Practicing True Self Care

The past few years have led some people to believe practicing self-care looks like shopping, avoiding things you don’t want to do, taking bubble baths, drinking wine, watching TV, etc. Though some of these could be considered ways of taking care of yourself, in the long run, they don’t ‘fill your cup’ the same way taking care of yourself would. For example, shopping every time you want to practice self-care, could easily get you spending more than you should, causing you more stress in the long run.

Practicing self-care should be able to rejuvenate you. Great examples of these would include eating nutritious meals, making sure each meal has enough protein to support your energy and blood sugar regulation (20-30 g/meal), making sure you get enough sleep (8 hours on average), making sure you are well hydrated (not over or under hydrated), getting some movement into your daily practice, etc. Another way of taking care of yourself, is not avoiding the things you don’t want to do - this doesn’t necessarily mean you have to finish it. Breaking up overwhelming things into small bite size pieces can make it easier for you to finish some of it at a time, verses never working on it and getting more stressed as the deadline comes closer.

My favourite ways of getting regular movement include: yoga, walking (10, 000 steps a day), weight training, and partner dancing. Getting daily movement to move your body is a great way to support it physically. Our bodies are designed to move, and sitting down all day is not conducive to making sure our joints are well lubricated and our circulation is supported. Our veins don’t have muscles helping it to bring the blood back up to our hearts. The contraction of our skeletal muscles is what supports the blood flow back out our heart. So make sure you are getting some movement throughout the day. Enough to get you to increase your heart rate a bit and to cause you to sweat.

Procrastination is something that people do, especially when they are feeling overwhelmed by a particular task. So the best way to combat this is by splitting that task into smaller tasks that are easier to handle. This way you are able to progress with the task and not be overwhelmed by the size of it. It’s about moving in a forward direction. You are not asking for perfection. Perfection isn’t possible, nothing is perfect. If what is causing you to be stuck is perfectionist tendencies (trust me, I get it. I’m a recovering perfectionist), then reflecting on that and getting additional help (eg. psychologist, EMDR, hypnotherapy, etc), can help you in the long run, because perfectionism often stops more goals just from cause you to become stagnant. So turn larger goals or projects into smaller tasks, and take it one step at a time. This is about taking small steps towards your goals or projects, so that you are decreasing your workload in the process (instead of letting it accumulate).

Lastly, this wouldn’t be one of my mental health blogs without including positive self talk. You have to learn to be your own cheerleader, because sometimes it can feel like the world is against you, but you can be your own best friend and listen to what you need, and to out and get it. For example, I know when I need to hang out with my friends to decompress and get a different perspective. So in addition to being your own cheerleader and best friend, understanding where you are is important. Has your nervous system been hi-jacked? Do you always feel on edge or have a racing mind that can’t turn off? Maybe you need to support your nervous system with activities like yoga or meditation to calm your nervous system down, and get you out of the Fight-or-Flight setting. This is also where you fill your cup. Find the activities that bring you joy, that make you feel alive, and try to incorporate those activities as regularly as you can. These activities can be things like: crafting, running, jogging, playing with your pets or children, being with friends, dancing, etc. So explore different activities and see which ones fill you with joy.

To practice self care, you are prioritizing your needs (sleep, nutrition, movement, stress management, etc), helping your future self by taking small steps towards your project or goals regularly, and being your own cheerleader.

“I believe depression is legitimate. But I also believe that if you don't exercise, eat nutritious food, get sunlight, get enough sleep, consume positive material, surround yourself with support, then you aren't giving yourself a fighting chance.”

~Jim Carrey

~Dr. Charmagne

Improving Your Sleep

Several people are concerned about their sleep. They wonder how to get more sleep, how they can improve their sleep quality, how to stop waking up in the middle of the night, how to fall asleep faster, among others. For those who have a hard time sleeping, sleep is all they can think about - and who can blame them? Sleep is vitally important for our bodies; sleep is one of the only times our bodies heal. If we don't sleep, or sleep poorly, we can inhibit or slow down our bodies ability to heal. It also allows your mind to sort out what has gone through your day. Different ages require different amounts of sleep; that being said, 8 hrs does overlap with all of them (check out Foundations of Health: Sleep for more information).

Sleep Hygiene

An important practice to have to help ensure that you have good sleep, is good sleep hygiene. It’s pretty much the night time ritual that you do before you sleep, to wind down and promote good sleep. This includes discontinuing any electronics for 1 hr or more before bed, using a night filter on your electronics as soon as the sun sets, and sleeping in a dark room with no lights. 

Electronics emit a blue light, which throws off our circadian rhythm, causing several people to have a difficult time falling asleep. The blue or white light from electronic devices are strong enough to make our bodies think it is day time, and as a result, it suppresses the production of melatonin by the body, making it harder for you go to sleep. Exposure to any light while sleeping could do this - especially if they are blue light, which can come from LED light bulbs; which is why it is best to sleep where it is completely dark.  If this is difficult to do, an easier way to do this would be to use a sleeping mask to mimic a dark room. 

Melatonin

Melatonin is a hormone that our pineal gland produces to allow us to go to sleep. It is suppose to be highest at night, when we are sleeping. The problem comes for those who are experiencing a lot of stress. Cortisol is known as the stress hormone, and the two of them have an inverse relationship. This means, that when melatonin is high, cortisol is low, and vise versa. Cortisol is suppose to be highest during the day, and there is a secondary peak in the mid-afternoon. However, people who are stressed can experience high cortisol at night, and this interferes with the concentration of melatonin your body can make. As a result, some people feel like their minds are racing, and are unable to stop it to go to sleep. Melatonin helps regulate the body’s circadian rhythm, and promotes sleep by improving the sleep wake cycle, and studies have shown that it can help decrease the time it takes to go to sleep, as well has increase overall sleep amounts (Psychology Today). 

Meditation 

I’ve heard different numbers for how much sleep a good 20 minute meditation is equivalent to. They are generally between 4-6 hrs of equivalent sleep. Meditation can be difficult to do, especially if it’s your first time doing it. It allows your mind and body to go into a deeper state of relaxation, where it can rest. Finding time for 20 minutes of meditation during the day can help you with your energy for the rest of the day, and meditating before you sleep can improve your quality of sleep. There's a thought out there that says meditation is about not thinking. Based on Sri Sri’s wisdom talks (The Art of Living), meditation is the “art of doing nothing.” What he means by this is, it’s the art of allowing yourself to do nothing - so you position yourself in such a way that your senses can have a break. This doesn’t mean to actively think, “do nothing or think nothing,” it means that if a thought comes to mind, you see it, and let it go. Like when you are looking out a window in the passenger seat. You let the images go past you. Because the mind doesn’t work like the body. If you actively work your body, it does amazing things. If you actively work your mind, it doesn’t work so well. How many of you at night actively attempt to go to sleep? It doesn’t work, you end up feeling more awake. If you were to meditate, and use no effort into sleeping, then you will be able to sleep easier. 

Happy Sleeping!

~ Dr. Charmagne

Foundations of Health - Sleep

In this article, I will be talking about 1 Pillar of Health - Sleep, and what you can do to have this foundation. These foundations is an awesome start to work towards your health goals, but if you have other underlying conditions, this is the first step. To accelerate your health journey and make sure you are going in the right direction, book an appointment with someone you trust and can work with.

Sleep

Sleep is very important to help your body heal and your mind sort out what has gone through your day. Different ages require different amounts of sleep, but 8 hrs does overlap with all of them.

• Newborns (0-3 months):14-17 hours each day 

• Infants (4-11 months): 12-15 hours 

• Toddlers (1-2 years): 11-14 hours 

• Preschoolers (3-5): 10-13 hours 

• School age children (6-13):  9-11 hours 

• Teenagers (14-17):  8-10 hours 

• Younger adults (18-25): 7-9 hours 

• Adults (26-64): 7-9 hours

• Older adults (65+): 7-8 hours  (National Sleep Foundation)

A way you can increase the quality of your sleep is by having good sleep hygiene.  This includes discontinuing any electronics for at least an hour before bed, using a night filter on your electronics as soon as the sun sets, and sleeping in a dark room with no lights on, and having a night time ritual (where you wind down, eg. you can take a bath, meditate, or read a novel).

Electronics emit a blue light, which throws off our circadian rhythm, and suppressing the production of melatonin. Melatonin is the hormone our bodies make to help us get into deep sleep to heal and recover. With the suppression of melatonin, it becomes difficult for us to get into deep sleep, or to fall asleep at all, especially with the compounding effect of the light throwing off our circadian rhythm. Exposure to any light while sleeping could do this - especially if they are blue light - which can come from LED light bulbs. This is why it is best to sleep in complete darkness; however, if this is not possible, you can mimic having a dark room by using a sleeping mask. Another thing that could help you go to sleep easier would be using a white noise machine to drown out outside noises, it sounds very similar to the ocean, and is very relaxing. 

Happy sleeping!

~ Dr. Charmagne

Back to School - Strengthening Your Little One's Immune System

As a little girl, I loved school. Yes, I was a nerd (and still am), but I loved going to school to be with my friends. I felt connected at school. I was able to build long lasting friendships with classmates. However, I tended to get sick quite often, especially with tonsilitis (that has left my tonsils quite large), colds and flus, ear infections, and stomach aches; the list goes on. When I was sick, I didn't go to school, I stayed home. But I loved school and I loved seeing my friends just as I loved learning, so I hated missing school. 

Whether your little ones love or hate school, it is important for them to go, and regardless of if they are in school or not, it's always unfortunate to have a sick child. Luckily, there are a few things that you can do to help boost their immune systems, which helps fight off the infections better and also lessens the severity if they do happen to fall ill. 

There are the common methods that everyone talks about: Vitamin C, probiotics and Vitamin D. These are staples in helping to boost and regulate the immune system, but they are also supplements. I'll be talking about these 3, along with some lifestyle and dietary things you can do to help boost the immune system of you and your kids. 

Eat lots of vegetables and fruits

Eating a healthy diet is one of the 3 Pillars of Health (the other 2 being sleep and exercise). Having half a plate full of vegetables ensures that you are getting enough nutrients and fibre in your diet. I also like to tell my patients to eat "as many colours of the rainbow" as they can. Doing this allows them to have as many different phytonutrients as possible. Not all phytonutrients do the same thing, but they are beneficial in their own way. These phytonutrients tend to be different based on the colour of the vegetable and fruit. Rich purples, reds, and blues are rich in anthocyanin (Journal of Biomedicine and Biotechnology) - which is a strong antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory, that can help your body be at it's best.

Exercise or Play

Being active strengthens our bodies by keeping our cardiovascular systems healthy and strengthening our bones (MedlinePlus). Everyone knows that exercising is good for you, but no one understands how it improves the immune system. Some of the theories I've read and liked included: 

• Increased body temperature during and after the workout deters microbes from replicating and allows your body's defence system to work more optimally - the same way a fever works.

• Faster blood flow and changes in your antibodies allows them to move through your body faster, catch and neutralize microbes they encounter. 

• Exercise helps to manage stress, and therefore, decreases incidences of illness.

Studies have shown that moderate exercise has the best immunomodulating effects, and that doing regular, strenuous activity can be detrimental to the immune system (Clinical Sports Medicine)

Sleep

Sleep is very important for the body and health. This is the time that the body recovers from the day's hustle and bustle, the stress inflicted to it mentally, and physically. The body recovers and heals, and builds up resources to be used the next day. Sleep can be called the best anti-oxidant you can give your body (American Journal of Physiology). Sleep and many immune functions are both influenced by the 24-hour circadian rhythm. Your body adjusts which immune cells are active throughout your sleep-wake cycle. Immune cells that actively kill bacteria and diseased cells (NK cells) are more active during the day, when you are active; while memory T cells and cells that haven't matured are the most active at night (Pflügers Archiv). Therefore, it is important that your child gets enough sleep; below is a chart of recommended hours of sleep needed for children depending on their age:

From National Sleep Foundation

Vitamin C 

Vitamin C has been known to support and improve the function of the immune system and decreases the duration of the common cold. The mechanism of how vitamin C is able to do this is still not clear, but it is needed for certain cells of the immune system (phagocytes and T-cells) to function properly. These cells track, mark, and eat invading microbes. Vitamin C supplementation was seen to reduce viral infection and replication of the Epstein-Barr Virus (aka Mono) (Medical Science Monitor). Your body has it's own absorption limit when it comes to vitamin C. In Naturopathic School, my professor would challenge us to find our limit - take and measure the amount of vitamin C it takes you to have a Bowel Movement (BM) (because it will cause you to have a BM if you take too much, as a side effect). Knowing this number can be really useful because when you are sick, your body can absorb more vitamin C, as it uses more of it to fight off the invading microb (J. Prousky).

Probiotics

70-80% of your immune system is in your gut (Clinical & Experimental Immunology). Your gut is covered in bacteria, which is often referred to as your microbiota, or gut flora. These bacteria help regulate your immune system and crowd out pathogenic bacteria so that they can't take hold of your intestine which can cause problems. Your natural microbiota is dependant on the way you were born - if you were born vaginally or through a Cesarean birth - because the first microbs you are exposed to start to inhabit your gut, so whether you were exposed to your mother's bacteria or the hospital's bacteria plays a large role in the bacteria that inhabit your gut. One way to influence your microbiota is by taking probiotics which have various immunomodulating abilities depending on the strain (Dr. David Williams).  Strains such as Bifidobacteria infantis are really good for immune modulation (Gut Microbes, FEMS Immunology and Medical Microbiology), whereas, Lactobacillus fermentum are good for atopic dermatitis (Archives of Disease in Childhood).

Vitamin D 

Vitamin D modulates the passive and active immune system since there are vitamin D receptors on B cells, T cells and antigen presenting cells (Journal of Investigative Medicine). There was a study showing that supplementation with vitamin D resulted in statistically decreased incidences of influenza. (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition). Vitamin D is also able to change the concentration of different T cells, moving it from a pro-inflammatory to more of a regulatory one - allowing your body to maintain self-tolerance, which is very important because you should not be reacting and attacking your own body (Journal of Immunology). 

~ Dr. Charmagne