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You’ve no doubt heard that not enough sleep leads to a host of potential problems. The one I want to talk about here is weight gain. What’s that got to do with the holidays? Plenty because the next three weeks are a land mine of late nights and extra stress. As midlifers we are prone to losing sleep when the stress-ometer goes up.

Now stress alone is a known belly fat creator. Add less-than-needed sleep to the equation and you are asking for weight gain. Can it happen in as short a time as 3 or 4 weeks? Yes and especially when you add more food temptations than normal.

What to do? Go to bed! Turn off the bloody television, it’s not the great relaxer you think it is if you are using it to “wind down.” It actually stimulates certain parts of the brain, making it harder for you to fall asleep. 

Have your last cocktail or peppermint chocolate bar at least an hour-two is better–before you want to fall asleep. While booze may knock you out the effect is temporary and you will probably find yourself awake at 3 or 4 am. If you do sleep through the night I bet you’ll wake up tired.

Digestion take work and if the body is working while you are trying to sleep it can be disruptive.

Late nights, treats and toasts are almost unavoidable at this time of year but staying aware of the importance of sleep and doing what you can to ensure a sound 7 -8 hours can help prevent the holiday 7 or 8.

How do you ensure proper rest during this busy season?

No matter what time of year you are reading this, cold viruses are lurking. And flu season will have it’s way with you or try to at some point.

There are over 200 viral invaders that can cause colds according to the Real Age site. And the closed buildings we work, shop, and work out in are breeding grounds but that’s not the whole story. The cold virus is prevalent no matter where you spend your days or who you are swapping germs with. The key to fighting it off is a healthy immune system.

Exercise—I know not again with the exercise, but once again moving your body and getting your blood circulating helps keep the immune system in full force.

Add regular sound sleep and I mean regular, every day! Rest and sleep some more if you feel run down or you’ve been traveling. Daily Show reruns be damned, Jon Stewart would understand.

Stress lowers the body’s immune responses period. If you take stress reduction seriously—that means incorporating it into your daily routine as opposed to having a pint of ice cream or 3 glasses of wine after an especially hard day—you have a better chance of avoiding winter bugs or getting through them faster.

There are a couple of products I keep on hand at this time of year: EpiCor is a product discovered by accident when insurance adjusters noticed lower numbers of sick-leave claims among employees who handled fermented baker’s yeast.

www.vrp.com/epicor. It lowers the # of immune suppressor cells.

I’m convinced that one of the best immune support products on the market right now is called GXL. It boost glutathione which is the body’s master antioxidant and helps all the circulating antioxidants do their work in top form. You can learn more at this website.

I take extra Vit. C and keep a bottle of Nature’s Way EchinaGuard on hand—it’s an Echinacea formula and my recommendation is to take this only if you feel sick, not as a season long preventative.

If I’m feeling flu-ish I run, don’t walk and think about, but run to my Oscillocococcinum or Oscillo. It’s a homeopathic made by Boiron and it has never let me down if I get it in soon enough. Nature’s Way Sambucol or Umcka Cold and Flu formulas are based on elderberry which may work by inactivating the flu virus but Andrew Weil says it’s to be taken only for symptoms not for prevention. I’ll go with him on that.

When cold symptoms are bad enough and I’ve got to work and be clear headed I take an over the counter Day time formula or aspirin depending on what’s going on. And I never skimp on rest once I’m down for the count. It’s rare that one can’t shut down a bit early or skip a meeting—people understand, and if not you might want to think about why you are tolerating that.

Don’t underestimate chicken soup. If it’s cooked with garlic you’ll get lots of cold and flu fighing properties from the chicken and it’s pot-mate garlic.

My two, all-time, favorite hot drinks when I’m down for the count? Hot ginger tea with lemon and honey or hot chicken soup with lots of garlic and chopped jalapenos. Science be damned on these home remedies tho there is some. I take these cause they taste good and feel good going down. If you like spicy foods you’re familiar with the endorphin rush a dose of capsaicin can produce. How can something so good be legal? Not to mention therapeutic which they are as well.

Be well and stay well.

Got remedies or products you want to share? Leave them in a comment.

I’m a big proponent of using supplements–I’m not about to try and sell you anything I’m just saying. 

So when I began to have less sleep than I am used to–and is healthy–I researched what I could take rather than a sleeping pill and found melatonin to be a great help. Melatonin is known to play a role in regulating the body’s wake-sleep cycle and triggering sleep.

Outside of sleep this safe, inexpensive supplement is used to relieve anxiety, symptoms of IBS, and as an adjunct therapy in cancer treatment.

Consumer Labs, an online supplement and pharmaceutical testing lab, reported the results of testing 17 melatonin products for containing the amount of product the label specifies, absorption, and purity.

All 17 passed their testing and some of the most commonly available ones–reasonable too–are from CVS, Puritan’s Pride, Nature Made, Nature’s Bounty, and Vitamin Shoppe. 

The suggested dose if you have never taken it before is 1mg. or 1000 mcg. I suggest a sublingual tablet as it is absorbed faster than a capsule or tablet that has to pass through the digestive track.

You can safely take much more than that, especially to get your sleep cycles regulated, then cut back.

I take a liquid melatonin, 3 mgs, each night about 20 minutes before I’m ready to go to sleep.

Let me hear from you if you have questions about this really wonderful supplement or leave a comment and let us know what you do for a good night’s sleep.

In July I was diagnosed with Lyme’s disease. While the initial flu like symptoms were mild, once the little spirochetes settled in they waged war with my body. High fevers, chills, raging shakes, and no energy to do anything kept me company for about 3 days. Then, like all modern day infections we throw antibiotics at, those symptoms ebbed and I gradually came back to feeling human.

What lingered though was shooting pains in my hands, wrists and arms as well as powerful fatigue. I used a topical pain reliever on my arms which helped but the wrung-out feeling was relieved only with naps. I could not keep my eyes open some days by noon.

This too got better but not completely. Enter a smart woman with a new supplement and I’m feeling better than I have in years. I kid you not. My pain is gone. I sleep better than I have in years and I have a consistent level of good energy  all day and through the evening.

Interested? Follow this link to an info page or read on and I’ll explain why the increase of Glutathione–known as the Master Antioxidant–can produce such amazing results and why it has–until now–been difficult to simply formulate it into a pill.

Glutathione is found in every cell in the body and is critical to More energy, cellular detox, a strong immune system, athletic performance and cellular inflammation. After age 20 the production of glutathione begins to decline. The only way to increase glutathione in the body is to increase the precursor antioxidants or have it intravenously–not an option for most of us. The product I’m using is unique in its ability to boost glutathione in the cells and my personal results are so exciting I want to share this with anyone–whether you’ve been bitten by a speck sized warrior or just experiencing a decline in energy, joint pain resulting from inflammation or foggy thinking.

If you have any questions after you take a look at the website please drop me an email or fill in the contact box on the website and I’ll contact you. Of course there is no guarantee you’ll have the same results I am having but shoot, it’s worth a try, I’m not alone in falling in love with this product and everyone can’t be making this stuff up!