Sleep Deprivation and Weight Gain By Dr. Pran Rangan

Sleep needs vary across ages and are especially impacted by lifestyle and health. Researchers cannot pinpoint an exact amount of sleep need by people at different ages. However, sleep requirements vary from person to person even in the same age group. There is a big difference between the amount of sleep one can get by on and the amount one needs to function optimally. For instance, if one is able to operate on six or seven hours of sleep doesn't mean one wouldn't feel a lot better and get more done if one spends an extra hour or two in bed. The new recommendations of the daily sleep requirements for adults by the National Sleep Foundation include: Younger adults (18-25) - Sleep range is 7-9 hours Adults (26-64) - Sleep range is 7-9 hours Older adults (65+) - Sleep range is 7-8 hours New born babies, infants, toddlers, children and teenagers have more daily requirements of sleep, which vary depending on their age. Sleep deprivation occurs when an individual gets less sleep than they need to be attentive and alert. People vary in how little sleep is needed to be considered sleep-deprived. Some people such as older adults seem to be more resistant to the effects of sleep deprivation, while others, especially children and young adults, are more vulnerable. Science has linked sleep deprivation with all kinds of health problems, from weight gain to a weakened immune system. Observational studies also suggest a link between sleep deprivation and obesity. Similar patterns have also been found in children and adolescents. The following mechanisms have been found to underlie the link between sleep deprivation and weight gain - Increase in ghrelin level - In a research published in the Journal of Sleep Research in Sep. 2008, it has been found that a single night of sleep deprivation increases ghrelin levels and feelings of hunger in normal‐weight healthy men, whereas morning serum leptin concentrations remain unaffected. Thus, the results provide further evidence for a disturbing influence of sleep loss on endocrine regulation of energy homeostasis, which in the long run may result in weight gain and obesity. Ghrelin is a hormone produced in the gut and is often termed the hunger hormone. It sends a signal to the brain to feel hungry. Therefore, it plays a key role in regulating calorie intake and body fat levels. Interference in carbohydrate metabolism - Sleep deprivation interferes with the body's ability to metabolize carbohydrates and causes high blood levels of glucose, which leads to higher insulin levels and greater body-fat storage. In one experiment, scientists disrupted participants sleep just enough to keep them from entering deep sleep but not enough to fully wake them. After these nights of deep-sleep deprivation, the subjects' insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance went down by 25 percent. Reduction in growth hormone - Sleep deprivation reduces levels of growth hormone - a protein that helps regulate the body's proportions of fat and muscle. Experts estimate that as much as 75 percent of human growth hormone is released during sleep. Deep sleep is the most restorative all stages of sleep. During this stage of sleep, growth hormone is released and works to restore and rebuild our body and muscles from the stresses of the day. Increase in cravings for high-calorie junk food - Sleep deprivation even for one night creates pronounced changes in the way our brain responds to high-calorie junk foods. On days, when people don't have proper sleep, fattening foods like potato chips and sweets stimulates stronger responses in a part of the brain that helps govern the motivation to eat. But at the same time, they experience a sharp reduction in activity in the frontal cortex, a higher-level part of the brain, where consequences are weighed and rational decisions are made. Increase in cortisol - Researchers have found that sleep deprivation increases the level of cortisol hormone and other markers of inflammation. Decrease in resting metabolic rate - There is evidence indicating that sleep deprivation may lower the resting metabolic rate of the body. It is the number of calories our body burns when we're completely at rest. It's affected by age, weight, height, sex and muscle mass. This needs further validation but one contributing factor seems to be that poor sleep may cause muscle loss. The bottom line - Besides, eating right and exercising regularly, getting quality sleep is an important part of weight maintenance. Therefore, establishing healthy sleep habits can help our body maintain a healthy weight. Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Dr._Pran_Rangan/2322082 Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/10115496

10 Foods You CAN'T Get FAT From Even If You Tried!

Sleep Deprivation and Weight Gain

Sleep needs vary across ages and are especially impacted by lifestyle and health. Researchers cannot pinpoint an exact amount of sleep need by people at different ages. However, sleep requirements vary from person to person even in the same age group.

There is a big difference between the amount of sleep one can get by on and the amount one needs to function optimally. For instance, if one is able to operate on six or seven hours of sleep doesn't mean one wouldn't feel a lot better and get more done if one spends an extra hour or two in bed.

The new recommendations of the daily sleep requirements for adults by the National Sleep Foundation include:

• Younger adults (18-25) - Sleep range is 7-9 hours
• Adults (26-64) - Sleep range is 7-9 hours
• Older adults (65+) - Sleep range is 7-8 hours

New born babies, infants, toddlers, children and teenagers have more daily requirements of sleep, which vary depending on their age.

Sleep deprivation occurs when an individual gets less sleep than they need to be attentive and alert. People vary in how little sleep is needed to be considered sleep-deprived. Some people such as older adults seem to be more resistant to the effects of sleep deprivation, while others, especially children and young adults, are more vulnerable.

Science has linked sleep deprivation with all kinds of health problems, from weight gain to a weakened immune system. Observational studies also suggest a link between sleep deprivation and obesity. Similar patterns have also been found in children and adolescents.

The following mechanisms have been found to underlie the link between sleep deprivation and weight gain -

Increase in ghrelin level -

In a research published in the Journal of Sleep Research in Sep. 2008, it has been found that a single night of sleep deprivation increases ghrelin levels and feelings of hunger in normal‐weight healthy men, whereas morning serum leptin concentrations remain unaffected. Thus, the results provide further evidence for a disturbing influence of sleep loss on endocrine regulation of energy homeostasis, which in the long run may result in weight gain and obesity.

Ghrelin is a hormone produced in the gut and is often termed the hunger hormone. It sends a signal to the brain to feel hungry. Therefore, it plays a key role in regulating calorie intake and body fat levels.

Interference in carbohydrate metabolism -

Sleep deprivation interferes with the body's ability to metabolize carbohydrates and causes high blood levels of glucose, which leads to higher insulin levels and greater body-fat storage. In one experiment, scientists disrupted participants sleep just enough to keep them from entering deep sleep but not enough to fully wake them. After these nights of deep-sleep deprivation, the subjects' insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance went down by 25 percent.

Reduction in growth hormone -

Sleep deprivation reduces levels of growth hormone - a protein that helps regulate the body's proportions of fat and muscle. Experts estimate that as much as 75 percent of human growth hormone is released during sleep. Deep sleep is the most restorative all stages of sleep. During this stage of sleep, growth hormone is released and works to restore and rebuild our body and muscles from the stresses of the day.

Increase in cravings for high-calorie junk food -

Sleep deprivation even for one night creates pronounced changes in the way our brain responds to high-calorie junk foods. On days, when people don't have proper sleep, fattening foods like potato chips and sweets stimulates stronger responses in a part of the brain that helps govern the motivation to eat. But at the same time, they experience a sharp reduction in activity in the frontal cortex, a higher-level part of the brain, where consequences are weighed and rational decisions are made.

Increase in cortisol -

Researchers have found that sleep deprivation increases the level of cortisol hormone and other markers of inflammation.

Decrease in resting metabolic rate -

There is evidence indicating that sleep deprivation may lower the resting metabolic rate of the body. It is the number of calories our body burns when we're completely at rest. It's affected by age, weight, height, sex and muscle mass. This needs further validation but one contributing factor seems to be that poor sleep may cause muscle loss.

The bottom line -

Besides, eating right and exercising regularly, getting quality sleep is an important part of weight maintenance. Therefore, establishing healthy sleep habits can help our body maintain a healthy weight.

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Dr._Pran_Rangan/2322082

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/10115496

Underweight and Overweight - Powerful Natural Remedies Revealed!

http://ezinearticles.com/?Underweight-and-Overweight---Powerful-Natural-Remedies-Revealed!&id=9990277

Your normal weight is dependent upon three factors: height, age and skeletal structure. Naturally the weight of the individual should alter through the several stages of life. And, quite as naturally, the amount and kind of food needed to maintain the proper weight will also vary, dependent upon the person's occupation and general activity.

To say that overweight is the result of overeating is like saying that a fire is the result of a match. Who struck the match? What caused the overeating? Overeating is not a cause but rather a result. Have you noticed how your eating habits vary when you are occupied and when you are not occupied: when you are lonely and when you are not; when you are tense and when you are relaxed? The busy, satisfied and relaxed people of the world are rarely overweight. The idle, lonely and nervous people frequently are.

When you are not occupied and feel that you should be, you eat to excuse your idleness. ("I'll do it after supper - after I have a sandwich - as soon as I'm through eating - one must eat, you know.")

When you are lonely, you eat to replace the satisfaction of friendship. When you are nervous, you eat to forget the cause of that tension or despair. Here again is proof of the inseparability of mind and body.

The unfortunate result of unhappiness is not only overeating, but consuming worthless, fattening foods. The act of replacing some need of mind or soul with body food is a form of blackmail. You are "buying off" the mind through ransom paid the body. Naturally this ransom must be a luxurious one. That is why the unhappy people of the world dote on chocolates, ice-cream, rich cakes and the like. And here a ridiculous contradiction frequently takes place. The unhappy soul stuffs him or herself with appetite-murderers and frequently neglects the essential foods for health. Thus, contradictory as it may appear, many people are a stone and a half and two stone overweight and yet anaemic, undernourished, suffering the ravages of malnutrition!

I have long realized the truth in the words "Happiness is medicine." You must come to realize this too, for it is an undeniable law of nature.

The underweight people of the world are also "frequently products of a mental rather than a physical condition. You have seen the "drivers" of our world, those who throw themselves into their work without a thought to their well-being. They are frequently the victims of the "success philosophy," believing that only wealth and power bring happiness. They drive themselves and their fellow workers to the peak of production and creativity, but they usually have to be driven to the table to eat. What they eat does them little good, going through their bodies like mercury as they tear back into their dedicated labour. The man who thinks that life is all work and the one who believes it all play usually both lands on the scrap-heap years before their time.

I will not be foolish enough to claim that underweight and overweight are purely the result of a mind without peace; but I will maintain that anguish, nervousness, despair and disdain for fellow humans, one or all of these, are either the cause of, or a major contributing factor to underweight and overweight conditions as well as to much of the physical ills of the world.

In dieting to gain or lose weight, two dangers must be avoided. The underweight person must avoid increasing his intake of calories while ignoring the basic food requirements and the overweight must beware of haphazardly decreasing his food intake, thus depriving the body of minimal energy, bone, blood and nerve nutrients. The basic diet for all should contain some organically grown foods and a full share of all the vitamins and minerals needed to maintain a healthy body and mind. Above all, beware of the fad diets which guarantee to build you up or tear you down in twenty-four hours. These "Seven Days to Health" and "Ten Days to Beauty" programmes are a fraud, at best, and a hazard to your very life, at worst.

There is no overnight diet to total health. More precisely, there is no diet to total health. The food you eat is but one element in the pattern of your life. The road to health does not begin with your stomach alone, or your skin or your feet or mind, but with all of these and more. The road to health is that which we pave with a life lived in complete harmony with nature.

"A Complete Guide To Healthy Eating," an article in my online wellness journal outlines several food programmes which, when added to a life in total harmony with nature, will help to provide you with the sparkling health that should be yours. There you will find food programmes designed for the underweight, overweight, as well as others. These were carefully prepared with the aim of providing the healthiest, tastiest and most natural food programme for each person's needs. In reading through these wisely chosen diets, recall the words of Socrates, "Some men live to eat. I eat to live."

There are millions hits on the internet search drive for Wellness - from mental to physical health, cardiac fitness, cancer, yoga, how to overcome certain ailments such as diabetes, hypertension, obesity, stoke, and tips on weight loss and how to grow taller, with many other ideas getting honorable mention. It takes quite a bit of research to find any one site that has so much to offer on all these fronts, let alone one that can combine all the needs for your innermost wellness - joy, bliss and beyond. For wellness' sake you can stop looking out there, and take some time for yourself, a sort of one-stop-shop: BalancedLifestyleWikipedia.

Also, stay informed about genuine reviews of the trendy products like Lean Belly Breakthrough, Grow Taller 4 Idiots, bioptimizers masszymes and many more to nourish and transform your everyday self.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Andy_G/2325820

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9990277