Tag Archives: glucose

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Why Choosing Caffeine Over Sleep is NOT a Good Idea.


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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HSW 38 – Sugar Cravings and Sleep Deprivation.

Healthy Shift Worker Podcast Episode:

One of the most common struggles I hear from my shift working clients is this ongoing, relentless craving for sugar!

But why is that?  Why are shift workers notorious for craving (and eating) all of the sweet stuff – the highly refined carbohydrates that are neither good for our insides or our waistline?!

Well it all comes back to sleep deprivation, so in this episode I will be shedding the light on how lack of sleep effects our brain function, and how one chemical in particular, which causes us to seek out and eat foods which are high in sugar, is much higher in those who are sleep deprived.

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HSW 35 – Type 2 Diabetes and Weight Loss with Wendy Steward.

Healthy Shift Worker Podcast Episode:

As I’ve submerged myself in journal articles on all things to do with shift work health over the years, one of the things which keeps coming up in the research, is that shift workers are quite prone to developing insulin resistance, a condition where the body in unable to move glucose from the blood, and into the cells efficiently. This causes blood sugar levels to rise to unhealthy levels, which can lead to prediabetes and eventually type 2 diabetes.

Sleep deprivation alone has shown to impair the way our body responds to insulin, however when you combine it with a diet high in unhealthy fats, fructose and carbohydrates from processed and take-away foods, it can enhance our likelihood of developing diabetes even more, along with leading to a steady gain in weight.

In this episode, I invited Wendy Steward from Melbourne who after incorporating more whole foods and movement into her lifestyle, along with removing a lot of processed foods from her diet, managed to reverse her dependency on insulin, along with losing a staggering 40 kilograms!

Wendy is a real character and is authentic as they come, so was happy to share her diabetes and weight gain story which incorporated a roller coaster of emotional eating, a diagnosis of PCOS or Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, and an ongoing struggle to have children. If any of these things resonate, then you’re going to love this episode because Wendy is one incredibly inspiring lady :-).

Wendy’s website

Wendy’s Facebook page – Wendy’s Way

Wendy’s Podcast – Wendy’s Way

Changing Habits, Changing Lives book by Cyndi O’Meara

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Shift Work, Insulin Resistance and Type II Diabetes:

Are You At Risk?

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Over the last week or so I’ve been immersing myself in online library data bases, scrolling through randomised clinical trials and observational studies, trying to find a link between shift work, insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes mellitus or T2DM.

Why would I do such a thing you may ask?  Well I may be a little crazy, but it begins with the letter ‘L’ , which stands for Literature Review, and in my case, I have a 2000 word Literature Review due this weekend.  Fortunately for me, I was able to choose a topic which I’m quite passionate about – that being shift work health.

However I have to say, what I’ve found in the depths of those data bases wasn’t exactly pretty.

So let’s talk firstly about working the night or evening shift.  Studies have shown an increased risk of diabetes in nurses who worked nights or evening shifts, which can be explained by a variety of different mechanisms.

  1. Exposure to light at night leads to a decrease in the pineal release of melatonin, a strong antioxidant which plays a key role in the synthesis, secretion and action of insulin.  A reduction in melatonin has been associated with an increase in insulin resistance which over time, can lead to Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus or T2DM.
  2. Persistent circadian stress as a result of disruption to the normal sleep/wake cycle, is common in night shift workers which may cause excessive secretion of cortisol (a stress hormone) and interleukins (proteins which are involved in the immune response).  These two things combined, along with an increase in insulin concentrations can lead to the build up of abdominal fat, lipid disorders and insulin resistance.
  3. Working nights are often accompanied by changes in lifestyle, such as changing mealtimes which alters the timing of insulin response.

OK, now let’s talk about rotating shifts.  (more…)