Living Nourished Lives

I haven’t posted anything in a while. But today, as it hit me that I’m way overdue, the topic that was on my mind was telomeres. If you have heard of them, you are ahead of me.  I’d never heard of them before finding out about the Shaklee Telomere Study and I believe I found out about that in 2015.  Essentially, telomeres are the protective caps on the ends of our chromosomes. When we are young, they are relatively long caps. As we age or our health declines, they are much shorter and they cannot protect our DNA as well. In 2017, at the Shaklee Global Conference, I was fortunate to hear Elizabeth Blackburn, PhD speak about these protectors of our DNA.  She is the Nobel Prize winner that discovered telomerase and studied telomeres’ involvement with the aging process. At that time, I got the book that she co-authored- A Revolutionary Approach to Living Younger, Healthier, Longer: The Telomere Effect.  The book is fascinating.  It goes into detail about how lifestyle and nutrition choices can impact our telomeres and consequently, our health.  At the conference, Elizabeth Blackburn spoke to us about the positive and impressive findings regarding telomere length for people using Shaklee supplements together with Vivix.  What she shared about the findings was exciting.  However, the topic in her book that impresses me as one of the best things that any person, regardless of access to Shaklee supplements can do to positively impact their telomere length, is: sufficient and good SLEEP.  Probably because this is one area that I have struggled with from birth, it truly is something that I am convinced needs to be talked about.  These are the restorative benefits of good, consistent, sleep:  it sets your biological clock, regulates your appetite, and helps process and heal memories, while rejuvenating your mood. (p.190 The Telomere Effect).   Your biological clock is responsible for keeping up with cellular repairs.  It is when damaged cells are disposed of and repairs to the DNA are made. (ibid).  Keeping your environment light when you are awake and dim or dark as you transition to sleep at regular times helps keep your biological clock in sync.  Additionally, deep, REM sleep (Rapid Eye Movement sleep accompanied by dreams, higher heart rate, and faster breathing), is very important in keeping your appetite under control.  During this important stage of sleep, cortisol production is suppressed and metabolic rate is increased.  Therefore, if you get less REM sleep during the second part of the night, you will have higher levels of cortisol and insulin.  This will stimulate appetite and can lead to insulin resistance.  As The Telomere Effect explains, “a bad night of sleep can throw you into a temporary prediabetic state,” and bring on more feelings of hunger the following day. (p. 191)  Now, what about memories and mood?  When deprived of sleep, we do not focus as well and consequently our memories are not as good at taking in new information.  If fact, sleep helps create “new connections between brain cells.” (ibid)  Alternately, restorative sleep encourages memories that are hurtful, to heal as well as helping reduce their negative emotional charge. (ibid).  Matt Walker, a sleep researcher at UC Berkley, found that this happens largely during REM sleep when some of the stimulating chemicals are turned off, allowing for the content of the negative memory to be split from the emotions.  Over time, this will allow someone to think of a painful experience without experiencing the accompanying harsh jolt to mind and body. (p. 192 The Telomere Effect).  Additionally, restorative sleep helps us restore emotionally.  I’m sure most of you can relate that when you are lacking in sleep, your irritability increases.  In fact, all emotions are more intense when your body is deprived of sleep. (ibid).  So, you might ask, how many hours of sleep do our telomeres need?  Well, there are a very small percentage that don’t need as much and another small percentage who need more, but the rule of thumb that the studies indicate is:  Get at least 7 hours of sleep every night or your telomeres will suffer and end up shorter.  To tell if you just might fall into one of those categories that needs more or less than 7 hours, the way to tell if you are getting sufficient restorative sleep is to ask yourself:  “Do I feel sleepy during the day?”  If the answer is, “Yes!”  then you need more sleep at night. (p. 192-193 The Telomere Effect).  That being said, it isn’t just the hours- quality, regular, sleep according to the  natural rhythm of day and night is equally important for telomere length. (p. 193 The Telomere Effect).  So, Sleep.  It does the body good.  The pictures below show the cover of Elizabeth Blackburn’s book which I shared a little from, here in this post…. as well as the special forward that she shared with the Shaklee family at the 2017 Global Conference.