Connection and love save lives.

Neurologically we humans are profoundly visual creatures, but it turns out that much of the brain real-estate dedicated to processing visual images is concerned with looking at other people.  When we look at another person, and specifically another person’s face, MRI scans show huge areas of our brain waking up to process the information.  From an evolutionary point of view this makes perfect sense as we have become the most successful life form on earth through our ability to connect, bond and learn from one another.     

As we evolved, being part of a tribe had huge benefits such as improved communication, better hunting capability, more food, and a nurturing and safe environment to bring up children.  Our primary driving force became to help, care and essentially love each other, creating a strong resonance with other humans and sharing moods.  This is why some of us shed tears of joy while watching “The Repair Shop” on TV, and why I sometimes have to fight back tears of sorrow when my clients are recounting the challenges they and their families have faced through battles with poor health. 

We all know someone who lifts our spirits the moment they enter a room, and we tend to turn inwards towards these people because it feels so good.  Well, it doesn’t just feel good, without it we literally wither away.  Loneliness is a killer. 

Single men without good family or friendship networks die years before married men, and exhibit more cancers and heart attacks.  Those going home to an empty house after their first heart attack are at a much higher risk of having a second within a few months.  Connection predicts survival and the more connected, the higher the survival rate.  Just like exercise, diet and sleep, it’s something we can chose to do regardless of our age or situation. 

Unfortunately retirement for some can lead to a social wasteland, devoid of regular and meaningful connection with other like minded individuals.  This can be damaging to our physical and mental health, and we should value highly the need to regain some social reinforcement.  Perhaps that’s where a group like Healthy Options can help in a big way.  Our main aim is to rehabilitate and manage long term health conditions, but we also provide a safe, welcoming and nurturing environment where our clients can belong to a tribe who are pulling in the same direction.

Oban and the surrounding areas have many different groups available to residents where you can benefit from group interaction, emotional support and perhaps pursue an interest or hobby at the same time.  Nobody is going to do it for you, if you feel isolated, please reach out and build your own new groups.  It may not be easy to begin with, but it will be worthwhile in the long term.

On the flip side, if you are fortunate enough to have a life full of meaningful connections, why not turn your attention to someone who may not be so lucky?  Often this can be a family member or friend who has gradually lost touch with their community and may feel very awkward about asking for help to rekindle old connections.  Why not reach out and make the process easier for them, and as a result you will feel even better by giving a little back.  Connect, commit and care.

If you or someone you know could benefit by joining the Healthy Options tribe, please access a self-referral to our Thrive programme by visiting www.lornhealthyoptions.co.uk

Rob Graham

Eccentric exercise – Strength gains by applying the brakes

Walking up a hill, climbing the stairs or lifting weights are all great ways to improve our strength, but how many of us consider the benefits of walking down the hill, descending the stairs or returning the weights to the starting point under tension?

Let’s consider the simple action of standing up from a chair.  As we engage the large muscles in our legs and glutes, muscle fibres shorten in an action known as a concentric contraction.  If we then return to the chair slowly and under control, (not flopping down at pace) we continue to contract our muscle tissue but this time it lengthens.  This is known as an eccentric contraction, and it turns out that we can gain more strength development via this form of training.  To explain why, we need to consider how we actually build muscle tissue. 

Strength training of any kind will cause microscopic damage to muscle cells and is the reason why we can sometimes suffer with aches in muscles that we have been working the day before.  This is not an injury as such and is quite a normal outcome for the human body when it takes part in activity.  This microscopic damage stimulates the release of hormones which trigger the affected cells to re-build and become stronger than before. 

Concentric exercises such as the standing up part of a squat from a chair, recruit and fatigue many different muscle fibres.  The eccentric phase or sitting down part of the exercise, recruits less muscle fibres but can increase the load by up to four times which creates greater microscopic damage to the working tissue.  This means that you will burn more calories in the repair process, increase metabolic rate and enjoy greater strength improvements as a result. 

Research into this area not only points to greater strength improvements, but also reduced heart rate, better insulin sensitivity and enhanced bone density.  We also see an improvement in balance and general co-ordination which reduces falls risk and the associated injuries. 

So any exercise that encourages your muscles to lengthen under resistance will have a real beneficial effect, if performed safely.  Walking uphill or climbing the stairs are still a great way to improve strength, functional capacity and cardiovascular endurance, but don’t overlook the benefits of walking downhill or descending the stairs under control.  When lifting weights, perform that return to the start position slowly and under tension and you will maximise the effects of your training time.  If you are concerned about your general mobility and leg strength, why not start with some sit to stands from a dining room chair and really focus on a slow steady return to the chair without the knees collapsing together.  Perhaps use that time in front of the television more productively? 

Aerobic activity saves your life, strength training makes it worth living. 

If you would like more guidance on how to improve your general strength, please self-refer to Healthy Options Thrive programme by visiting www.lornhealthyoptions.co.uk

Rise and shine

For many of us the early morning wake-up routine involves an immediate cup of tea or coffee and some will barely function until they have consumed their first caffeinated drink of the day. We have some great research pointing to the beneficial effects of caffeine to improve alertness and clarity of thought, but we may benefit by delaying our intake a little in the morning.

First of all, a quick biology lesson on a molecule called adenosine which we produce naturally and gradually increases during the day creating a “pressure” to sleep when we reach bedtime. Adenosine attaches to receptor sites in our brain and peaks around 16 hours after we wake, creating that pro sleepy state we experience when it’s time to hit the sack. Caffeine parks in the same receptor sites used by adenosine and so blocks the effects of tiredness and improves our focus. So why would caffeine not be a great idea first thing in the morning when we wake?

If you have had a good night’s sleep adenosine levels will be pretty low in the morning but there will always be a residual amount left in our brain and caffeine isn’t the best way to “clear out” the remainder. A better way to clear the brain and supercharge our focus involves access to sunlight early in the morning. This produces a cortisol pulse, which is a great way to flush our brains of adenosine. We also know that exercise produces a cortisol response so perhaps an early morning walk outdoors would be the perfect way to waken ourselves and then leave the coffee or tea until we return.

If we have a poor night’s sleep the desire for caffeine can increase significantly, but again this may not be the best course of action. Sleep deprivation spikes our blood sugar levels and this will be heightened further with an immediate tea or coffee, especially if you take sugar in your hot morning drink. Even though early morning outdoor activity will not be high on anyone’s agenda after a rubbish night’s sleep, its probably the best thing we could do to pull us back into the land of the living. I should mention though that if you have not slept well and need to get behind the wheel first thing, then an immediate tea or coffee would be the right decision to enhance reaction time.

Despite the many beneficial uses of caffeine, we should also remember that its consumption should be focussed in the early part of the day as it hangs around in our brain for a long time. A quarter of the caffeine consumed in a coffee at midday will still be active in your brain at midnight, so afternoon and evening consumption can prevent us joining the land of nod and have us tossing and turning during the night. Try to leave around 10 hours between your last caffeinated drink and bedtime. I know…..don’t shoot the messenger!

Cameron Johnson - Specialist Exercise Professional 

Don’t Lose Sleep Over It

For the majority of us weight gain is not an outcome we desire, especially if it results from an increase in body fat. Navigating the ‘energy in’ versus ‘energy out’ equation will aid with weight maintenance or weight loss, but there are many variables at play. One that is often overlooked is the effect that sleep deprivation plays in our desire to eat, when we feel full and the choice of food we are encouraged to consume.

In theory, ensuring that we get enough sleep is perhaps one of the easier lifestyle choices to control. You don’t have to alter nutritional intake, adopt a new exercise programme or buy yourself a new bike. It just requires a little more shut eye for those who are falling short of the golden time frame of around 7-8 hours per night. This applies to us all regardless of age. The myth that we need less sleep as we age is sadly misguided, although we do understand that unfragmented sleep can be harder to generate in later years due to a combination of health issues and medication.

Sleep duration is closely linked to our production or lack off appetite regulating hormones. Two of the more important appetite controlling hormones are leptin and ghrelin. Leptin signals to the brain that we are full, satisfied and essentially fuelled for physical activity. Ghrelin on the other hand is known as the “hunger hormone,” and levels steadily increase from a low point after you finish your last meal. In healthy individuals with enough sleep, these two hormones complement each other to ensure that we are adequately fuelled but don’t consume too many calories.

The effect of sleep deprivation is seen when total duration dips to around 6 hours or less, which may be a normal for those of you reading this piece? This causes a suppression of the hormone leptin, so you cease to feel as satisfied with your normal meals and the normal “stop eating” response is blunted. In addition, ghrelin production increases with sleep deprivation making you feel hungrier throughout the day and well before your next planned meal. This can increase our desire to snack between meals and the constant signal you receive is, “Eat more because you haven’t had enough.”

Sleep deprivation doesn’t only effect how much we want to eat, but also plays an important role in what we want to eat. A lack of sleep shifts our preference to consume calorie dense and sugary carbohydrate foods. Because you are fatigued it’s likely the body is searching for something easy to digest which will produce an increase in energy rapidly.

With this in mind perhaps it's time to view our sleep patterns as a crucial way to control our nutritional choices and weight control. Hormones are strong chemical messengers which are extremely hard to ignore, so willpower will eventually fail, and poor food choices can become a subconscious decision.

There are many strategies to aid a good night's sleep, but probably the most effective is to develop a regular sleep routine in terms of bedtime and wake up time. For those who work, maintaining this routine at the weekend can be extremely helpful. It should also be noted that lost sleep during the week cannot be regained by sleeping longer at the weekend. Once it’s gone, it's gone so perhaps we could also look at an alarm for bedtime to complement the one that wakes us in the morning. Maybe you could sleep yourself a little lighter?

For many other useful strategies on how to get a better night's sleep why not self-refer to Healthy Options Thrive programme by visiting www.lornhealthyoptions.co.uk

Cameron Johnson

We are what we eat

We all need to consume some form of food to stay energized and provide our body with the necessary nutrients required for survival, but our choice of diet can play a significant role in our long- term health.

We all like to think our diet is relatively healthy, but most of us could identify at least one item that we have consumed in the last 24 hours that would be labelled as ‘junk food’. Junk foods are those with a particularly high calorie content but low nutritional value. They are often highly processed with added sugar, salt, or saturated fat. Eating just one meal of junk food per week can have detrimental effects on our health, especially if we lead a sedentary lifestyle.

The human body requires a small amount of salt for nerve function, muscle contraction and balance of water and minerals. However, consuming a large amount of salt via junk food can cause blood pressure to rise and increase the risk of heart disease, stroke and heart attack. This situation also places additional stress on our kidneys with excess salt accumulation causing our body to retain water in a bid to dilute increased sodium levels. This increased volume of water surrounding cells and within the blood can damage blood vessels and increase the workload placed on the heart.

To some degree we are all biologically programmed with a sweet tooth as calorie dense and sweet foods provide high amounts of energy and would have been very beneficial to our ancestors. Finding such food would not have been a regular occurrence, but we would have invested considerable time and energy in seeking it out whether it was honey from a beehive or fruit from a tree. Modern food companies understand this evolutional throwback, and some increase the amount of sugar in their products to keep you coming back for more. Will power struggles to overcome many thousands of years of evolution.

Our body is simply not designed to cope with large amounts of sugar on a regular basis and leads to weight gain and potentially Type 2 diabetes in the long term. Type 2 diabetes was once termed “age onset” diabetes but today we even see some children developing this condition due to the amount of sugar introduced into their diet from a very young age. It is not normal or healthy for children to have regular sugary treats regardless of how much they beg for them.

Foods high in saturated fat are not only calorie dense but also increase harmful cholesterol levels resulting in fatty deposits within the blood vessels. This can lead to a condition known as atherosclerosis (also known as hardening of the arteries) which increases blood pressure and once again increases the risk of obesity, heart attack and stroke.

Highly processed junk foods are often termed empty calories where the energy from sugar and fat outweigh the beneficial nutrients available. Our bodies require certain vitamins and minerals which can only be sourced from a healthy balanced diet and deficiency can lead to health problems. We also observe strong links between the consumption of foods such as fruit, vegetables, nuts and fish and an increase in positive mood and brain function.

Let’s try to replace junk food and fast food with more healthy alternatives made from scratch. It is possible to make much more healthy homemade versions of your favourite take away foods and for a fraction of the financial cost not to mention the cost to your health.

Cameron Johnson - Specialist Exercise Professional