Sleep is an extremely important component of health and wellness. Without adequate sleep you can count on a higher risk of obesity, increased stress, and lower mental acuity. Poor sleep causes these issues because of hormone imbalance, tissue inflammation, decrease immune function, and sluggish metabolism. Fluctuations of the hormones cortisol, growth hormone (GH) and testosterone can then trigger a cascade of hormone imbalances associated with several symptoms and health conditions.

Sleeping is the time when some of the body’s most important hormones are replenished and secreted. These hormones are important for maintaining energy and vitality. Low testosterone and poor sleep are interrelated. We know that sleep deprivation can affect hormone levels including causing low testosterone, the same can be said for the effects of low testosterone on energy and sleep patterns.

As men age, they begin to experience a decrease in testosterone levels, which can cause a variety of symptoms, including insomnia and reduced sleep quality. Men with low testosterone that begin hormone optimization often comment on improvement of sleep quality as one of the top benefits.

Furthermore, losing weight while you sleep might sound like a dream come true for dieters who work out and count calories but still struggle with stubborn pounds. Research studies published in the Annals of Internal Medicine and the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism indicate that the amount of sleep you get affects your appetite–and, consequently, your body mass index, or BMI. However, for many people, getting enough good sleep poses as much of a challenge as finding the time to exercise.

Proper Sleep Hygiene

If you are trying to lose weight and want your sleep to help here are some important tips:

1. Avoid taking naps
2. Avoid stimulants such as caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol too close to sleep
3. Avoid aggressive exercise. Stretching or yoga may help sleep.
4. Try not to eat food 1-2 hours prior to bed. Also, try to get most of your water intake at least 2 hours prior to bed
5. Ensure adequate exposure to natural light. Light exposure helps maintain a healthy sleep-wake cycle
6. Stay on regular sleep cycle by setting and sticking to a consistent bedtime. Sleep is a hormone driven cycle.
7. If you have poor sleep avoid reading and watching TV in bed. This can be stimulatory and provoke natural endorphins.
8. Make sure that the sleep environment is pleasant and relaxing. White-noise machines or the hum of a fan might help prevent interruptions of sleep.
9. A good tip is that the only things that should occur in the bedroom is sex and sleep!

It is important to consider sleep disorders when you are not getting the results you expect. With sleep being an integral part of wellness, underlying disease and disorder must be uncovered. Improving sleep quality will drastically improve outcomes. Many people have symptoms that could be explained by sleep disturbances but have not been properly evaluated and almost 95% go undiagnosed. It is important to get information that may indicate sleep disorders both from the physical exam as well as the subjective assessment forms. There are many contributing factors to sleep disturbances such as medications, drugs, caffeine, and medical conditions, but the many are caused by disrupted sleep or simple sleeplessness. If you start by looking at your sleep hygiene and see if sleep improves could save yourself some time and money needed to investigate these other causes.

When looking for the right eating structure, it must be something that can be directly integrated into your lifestyle to maximize both mental and physical health.

Sounds logical, but most Americans still ride the rollercoaster of fad dieting.

A true lifestyle eating program should not eliminate any macronutrients (proteins, fats and carbohydrates), must include exercise, be supported by science and never compromise health for the sake of weight loss. Intermittent fasting contains all three of these key elements and can be implemented in an easy-to-follow healthy lifestyle.

The Carb Revolution^® is not a diet, it is an exercise driven eating strategy that uses intermittent fasting and carbohydrate cycling (carb backloading) to maximize metabolic output. Intermittent fasting, when used overt time, exerts several positive effects on key hormones. This is important because it takes time for the body to make these changes, which is why this is not intended for quick, unhealthy weight loss, but rather gradual weight loss and muscle gains, that when done correctly, will make this the last eating program you will have to do!

By creating a 12-16 hour fasting period you can reset your hormones and push the body to use fat as its primary fuel. The old theory is to eat a high-carbohydrate breakfast; however, that causes insulin and glucose levels to spike essentially shutting off fat-burning for several hours and driving unused calories into fat stores. These spikes of insulin and glucose lead to large drops in glucose a couple of hours later, which will trigger hunger.

Fasting does the opposite by controlling hunger and maximizing fat burning with the help of these important hormones:

• Insulin – In the fasted state, insulin is low, while glucagon and growth hormone are elevated. The body starts mobilizing stored body fat from your fat cells and burning this fat for energy instead of glucose.
• Human Growth Hormone– Fasting can also have a strong impact on growth hormone (GH) secretion. Growth hormone is generally highly secreted when we sleep and decreases when we have breakfast, however levels of GH continue to rise if you prolong the overnight fast to optimize fat burning and reduce inflammation.
• Leptin – Fasting helps regulate leptin, the “satiety hormone”. Leptin levels fall during fasting and then return to normal after eating, alerting you to stop eating. It also helps overcome leptin resistance that occurs with the accumulation of fat.
• Ghrelin – Fasting helps normalize ghrelin, the “hunger hormone” by acting as a natural appetite suppressant. When fasting, ghrelin levels increase which also stimulates growth hormone release. This, in combination with an increase in good fats, can really curb food cravings.
• Cortisol – The hormone cortisol plays a large role in fat burning and is naturally highest in the morning. Thus, to maximize this natural fat burning window, it is an important to refrain from eating early morning meals.
• Testosterone – Fasting can increase luteinizing hormone (LH), which is a precursor to testosterone synthesis. Research also supports that fasting can directly increase testosterone levels in men and women.

Nutritional Supplementation

Nutritional supplements play a key role in supporting hormonal balance and are an easy way to get the much-needed nutrients that the average diet does not supply. Using vitamins, minerals and adaptogenic herbs will help the body systems restore and improve balanced function. Adaptogens are nutrients that exert a therapeutic action to help restore systemic balance. Adaptogen herbs are nourishing to the entire endocrine system and enhance overall vitality and health.

We are not getting close to the amounts of nutrients that our body needs especially when we look at the demands we are making on our body. So, the supplements that may be useful to fill this nutrient gap means we need to supplement most of our daily diet.

Micronutrients are the driving force behind hundreds of chemical reactions in the body. With the deficient intake of fruits and vegetables and the poor nutritional quality of many of the foods consumed in the average American diet, we are becoming increasingly deficient in these important nutrients. Our antioxidant levels are plummeting, leaving us with poor protection against inflammation and free radical damage.

“Once considered as an adjuvant to a healthy diet, nutritional supplements are now a requirement for our body’s immune system and antioxidant function to win the battle of damage and repair.”

Brent Agin, MD

Exercise

The importance of exercise has been greatly understated. Heart disease is the number one cause of mortality in both men and women. Exercise is the is the most important lifestyle activity to reduce the risk of heart disease.

Society has become increasingly sedentary, supporting the need for exercise to be addressed as an instrumental component to a healthy living. A high percentage of children and adults do not exercise nor participate in activities that promote exercise, which is another driving force behind increased inflammation and disease. The importance of exercise for cardiovascular and pulmonary health has been established, but we do not emphasize the importance of exercise for burning fat and reducing inflammation.

Regular exercise helps strengthen our muscles, build stamina, increase flexibility, increase circulation, reduces stress and depressed mood, and promotes regular detoxification of excess hormones and toxins in the body. It is important to get 150 minutes of aerobic exercise or 60 minutes of resistance training weekly.

Hormones

Hormones carry messages from glands to cells to maintain chemical levels in the bloodstream that achieve balance in the body. “Hormone” comes from a word that means, “to spur on.” This reflects how the presence of hormones acts as a catalyst for other chemical changes at the cellular level necessary for growth, development, and energy.

Naturally our hormone production decreases with age but can also be negatively affected by other causes such as medications, smoking, genetics, obesity, lack of exercise and more. If you are over the age of 40, more tired than usual, moody, not performing in or out of the bedroom or cannot shed weight, then you may be suffering from hormone decline.

If you are aiming to be at the top of your game, looking and feeling the best you can, hormones must be in balance. Hormone restoration revitalizes and energizes, while improving physical, mental, and sexual energy.

Other than HCG, there are natural therapies that can help to restore hormonal balance. Eating a nutrient dense diet, regular exercise, stress management, balanced sleep, and restoring hormonal balance can improve your health-span.