General Wellness

COFFEE BENEFITS

FINALLY, a non-Covid-19 question! 😌

I was sent a video interview about the benefits of caffeine with Sanjiv Chopra, MD. He is the brother of better known “physician to the stars” Deepak Chopra, MD, who has a few specialties but is more of a Mindfulness Guru.

Sanjiv Chopra is a world-renowned hepatologist (liver specialist) in Boston.

Coffee has many benefits but it is particularly helpful for almost every kind of liver disorder. Here are some salient bullet points.

1. The coffee bean is a great source of many phytonutrients (plant-compounds which are also beneficial to humans) especially when it comes to supporting and regenerating the liver. All diseases, even liver cancer, have been improved with coffee.
2. Although decaffeination does remove some of the phytonutrients, it is still quite beneficial. Be mindful of the decaffeination process as traditional methods use volatile chemicals. Look for the CO2 extraction or Swiss Water methods which uses no chemicals.
3. Teas provide other benefits, especially green tea, but not as much for liver support as coffee.
4. Caffeine is a stimulant and can be a helpful pick-me-up but some people are very sensitive to it. It may not impair your ability to fall asleep but it does impact on the quality of sleep.
5. Caffeine has a half life of 6-8 hours. That means that if you had a cup of coffee at 9am, ¼ of that caffeine is still circulating in your body at 9pm and this is enough to affect sleep in some people and as well on reflux by impairing the lower esophageal sphincter tone.
6. Although caffeine might not affect your ability to fall asleep, it absolutely impacts on sleep quality in EVERYONE.
7. Although caffeine can be a bladder irritant and make toupee,it takes a fair amount to actually dehydrate you. I would limit it to 4-5 caffeinated beverages a day, but cut out the sodas since they are poison anyway (a Coke or Diet Coke has 30ish mg per can, along with all kinds of other chemicals). Eventually, if you pee enough, you can become dehydrated.
8. Some people are sensitive to caffeine with respect to the other side effects like palpitations, jitteriness and can worsen anxiety.
9. Choose organic coffee. Coffee plants are one of the most heavily chemically sprayed crops on the planet (after cotton, soy, and wheat). Be a coffee snob.
10. We all lost about a liter of fluid while sleeping (from just breathing and perspiring) so try to have a glass of water in the morning before diving into the coffee.
11. What you put in your coffee IS important. Dairy and sweeteners, especially artificial ones, essentially negate all the benefits of the coffee. Choose plant based “milks” like soy or nut-milks, just be careful of the added sugars and emulsifiers. All the stuff you add to your Starbucks coffee essentially makes it an energy drink with lots of caffeine, sugar and other chemicals.

I drink 3-4 cups of coffee a day. I try to make the last couple decaf. Never after noon and I try to keep it even earlier. Even decaf, which can have 10-15 mg of caffeine, affects my sleep. I am a coffee snob and have a fancy home coffee maker (a Jura) and buy exclusively organic coffee for home. I make my own plant-milks using one of my favorite kitchen purchases, an Almond Cow (www.almondcow.co) which is a great device to make milks and super easy to clean (unlike the traditional way of using a bag to squeeze out the pulp).

Stay safe and be well. 

AC 😎✌️🌱❤🐖🏃🏻🧘🏻‍♂️🌎😷 ☕️☕️☕️☕️☕️☕️

COVID-19, CYBER SICKNESS and HAIR LOSS

CYBER SICKNESS. This issue started to creep into our healthcare world long before Covid but the significant increase in screen time as a result of isolation and working from home has definitely increased its prevalence. Symptoms like eye strain, visual changes, headaches, sleeping problems and dizziness are all related to increased screen time. Our brains simply did not evolve to sit in front of a screen all day long, stimulating the virtual cortex with little else useful going on. Sitting in front of a screen also increases the chances of watching videos and news reports, the vast majority of which are negative, which increase stress. There are some early studies suggesting that early childhood exposure to all the screens impact on vision as a teen and adult. Some helpful hints to try to mitigate all the screen time include:

• Take lots of breaks. Get up and walk around at set intervals. Set an alarm on whatever device you use to remind you to move. Do some calisthenics regularly to move your blood and your muscles, not to mention giving your eyes and brain a break.
• Wear blue light blocking glasses which reduce eye strain. This is particularly important within 2 hours of bed since ALL screens decrease melatonin production, which dramatically impacts on sleep latency, duration as well as quality. Lower melatonin levels have also been linked to poorer outcomes from SARS-Cov-2 infections.
• Get a standup desk. Just standing and doing your work makes a big difference.
• Dim the screen. Definitely set the automatic dimming settings which most devices now have.
• Get off the darn device! And when you take a break, don’t look at another screen (ie binging on Netflix on TV). What’s the point of that? Go outside.

HAIR LOSS. At any one time, 1/3rd of your hair is growing, 1/3rd is falling out and 1/3rd is just sitting there doing nothing. Stress has been certainly linked to hair loss and these times are understandably more stressful than what most people are used to. Not to panic though. The hair which falls out usually regrows eventually. Chronic stress however, does cause chronic release of cortisol which leads to increased weight and disrupts hormone production. There is a reason heavier people have thinner hair. Fat cells produce hormones and the hormone dysregulation leads to increased hair loss, specifically because of increased levels of testosterone (there is a reason they call it male-pattern-balding). All the hormones also increase insulin resistance (pre-diabetes) and increases the risks of hormonal cancers like breast and prostate. No simple answer to stress here. I can tell people up the wazoo to “stress less”. I wish I could take my own advice, and I do try really hard.

• Exercise and move more.
• Meditate and practice gratitude.
• Eat better (less caffeine, fat, salt and sugar)
• Sleep better.
• Appreciate what you have and know that this will all pass eventually.

In the meantime, you got it:

• Wear a MASK and wear it properly covering your nose. PLEASE.
• DISTANCE when you have to be out.
• WASH your hands and use proper hand sanitizer judiciously (there are some crappy sanitizers out there so read labels).
• Get VACCINATED for the flu.

Stay safe and be well. 

AC 😎✌️🌱❤🐖🏃🏻🧘🏻‍♂️🌎😷