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What Is Binocular Health?

Are you looking at your health as if through a set of binoculars?

Are you relying on one area of medicine to keep you healthy?

Achieving optimal health doesn’t occur when we focus on one thing.

It’s a bit like driving a car with the handbrake on as we’re unable to see the bigger picture. The blind spots that play a pivotal role in our long term health and well-being.

This is because health encompasses a myriad of facets including sleep, movement, nutrition, sunlight, connection, hydration, breath work etc.

It’s why it’s good to see a variety of health care practitioners who are trained across various modalities, along with seeking out different opinions.

The best part is that your body will begin to thrive when you make adjustments across all areas of your health – as opposed to just one.

Audra x

P.S: Needing help embracing more of a holistic take on your health whilst working 24/7? Check out the 21-Day Healthy Shift Worker Kickstart Program by Clicking Here.

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Is Low Cholesterol A Good Thing?

We hear it time and time again. We need to keep our cholesterol levels down.

But is low cholesterol a good thing?

Despite the hype that it’s a bad thing, it’s actually needed for:

-optimal brain function
-the synthesis of vitamin D
-the formation or structural component of every cell membrane in our body
-the production of steroid (sex and stress) hormones

Sex hormones include estrogen, progesterone and testosterone. Low progesterone can elevate feelings of anxiety (😳🤯) whilst another hormone, DHEA, acts as a precursor to these hormones, and also relies on cholesterol to function.

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Do You Eat At Your Desk?

Okey dokey. Hands up if you eat at your desk??

Shift workers are notorious for having gut issues for a myriad of reasons, but before sending you off to complete a heap of tests or writing a script to take some pills – has your health practitioner ever asked you WHERE and HOW you eat?

Because if you’re sitting at your desk shovelling food down whilst you’re typing at your computer or on the phone, you’re likely going to overeat and bypass the body’s innate hunger mechanism which will contribute to gut discomfort.

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Don’t Limit Your Calories, Limit Your Eating Window.

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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Are Your Medications Causing Havoc On Your Sleep?

There is a myriad of drugs that can affect our sleep, some of which include beta-blockers (prescribed for high blood pressure), selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or SSRI’s (a type of antidepressant) and, ironically, even some which are designed to enhance sleep quality such as benzodiazepines.

Given shift workers endure bouts of restricted and fragmented sleep depending on their shift rotations, minimizing exposure to anything which can further exacerbate poor sleep needs to be a priority.

I would recommend writing down every drug and supplement that you are taking and asking your health care practitioner if any could be interfering with your sleep.

Then look at reverse-engineering things by asking if any lifestyle modification strategies could be implemented to address some of the reasons why you’re taking the medications.

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