Men’s Health: Optimisation and Productivity

 

In my blog last month, I covered the important topic of women’s health. The month before I looked at children’s health, particularly building immunity during school holidays and lockdown. This month I would like to focus on the other important topic of men’s health. If you are a man reading this, I hope it gives you new perspectives to fuel your journey to better health and optimal wellbeing. If you are a woman reading this, I hope you can see how it will benefit the men in your life – husbands, sons, brothers, friends!

 

Working with your Circadian Rhythm

It is an obvious, but important, fact that men and women are different with different hormonal rhythms and different anatomy, with different needs and abilities. Men are created with a more obvious hormonal pattern based on a 24-hour circadian rhythm. Each day you will find that testosterone and cortisol that fires up each morning and sustains a burst of physical, social and cognitive activity throughout the day. Most productive work is often done in the morning and you may find structured morning routines can be so important to your productivity and wellbeing.

However, by about 3pm testosterone and cortisol tends to run out. It is helpful to get as much done during the day and to consider a change of activity or a nap or less demanding work around mid-afternoon.

Contrast this with a woman’s 28-day hormonal cycle which can sustain a lot of high-energy activity at certain times in the hormonal cycle and more reflective activity at other times in the cycle.

 

Re-thinking Sleep

Understanding your circadian rhythm means you cannot escape the importance of sleep. Sleep is one of the most important rhythms that regulate your body – without sleep other systems are compromised, including your cardiovascular, muscular, digestive, immune and reproductive systems.[1] Most of us are not in tune with the natural rhythm of light and dark so our bodies often struggle with many of its other physiological rhythms. High quality sleep and keeping regular hours can help regulate your bodies rhythms.[2] Moreover, the benefits of sleep cannot be overstated. While you are sleeping your body is working hard! It is clearing out cellular debris and repairing cells and systems and using the sleeping hours to ensure your body – cells, muscles, organs – recovers faster and better than any other known treatment.

Prioritising healthy sleep is also the best way to avoid burnout and fatigue, which has a negative effect on the immune system and leaves your vulnerable to disfunction and disease. Lack of sleep also impairs the body’s ability to deal with unwanted weight and unavoidable stress.[3] If you are feeling sluggish, irritable, lacking in energy, a power nap is probably the best thing for you!

 

Harnessing the power of Autophagy

What is autophagy? In terms of definition, the word means ‘self-eating’: it is the way your body  cleans out damaged cells and regenerates newer, healthier cells. Autophagy has been described as your cellular salvage, cleaning and recycling system. It has many preventative benefits that protect your body from disfunction and disease at a cellular level.[4]

So how can you benefit from autophagy? The simple answer is by fasting. Research shows that in a men in particular benefit tremendously from extended periods in a ‘fasted’ state. This is because autophagy kicks in when the body goes without food for an extended period of time (think 16-24 hours, rather than 8 or 10 hours). This means that when you eat can be as important, or more important, than what you eat![5]

Fasting is often described as a hermetic stressor and restricting your intake of food for longer periods of time puts beneficial stress on your body that triggers an adaptive response (autophagy) that has the potential to make you stronger and healthier.[6] Autophagy not only removes toxic components from your cells, it also provides energy in the absence of food. Research shows the benefits of long periods of time without food is far greater for men and recommends that women have shorter periods of restricted eating or fasted states of around 12-16 hours for maximum effect.

 

Quality food

It makes sense that if consuming food in a shorter amount of time is beneficial, then the food you eat must be of the highest quality. It is no use eating food of inferior nutritional quality and then exposing your body to longer periods of a fasted state. Your body needs the best nutritional input in order to fuel the optimal recovery and regeneration. You may find that you are often far too busy to think about food, but your food choices are important. A poor diet can wreak havoc on the finely tuned systems that keep your body in good health.

This eye-catching image shows the breakdown of a healthy meal based on a diverse range of fresh, largely unprocessed, whole foods. Daily consumption of  protein, complex carbohydrates and healthy fats are important for optimal health.

What other changes will ensure a high-quality diet and optimal nutrition?

• Choose organic where possible, especially fruit and vegetables that fall within the ‘dirty dozen’. You can read more about the ‘dirty dozen’ and ‘clean fifteen here’.
• Make sure you eat meat that comes from well-reared animals – grass-fed and free-range is best. Animals that have enjoyed a happy, healthy life provide meat that is healthy, as opposed to animals fed on sub-quality food and pumped full of growth hormones.
• Promote gut health. Gut health is so important for immunity and brain health. You can read my blog on fermentation food.
• Make sure you consume enough protein every day, especially in the morning. A breakfast that includes eggs or yoghurt or meat will help here!
• Remember the healthy fats. Fats found in oily fish, walnuts, other nuts and seeds, and cold-pressed vegetable oils including olive oil support healthy leptin and ghrelin levels and are easy to incorporate into your diet. Also remember to only heat fats that are solid at room temperature such as coconut oil and butter. Other fats (oils) should be eaten cold.  If you want to cook with olive oil, I suggest that you add a tablespoon of cold water to keep the temperature of the oil down.
• Increase the variety and colour of your vegetables and salad. Most people are not getting enough of this type of polyphenol (plant-based nutrients) from their diet because they are not eating a wide enough variety of vegetables and salad. Ideally the minimum is seven different varieties daily but I like to encourage my clients to have at least 10 varieties. Personally, my husband and I aim for fifteen each choosing a rainbow of colours.
• Increase Polyphenols which include different grains and legumes.  I try to aim for 30 different polyphenols a week for my husband and me.  Practically this means that instead of using just brown rice, we try and have a meal with red rice, black rice, wild rice and different coloured quinoa each week. We also try to use a variety of beans, lentils and chickpeas each week. You can do one trip to your local health food shop and then you will have a good supply for a month.
• Zinc and Vitamin D are important. Zinc supports testosterone production and Vitamin D improves cognitive function. If you are interested in Vitamin D, you can read more about it here.  Remember these nutrients are also vital for a strong immune system.
• Include more spice in your diet. Spices such as turmeric, ginger, rosemary and basil not only add flavour to your food, they also have a powerful anti-inflammatory impact on your body.
• As a good way to increase your nutrient intake, I would recommend ProGreens, which also contains probiotics. You can buy it here.
• And finally, don’t forget to exercise! Not only does moving your body have a host of benefits, it also makes you feel better, improves circulation, builds strength and increases energy.[7]

 

With every blessing,

Emma

 

Emma Maitland-Carew – Registered Nutritional Therapist

Dip.ION, mBANT, CHNC Registered Practitioner,

Metabolic Balance® Coach, HeartMath Coach.

 

[1] Luyster FS, Strollo PJ Jr, Zee PC, Walsh JK, Boards of Directors of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society, ‘Sleep: a health imperative’, Sleep, 35(6):727-34, 2012. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3353049/

[2] You can read more about the importance of sleep in my blog here.

[3] Cirelli, C., & Tononi, G. (2017). ‘The Sleeping Brain’, Cerebrum: the Dana forum on brain science, 7-17, 2017. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5501041/

[4] Brandhorst, S. et al., 2015. A Periodic Diet that Mimics Fasting Promotes Multi-System Regeneration, Enhanced Cognitive Performance, and Healthspan. Cell Metabolism, 22(1), pp.86–99.

[5] Choi, I.Y. et al., 2016. A Diet Mimicking Fasting Promotes Regeneration and Reduces Autoimmunity and Multiple Sclerosis Symptoms. Cell Reports, 15(10), pp.2136–2146.

[6] You might like to read more at ‘Talking About Men’s Health’, the blog focussed on the health, wellbeing of boys, men and their families. This blog was considered among the top ten men’s blogs by Healthline in 2018. https://www.talkingaboutmenshealth.com/autophagy-how-controlling-one-thing-can-extend-your-life/

[7] I have covered this topic more in past blogs if you would like to read more about the joys of exercise.