Ways to wipe out Winter Tiredness

Ways to wipe out Winter Tiredness

 

Many people feel tired and sluggish during winter. If you find yourself longing for your warm, cozy bed more than usual during winter, blame the lack of sunlight. As the days become shorter, your sleep and waking cycles become disrupted, leading to fatigue.
Less sunlight means that your brain produces more of a hormone called melatonin, which makes you sleepy. Because the release of this sleep hormone is linked to light and dark, when the sun sets earlier your body also wants to go to bed earlier, hence you may feel sleepy in the early evening.
While it’s normal for all of us to slow down generally over winter, sometimes lethargy can be a sign of more serious winter depression. If your tiredness is severe and year-round, you could have chronic fatigue syndrome.

5 Tips to fight Winter Tiredness

Sunlight is good for winter tiredness
Open your blinds or curtains as soon as you get up to let more sunlight into your home. And get outdoors in natural daylight as much as possible, even a brief lunchtime walk can be beneficial. Make your work and home environment as light and airy as possible.
Good night's sleep
When winter hits it’s tempting to go into hibernation mode, but that sleepy feeling you get in winter doesn’t mean you should snooze for longer. In fact if you do, chances are you’ll feel even more sluggish during the day.
We don’t technically need any more sleep in winter than in summer. Aim for about eight hours of shuteye a night and try to stick to a reliable sleep schedule. Go to bed and get up at the same time every day. And make sure your bedroom is conducive to sleep – clear the clutter, have comfortable and warm bedlinen and turn off the TV.
Regular exercise
Exercise may be the last thing you feel like doing on dark winter evenings, but you’ll feel more energetic if you get involved in some kind of physical activity every day, ideally so you reach the recommended goal of 150 minutes of exercise a week. Exercise in the late afternoon may help to reduce early evening fatigue, and also improve your sleep.
Winter is a great time to experiment with new and different kinds of activity. Skating is a good all-round exercise for beginners and aficionados alike. If you’re more active, go for a game of badminton, football or tennis under the floodlights. If you find it hard to get motivated to exercise in the chillier, darker months, focus on the positives you’ll not only feel more energetic but stave off winter weight gain.
Learn to relax
Feeling time-squeezed to get everything done in the shorter daylight hours? It may be contributing to your tiredness. Stress has been shown to make you feel fatigued. There’s no quick-fire cure for stress but there are some simple things you can do to alleviate it. So, if you feel under pressure for any reason, calm down with meditation, yoga, exercise and breathing exercises.
Eat the right foods
Once the summer ends, there’s a temptation to ditch the salads and fill up on starchy foods such as pasta, potatoes and bread. You’ll have more energy, though, if you include plenty of fruit and vegetables in your comfort meals.
Winter vegetables such as carrots, parsnips, swede and turnips can be roasted, mashed or made into soup for a warming winter meal for the whole family. And classic stews and casseroles are great options if they’re made with lean meat and plenty of veg. Try to avoid foods containing lots of sugar – it gives you a rush of energy but one that wears off quickly.

 

Vitamin D protects against asthma, reduces attacks by 50%

Vitamin D protects against asthma, reduces attacks by 50%

 Vitamin D supplements reduce the risk of severe asthma attacks by 50 percent, according to a recent research review by the world-renowned Cochrane Collaboration.

The Cochrane Collaboration is an independent, international network of researchers, health professionals and patients who work together to review existing scientific research in order to promote evidence-based treatment.

Fewer severe attacks

Vitamin D has long been known to play an important role in preserving bone health, but in the 1980s researchers learned that vitamin D receptors are found throughout the body – particularly in white blood cells and in the epithelial layer of the respiratory system. This sparked an interest in whether the vitamin might play a role in immune or respiratory health.

Since then, numerous studies have confirmed that vitamin D plays a key role in immune regulation. Low levels of vitamin D have been strongly linked to a wide variety of autoimmune diseases, which share many physiological characteristics with allergies and asthma. Observational studies have also confirmed that asthma patients with lower blood levels of vitamin D are more likely to suffer from asthma attacks.

For the new studies, the researchers examined 81 separate studies into the connection between vitamin D and asthma attacks. From these, they identified nine that were double-blind, placebo controlled, randomized trials – considered the gold standard in medical research.

The researchers looked at several different asthma-related outcomes, including a worsening of symptoms severe enough to require an emergency room visit, hospital admission, or oral corticosteroid treatment; day-to-day asthma symptoms; lung function; exhaled nitric oxide; and biomarkers of airway inflammation.

The researchers found that people who took vitamin D supplements were 50 percent less likely to suffer from asthma attacks severe enough to require emergency room visits or hospital admission. They also reduced the risk of treatment with oral steroids.

Notably, vitamin D showed no effect on day-to-day asthma symptoms or any of the other biomarkers that the researchers examined.

Vitamin D fights infection, inflammation

Because of the design of the initial studies, the researchers were not able to determine whether vitamin D supplementation helped all patients, or merely those who were deficient in vitamin D before the study began. They have now partnered with the principal investigators of the nine initial studies to be able to review individual patient data.

The researchers hope that this collaboration will indicate a threshold above which vitamin D is shown to reduce the risk of severe asthma attacks, which will in turn allow them to make a clinical recommendation.

Although it is impossible to say exactly why vitamin D supplementation reduced the risk of attacks, prior studies showing a strong link between vitamin D and asthma are able to offer several possibilities. Some studies have shown, for example, that vitamin D can suppress inflammatory responses, including those that produce asthma attacks.

Studies have also shown that vitamin D helps induce immune responses when the body detects infection with an upper respiratory virus, like a cold or flu. These viruses are major triggers of asthma attacks.

Martineau offered two main cautions regarding the research. First, he noted that only about half of asthma patients suffer from a form severe enough to be at risk of the attacks examined in the study. It is unclear if or how vitamin D might affect people with these more mild forms of the disease.

He also noted that all the trials used vitamin D supplementation in addition to regular treatment, not as a replacement. Severe asthma attacks can be life-threatening.

10 simple tips to help regulate your cholesterol level

 10 simple tips to help regulate your cholesterol level 

High cholesterol levels contribute to plaque formation (or fat deposits) in the arteries, which raise the risk of developing coronary artery disease, heart attack or stroke.

Here are  top 10 tips to control cholesterol naturally:

1. Avoid trans-fats
Trans-fat is the worst when it comes to heart health. It has been shown to double the risk of heart disease in women. Trans-fats can be found in processed foods that contain partially hydrogenated fat or shortening. These foods include baked goods, French fries and confectionery.

2. Say no to deep-fried foods
When eating out, Dr. Lim Su Lin recommends avoiding deep-fried foods. The oils are often reused many times, which produces harmful compounds that may increase the risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke and Alzheimer's disease.

3. Limit your saturated fat intake
Saturated fat increases LDL, or bad cholesterol, which may lead to heart disease and stroke. It is estimated that saturated fat causes 31 percent of all coronary heart diseases and 11 percent of strokes worldwide. Saturated fats can be found in animal products such as meat, dairy and lard.

4. Choose the right cooking oil
Furthermore, Dr. Lim Su Lin recommends cooking with a healthy unsaturated oil, such as olive oil. Olive oil is well known for its heart-healthy effects. It can raise good cholesterol levels, and lowers the amount of bad cholesterol.

5. Opt for lean meat
To protect your heart, choose lean meats and remove visible fat and skin before cooking and eating. Also, make sure to include more fish in your diet, as fish contains heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids, which can help lower the risk of cardiovascular disease.

6. Reduce dairy intake
Try to keep dairy products to an absolute minimum, and choose low-fat options – such as skim milk – instead.

7. Limit cholesterol intake
Although the body needs cholesterol to function properly, most of us just eat too much of it. Dr. Lim Su Lin said that we do not need to avoid high-cholesterol foods such as eggs and shellfish completely, however, she emphasized that moderation is key.

8. Fiber up
Soluble fibers play a key role in cholesterol reduction by binding cholesterol to bile acid in the small intestines. Foods high in soluble fiber include oatmeal, oat bran, barley, fruit, vegetables, legumes, beans and nuts.

9. Snack wisely
Instead of grabbing a trans-fat rich and sugary snack, opt for fresh fruits, vegetables or nuts instead.

10. Get moving
Regular exercise has been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke by 50 percent. To reap the full benefit, it is recommended to engage in 30 to 60 minutes of physical activity, such as brisk walking, sports, swimming or dancing, at least three times a week.