Working Nights? Top Five To-Do’s to Reduce Declines in Health

Are you working the graveyard shift?

A recent study has linked night-shift work to an increase in Type – 2 Diabetes (1).

Compared with day workers, people who occasionally worked night shifts were 15 percent more likely to have diabetes; those who rotated shifts with some night work were 18 percent more likely; and those who worked irregular shifts with frequent night shifts were 44 percent more likely to have Type 2 diabetes, the results showed.

Working through the night can cause misalignment of circadian rhythms, reduced energy expenditure, and partial sleep restriction, which can all contribute to the risk.

So what’s one to do who happens to be in an industry in which working a regular 9-5 may not always be an option?

A recent article in the Times (2) gives some vague recommendations: “Try to prioritize sleep, be physically active, keep a healthy weight”, but there’s no mention of just how to keep that healthy weight.

As is often the case, it’s easy to list being active prior to eating a real, whole food diet; as if to imply that if one is active, what they eat is less important.

I beg to differ.

I’ve quoted a client’s famous line many a time; he said, “Abs are made in the kitchen”.

Well, not only are abs made in the kitchen, but a healthy, alkaline diet leading to a body which is not in a constant state of inflammation is also made in the kitchen!

As our awareness as a society about the significance of gut health and how that play a crucial role in our overall health grows, it would be remiss to not mention how what someone who has to work during a period of time when the body wants to be sleeping eats will affect his or her health.

One needn’t even get too scientific about it:  if you’re sleepy and know you’ve got to stay up for several more hours, it would be natural to think sugar, caffeine or both.

What’s more, if you’re already overly reliant on sugar as your fuel rather than fat, it’ll seem all the more natural as your body has been conditioned to automatically think of consuming something sweet when energy levels start to drop.

Rather than resorting to sugar and coffee, consider this the perfect opportunity to kill the proverbial two birds with one stone:  train your body to become more fat-adapted and decrease inflammation in one fell swoop.

Below are five easy things you can do to help ease the pain and consequence of night shift work:

While this won’t take the place of a good night’s sleep, removing the double whammy effect of lack of sleep plus eating too much sugar will at least decrease the long term health consequence of having to work through those long, dark nights.

Eat More Fat
Drink Bone Broth
Use Ice Ball Breaks
Maximize the Sleep you do get
Meditate

 

(1) http://care.diabetesjournals.org/cont...

(2) https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/21/we...