated with the rhino virus and the flu with influenza virus. The symptoms are not exactly caused by the virus since many of us have the viruses without symptoms. Instead, the symptoms of a cold or the flu are caused by an imbalance in our immune system in the presence of a trigger virus.

Reduce your exposure
The largest contributor to infection by a trigger virus is unwashed hands. Washing your hands with soap every few hours will reduce the chance for pathogens to gain access to your system. Equally as important as washing your hands is making sure they are completely dry. Then, use the disposable towel to open the door out of the washroom. Many ugly microbes lurk on door handles – usually from people who have not properly washed and dried their hands.

Next, disinfect surfaces that are shared by many people. For instance, the telephone brings you within kissing distance of hundreds or even thousands of people. Who knows what their hygiene habits were? In a typical day we may be exposed to germs from as many as 150 countries or more!

To the extent possible, avoid crowds, and try not to shake hands with people who obviously have a cold or flu. In addition, refrain from rubbing your eyes and nose. Other precautions include getting sufficient sleep, eating enough fruits and vegetables and being especially careful when around children. Why? Because they get between five and eight cold infections a year!

Chronic stress is like slow poison
Current research shows that stress can suppress your immune system, perhaps opening the door to a number of infectious diseases. “Stress doesn’t make you sick,” says virologist Ronald Glaser. “But it does increase your risk of being sick because of what it does to your immune system.” There is particularly compelling evidence linking stress to colds and the flu. Although we are continually exposed to such trigger viruses, our immune system normally neutralizes their impact. But when a person is under emotional distress, these defenses can fail.

Your immune system may begin to overreact or not react in time to stop an infection when you are under stress. The source of the stress really does not matter. For instance, time pressure and an injury may seem like entirely different stresses to your mind but they are treated exactly the same way by your body.

Adaptogens build a strong defense against stress. Certain adaptogens such as Eleutherococcus have been proven to shorten the frequency, intensity and duration of trigger viruses that cause colds.

Can vitamins shorten infections?
Vitamin C and Echinacea are favorites for protecting against and even treating rhino virus infections. Russell Jaffe, MD, former director of the National Institutes of Health, recommends a loading dose of Vitamin C: one teaspoon of Vitamin C crystals every 15 minutes until you “flush.” By this, he means a complete bowel evacuation. After the flush, he recommends a daily serving of Vitamin C (for one month) that is equivalent to 75% of the amount it took you to flush.

Echinacea is used in a similar way. Significant medical research from Germany suggests that an hourly dose of Echinacea will reduce symptoms and shorten the duration of a virus infection. Taking a gram of Echinacea every hour for three days may even “abort” an infection that has already begun. Continue taking Echinacea three times daily for up to two weeks afterward to prevent a relapse.

Insulation and isolation
The best ways to protect against virus infections from colds and flu include:

• Building up your system with the 10 Essentials for Health and Wellness
• Reducing your exposure to trigger viruses through hand washing and other sanitary procedures

If you become infected, aggressive nutrition can restore balance to your immune system. Adaptogens and traditional remedies such as Vitamin C and Echinacea may shorten the course of an infection and provide quick relief.

There are four insults that cause imbalance in our body and mind: trauma, toxins, deficiencies and stress.

The best definition for stress of any kind is change. Stress can be from changes outside our body (temperature, sunlight, noise, etc.), from inside our body (hunger, dehydration, lack of rest, etc.), or even from our own thoughts (social expectations, time pressures, financial worries, etc.). With so many changes occurring around the holidays – and on so many levels – it is always wise to talk about holiday stress as a special cause of imbalance.

The destructive power of stress
The term “stress” was originally used as an engineering term. It describes the destructive forces acting on specific structures. For instance, stress was the term used to describe the effect of weight on a bridge. Stress describes not only the weight on the bridge, but the combination of destructive forces trying to tear the bridge apart: weight, wind, temperature extremes, etc.

Is that not the way people feel when they are under stress? Don’t you feel like you are being pulled in every direction until you are pulled apart? “Stress” is a good description of the distress of our mind and body brought on by internal and external demands.

The healing power of homeostasis
Humans are remarkably resilient; we adapt to new situations with relative ease. This is because of a body process called homeostasis. If stress is pulling us apart, homeostasis is putting us back together. As long as homeostasis has access to all of the resources it needs we will never feel the destructive power of stress.

The key is to have all of our 10 Essential resources available all of the time:

* To be optimally oxygenated and hydrated.
* To be perfectly rested and nourished.
* To feel completely supported and able to cope with any emotional demand at any given moment.

A reservoir like this will allow homeostasis to draw resources from our “bank account” and use them to satisfy the many demands placed upon us.

It you are lacking in any demanded resource, a special function of homeostasis will be engaged. I like to call it the Robin Hood function: it allows our body to rob one area to support another area. This is often seen in the special stress adaptation called “fight or flight.” Fight-or-flight response is like emergency spending with credit cards. This kind of behavior may help you get through the crisis, but sooner or later the debt must be repaid.

In the Robin Hood function of homeostasis, the debt comes at an extreme price. It is not uncommon for a body under stress to sacrifice an entire organ or organ system to maintain balance in another system. For example, osteoporosis is more common in people under extreme stress because their bones are robbed to supply nutrients needed for the stress response. Homeostasis must be maintained, even if this is at great sacrifice.

Holiday stress?
With this image in mind it is no wonder that people feel pulled apart around the holidays; there are just too many changes and too few resources available to meet the demands of homeostasis. Stress pulls us apart and our health suffers.

Since health resources are accumulated slowly and spent rapidly, it makes sense to re-classify “holiday” stresses as just plain stress! The methods for dealing with any kind of stress are the same no matter what time of the year it is: nutrients and nurturing.

Anti-stress nutrients include the stress-busting effects of Vitamin B-12 and adaptogens. They serve to reinforce homeostasis like an economic stimulus package for our nervous system. If you feel stress pulling you apart, take more of these two special anti-stress nutrients.

Nurturing your health comes from vigorously applying the 10 Essentials for Health and Wellness. Plan ahead and budget your energy for times when demands are greater and you face more changes than usual. In the end, don’t be afraid to say “no” – it can literally be the difference between maintaining balance through homeostasis or being pulled apart by stress.

Take Control of Your Health

* Take care of yourself every day of the year
* Vigorously apply the 10 Essentials
* Make sure you take an abundance of nutrients:
o Sublingual B-12 and Adaptogen 10 Plus®
o A multi-nutrient complex like Wellavoh® Men and Women or VitaDaily AM/PM™
o An Essential Fatty Acid complex like OmegaPrime®
* Recruit emotional support – don’t be afraid to ask for help
* Remember the Stress Protection Pack:
o Sublingual B-12
o Adaptogen 10 Plus

These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA, and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.