#switching to decaf is a necessity

[tatooedlaura-blog]

The Newbies

the fourth series reads as follows:

Apple Balancing ... Potential

To catch up: First series … Second series ...  Third series

@today-in-fic

&&&&&&&&&&

Home after dark, waking up in the dark, getting dressed, eating, changing a wayward diaper, double locking front door, Mulder stretched as he walked towards the car, wondering just how long his day would be quiet.

Not as long as he expected.

Apparently, his day was good for 1 hour, 22 minutes then hell arrived in the form of short, blond pep.

He’d called Agent Harrison as soon as he made it to the office, leaving her a message saying he’d like to meet with her sometime in the next day or two to discuss her file and the work of the X-Files. Instead of calling, setting up a time, following protocol, she arrived in the basement with a speedy click of heels and teeth … lots of white, smiling teeth.

That’s all he saw of her at first: rows of white, pearly teeth, straight, shiny.

Then her hand arrived, out to shake before he managed to stand up straight, brush off his donut crumbs, remember how to focus on something more than four inches from his face. Taken aback, he stared at the tiny hand, cheap watch, sleeve of suit jacket pulled up above narrow wrist …

Holy fuck …

Scully had re-enlisted in the form of Leyla Harrison.

Just, as he would learn in the next two minutes, a little, well, hell, a shitload more, enthusiastic.

Scully had begun arguing with him within the first two minutes.

Agent Harrison gushed about the X-Files and all their virtues and beauty for the first five minutes before he finally cut her off, “hi. You must be Agent Harrison. I didn’t expect you here quite so quickly. Would you like to sit down?”

Oh, God, as soon as the words left his mouth, he cringed. He offered her a chair. A place to settle in, talk until she used all the air in the room, suffocated him with words of undying devotion.

He let her ramble a few more minutes before pulling her back in again, “I’m sorry, Agent Harrison, would you like a cup of tea, coffee?”

Giving her something to hold did the trick, her hands occupied, her mouth slowing until he could process the words and sentences rolling towards him, “yes, thank you, Agent Mulder, coffee, please. I’m sorry.” Looking down at the cup he handed her moments later, “I have a tendency to blather, a lot, when I meet people I admire.”

And with that, she held her tongue.

Good lord, he actually liked her.

He really’d been hoping he wouldn’t.

But he did.

At least for now.

&&&&&&&&&&&&

She left an hour and a half later and the first thing Mulder did was shut the door and call Scully, “what did you do to me?”

And feeling just a little bit saucy and a wee bit riled up, “nothing today but I have plans for you that’ll make your eyes roll back in your head.”

His mouth went dry for the slightest second then, grinning, “tell me more.”

Watching her son finish his bottle, she stood and headed into the kitchen, “I will once you get home but for right now, what did I do to you that I don’t know I did to you?”

“You sent me a woman who is enthusiastic, doesn’t shut up, adores everything about anything weird, supernatural, or out there, and thinks that both you and I are the shit.”

“Sorry. I’ll keep combing the files. There has to be somebody out there who hates you with every fiber of their being. I’ll find them. Don’t worry.”

“Sarcasm is your thing, Scully, let me tell you.” Sitting back in his chair, looking up at the sparse pencils still stuck in his ceiling, he made a mental note to add more in the future, “I will say though, once I began sifting through her babble, I found some good theories, ideas, directions I might not have taken.”

“Did you show her some cases?”

“Yeah. She did pretty well given she’s only every really worked in accounting. She’ll need a lot of handholding in the field but I’m seriously considering trying her out.” Because she was Scully and he was Mulder, he answered her before she could even ask, “but she doesn’t hold a candle to you.”

Seriously, she had to get these hormones under control, “I was going to ask if she believed in Big Blue.”

“Uh-huh. Sure you were. So, you want to hear about her?”

“No. It’ll be more fun with a live re-enactment.”

Not wanting to let her go just yet, “then tell me what you’re doing with that kid of ours.”

“We got up late so he just finished his bottle and I’m about to eat,” having warmed frozen pancakes and rolled them around some science-oven sausages, “dirty things for breakfast.”

“Sausages in sweaters! Without me? How dare you.”

She liked to make him smile.

&&&&&&&&&

John Doggett, on the other hand, called back and set up a time to meet, the next day, 1:30 in the afternoon.

He arrived 3 minutes, 10 seconds early and stepped off the elevator with about as much trepidation as a seasoned police officer could muster surrounded by copy paper, handcarts, and the prospect of working with Fox Mulder. Namely, he figured he’d get to see what all the fuss was about surrounding the X-files and what he hoped would be a decent cup of coffee. He’d been searching out re-assignment to the DC area, looking for a change of scenery, a change of boss, a change of his life in general …

And why not do the interview? It would be a temporary assignment, get him used to the city, allow him to meet other agents, see if the Hoover Building tickled his fancy.

Then he registered the yelling.

But it wasn’t angry yelling …

It was a good old-fashioned shouting match argument like the ones he used to have with his guys back before the Bureau.

Eyebrow raising slightly then dropping back in place, he listened to mention of bats, invisible snakes, bite marks, and some science-y jargon he could neither spell nor repeat even with gun to head. Wondering if he should just get the hell out now, the voices suddenly stopped, then the door opened further, “ahhh, see, I told you I thought I heard the elevator.”

John Doggett was confronted with a cautiously friendly Scully smile as she stepped slightly aside, “come on in … welcome to the basement.” Holding out her hand once he was inside, “I’m Agent Dana Scully and my partner there is Fox Mulder. If you heard mention of giant vampire bats, don’t hold it against him, the bite marks are remarkable similar.”

Mulder moved to shake his hand yet directed his words at Scully, “so you admit vampire bats exist, just not giant ones?”

Leaning over the car seat stationed safely dead center of a cluttered desk, she made sure their arguing hadn’t woken Will, “I never said they didn’t, Mulder. Common, hairy-legged, and white winged are well document in their species and while I don’t subscribe to there being ones with six-foot wingspans and the ability to drain a person of their entire blood supply, their faces have a slight resemblance to pigs and that amuses me enough to allow you to ramble on without me killing you with a stapler.”

Glancing sidelong at a silent Doggett, “he’s still here.”

“That’s a good sign.” Finally turning her attention to the new guy, “would you like a cup of coffee?”

&&&&&&&&&

They talked to him for over an hour, drilling him about cases, opinions, past alliances, and why he drank his coffee black. Mulder analyzed every little quirking finger twitch, non-invasive nose scratch, and random, rapid blink. Scully kept Mulder reigned in enough to not send Doggett screaming into the hallway.

Doggett wondered what the hell kind of circus ride he might be getting himself into and how long it would be before both the agents in front of him were carted off by the lovely men in white coats with caged-lined vans.

Finally, the pair seemed to have finished their interrogation and Doggett got to open his mouth, his first sentence being, “I think the pair of you are thick as thieves and crazy to boot.”

Honest-to-God, Scully liked him and she thought that maybe Mulder might, too, “I keep his crazy in check.”

“She needs a little crazy every now and then. It works well for both of us.”

Doggett couldn’t help it. He had to smile, hang his head while doing it mind you, but smile, “I can only promise that I’ll do my best to solve these cases. I won’t be buying into the whole paranormal thing and I will never believe that Casper or Chuckie did it in the basement with magic herbs and a summoning circle but I will catch the bad guys, I guarantee it.”

Mulder folded his arm in a loose gesture of agreement to Scully’s unspoken question hanging between them, “he knows what a summoning circle is and whether he learned it on TV or from his hippie big sister, he used it properly in the sentence.”

“Mulder.”

Holding his hand out to Doggett, “feel like giving it a trial run?”

Without hesitation, he shook back, “when do I start?”

[storifygo]

5 Signs You’re Addicted to Coffee

Coffee drives the world as we know it, yet a lot of it can make you tense, restless, and tired. In case you’re worried that your Coffee propensity is hindering your health, the agenda underneath can assist you with characterizing the issue.

Also Read 5 Signs You’re Addicted to Coffee

The Caffeine-Ache

If you find that existence without Coffee implies a ghastly cerebral pain, you’re snared. Elective caffeine-Ache choices incorporate treating a non-caffeine migraine with caffeine. Contingent upon the wellspring of the cerebral pain, putting an excessive amount of caffeine in your framework could prompt health hazards, up to and including cardiovascular dangers.

Also Read:  What are the health benefits of bulletproof coffee?

Easing off your Coffee and caffeine consumption so you can stay away from the migraine will set aside time. In case you’re attempting to mix decaf into your customary mix however you can’t get amped up for the taste, search for Coffee that has been decaffeinated by the water preparing strategy.

When in doubt, taking the caffeine from a Coffee bean is done artificially. Numerous Coffee darlings find that warming up these beans gives your Coffee a consumed taste. Water-handled decaf Coffee will be more costly, yet the flavor will be a lot kinder as you would prefer buds.

You Choose Coffee Instead of Food

In case you’re in a hurry and need to pause and eat in transit at your #1 bistro, ensure you’re leaving the shop with food. The calories in a forte Coffee might prompt skipping suppers.

Also Read: What are the health benefits of bulletproof coffee?

Your stomach needs something to process, or it will search inside. Your gut needs genuine food to work well. If you find that lunch transforms into a beast Coffee with loads of added substances, hit your neighborhood store and get a serving of mixed greens or a sandwich and skirt the Coffee.

Sadly, numerous who appreciate cold or frosted Coffee refreshments likewise Choose Coffee rather than water. Caffeine is getting dried out. In case you are under a major cutoff time and truly need to increase your Coffee admission infrequently, be certain you likewise increment your water consumption.

You Always Get an Extra Shot of Espresso

At what time in the day do you quit drinking Coffee? An excess of Coffee in the early evening, particularly if you pair it with an Extra shot can prompt evening tumult and helpless Sleep. Furthermore, caffeine is a medication that twists. An Extra shot toward the beginning of the day will help you develop resistance. In the end, you’ll need an extra shot in your evening Coffee too, and the withdrawal will be more awful.

Also Read: What are the best coffee makers? All you need to know

Ending this propensity might expect you to switch around your caffeine conveyance. Keep your morning macchiato with the Extra shot, yet pair your lunch with some green tea. There are a ton of people who track down that green tea is excessively acidic.

Pair your tea with food. If you could do without the flavor of green tea, add a press of squeezed orange. Another alternative is white tea, which offers caffeine and surprisingly a greater number of cancer prevention agents than green tea. At last, on the off Shot that you notice that green tea gives you a bit of acid reflux, follow it with unsweetened fruit purée.

You Don’t Sleep (or Poop…)

Everyday Coffee propensities cause us to require Coffee. Notwithstanding, your body will lose the capacity to endure Coffee after some time. For those in their 30’s, losing the capacity to handily nod off at your standard time can be a marker that you need to tone down your evening lot caffeine consumption.

Numerous people likewise experience the ill effects of stomach-related drowsiness when they dial back their Coffee consumption. To shield yourself from that uneasiness, ensure you increment your fiber and water admission as you dial back your Coffee consumption. Your body will require time to change.

Keep a diary to help you track these changes. Contingent upon the fact that you are so near 40, the effect of your evening Coffee will turn negative before long. Keeping steady over this disagreeable response may likewise be a decent token of other solid changes that you need to make.

Anxious Thoughts Are Getting in the Way

That first mug of Coffee can transform Irritable Gus into Happy Charlie. A lot for the duration of the day might prompt you’re being a Restless Annie. Coffee increases your familiarity with your general surroundings and centers your brain. An excess of Coffee will foment your sensory system and lead you to zero in on what scares you.

Getting Zen about your Coffee admission will be a test. While you don’t need to stress over your stock line since you can get all your Coffee from Qavashop, tracking down a quiet and cheerful state after some Coffee can mean a ton of wriggling around on the yoga mat.

Set your limit via

volume

clock

intensity

Your number one Coffee mug might be a necessity to begin your day, however, perhaps you don’t require multiple cups to begin. Try not to make the subsequent pot, or just mix a large portion of a major pot to begin.

Screen your watch to ensure you quit drinking your Coffee at noon and track your actual reaction. When do you begin yawning? When can you at last Sleep? In case you’re too sleepy in the early evening without that 3 p.m. cup, attempt green tea for a change.

The milder the meal, the more caffeine in your cup. On the off Shot that you can change to a dim dish over the long run, you will normally decrease your caffeine consumption. Furthermore, the kind of a decent dim dish can decrease the effectiveness of the kind of decaf if you decide to mix in some decaf.

At last, if you like a pour-over Coffee, change from a paper channel to treated steel or gold. Pour-over Coffee can have an exceptionally slight paper taste, as can water-handled decaf. Exchanging your channel simultaneously you add decaf can diminish the shock as you would prefer buds.

There are more terrible addictions than Coffee. Notwithstanding, after some time, Coffee can be no picnic for your stomach, your heart, and the nature of your Sleep. Be prepared to keep a diary and do some testing when you choose to tone down your Coffee admission.

[pinkrival]

anonymous said: What /is/ Bede's favorite type of tea?

               peppermint! peppermint! peppermint! it’s been brought up a few times, but bede basically has this huge weakness for all things peppermint —— hence why he also has a bit of an obsession with candy canes.      ( if you want to get really specific, his favorite flavor in general is probably mint with dark chocolate? ) obviously peppermint tea comes as no exception. if it seems like he’s mentioned drinking tea on this blog all the time... it’s because he is. he’s a little coy about exactly how much tea he drinks on average      ( he finds his addiction embarrassing ) but seven is supposedly his current record for most cups in a day. suffice to say, the boy likes his tea. a lot.      ( you can thank opal for that —— she got him into it. )

               that being said, he does like to switch things up from time to time. opal has a very extensive tea collection at ballonlea stadium, and bede also likes to buy new flavors to sample if he ever finds them when he’s out and about.      ( sometimes he even posts reviews on social media. ) besides mint, he tends to favor flavors with a lot of warm spices —— think cinnamon. ginger. pumpkin spice and so on. while it’s true bede can’t stand spicy to save his life, there’s a clear difference between drinking a bottle of hot sauce and eating a snickerdoodle. he doesn’t like the kind of spice that burns, specifically.      ( however, bede loves warm spices so much his cologne and shampoo smell like them. )

               he also tries to avoid teas with a lot of caffeine —— usually sticking to herbal varieties.      ( bede drinks tea to calm down. not for the energy. ) his body REALLY doesn’t react well to caffeine —— he gets overly shaky and anxious. his hands tremble. he feels dizzy. if he’s in a pinch and needs to stay awake, bede may force himself to drink plain black tea out of necessity, but he won’t like it.

               in a similar vein, it probably doesn’t come as much of a surprise that bede doesn’t like coffee. he can’t even drink decaf —— the taste alone makes him feel sick and jittery.

[danimarcusftm-blog]

The Finest Weight Loss Applications For Men

Walgreen, the biggest U.S. drugstore chain, will retail NutriSystem D weight-loss program, which caters to individuals with type 2 diabetes who need to shed pounds, NutriSystem stated in a press release on Monday. The food regimen is do-ready since you eat each couple hours and honestly I'm not hungry on it however still fighting a few cravings at evening to snack and that is it. So far I like all the food apart from the tomato soup. Their customer service is horrible and now they are saying we have to pay for month 2 food regardless that we don't need it plus we have now to pay again the $125 low cost they gave us on first order for canceling the plan. At six months, the Nutrisystem dieters were down a median of 24 kilos, while the controls - who were switched to Nutrisystem meals halfway through the six-month study - had been down nutrisystem before and after thirteen pounds. This food plan focuses on decreased calorie consumption with liquid chocolate weight loss program shakes. I am not diabetic, however I additionally bought the Nutrisystem D equipment for some selection in the food. First off, Nutrisystem is a commercially-available weight-loss plan that works with the meal supply premise. I drink 12 glasses of water a day..however didn't know if decaf coffee was allowed..( I do not like espresso black).I've not had any on the fast 5 in any respecthowever I am missing my decaf coffee..Not a soda drinker at allhowever do miss my decaf coffee Thanks! Nutrisystem works for me. At times, I am absolutely conscious of my increased power and motivation. However second time around I ordered the select program that cost extra however the meals are tons higher. IF you order the product online the program is much cheaper as a result of you aren't getting that face to face help. This eating regimen is relatively balanced, but it's as much as the dieter to make sure they make healthy choices. She was a little confused as a result of she had learn that you must consume five nutrisystem meals per day. Thanks for taking the time to achieve out regarding your expertise with the plan. Nutrisystem has fewer out-of-pocket bills attributable to less-expensive food and no membership charge. I acquired used to consuming small meals and I nonetheless do, so I assume my stomach discovered something during that weight loss program. There are a ton of sources which might be provided only for this particular a part of the weight loss plan. It may be caused by increased fiber (from the meals) holding fluid within the digestive tract which is released quickly sufficient as the body will get used to the additional fiber in the diet. In 2016, Nutrisystem has reformulated greater than 50% of the Nutrisystem menu gadgets to include no artificial colors, flavors or sweeteners. Thanks tons, I've discovered this very helpful as I am considering paying for Nutrisystem to lose some weight. I had the NutriSystem Hen Noodle left for lunch, which was just like Campbell's soup, and that is a great factor. Add in recent grocery gadgets to get your complete each day vitamindon't fret, there are strategies included in the daily meal planner that comes with the equipment. There is a devoted program especially for men (Dan Marino is the spokesperson), and you'll get the type of customer assist that's designed for a man. I continued my poor eating selections for many years till the spring of 2003 after I began an exercise program known as Power ninety from Beachbody. Nutrisystem is the least expensive meal delivery plan we reviewed ( Medifast is cheaper, but it's important to provide one meal a day on your own). There are some elements of any diet that will make it simpler than others to succeed with. While you sign up for and follow LEAN thirteen by doing what this system tells you to do, the superior declare is that you will lose up to 13 pounds and seven inches out of your waist in your first month! The program will begin rolling out nationwide at over 3,200 Wal-Mart places and shall be obtainable on , NutriSystem added. However, I feel you may find that Diet to Go is a major step up from Nutrisystem when it comes to the food. I've started the nutrisystem plan and I am very happy with the style of the meals. For the reason that soup is on the spot, many dieters on the program discover it loaded with preservatives having a metallic taste, but the salads are some of the extremely desired things on the menu. They're frozen meals I think they come from Schwanns nevertheless it was worth the extra value to at the very least sort of enjoy the meals more than the packet stuff. Whereas some customers did not just like the choices, we discovered prospects that appreciated the range with Nutrisystem equipment. Prepared weight-reduction plan meals can assist with portion control they usually may also help hold you in your weight reduction journey in case you are prone to just grabbing the easiest thing within the cabinet or fridge since you really do not feel like cooking. Simplicity is without doubt one of the characteristics of this program and a person who desires to undertake this food plan simply wants to decide on foods that they wish to order from the Nutrisystem's web site and it'll then be delivered right to their house.

One of the explanation why NutriSystem is so widespread is as a result of the program does not deprive the dieters of good, satisfying meals, reminiscent of pasta and meat. Meal supply makes controlling energy easy but Nutrisystem does not show it's higher than the competitors. NutriSystem affords a variety of pre-deliberate menus, all packaged and able to go. You may select from packages for girls, men, diabetics, and vegetarians. I am going to buy a Walmart fast 5 (?) box this weekend to see if I can jumpstart a weight reduction. I additionally missed sitting down to a shared meal with my husband, but that has gotten better as he's fine with just a salad whereas I get pleasure from a wholesome Nutrisystem pizza. The exercise program provided by Nutrisystem is called My Each day three, and constitutes three 10 minute bursts of exercise. Breakfast included two NutriSystem child banana muffins that weighed 2 oz complete, 1 cup of skim milk, and half cup applesauce. These foods will satisfy your sweet (or salty) tooth and help you forget that you are on a food plan. I tried NS for 30 days, have been very strick , have misplaced less than 4 lbs, (I am over 60 and tried the plan for senior girls). The calorie count is designed that will help you lose a pound or two each week on this weight loss plan program. I usually get questions on how you can get Nutrisystem for the most cost effective or lowest worth. As a result of the Nutrisystem weight loss program plan is predicated partially upon choosing Low GI meals, it's perfect for diabetics trying to manage their blood sugar levels through their eating regimen. It is simpler to stay to the weight loss plan figuring out you've gotten some exciting options on a regular basis. I do think this meals is healthy, however i'd not advocate the diet as a result of the meals is pricey and most of the people wouldn't pay 350$ for 28 days value of food. Many precise patrons of this system always comment in NutriSystem Opinions in regards to the wonderful scent of banana bread wafting through their kitchen, though there are different opinions in regards to the muffins texture (some thought theyre too dry, whereas others chug them as okay). Fortunately, most diet plans like Nutrisystem realize that they now have to cost their products aggressively. It isn't obvious easy methods to get to the screen that you'll need on the nutrisystem site. That is due to the Haiti House construction technology that makes use of a holistic method in discount of overall development price. Including 18 four hundred to 600 calories meals from the grocery store, the monthly value is approximately $448 which works out to about $22.50 per pound. I haven't got to tell you how a lot weight you may lose by choosing Nutrisystem as your food plan program, since it's popularity precedes it with hundreds and hundreds of successful clients who can back up their promise to you. I am searching for any person who can ship me Nutrisystem, Vancouver BC. Nutrisystem will not be accessible in Canada I really need to lose forty kilos. On this plan users can order Spinach Stuffed Shells and Pink Velvet Whoopie Pies. I went again to my very own food plan (healthy decisions, and many others.) for the previous few months and only gained 5 back. You possibly can food plan and drop some weight for much less cash with this meal alternative diet program than almost some other on the market proper now. Personally, I thought the weight loss program lived up to my expectations and for that it was value every cent I paid for it. Okay, I hijacked your feedback you possibly can have them back now, but some issues just need to be stated. In any case, you're going to be eating this meals at virtually each meal (unless you go along with the flex program) so it's vital that you're going to actually find it satisfying or at the least tolerable. In December 2012, Nutrisystem announced the addition of two dozen new and improved meal options to their menu. As a result of Nutrisystem is just not offered in brick-and-mortar centers or clinics, behavioral help is just not accessible in face-to-face interactions. If one had a necessity to talk to a counselor, Nutrisystem possess counselors which might be supplied for steering. However, this evaluate shouldn't be in regards to the Walmart version, but the version straight from Nutrisystem itself. Figuring out the correct food plan that really works can be troublesome enough, but including the duty of figuring which exercise routine must be taken is just too a lot. NutriSystem weight-reduction plan meals consist primarily of shelf-secure packaged meals (don't need refrigeration) that you just warmth up within the microwave or dry mixes that you simply combine with boiling water. We always recommend seeking recommendation from a physician earlier than starting Nutrisystem plans, particularly in case you have a medical situation of any variety. Dieters who don't want to take into consideration portion sizes, planning, shopping for or cooking meals will love the Nutrisystem food plan plan You merely make your food choices after which get a month's worth of meals delivered to your door in microwave-ready pouches. Whichever weight loss program you intend to use, you will need to first talk about it together with your doctor to make sure that you are getting the entire vitamins you want. Truthfully, most of the time I believe that many individuals spend less on Nutrisystem than they would if that they had tried to purchase the groceries to prepare the diet meals themselves. The ultimate tally for Jenny Craig vs Nutrisystem is that it ultimately it seems like Nutrisystem is the more cost effective choice, but for face to face you really cannot beat Jenny Craig. The trick with the soup and the chili is to add water MANNER ahead of when you plan to eat them. Its a pretty good food plan and it would not price a lot if you take off what you spend on common meals. On the opposite, it is not straightforward for dieters to adhere to the severe fats restriction the diet demands. These embrace scrambled egg whites and grilled rooster in Cycle 1, cookies, chicken salad and grilled salmon in Cycle 2, grilled hen and roast pork tenderloin in Cycle three, and scrambled eggs, salmon and grilled ribeye steak in Cycle 4. In line with Diets in Evaluate, the weight loss plan is meant to burn fats and reteach you the best way to eat the right manner. I really like nutrisystemI was on it for about 5 months, lost almost 50 kilos, discovered portion control and after 2 half of years off nutrisystem I've not gained any weight againI modified among the food flavors by including my very own flavoringsa few spices, teriyaki sauce, hot sauce, chili powderbalsamic vinegar and low fat dressings and butter substitutes are nice issues to have readily available to boost the flavor of the meals.

[ebenpink]

The Definitive Guide To Autophagy (and 7 Ways To Induce It) https://ift.tt/2HIfKGm

Biological systems are self-maintaining. They have to be. We don’t have maintenance workers, mechanics, troubleshooters that can “take a look inside” and make sure everything’s running smoothly. Doctors perform a kind of biological maintenance, but even they are working blind from the outside.

No, for life to sustain itself, it has to perform automatic maintenance work on its cells, tissues, organs, and biological processes. One of the most important types of biological maintenance is a process called autophagy.

Autophagy: the word comes from the Greek for “self-eating,” and that’s a very accurate description: Autophagy is when a cell consumes the parts of itself that are damaged or malfunctioning. Lysosomes—members of the innate immune system that also degrade pathogens—degrade the damaged cellular material, making it available for energy and other metabolites.  It’s cellular pruning, and it’s an important part of staving off the worst parts of the aging process.

In study after study, we find that impairment to or reductions of normal levels of autophagy are linked to almost every age-related degenerative disease and malady you can imagine.

Cancer: Autophagy can inhibit the establishment of cancer by removing malfunctioning cellular material before it becomes problematic. Once cancer is established, however, autophagy can enhance tumor growth.

Diabetes: Impaired autophagy enables the progression from obesity to diabetes via pancreatic beta cell degradation and insulin resistance. Impaired autophagy also accompanies the serious complications related to diabetes, like kidney disease and heart failure.

Heart disease: Autophagy plays an important role in all aspects of heart health.

Osteoporosis: Both human and animal studies indicate that autophagy dysfunction precedes osteoporosis.

Alzheimer’s disease: Early stage Alzheimer’s disease is linked to deficits in autophagy.

Muscle loss: Autophagy preserves muscle tissue; loss of autophagy begins the process of age-related muscle atrophy.

Okay, so autophagy is rather important. It’s fundamental to health.

But how does autophagy happen?

The way it’s supposed to happen is this:

Humans traditionally and historically lived in a very different food environment. Traditionally and historically, humans were feasters and fasters. While I don’t think our paleolithic ancestors were miserable, wretched, perpetually starving creatures scuttling from one rare meal to the next—the fossil records show incredibly robust remains, with powerful bones and healthy teeth and little sign of nutritional deficits—they also couldn’t stroll down to the local Whole Foods for a cart full of ingredients. Going without food from time to time was a fundamental aspect of human ancestral life.

They worked for their food. I don’t mean “sat in a cubicle to get a paycheck to spend on groceries.” I mean they expended calories to obtain food. They hunted—and sometimes came back empty handed. They dug and climbed and rooted around and gathered. They walked, ran, stalked, jumped, lifted. Movement was a necessity.

In short, they experienced energy deficits on a regular basis. And energy deficits, particularly sustained energy deficits, are the primary triggers for autophagy. Without energy deficits, you remain in fed mode and never quite hit the fasted mode required for autophagy.

Now compare that ancestral food environment to the modern food environment:

Almost no one goes hungry. Food is cheap and plentiful, with the tastiest and most calorie-rich stuff tending to be the cheapest and most widely available.

Few people have to physically work for their food. We drive to the store and walk a couple hundred steps, hand over some money, and—BOOM—obtain thirty thousand calories, just like that. Or someone comes to our house and delivers the food directly.

We eat all the time. Unless you set out to do it, chances are you’ll be grazing, snacking, and nibbling throughout the day. We’re in a perpetually fed state.

The average person in a modern society eating a modern industrial diet rarely goes long enough without eating something to trigger autophagy. Nor are they expending enough energy to create an energy deficit from the other end—the output. It’s understandable. If our ancestors were thrust into our current situation, many would fall all over themselves to take advantage of the modern food environment. But that doesn’t make it desirable, or good for you. It just means that figuring out how to trigger autophagy becomes that much more vital for modern humans.

Here are 7 ways to induce autophagy with regular lifestyle choices.

1) Fast

There’s no better way to quickly and reliably induce a large energy deficit than not eating anything at all. There are no definitive studies identifying “optimal” fasting guidelines for autophagy in humans. Longer fasts probably allow deeper levels of autophagy, but shorter fasts are no slouch.

2) Get Keto-Adapted

When you’re keto- and fat-adapted, it takes you less time to hit serious autophagy upon commencing a fast. You’re already halfway there.

3) Train Regularly

With exercise-related autophagy, the biggest effects are seen with lifelong training, not acute. In mice, for example, the mice who are subjected to lifelong exercise see the most autophagy-related benefits. In people, those who have played soccer (football) for their entire lives have far more autophagy-related markers of gene activity than people of the same age who have not trained their whole lives.

4) Train Hard

In studies of acute exercise-induced autophagy, the intensity of the exercise is the biggest predictor of autophagy—even more than whether the athletes are in the fed or fasted state.

5) Drink Coffee

At least in mice, both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee induce autophagy in the liver, muscle tissue, and heart. This effect persists even when the coffee is given alongside ad libitum food. These mice didn’t have to fast for the coffee to induce autophagy.

Certain nutrients can trigger autophagy, too….

6) Eat Turmeric

Curcumin, the primary phytonutrient in turmeric, is especially effective at inducing autophagy in the mitochondria (mitophagy).

7) Consume Extra Virgin Olive Oil

The anticancer potential of its main antioxidant, oleuropein, likely occurs via autophagy.

Disclaimer: The autophagy/nutrient literature is anything but definitive. Most studies take place in test tube settings, not living humans. Eating some turmeric probably won’t flip a switch and trigger autophagy right away, but it won’t hurt.

Autophagy is a long game.

This can’t be underscored enough: Autophagy is a lifelong pursuit attained by regular doses of exercise and not overeating every time you sit down to a meal. Staying so ketotic your pee tests look like a Prince album cover, doing epic 7-day fasts every month, fasting every other day, making sure you end every day with fully depleted liver glycogen—while these strategies might be “effective,” obsessing over their measures to hit some “optimal” level of constant autophagy isn’t the point and is likely to activate or trigger neurotic behavior.

Besides, we don’t know what “optimal autophagy” looks like. Autophagy isn’t easy to measure in live humans. You can’t order an “autophagy test” from your doc. We don’t even know if more autophagy is necessarily better. There’s the fact that unchecked autophagy can actually increase existing cancer in some cases. There’s the fact that too much autophagy in the wrong place might be bad. We just don’t know very much. Autophagy is important. It’s good to have some happening. That’s what we have to go on.

Putting These Tips Into Practice

Autophagy happens largely when you just live a healthy lifestyle. Get some exercise and daily activity. Go hard every now and then. Sleep deeply. Recover well. Don’t eat carbohydrates you don’t need and haven’t earned (and I don’t just mean “earned through glycogen depleting-exercise”). Reach ketosis sometimes. Don’t eat more food than you need. Drink coffee, even decaf.

All those caveats aside, I see the utility in doing a big “autophagy session” a few times a year. Here’s how mine looks:

Do a big training session incorporating strength training and sprints. Lots of intense bursts. This will trigger autophagy.

Fast for two or three days. This will push autophagy even further.

Stay busy throughout the fast. Take as many walks as possible. This will really ramp up the fat burning and get you quickly into ketosis, another autophagy trigger.

Drink coffee throughout the fast. Coffee is a nice boost to autophagy. Decaf is fine.

I know people are often skeptical of using “Grok logic,” but it’s likely that most human ancestors experienced similar “perfect storms” of deprivation-induced autophagy on occasion throughout the year. You track an animal for a couple days and come up short, or it takes that long to make the kill. You nibble on various stimulants plucked from the land along the way. You walk a ton and sprint some, then lift heavy. And finally, maybe, you get to eat.

If you find yourself aging well, you’re on the right track. If you’re not progressing from obesity to diabetes, you’re good to go. If you’re maintaining and even building your muscle despite qualifying for the blue plate special, you’ve probably dipping into the autophagy pathway. If you’re thinking clearly, I wouldn’t worry. Obviously, we can’t really see what’s happening on the inside. But if everything you can verify is going well, keep it up.

That’s it for today, folks. If you have any more questions about autophagy, leave them down below and I’ll try to get to all of them in future posts.

Thanks for reading!

//

//

References:

Yang ZJ, Chee CE, Huang S, Sinicrope FA. The role of autophagy in cancer: therapeutic implications. Mol Cancer Ther. 2011;10(9):1533-41.

Barlow AD, Thomas DC. Autophagy in diabetes: ?-cell dysfunction, insulin resistance, and complications. DNA Cell Biol. 2015;34(4):252-60.

Sasaki Y, Ikeda Y, Iwabayashi M, Akasaki Y, Ohishi M. The Impact of Autophagy on Cardiovascular Senescence and Diseases. Int Heart J. 2017;58(5):666-673.

Florencio-silva R, Sasso GR, Simões MJ, et al. Osteoporosis and autophagy: What is the relationship?. Rev Assoc Med Bras (1992). 2017;63(2):173-179.

Li Q, Liu Y, Sun M. Autophagy and Alzheimer’s Disease. Cell Mol Neurobiol. 2017;37(3):377-388.

Jiao J, Demontis F. Skeletal muscle autophagy and its role in sarcopenia and organismal aging. Curr Opin Pharmacol. 2017;34:1-6.

Schwalm C, Jamart C, Benoit N, et al. Activation of autophagy in human skeletal muscle is dependent on exercise intensity and AMPK activation. FASEB J. 2015;29(8):3515-26.

De oliveira MR, Jardim FR, Setzer WN, Nabavi SM, Nabavi SF. Curcumin, mitochondrial biogenesis, and mitophagy: Exploring recent data and indicating future needs. Biotechnol Adv. 2016;34(5):813-826.

Przychodzen P, Wyszkowska R, Gorzynik-debicka M, Kostrzewa T, Kuban-jankowska A, Gorska-ponikowska M. Anticancer Potential of Oleuropein, the Polyphenol of Olive Oil, With 2-Methoxyestradiol, Separately or in Combination, in Human Osteosarcoma Cells. Anticancer Res. 2019;39(3):1243-1251.

The post The Definitive Guide To Autophagy (and 7 Ways To Induce It) appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

from Mark's Daily Apple https://ift.tt/2V02PlS via IFTTT https://ift.tt/2CEDuHa

[eldritchsurveys]

965.

5k Survey LVIII

2951. You are alone. You take a bus to the mall. The stop is right in the mall parking lot. You window-shop. You don't buy anything. You want to get back on the bus to go home when you realize you have lost all your money. You have no cell phone. All the payphones are jammed with gum. You can not get it out. How do you get the $1.50 you need to get on the bus and get home??? >> I’m sorry, but it’s 2020. I will definitely have a phone. Let’s say my phone was out of charge or something (which is also kind of implausible, I don’t leave home without either my phone being adequately charged or my power pack in my bag, but... hey)... in which case I’d just ask someone for a dollar-fifty. I mean, it’s not like I’ve never panhandled before, it’s not the worst thing in the world. (Also, can I just say... even if the pay phones weren’t jammed, if I was out of money I couldn’t use them anyway, lol. So... yeah...) 2952. How long would it take you to organize your bedroom? >> Not long. I don’t have a lot of stuff. Mostly my problem with organisation is that I get really into it and I want to have a particular dedicated place for literally everything, which is kind of unfeasible in reality. Well, my reality, anyway. 2953. Make up a nickname for your bedroom: >> I’d rather not. 2954. What comes after: I've got a love-a-lee bunch of coconuts (diddly dee) There they are a-standing in a row. Big ones, small ones, some as big as your head... >> I don’t know any of these rhymes (I’m assuming they’re rhymes?). 2955. Where ARE the wild things? >> In the book.

2956. You get a six cd changer for the car, only problem is that you know that once you put in six cd's you can NEVER take them out. Which 6 cd's do you put in? >> --- 2957. Let's play Jeapordy. (Do-Do-Do-Do-Do-Do-Dooooo-) I'll give some answers..you give the questions. Ready? Begin. The answer is: Purple Yellow Candle Pepsi Peace Lisa Cotton Flag 42 2958. Pick a letter. List some great words starting with that letter: >> V: Vindicate, vengeance, viridian, vermillion, verdant, vicissitude, verklempt... 2959. Is eight days a week enough to show you care? >> I don’t know, but there aren’t eight days in a week anyway so it’s moot. 2960. Have you told your parents you love them today? >> Of course fucking not. 2961. What is the difference between a number two pencil and any other kind of pencil? >> I knew this once, but I’ve forgotten. No matter, a simple google search would remind me, but I’m not going to do it for this question. 2962. Have you ever cross-dressed? >> I’ve worn clothes that were marketed to men as well as clothes that were marketed to women. Most of the time, I wear them because I like them, not necessarily because I want to specifically give the appearance of being a gender I am not. 2963. Are we living in a world without end? >> I don’t know, but from our short-lived perspective, it would certainly seem that way. 2964. What do you think of that couple that was just on the news who kidnapped a 16 year old girl for a week and forced her to be their sex slave? >> I might remember this, but I also might be confusing it with similar cases, because apparently, this sort of bullshit happens with some regularity. Anyway, I don’t recall having an opinion about the people that do this, aside from, “well, that sure is fucked up”. 2965. Wanna watch a movie about a cheerleading competition? >> Like Bring It On? Sure, that was a fun movie. 2966. Are you singing in the rain? >> Well, no. I’m inside, taking a survey. 2967. Should the sopranos actors ahve been allowed to march in the St Patrick's Day parade? >> I... what? 2968. Is oral sex. anal sex or regular sex more intimate? >> The act doesn’t matter. Intimacy can be present (or not present, as it were) in any situation. 2969. Is it time to switch to Decaf? >> For me, yeah. It’s been that time for a few years now, unfortunately. 2970. Why is it that the truth hurts? >> Oh, because. 2971. How do you feel about: ticketmaster? scalpers? >> I’m not fond of either of these and I avoid them whenever possible (for scalpers, that’s very easy to do; for Ticketmaster, a little less so sometimes). 2972. What are you guilty of? >> *shrug* 2973. Have you ever done any of the following in order to catch a buzz or get high? sniffed glue: sniffed magic markers: ate paste: drank Nyquil, or Robitussen or any other Over-the-counter drug: <-- this was my high of choice. 'huffed' (inhaled or sniffed) any kind of fabric softner, cooking spray or other household product: whip-its: I have also done this. 2974. What gives you inner stregnth? >> Er... I mean, I don’t know. It just happens sometimes? 2975. ::eyes you suspiciously::Where have all the COOKIES gone? >> I sure didn’t eat them, I don’t like most cookies. 2976. What is a good gift for someone you don't like so that it SEEMS to be nice but really 'gets' them somehow? >> This isn’t my area of expertise, you’ll have to ask someone who experiences this impulse enough to have ideas about it. 2977. If you don't like the service at a restraunt would you skip the tip? Why or why not? >> I have never experienced service at a restaurant that I did not appreciate, so... 2978. Apples or peaches or pumpkin pie? >> Er. *shrug* 2979. What Race/nationality was Jesus? >> I mean, I assumed his ethnicity or nationality was... Israelite. I don’t know, man, I really can’t imagine it matters all that much either. As far as I understand it, they didn’t even have the same ideas about race that we’re operating from. 2980. What was one evening you'll never forget? >> --- 2981. Name 13 ways to look at a blackbird: >> What? 2982. Trick or Treat? >> No. 2983. If you had money to burn, what 'toy' would you spend your money on (think monopoly game with real money, luxory boat, a train layout that takes up a house, etc.)? >> I’d prefer not to spend money in that way. I’d probably just be an art patron and throw money at people who just want to make art but don’t have time or energy because of capitalism. 2984. Are you having trouble with aol 8.0? Or if you don't have aol...have you ever been to a podiatrist? >> Whew, AOL... lmao. Anyway, yes, I went to a podiatrist at the beginning of the year to have my big toenails removed because they were basically ruined from, you know, hard living and suchnot. 2985. If you could write your own ten commandments, what would they be? >> I would not do this. 2986. When people lose weight, where does it go? >> -___- 2987. Your mate/partner/wife or husband/longterm boy or girlfriend/etc. has SOMEHOW gotten his or her FAVORITE celebrity's attention. Your sweetie has always thought this celeb was so sexy and now the celeb kinda fancies your sweety as well(although the celeb is not interested enough to stick around for more than one night). Your sweetie wants to have a one night stand with the celeb. Knowing that this is your sweeties one and only chance to bang (or even hang out with) a celebrity (ESPECIALLY their FAVORITE celebrity) you would say: >> I mean, duh, go for it. This sort of thing doesn’t faze me. I hope she has a great time and I hope the celebrity is not a fuckin dick and treats her with some class and respect. 2988. Have you ever seen an Ed Wood film? if yes, what one(s) and what did you think? If no, aren't you curious to see a movie by the person known as the worst director of all time? >> No, I’m not really curious about that. 2989. What kind of bread do you like to eat (white, rye, potatoe, grain, whole wheat, etc)? >> Potato or grain. Or sourdough. 2990. Are you emotionaly articulate? >> Not especially. It’s yet another thing I’m trying to work on. 2991. Does everything happen for a reason? >> Maybe. I’m not sure how pervasive cause and effect is. 2992. Do you take a piece of those you have loved and carry it around forever? If yes, than aren't they still with you even when you are gone? >> That’s how I see it. Also, our personalities are basically amalgamations of people we’ve known (as well as bits added in from media, observation, etc), so that’s another way that people remain part of you when they’re gone. They’ve participated -- even in a tiny way -- in the making of you. 2993. Is it true that the child is worth ten of the parent? >> I have no idea what this means. 2994. Can you think of a door that has closed in your life? Can you think of a window that has opened? >> I don’t really think of my life this way, so I don’t have any examples of this in action. 2995. What does this mean to you: 'Necessity is the mother of invention'?Do you believe that necessity is also the mother of:  courage? survival skills? independance? >> I mean, I guess necessity can be the mother of anything. IDK, man.

2996. What helps you to get over a Major heartache? >> Time and patience. Therapy probably would help, but I can’t afford that. 2997. Can you depend completely upon yourself? have you ever tried? >> Of course not. That’s... just not how humans work. I’m not going to try it just to try to prove biology (or whatever field of science that actually is a part of, I’m not sure lol) wrong. 2998. How can you tell the differance between the end of one part of your life and the beautiful begining of the next part? >> ??? 2999. Have you ever read any stories by Kate Chopin? If not, I suggest that you do. >> That name sounds vaguely familiar, but I doubt I’ve actually read anything by her. 3000. Do you often make the best discoveries when you really weren't looking for anything (or anyone)? >> I don’t know.

[jesseneufeld]

The Definitive Guide To Autophagy (and 7 Ways To Induce It)

Biological systems are self-maintaining. They have to be. We don’t have maintenance workers, mechanics, troubleshooters that can “take a look inside” and make sure everything’s running smoothly. Doctors perform a kind of biological maintenance, but even they are working blind from the outside.

No, for life to sustain itself, it has to perform automatic maintenance work on its cells, tissues, organs, and biological processes. One of the most important types of biological maintenance is a process called autophagy.

Autophagy: the word comes from the Greek for “self-eating,” and that’s a very accurate description: Autophagy is when a cell consumes the parts of itself that are damaged or malfunctioning. Lysosomes—members of the innate immune system that also degrade pathogens—degrade the damaged cellular material, making it available for energy and other metabolites.  It’s cellular pruning, and it’s an important part of staving off the worst parts of the aging process.

In study after study, we find that impairment to or reductions of normal levels of autophagy are linked to almost every age-related degenerative disease and malady you can imagine.

Cancer: Autophagy can inhibit the establishment of cancer by removing malfunctioning cellular material before it becomes problematic. Once cancer is established, however, autophagy can enhance tumor growth.

Diabetes: Impaired autophagy enables the progression from obesity to diabetes via pancreatic beta cell degradation and insulin resistance. Impaired autophagy also accompanies the serious complications related to diabetes, like kidney disease and heart failure.

Heart disease: Autophagy plays an important role in all aspects of heart health.

Osteoporosis: Both human and animal studies indicate that autophagy dysfunction precedes osteoporosis.

Alzheimer’s disease: Early stage Alzheimer’s disease is linked to deficits in autophagy.

Muscle loss: Autophagy preserves muscle tissue; loss of autophagy begins the process of age-related muscle atrophy.

Okay, so autophagy is rather important. It’s fundamental to health.

But how does autophagy happen?

The way it’s supposed to happen is this:

Humans traditionally and historically lived in a very different food environment. Traditionally and historically, humans were feasters and fasters. While I don’t think our paleolithic ancestors were miserable, wretched, perpetually starving creatures scuttling from one rare meal to the next—the fossil records show incredibly robust remains, with powerful bones and healthy teeth and little sign of nutritional deficits—they also couldn’t stroll down to the local Whole Foods for a cart full of ingredients. Going without food from time to time was a fundamental aspect of human ancestral life.

They worked for their food. I don’t mean “sat in a cubicle to get a paycheck to spend on groceries.” I mean they expended calories to obtain food. They hunted—and sometimes came back empty handed. They dug and climbed and rooted around and gathered. They walked, ran, stalked, jumped, lifted. Movement was a necessity.

In short, they experienced energy deficits on a regular basis. And energy deficits, particularly sustained energy deficits, are the primary triggers for autophagy. Without energy deficits, you remain in fed mode and never quite hit the fasted mode required for autophagy.

Now compare that ancestral food environment to the modern food environment:

Almost no one goes hungry. Food is cheap and plentiful, with the tastiest and most calorie-rich stuff tending to be the cheapest and most widely available.

Few people have to physically work for their food. We drive to the store and walk a couple hundred steps, hand over some money, and—BOOM—obtain thirty thousand calories, just like that. Or someone comes to our house and delivers the food directly.

We eat all the time. Unless you set out to do it, chances are you’ll be grazing, snacking, and nibbling throughout the day. We’re in a perpetually fed state.

The average person in a modern society eating a modern industrial diet rarely goes long enough without eating something to trigger autophagy. Nor are they expending enough energy to create an energy deficit from the other end—the output. It’s understandable. If our ancestors were thrust into our current situation, many would fall all over themselves to take advantage of the modern food environment. But that doesn’t make it desirable, or good for you. It just means that figuring out how to trigger autophagy becomes that much more vital for modern humans.

Here are 7 ways to induce autophagy with regular lifestyle choices.

1) Fast

There’s no better way to quickly and reliably induce a large energy deficit than not eating anything at all. There are no definitive studies identifying “optimal” fasting guidelines for autophagy in humans. Longer fasts probably allow deeper levels of autophagy, but shorter fasts are no slouch.

2) Get Keto-Adapted

When you’re keto- and fat-adapted, it takes you less time to hit serious autophagy upon commencing a fast. You’re already halfway there.

3) Train Regularly

With exercise-related autophagy, the biggest effects are seen with lifelong training, not acute. In mice, for example, the mice who are subjected to lifelong exercise see the most autophagy-related benefits. In people, those who have played soccer (football) for their entire lives have far more autophagy-related markers of gene activity than people of the same age who have not trained their whole lives.

4) Train Hard

In studies of acute exercise-induced autophagy, the intensity of the exercise is the biggest predictor of autophagy—even more than whether the athletes are in the fed or fasted state.

5) Drink Coffee

At least in mice, both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee induce autophagy in the liver, muscle tissue, and heart. This effect persists even when the coffee is given alongside ad libitum food. These mice didn’t have to fast for the coffee to induce autophagy.

Certain nutrients can trigger autophagy, too….

6) Eat Turmeric

Curcumin, the primary phytonutrient in turmeric, is especially effective at inducing autophagy in the mitochondria (mitophagy).

7) Consume Extra Virgin Olive Oil

The anticancer potential of its main antioxidant, oleuropein, likely occurs via autophagy.

Disclaimer: The autophagy/nutrient literature is anything but definitive. Most studies take place in test tube settings, not living humans. Eating some turmeric probably won’t flip a switch and trigger autophagy right away, but it won’t hurt.

Autophagy is a long game.

This can’t be underscored enough: Autophagy is a lifelong pursuit attained by regular doses of exercise and not overeating every time you sit down to a meal. Staying so ketotic your pee tests look like a Prince album cover, doing epic 7-day fasts every month, fasting every other day, making sure you end every day with fully depleted liver glycogen—while these strategies might be “effective,” obsessing over their measures to hit some “optimal” level of constant autophagy isn’t the point and is likely to activate or trigger neurotic behavior.

Besides, we don’t know what “optimal autophagy” looks like. Autophagy isn’t easy to measure in live humans. You can’t order an “autophagy test” from your doc. We don’t even know if more autophagy is necessarily better. There’s the fact that unchecked autophagy can actually increase existing cancer in some cases. There’s the fact that too much autophagy in the wrong place might be bad. We just don’t know very much. Autophagy is important. It’s good to have some happening. That’s what we have to go on.

Putting These Tips Into Practice

Autophagy happens largely when you just live a healthy lifestyle. Get some exercise and daily activity. Go hard every now and then. Sleep deeply. Recover well. Don’t eat carbohydrates you don’t need and haven’t earned (and I don’t just mean “earned through glycogen depleting-exercise”). Reach ketosis sometimes. Don’t eat more food than you need. Drink coffee, even decaf.

All those caveats aside, I see the utility in doing a big “autophagy session” a few times a year. Here’s how mine looks:

Do a big training session incorporating strength training and sprints. Lots of intense bursts. This will trigger autophagy.

Fast for two or three days. This will push autophagy even further.

Stay busy throughout the fast. Take as many walks as possible. This will really ramp up the fat burning and get you quickly into ketosis, another autophagy trigger.

Drink coffee throughout the fast. Coffee is a nice boost to autophagy. Decaf is fine.

I know people are often skeptical of using “Grok logic,” but it’s likely that most human ancestors experienced similar “perfect storms” of deprivation-induced autophagy on occasion throughout the year. You track an animal for a couple days and come up short, or it takes that long to make the kill. You nibble on various stimulants plucked from the land along the way. You walk a ton and sprint some, then lift heavy. And finally, maybe, you get to eat.

If you find yourself aging well, you’re on the right track. If you’re not progressing from obesity to diabetes, you’re good to go. If you’re maintaining and even building your muscle despite qualifying for the blue plate special, you’ve probably dipping into the autophagy pathway. If you’re thinking clearly, I wouldn’t worry. Obviously, we can’t really see what’s happening on the inside. But if everything you can verify is going well, keep it up.

That’s it for today, folks. If you have any more questions about autophagy, leave them down below and I’ll try to get to all of them in future posts.

Thanks for reading!

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References:

Yang ZJ, Chee CE, Huang S, Sinicrope FA. The role of autophagy in cancer: therapeutic implications. Mol Cancer Ther. 2011;10(9):1533-41.

Barlow AD, Thomas DC. Autophagy in diabetes: ?-cell dysfunction, insulin resistance, and complications. DNA Cell Biol. 2015;34(4):252-60.

Sasaki Y, Ikeda Y, Iwabayashi M, Akasaki Y, Ohishi M. The Impact of Autophagy on Cardiovascular Senescence and Diseases. Int Heart J. 2017;58(5):666-673.

Florencio-silva R, Sasso GR, Simões MJ, et al. Osteoporosis and autophagy: What is the relationship?. Rev Assoc Med Bras (1992). 2017;63(2):173-179.

Li Q, Liu Y, Sun M. Autophagy and Alzheimer’s Disease. Cell Mol Neurobiol. 2017;37(3):377-388.

Jiao J, Demontis F. Skeletal muscle autophagy and its role in sarcopenia and organismal aging. Curr Opin Pharmacol. 2017;34:1-6.

Schwalm C, Jamart C, Benoit N, et al. Activation of autophagy in human skeletal muscle is dependent on exercise intensity and AMPK activation. FASEB J. 2015;29(8):3515-26.

De oliveira MR, Jardim FR, Setzer WN, Nabavi SM, Nabavi SF. Curcumin, mitochondrial biogenesis, and mitophagy: Exploring recent data and indicating future needs. Biotechnol Adv. 2016;34(5):813-826.

Przychodzen P, Wyszkowska R, Gorzynik-debicka M, Kostrzewa T, Kuban-jankowska A, Gorska-ponikowska M. Anticancer Potential of Oleuropein, the Polyphenol of Olive Oil, With 2-Methoxyestradiol, Separately or in Combination, in Human Osteosarcoma Cells. Anticancer Res. 2019;39(3):1243-1251.

The post The Definitive Guide To Autophagy (and 7 Ways To Induce It) appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

The Definitive Guide To Autophagy (and 7 Ways To Induce It) published first on https://drugaddictionsrehab.tumblr.com/

[lauramalchowblog]

The Definitive Guide To Autophagy (and 7 Ways To Induce It)

Biological systems are self-maintaining. They have to be. We don’t have maintenance workers, mechanics, troubleshooters that can “take a look inside” and make sure everything’s running smoothly. Doctors perform a kind of biological maintenance, but even they are working blind from the outside.

No, for life to sustain itself, it has to perform automatic maintenance work on its cells, tissues, organs, and biological processes. One of the most important types of biological maintenance is a process called autophagy.

Autophagy: the word comes from the Greek for “self-eating,” and that’s a very accurate description: Autophagy is when a cell consumes the parts of itself that are damaged or malfunctioning. Lysosomes—members of the innate immune system that also degrade pathogens—degrade the damaged cellular material, making it available for energy and other metabolites.  It’s cellular pruning, and it’s an important part of staving off the worst parts of the aging process.

In study after study, we find that impairment to or reductions of normal levels of autophagy are linked to almost every age-related degenerative disease and malady you can imagine.

Cancer: Autophagy can inhibit the establishment of cancer by removing malfunctioning cellular material before it becomes problematic. Once cancer is established, however, autophagy can enhance tumor growth.

Diabetes: Impaired autophagy enables the progression from obesity to diabetes via pancreatic beta cell degradation and insulin resistance. Impaired autophagy also accompanies the serious complications related to diabetes, like kidney disease and heart failure.

Heart disease: Autophagy plays an important role in all aspects of heart health.

Osteoporosis: Both human and animal studies indicate that autophagy dysfunction precedes osteoporosis.

Alzheimer’s disease: Early stage Alzheimer’s disease is linked to deficits in autophagy.

Muscle loss: Autophagy preserves muscle tissue; loss of autophagy begins the process of age-related muscle atrophy.

Okay, so autophagy is rather important. It’s fundamental to health.

But how does autophagy happen?

The way it’s supposed to happen is this:

Humans traditionally and historically lived in a very different food environment. Traditionally and historically, humans were feasters and fasters. While I don’t think our paleolithic ancestors were miserable, wretched, perpetually starving creatures scuttling from one rare meal to the next—the fossil records show incredibly robust remains, with powerful bones and healthy teeth and little sign of nutritional deficits—they also couldn’t stroll down to the local Whole Foods for a cart full of ingredients. Going without food from time to time was a fundamental aspect of human ancestral life.

They worked for their food. I don’t mean “sat in a cubicle to get a paycheck to spend on groceries.” I mean they expended calories to obtain food. They hunted—and sometimes came back empty handed. They dug and climbed and rooted around and gathered. They walked, ran, stalked, jumped, lifted. Movement was a necessity.

In short, they experienced energy deficits on a regular basis. And energy deficits, particularly sustained energy deficits, are the primary triggers for autophagy. Without energy deficits, you remain in fed mode and never quite hit the fasted mode required for autophagy.

Now compare that ancestral food environment to the modern food environment:

Almost no one goes hungry. Food is cheap and plentiful, with the tastiest and most calorie-rich stuff tending to be the cheapest and most widely available.

Few people have to physically work for their food. We drive to the store and walk a couple hundred steps, hand over some money, and—BOOM—obtain thirty thousand calories, just like that. Or someone comes to our house and delivers the food directly.

We eat all the time. Unless you set out to do it, chances are you’ll be grazing, snacking, and nibbling throughout the day. We’re in a perpetually fed state.

The average person in a modern society eating a modern industrial diet rarely goes long enough without eating something to trigger autophagy. Nor are they expending enough energy to create an energy deficit from the other end—the output. It’s understandable. If our ancestors were thrust into our current situation, many would fall all over themselves to take advantage of the modern food environment. But that doesn’t make it desirable, or good for you. It just means that figuring out how to trigger autophagy becomes that much more vital for modern humans.

Here are 7 ways to induce autophagy with regular lifestyle choices.

1) Fast

There’s no better way to quickly and reliably induce a large energy deficit than not eating anything at all. There are no definitive studies identifying “optimal” fasting guidelines for autophagy in humans. Longer fasts probably allow deeper levels of autophagy, but shorter fasts are no slouch.

2) Get Keto-Adapted

When you’re keto- and fat-adapted, it takes you less time to hit serious autophagy upon commencing a fast. You’re already halfway there.

3) Train Regularly

With exercise-related autophagy, the biggest effects are seen with lifelong training, not acute. In mice, for example, the mice who are subjected to lifelong exercise see the most autophagy-related benefits. In people, those who have played soccer (football) for their entire lives have far more autophagy-related markers of gene activity than people of the same age who have not trained their whole lives.

4) Train Hard

In studies of acute exercise-induced autophagy, the intensity of the exercise is the biggest predictor of autophagy—even more than whether the athletes are in the fed or fasted state.

5) Drink Coffee

At least in mice, both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee induce autophagy in the liver, muscle tissue, and heart. This effect persists even when the coffee is given alongside ad libitum food. These mice didn’t have to fast for the coffee to induce autophagy.

Certain nutrients can trigger autophagy, too….

6) Eat Turmeric

Curcumin, the primary phytonutrient in turmeric, is especially effective at inducing autophagy in the mitochondria (mitophagy).

7) Consume Extra Virgin Olive Oil

The anticancer potential of its main antioxidant, oleuropein, likely occurs via autophagy.

Disclaimer: The autophagy/nutrient literature is anything but definitive. Most studies take place in test tube settings, not living humans. Eating some turmeric probably won’t flip a switch and trigger autophagy right away, but it won’t hurt.

Autophagy is a long game.

This can’t be underscored enough: Autophagy is a lifelong pursuit attained by regular doses of exercise and not overeating every time you sit down to a meal. Staying so ketotic your pee tests look like a Prince album cover, doing epic 7-day fasts every month, fasting every other day, making sure you end every day with fully depleted liver glycogen—while these strategies might be “effective,” obsessing over their measures to hit some “optimal” level of constant autophagy isn’t the point and is likely to activate or trigger neurotic behavior.

Besides, we don’t know what “optimal autophagy” looks like. Autophagy isn’t easy to measure in live humans. You can’t order an “autophagy test” from your doc. We don’t even know if more autophagy is necessarily better. There’s the fact that unchecked autophagy can actually increase existing cancer in some cases. There’s the fact that too much autophagy in the wrong place might be bad. We just don’t know very much. Autophagy is important. It’s good to have some happening. That’s what we have to go on.

Putting These Tips Into Practice

Autophagy happens largely when you just live a healthy lifestyle. Get some exercise and daily activity. Go hard every now and then. Sleep deeply. Recover well. Don’t eat carbohydrates you don’t need and haven’t earned (and I don’t just mean “earned through glycogen depleting-exercise”). Reach ketosis sometimes. Don’t eat more food than you need. Drink coffee, even decaf.

All those caveats aside, I see the utility in doing a big “autophagy session” a few times a year. Here’s how mine looks:

Do a big training session incorporating strength training and sprints. Lots of intense bursts. This will trigger autophagy.

Fast for two or three days. This will push autophagy even further.

Stay busy throughout the fast. Take as many walks as possible. This will really ramp up the fat burning and get you quickly into ketosis, another autophagy trigger.

Drink coffee throughout the fast. Coffee is a nice boost to autophagy. Decaf is fine.

I know people are often skeptical of using “Grok logic,” but it’s likely that most human ancestors experienced similar “perfect storms” of deprivation-induced autophagy on occasion throughout the year. You track an animal for a couple days and come up short, or it takes that long to make the kill. You nibble on various stimulants plucked from the land along the way. You walk a ton and sprint some, then lift heavy. And finally, maybe, you get to eat.

If you find yourself aging well, you’re on the right track. If you’re not progressing from obesity to diabetes, you’re good to go. If you’re maintaining and even building your muscle despite qualifying for the blue plate special, you’ve probably dipping into the autophagy pathway. If you’re thinking clearly, I wouldn’t worry. Obviously, we can’t really see what’s happening on the inside. But if everything you can verify is going well, keep it up.

That’s it for today, folks. If you have any more questions about autophagy, leave them down below and I’ll try to get to all of them in future posts.

Thanks for reading!

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References:

Yang ZJ, Chee CE, Huang S, Sinicrope FA. The role of autophagy in cancer: therapeutic implications. Mol Cancer Ther. 2011;10(9):1533-41.

Barlow AD, Thomas DC. Autophagy in diabetes: ?-cell dysfunction, insulin resistance, and complications. DNA Cell Biol. 2015;34(4):252-60.

Sasaki Y, Ikeda Y, Iwabayashi M, Akasaki Y, Ohishi M. The Impact of Autophagy on Cardiovascular Senescence and Diseases. Int Heart J. 2017;58(5):666-673.

Florencio-silva R, Sasso GR, Simões MJ, et al. Osteoporosis and autophagy: What is the relationship?. Rev Assoc Med Bras (1992). 2017;63(2):173-179.

Li Q, Liu Y, Sun M. Autophagy and Alzheimer’s Disease. Cell Mol Neurobiol. 2017;37(3):377-388.

Jiao J, Demontis F. Skeletal muscle autophagy and its role in sarcopenia and organismal aging. Curr Opin Pharmacol. 2017;34:1-6.

Schwalm C, Jamart C, Benoit N, et al. Activation of autophagy in human skeletal muscle is dependent on exercise intensity and AMPK activation. FASEB J. 2015;29(8):3515-26.

De oliveira MR, Jardim FR, Setzer WN, Nabavi SM, Nabavi SF. Curcumin, mitochondrial biogenesis, and mitophagy: Exploring recent data and indicating future needs. Biotechnol Adv. 2016;34(5):813-826.

Przychodzen P, Wyszkowska R, Gorzynik-debicka M, Kostrzewa T, Kuban-jankowska A, Gorska-ponikowska M. Anticancer Potential of Oleuropein, the Polyphenol of Olive Oil, With 2-Methoxyestradiol, Separately or in Combination, in Human Osteosarcoma Cells. Anticancer Res. 2019;39(3):1243-1251.

The post The Definitive Guide To Autophagy (and 7 Ways To Induce It) appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

The Definitive Guide To Autophagy (and 7 Ways To Induce It) published first on https://venabeahan.tumblr.com

[cynthiamwashington]

The Definitive Guide To Autophagy (and 7 Ways To Induce It)

Biological systems are self-maintaining. They have to be. We don’t have maintenance workers, mechanics, troubleshooters that can “take a look inside” and make sure everything’s running smoothly. Doctors perform a kind of biological maintenance, but even they are working blind from the outside.

No, for life to sustain itself, it has to perform automatic maintenance work on its cells, tissues, organs, and biological processes. One of the most important types of biological maintenance is a process called autophagy.

Autophagy: the word comes from the Greek for “self-eating,” and that’s a very accurate description: Autophagy is when a cell consumes the parts of itself that are damaged or malfunctioning. Lysosomes—members of the innate immune system that also degrade pathogens—degrade the damaged cellular material, making it available for energy and other metabolites.  It’s cellular pruning, and it’s an important part of staving off the worst parts of the aging process.

In study after study, we find that impairment to or reductions of normal levels of autophagy are linked to almost every age-related degenerative disease and malady you can imagine.

Cancer: Autophagy can inhibit the establishment of cancer by removing malfunctioning cellular material before it becomes problematic. Once cancer is established, however, autophagy can enhance tumor growth.

Diabetes: Impaired autophagy enables the progression from obesity to diabetes via pancreatic beta cell degradation and insulin resistance. Impaired autophagy also accompanies the serious complications related to diabetes, like kidney disease and heart failure.

Heart disease: Autophagy plays an important role in all aspects of heart health.

Osteoporosis: Both human and animal studies indicate that autophagy dysfunction precedes osteoporosis.

Alzheimer’s disease: Early stage Alzheimer’s disease is linked to deficits in autophagy.

Muscle loss: Autophagy preserves muscle tissue; loss of autophagy begins the process of age-related muscle atrophy.

Okay, so autophagy is rather important. It’s fundamental to health.

But how does autophagy happen?

The way it’s supposed to happen is this:

Humans traditionally and historically lived in a very different food environment. Traditionally and historically, humans were feasters and fasters. While I don’t think our paleolithic ancestors were miserable, wretched, perpetually starving creatures scuttling from one rare meal to the next—the fossil records show incredibly robust remains, with powerful bones and healthy teeth and little sign of nutritional deficits—they also couldn’t stroll down to the local Whole Foods for a cart full of ingredients. Going without food from time to time was a fundamental aspect of human ancestral life.

They worked for their food. I don’t mean “sat in a cubicle to get a paycheck to spend on groceries.” I mean they expended calories to obtain food. They hunted—and sometimes came back empty handed. They dug and climbed and rooted around and gathered. They walked, ran, stalked, jumped, lifted. Movement was a necessity.

In short, they experienced energy deficits on a regular basis. And energy deficits, particularly sustained energy deficits, are the primary triggers for autophagy. Without energy deficits, you remain in fed mode and never quite hit the fasted mode required for autophagy.

Now compare that ancestral food environment to the modern food environment:

Almost no one goes hungry. Food is cheap and plentiful, with the tastiest and most calorie-rich stuff tending to be the cheapest and most widely available.

Few people have to physically work for their food. We drive to the store and walk a couple hundred steps, hand over some money, and—BOOM—obtain thirty thousand calories, just like that. Or someone comes to our house and delivers the food directly.

We eat all the time. Unless you set out to do it, chances are you’ll be grazing, snacking, and nibbling throughout the day. We’re in a perpetually fed state.

The average person in a modern society eating a modern industrial diet rarely goes long enough without eating something to trigger autophagy. Nor are they expending enough energy to create an energy deficit from the other end—the output. It’s understandable. If our ancestors were thrust into our current situation, many would fall all over themselves to take advantage of the modern food environment. But that doesn’t make it desirable, or good for you. It just means that figuring out how to trigger autophagy becomes that much more vital for modern humans.

Here are 7 ways to induce autophagy with regular lifestyle choices.

1) Fast

There’s no better way to quickly and reliably induce a large energy deficit than not eating anything at all. There are no definitive studies identifying “optimal” fasting guidelines for autophagy in humans. Longer fasts probably allow deeper levels of autophagy, but shorter fasts are no slouch.

2) Get Keto-Adapted

When you’re keto- and fat-adapted, it takes you less time to hit serious autophagy upon commencing a fast. You’re already halfway there.

3) Train Regularly

With exercise-related autophagy, the biggest effects are seen with lifelong training, not acute. In mice, for example, the mice who are subjected to lifelong exercise see the most autophagy-related benefits. In people, those who have played soccer (football) for their entire lives have far more autophagy-related markers of gene activity than people of the same age who have not trained their whole lives.

4) Train Hard

In studies of acute exercise-induced autophagy, the intensity of the exercise is the biggest predictor of autophagy—even more than whether the athletes are in the fed or fasted state.

5) Drink Coffee

At least in mice, both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee induce autophagy in the liver, muscle tissue, and heart. This effect persists even when the coffee is given alongside ad libitum food. These mice didn’t have to fast for the coffee to induce autophagy.

Certain nutrients can trigger autophagy, too….

6) Eat Turmeric

Curcumin, the primary phytonutrient in turmeric, is especially effective at inducing autophagy in the mitochondria (mitophagy).

7) Consume Extra Virgin Olive Oil

The anticancer potential of its main antioxidant, oleuropein, likely occurs via autophagy.

Disclaimer: The autophagy/nutrient literature is anything but definitive. Most studies take place in test tube settings, not living humans. Eating some turmeric probably won’t flip a switch and trigger autophagy right away, but it won’t hurt.

Autophagy is a long game.

This can’t be underscored enough: Autophagy is a lifelong pursuit attained by regular doses of exercise and not overeating every time you sit down to a meal. Staying so ketotic your pee tests look like a Prince album cover, doing epic 7-day fasts every month, fasting every other day, making sure you end every day with fully depleted liver glycogen—while these strategies might be “effective,” obsessing over their measures to hit some “optimal” level of constant autophagy isn’t the point and is likely to activate or trigger neurotic behavior.

Besides, we don’t know what “optimal autophagy” looks like. Autophagy isn’t easy to measure in live humans. You can’t order an “autophagy test” from your doc. We don’t even know if more autophagy is necessarily better. There’s the fact that unchecked autophagy can actually increase existing cancer in some cases. There’s the fact that too much autophagy in the wrong place might be bad. We just don’t know very much. Autophagy is important. It’s good to have some happening. That’s what we have to go on.

Putting These Tips Into Practice

Autophagy happens largely when you just live a healthy lifestyle. Get some exercise and daily activity. Go hard every now and then. Sleep deeply. Recover well. Don’t eat carbohydrates you don’t need and haven’t earned (and I don’t just mean “earned through glycogen depleting-exercise”). Reach ketosis sometimes. Don’t eat more food than you need. Drink coffee, even decaf.

All those caveats aside, I see the utility in doing a big “autophagy session” a few times a year. Here’s how mine looks:

Do a big training session incorporating strength training and sprints. Lots of intense bursts. This will trigger autophagy.

Fast for two or three days. This will push autophagy even further.

Stay busy throughout the fast. Take as many walks as possible. This will really ramp up the fat burning and get you quickly into ketosis, another autophagy trigger.

Drink coffee throughout the fast. Coffee is a nice boost to autophagy. Decaf is fine.

I know people are often skeptical of using “Grok logic,” but it’s likely that most human ancestors experienced similar “perfect storms” of deprivation-induced autophagy on occasion throughout the year. You track an animal for a couple days and come up short, or it takes that long to make the kill. You nibble on various stimulants plucked from the land along the way. You walk a ton and sprint some, then lift heavy. And finally, maybe, you get to eat.

If you find yourself aging well, you’re on the right track. If you’re not progressing from obesity to diabetes, you’re good to go. If you’re maintaining and even building your muscle despite qualifying for the blue plate special, you’ve probably dipping into the autophagy pathway. If you’re thinking clearly, I wouldn’t worry. Obviously, we can’t really see what’s happening on the inside. But if everything you can verify is going well, keep it up.

That’s it for today, folks. If you have any more questions about autophagy, leave them down below and I’ll try to get to all of them in future posts.

Thanks for reading!

(function($) { $("#dfROzDk").load("https://www.marksdailyapple.com/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?action=dfads_ajax_load_ads&groups=675&limit=1&orderby=random&order=ASC&container_id=&container_html=none&container_class=&ad_html=div&ad_class=&callback_function=&return_javascript=0&_block_id=dfROzDk" ); })( jQuery );

window.onload=function(){ga('send', { hitType: 'event', eventCategory: 'Ad Impression', eventAction: '62389' });}

References:

Yang ZJ, Chee CE, Huang S, Sinicrope FA. The role of autophagy in cancer: therapeutic implications. Mol Cancer Ther. 2011;10(9):1533-41.

Barlow AD, Thomas DC. Autophagy in diabetes: ?-cell dysfunction, insulin resistance, and complications. DNA Cell Biol. 2015;34(4):252-60.

Sasaki Y, Ikeda Y, Iwabayashi M, Akasaki Y, Ohishi M. The Impact of Autophagy on Cardiovascular Senescence and Diseases. Int Heart J. 2017;58(5):666-673.

Florencio-silva R, Sasso GR, Simões MJ, et al. Osteoporosis and autophagy: What is the relationship?. Rev Assoc Med Bras (1992). 2017;63(2):173-179.

Li Q, Liu Y, Sun M. Autophagy and Alzheimer’s Disease. Cell Mol Neurobiol. 2017;37(3):377-388.

Jiao J, Demontis F. Skeletal muscle autophagy and its role in sarcopenia and organismal aging. Curr Opin Pharmacol. 2017;34:1-6.

Schwalm C, Jamart C, Benoit N, et al. Activation of autophagy in human skeletal muscle is dependent on exercise intensity and AMPK activation. FASEB J. 2015;29(8):3515-26.

De oliveira MR, Jardim FR, Setzer WN, Nabavi SM, Nabavi SF. Curcumin, mitochondrial biogenesis, and mitophagy: Exploring recent data and indicating future needs. Biotechnol Adv. 2016;34(5):813-826.

Przychodzen P, Wyszkowska R, Gorzynik-debicka M, Kostrzewa T, Kuban-jankowska A, Gorska-ponikowska M. Anticancer Potential of Oleuropein, the Polyphenol of Olive Oil, With 2-Methoxyestradiol, Separately or in Combination, in Human Osteosarcoma Cells. Anticancer Res. 2019;39(3):1243-1251.

The post The Definitive Guide To Autophagy (and 7 Ways To Induce It) appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

Article source here:Marks’s Daily Apple

[selfishselflesslove-blog]

Getting some ZZZ’s

It’s been longer than 30 days because I kept getting derailed with doubt about continuing this blog. But here we are anyway. 

So I’ve been focusing on increasing the quality of my sleep for the past month or so by making little changes here and there. Here’s what my sleep was like pre-October ‘18: 

I’d feel increasingly anxious the later it became in the day. I would go up to bed when my friends would and on the rare occasions I felt sleepy enough to try sleeping straight away I’d become alert after a short amount of time from ruminating though patterns and intense emotions. 

I’d procrastinate until about 2/3AM rather than deal with my thoughts and emotions. I’d watch a series on Netflix or listen to an audiobook hoping I’d fall asleep whilst it was on in the background. I wouldn’t be able to settle unless there was some kind of background noise. Often, I’d have to extend the sleep timer on audible. 

I’d usually be fine once asleep, although when the anxiety was going through a particularly bad spell earlier in the year it was normal to wake up repeatedly with a dry mouth and then really early in the morning despite being exhausted. If I did wake up, I’d have to put the audiobook or Netflix back on again and would struggle to fall back asleep. 

Waking up could be very difficult as I was so tired and would find it hard to get out of bed before 9/10. I know that’s not late to some people, but as I am a morning bird it is late for me and made the anxiety about 10x worse. 

Poor sleep was having a major knock on effect on so many things during the day: mood (honestly, I often just cried about the level of exhaustion), motivation and productivity, caffeine intake and diet, ability to focus and think clearly. So, it was not a tough decision to make sleep the area in my life I needed to give my attention to first. I am aware my sleep improved slightly once a big chunk of the external stress was removed (I finished my dissertation and MSc), but nevertheless my poor habits and relationship with sleep already existed with stress having exacerbated it. Writing this I am now aware of how far I have come just by focusing on one particular area of my life to build healthier habits. 

I started off by keeping a sleep journal. I’d write down what time I went to bed, a guesstimate at the time I fell asleep, quantity of times awake during the night, overall duration and a score of quality /5. I also scored my mood before and after sleep. I noted my diet, caffeine intake, exercise, meditation notes and make a note of any other things that helped/didn’t. I stopped writing my diet down after a short period because I realised this is something I need to work on separately in the future, otherwise I’d be focusing on too much at once. 

The things I did and the changes made:

Headspace

Meditation has always been my happy place. I started the 30-day sleep pack which involves noting (acknowledging thought or feeling as they arise and bringing yourself back to the present moment once you have) and a visualisation technique for body relaxation. Andy also gives loads of sleep tips which have been useful, such as ways to alter your environment in the bedroom (kinky) to promote sleep and relaxation. This pack emphasises that the goal is not to necessarily sleep better but to change your relationship with sleep so that even if you don’t fall asleep straight away you are still resting. This helps to put less pressure on the falling asleep process and increasing mindfulness throughout the day prevents so much tension and negativity building up to an unmanageable amount at bedtime.

They’ve really pimped up the sleep section recently by adding a whole host of sleep sounds and podcasts (takes you on a visual story). There’s a sleep meditation specific to falling asleep which is supposed to be used alongside the daily meditating but I’m not a massive fan. Rather, I incorporate aspects of it (progressive muscle relaxation and then gently focusing on the breath) whilst I have the Harry Potter audiobook on quietly in the background (I think I’ve associated Stephen Fry’s voice with sleep). I tend to fall asleep within the 15-minute timer and if I don’t I am usually now content enough to rest in the silence until I do. Sometimes I use the sleep sounds and podcasts provided by Headspace because I really enjoy them, it just depends what I fancy as I’m getting into bed.

Goodbye caffeine

Giving up caffeine has made a tremendous impact. On average I used to drink about 10 cups a day. I started out by switching to decaf after 2PM so that it had enough time to get out of my system before bedtime. It’s only the other day when I had a couple of brews around tea time (oops) that I realised what impact this had on my ability to fall asleep (I didn’t sleep until 2/3!).

It also brought to my attention to how much the caffeine intake was contributing to the physical symptoms of anxiety. So, it helped by reducing the overall anxiety level I was feeling in a given day. I still implement the 2PM rule but it is not very rare I drink it at all.

Regular bedtime

I struggled with this at first as my pattern was so out of whack. 10:30 is my bedtime and 07:30 is my wake time. Initially I would get to bed for this time but would of course still struggle to sleep and then get up in the morning. Over time whilst I implemented the other changes this became easier to do. A few things helped with this:

Setting an alarm for 21:30 on my FitBit to remind me to start winding down.

Having a herbal tea just before bed (Yorkshire bedtime brew)

Setting my alarm to an upbeat song (Bare Necessities - The Overtones).

Of course I didn’t commit to this 100% of the time due to social plans etc, but even so I no longer stay up really late procrastinating.

Journalling

Initially I would do a ‘brain dump’ and write out all the things I was thinking and feeling to get it out of my system. But now I just write down the positive things that have helped in the day and end it with at least one thing I am grateful for. It helps to have a specific positive focus and a record of the things I’ve achieved which reduces the critical thinking/self-attack. I now feel much better having reflected positively on my day rather than beating myself up for all the things I didn’t do.

I also have a bullet journal in progress (something to develop later) which is essentially a book of lists at the moment. Pinning the things down I have to do on paper rather than have them ramble around in my head really helps. The lists give me a clearer direction of where I’m going after I’ve had a good sleep, with writing it down giving me peace of mind that I don’t have to remember everything.

Environment

I had a mass organisation and declutter of my bedroom which worked an absolute charm. With my belongings all tidy and in order my internal world felt a little less cluttered too. I started making sure I have a drink on my bedside table so that if I wake up thirsty I don’t have to wake myself up by going to the kitchen (and let the kittens into my room) - it also helps to have a drink to wake myself up in the morning. I try not to go on my phone as much in the evening with do-not-disturb coming on automatically at 21:30 so I don’t get disturbed with notifications, and have started plugging it to charge across the room rather than next to my head. Cutting down on screen time has made me feel much more settled in the hour before bed. Lavender on the pillow is also a WONDER.

Understanding sleep

I listened to the audiobook - Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker. I think it’s always important to understand thoroughly what you change and implement. This book is easy to understand and very informative. It’s given me a tremendous insight into our biology and the vital role sleep plays. Enhancing my understanding has fuelled my motivation for creating and sticking to healthier habits.

This is what sleep is like now:

I don’t feel anxious in the evening and enjoy going up to bed. I love the feeling of sleepiness and my thoughts don’t trouble me as much as all as I am more able to put them to the side.

I fall asleep usually within 15 minutes of settling down.

I usually get around 8 hours sleep which is good in quality.

If I wake up it’s only because I need the loo and I manage to fall asleep again very quickly.

I find it easy to get up in the morning and get going, often waking up just a little earlier than my alarm which I’m happy with.

So, overall, a success!

I am always interested to hear of your journey’s and the techniques you have found to be helpful!

Mentioned: 

Headspace

Audible

Yorkshire Bedtime Brew

Bare Necessities/I Wanna Be Like You - The Overtones

Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams - Matthew Walker

[am-i-jeanne]

Guys, stay off the pro/ana tag. Please please please don't do that to yourself. And if you're struggling, please tell someone with an actual psych or medical degree. Not some twat on tumblr that thinks being able to see each and every rib is sexy. That's not attractive, that's dangerous. So so dangerous.

There are better ways. And yeah, I'm on the larger side now because I don't listen to my own advice, but eating actual meals will NOT hurt you. Calories are a necessity. Don't rely on counting just them.

Cut out carbs or sugar, or switch to a paleo or raw diet, go vegan. That's all fine. Or just eat slightly smaller portions, don't get the biggest steak on the menu, get one in the middle range or a smaller steak with extra veggies.

Wake up maybe 30 minutes earlier to do some form of stretching or exercise. Drink lots of water or decaf teas. Hydration is important. But there is such a thing as too much water, so just be careful. Drink when you're thirsty, and you'll be alright.

ONE SODA OCCASIONALLY IS NOT THE END OF THE WORLD. Neither is a pastry or unhealthy snack. Just use moderation. Snacks are fine, especially healthy fats like nuts or cheeses, so long as you're not allergic. If meals just really aren't your thing, eats protein or healthy fat based snacks throughout the day instead.

If you want to be a "fitness nut," go for it. But that means you need to be consuming enough calories to sustain yourself. Carbs are an athlete's friend during training, so is protein.

And.... if you have an eating disorder, please tell a professional. Or a friend that really does care about you and your health. The posts in *that* tag are not in your best interest. They do not want you to get better, they want you to stay trapped in a horrible cycle of pain and suffering like they are. Please. Take care of yourselves. Your life is important.