When getting vitamin D levels tested, many shift workers show up as being ‘deficient’.
In other words, they fall short of fitting within what’s deemed to be the healthy range.
However serum vitamin D, is simply a proxy marker for sun exposure.
Clinical trials have found vitamin D supplementation provides little to any meaningful health benefits.
It’s the sunlight, along with it’s related factors, which are responsible for the beneficial effect on human health.
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I’m not going to be very popular for sharing this post, but I’m going to share it with you anyway, because I do what I do because I CARE.
This means telling you things that you don’t necessarily WANT to hear, but NEED to.
So, if you’ve got into the habit of relying on caffeine to ward off your tiredness, in lieu of prioritising your sleep, over time, this can lead you down a very slippery slope.
A slippery slope towards developing a chronic disease like Type 2 Diabetes (T2DM).
One of many health conditions, sadly, that shift workers are prone to developing.
This can be due to myriad of reaons, but I’m going to touch on TWO KEY AREAS.
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There are a myriad of reasons that can contribute to fatigue.
Some of which include low iron and an under-active thyroid.
However, before spending a fortune 💰 on exhaustive testing, have you considered the real reason for your fatigue?
As in – could it be because you’re just trying to juggle “life”, whilst being a full-time shift worker?
I’m mentioning this because I had a client reach out to me after a 3am early shift (yup, that’s not a typo… ⏰️😳😵💫), whilst juggling full-time shift work AND being a mum to 3 young children.
Long story cut short, she was running on about 3-4 hours sleep EVERY night.
I could have run some tests and prescribed some pills, but that wouldn’t have addressed the root cause of her fatigue.
All it would have done is artificially suppress her body’s overwhelming feeling’s of fatigue, and possibly delay the onset of a chronic disease later in life.
So my question to you is this.
Have you created a life that doesn’t allow your body sufficient time to rest and sleep?
Because no amount of pills can fix a lifestyle that not only involves burning the candle at both ends… but sets fire 🔥 to the bit in the middle as well.
Just something to ponder if your health care practitioner is quick to “diagnose and prescribe”, without taking into consideration your lifestyle first.
Audra x
Gut issues are prevalent in many who work 24/7 due to a myriad of reasons including dehydration, insufficient dietary fibre and especially … mistimed eating.
Mistimed eating is when we eat out of sync to our natural sleep/wake cycle.
If causes gut issues because the stomach, along with all of the ancillary organs involved in digestion such as the liver, kidneys, gall bladder, small and large intestine, do not break down and process foods at night in the same capacity as they do during daylight hours.
And when do most shift workers eat?
All over the place!
Anywhere from 8am, 3pm, 10pm, 2am, 4am … whenever they have a designated break or find the time to squeeze one in if they’re super busy and under the pump.
No doubt you can relate :-).
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When we work 24/7, we tend to eat 24/7 which can lead us on a downward spiral of all sorts of health complaints over the long-term.
This is because our innate timing system, or circadian clock, is essentially switched to the ‘ON’ position for a very long time.
Have you ever considered what time you take your first bite of food in the day, and then your last bite of food at night?
For example, if you have sugar with your coffee at 4am and have a biscuit before bed at 8pm or later, your Eating Window would be 16 hours or longer.
This means your circadian clock is running for 16 or more hours.
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