We aren't getting enough sleep

Many of my patients share a common health issue -lack of sleep.  Most people don’t see it as much more than an annoying problem.  However, sleep deprivation has many potentially harmful health effects including decreased mental function, depression, heart problems, diabetes, and more.

In our “on-call” world of today, we can eat whenever we want, watch TV programs whenever we want, and work whenever we want.  Unfortunately, our physical bodies have not evolved to adapt to this kind of pattern.  As a result, many of us never take the opportunity to shut down and don’t get enough sleep and our health suffers for it.

To get yourself healthy, do the most easy and basic thing and make sure you get a solid 8 hours of sleep every night.  Don’t stay up later than you have to and if you find yourself unable to deal with your insomnia, consult your naturopathic physician to see what you can do about the problem.

Stress can be motivating or debilitating depending on whether you can handle it

During the Olympics, athletes are being asked to perform under extremely stressful conditions.  In many cases, the stress can be a positive factor that gets the adrenaline

flowing, the heart pumping, and dumps glucose into the bloodstream to fuel the athlete’s muscles towards medal-winning performances.

If you are being subjected to too much stress over a longer period of time, however, there are negative effects on your health. Particularly, your adrenal glands also start to release another hormone called cortisol that cause increased blood pressure, weight gain, and other chronic health problems.

As Hans Selye demonstrated through his research, the mind-body connection is most evident from the wide range of serious physical health problems that can result from mental/emotional stress. How much stress is too much? Well, that is different for every

person. But stress is not a bad thing – it can motivate you to be very productive and achieve greatness. Just make sure that you can handle it.