A recent study suggests that eating within a daily 10-hour window can help you lose weight and can even improve heart health in women at risk for cardiovascular disease.

"There has been a lot of discussion about intermittent fasting and what time window people should eat within to get the benefits of this kind of diet," co-corresponding author Satchidananda Panda, PhD, said in a regards to the study.

"Based on what we've observed...a 10-hour time window seems to convey these benefits. At the same time, it's not so restrictive that people can't follow it long-term," added Panda, the author of the book The Circadian Code.

The study was published online December 5 in Cell Metabolism by Michael J. Wilkinson, MD, of the University of California, San Diego, and colleagues.

After 12 Weeks Participants Lost 3% Body Weight

19 women diagnosed with obesity were instructed to restrict food consumption to 10 hours a day for 12 weeks, creating a 14-hour fast each night.

Participants were not required to reduce the amount they ate, or alter their diet in any way within the 10 hour eating window.

"Participants used a validated app — myCircadianClock (mCC) — to log their caloric intake during the 2-week baseline and 12-week intervention periods," they explain.

Over the 12 weeks of the study, participants lost 7 pounds or approximately 3% of their body weight, relative to their weight at the start of the project.

Other Health Indicators Improved

The intermittent eating strategy also had a number of positive effects on important health factors.

For example, there were noticeable reductions in various forms of cholesterol throughout the body.

There were also significant reductions in systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and among those with elevated fasting glucose levels at baseline, there was a significant reduction in A1c.

Participants Believe This Method Easier Than Others

Researches also believe, based on previous studies, that irregular meal timing can negatively affect your overall health.

"Both erratic eating patterns and eating over an extended period of time during the 24-hour day can [also&91; disrupt circadian rhythms," they explain.

As it turns out, intermittent fasting induces and maintains a consistent feeding and fasting cycle that supports strong sleep cycle.

It has been proven that regular disruption of the sleep cycle increases the risk of weight gain, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and pre-diabetes.

Furthermore, approximately 70% of the group also reported that they were more satisfied with the amount they slept.

Participants also told investigators that they found this method of weight loss easier to manage than counting calories or trying to exercise regularly.

"The high level of adherence to time-restricted eating in our study, no reported adverse effects, and low dropout rate suggest that a self-selected 10-hour window for time-restricted eating may be feasible for patients with metabolic syndrome to adhere to over a longer period of time," the investigators conclude.

How Apptrim Can Help

Apptrim is designed to improve brain and stomach communication safely. After years of irregular eating, your nervous system can fail to send messages of "fullness" causing you to overeat often. 

By taking AppTrim 30 minutes before major meals, you will feel full faster for longer! Intermittent fasting works great, but sticking to any new weight loss program can be tough.

AppTrim will keep you in control so that you can stick to eating within your 10 hour window daily with less cravings!

Medication management should include sleep as well as pain. As sleep improves, the need for pain medications will decrease. Eventually the need for sleep medications will also decrease.

People with pain also feel less control over their sleep, worry more about lack of sleep affecting their health and exhibit greater sleep sensitivity. They’re more likely than others to say environmental factors make it more difficult for them to get a good night’s sleep. These factors include noise, light, temperature and their mattresses alike, suggesting that taking greater care of the bedroom environment may be particularly helpful to pain sufferers.

While both chronic and acute pain relate to lost sleep, the survey indicates that chronic pain is an especially powerful problem. Indeed, nearly one in four people with chronic pain, 23 percent, say they’ve been diagnosed with a sleep disorder by a doctor, compared with just 6 percent of all others.

Sleep Hygiene

How Much Sleep Do We Need?

The amount of sleep each person needs depends on many factors, including age. For most adults, 7 to 8 hours a night appears to be the best amount of sleep, although some people may need as few as 5 hours or as many as 10 hours of sleep each day.

If you feel drowsy during the day, especially during stimulating activities, you haven't had enough sleep. If you routinely fall asleep within 5 minutes of lying down, you probably have severe sleep deprivation, possibly even a sleep disorder. Micro-sleeps, or very brief episodes of sleep in an otherwise awake person, are another mark of sleep deprivation. In many cases, people are not aware that they are experiencing micro-sleeps. This may be a cause of accidents both on the road and at work. It will certainly reduce your ability to perform at your full potential.

Unfortunately many medications including those that are given for pain can interfere with normal sleep patterns. These include antidepressants, opioids and anti-anxiety medications, even those given as sleeping aids.

Obesity worsens sleep and increases the risk of snoring and sleep apnea (pauses in breathing while you sleep). Chronic lack of sleep also increases the risk of obesity by changing the level of certain hormones. In a study of American adults who slept fewer than 6 hours, 33% were obese compared to only 22% of those who had 6-9 hours of sleep.

Specific Sleep Issues

Some specific sleep problems may need specific treatments

• Sleep apnea: Observers say you snore loudly and often hold your breath while sleeping. It may make you grumpy, impatient, irritable, forgetful, or fall asleep while being active. You may experience hard-to-treat headaches. It tends to make obesity, depression and leg swelling worse.
• Restless leg syndrome: You feel a creeping, crawling, aching, or tingling sensation in your lower legs worse at night-time. It may last for 1 hour or longer. Sometimes it also occurs in the upper leg, feet, or arms. You feel an irresistible urge to walk or move your legs, which almost always relieves the discomfort.
• Periodic leg movement: This is a repetitive cramping or jerking of the legs during sleep.
• Depression and anxiety: These are also associated with poor sleep. These can be helped by non-medication methods as well as medications.

A restful night’s sleep is one of the top priorities in solving your chronic pain. The effectiveness of your other treatments is limited until you are regularly experiencing a full night’s sleep for at least six weeks. Usually medications are required for a while in the presence of pain. As your pain diminishes so will your need for sleep medicines.

Anyone who’s gone through addiction, or cared for a loved one with addiction, knows firsthand the devastating effects it has on a person’s life. Addiction disrupts all areas of life, and sleep is no exception.

According to one estimate, individuals with addiction are 5 to 10 times more likely to have associated sleep disorders.

Sleep and addiction are intricately linked. Many people use alcohol or other drugs to help them fall asleep and treat their insomnia, and accidentally become addicted as a result. Even if one didn’t have sleep problems before their addiction, long-term substance abuse physically changes your brain’s sleep architecture, disrupting your sleep patterns and sleep quality. 

The better you sleep, the lower your risk of relapse. Master your sleep, and it’s much easier to stick to your recovery plan.

If you or a loved one are dealing with addiction and seeking help, please visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration online provider directory or call 800-662-4357 (available toll-free 24/7).

New research changes the recommendations about daily aspirin use. Older adults are more likely to benefit from lifestyle changes to help prevent heart attacks and strokes.

According to the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association a daily dose of 75 to 100 milligrams of aspirin should no longer be taken by people older than 70, or any adult with an increased risk of bleeding as a way to prevent atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Aspirin is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), and is associated with an increased risk of stroke and severe bleeding and hemorrhaging.

Marcus Charuvastra, CEO of Targeted Medical Pharma, believes that “Physicians will still be recommending Aspirin to some patients who've had a heart attack, stroke, open-heart surgery or stents, but the widespread use of this NSAID will likely decline in the coming years.” According to Mr. Charuvastra, “In addition to lifestyle changes, people over the age of 70 will increasingly turn to natural products like grape seed extract, curcumin, turmeric and Theramine, and other proven inflammation fighting compounds to support their cardiovascular health.”

Simple tips to support heart health:

Improve Your Diet

A diet full of vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts, whole grains and fish is best for overall cardiovascular health, according to the American College of Cardiology. Limit eating salt, saturated fats, fried foods, processed meats and drinking sweetened beverages.

Exercise regularly

150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise each week. This could include brisk walking, swimming, dancing or cycling.

Keep a healthy weight

According to the ACC, losing 5 to 10 percent of body weight can decrease the risk of heart disease, stroke and other health issues among obese and overweight individuals.

Don't smoke

Smoking is bad for you. Everyone knows it. It is hard to quit if you are a smoker, but consider a variety of options now available that can help reduce or eliminate the habit. 

According to a study published in the journal of Rehabilitation Nursing, shift work and long hours can shorten lifespan and increase the risk of death from cardiovascular disease. In this study, 32% of healthcare workers said they got six hours or less of sleep a day. When compared to day shift workers, risks for errors are 15% higher for evening shifts and 28% higher for night shifts. By the third consecutive night shift, risk increased by 17%, and 36% by the fourth consecutive night. 

Night-shift workers are also at a higher risk for developing complex chronic diseases. Data from the Nurses' Health Study found that 11% who worked rotating night shifts for more than six years experienced a shortened lifespan. Those who worked rotating night shifts for six to 14 years had a 19% increase in risk of death from cardiovascular disease. Working rotating night shifts for more than 15 years increased CVD risk by 23%

In a 2011 American Nurses Association survey, one in 10 nurses reported a motor vehicle crash they believed was related to fatigue or shift work.

How Shift Work can Damage the Sleep Cycle 

Working long hours, night shifts and early mornings can disrupt the natural circadian clock that governs the nervous system. Prolonged disruption of the circadian clock can lead to nervous system dysfunction, and an overall degrading of general health which can lead to obesity, heart disease, hypertension and chronic pain syndromes. Re-establishing normal sleep patterns for many shift workers is difficult if not impossible to do. 

According to rheumatologist Dr. David Silver, "poor or lack of sleep is one of the greatest contributing factors to the development of chronic pain syndromes, stress disorders and high blood pressure." Dr. Silver points to the nighttime parasympathetic nervous system as one of the keys to long term health and wellness. He states that "when you sleep, your parasympathetic nervous system takes over and repairs the systems of the body damaged from the previous days events, and if your not sleeping enough then your nervous system is likely not getting a chance to do its job." 

Help is on the Way!

Sentra PM is the only sleep aid on the market today that is clinically proven to enhance nighttime parasympathetic activity and improve restorative sleep. Nurses and other professionals who work long hours have been using this product for over a decade to support their natural sleep cycles and promote their nighttime nervous system health. According to Dr. Silver, "I have recommended Sentra PM for over a decade to my patients struggling with chronic pain syndromes that adversely affect their parasympathetic nervous system function. I see positive clinical results in the majority of my patients taking Sentra PM."

On March 5th, 2019 the Food and Drug Administration approved the nasal spray esketamine as the first new type of treatment for depression in over three decades.

“It’s a game changing treatment for depression,” says Anthony Charuvastra, M.D., Assistant Professor at New York University Medical Center in the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. “Too often patients languish with debilitating symptoms, waiting for treatment to work. Esketamine offers the possibility of rapid relief of symptoms of depression providing an opportunity to transition a high risk patient to a more comprehensive treatment setting.”

Esketamine is a completely new way of treating depression. Most other antidepressants on the market today target serotonin and norepinephrine which activate the neurotransmitter glutamate, helping to boost mood. Esketamine works directly on glutamate, which is why its effect is almost immediate.

Due to the increased potential of abuse, esketamine will only be offered in doctor’s offices or medical clinics, under close supervision. It’s not a first-line drug. Esketamine is not the treatment for just anybody suffering from depression. According to Dr. Charuvastra "It’s for people who have not responded to standard antidepressants who have tried at least two antidepressants during their current episode of depression, without success." 

Based on the clinical trial results, esketamine may not be a great option for patients over the age of 65 suffering with depression. This group of people had no statistically significant improvements in symptoms of depression when taking the drug.   

There are some pretty serious side effects. Esketamine (Spravato) will come with a black box warning. The most common side effects include disassociation (having trouble thinking), dizziness, nausea, vertigo, anxiety, feeling tired, increased blood pressure, vomiting and feeling drunk. You have to stay in your provider’s office for at least two hours after getting the dose, and you can’t drive for 24 hours. Patients over the age of 65, should be very mindful of these side effects as they are at higher risk of fracturing bones from a fall. 

The cost of the drug is concerning, averaging out at about $700 per dose.   

Researchers recently investigated health records of people age 50 years or older who took antidepressants (multiple brands) throughout a 7-year period. They compared dementia risk in 5000 users of trazodone to that of over 400,000 users of other antidepressants to determine if trazodone plays a roll in the development of dementia or cognitive dysfunction.

They found that the incidence of dementia in trazodone users was greater than among people taking alternative antidepressants. The median time to dementia diagnosis in trazodone users was 1.8 years.

According to Tiffany Schwasinger-Schmidgt, MD, PhD, "Tazodone is rarely used to treat depression, but is often used in the management of insomnia. She also mentioned that "depending on what trazodone is prescribed for will determine the dosing, and the dosing will affect the potential for development of dementia in patients."

This study lends evidence to the theory that trazodone may be a contributing factor to the development of dementia.

The study was published online February 5 in PLOS Medicine.

Related: Sentra PM (a Medical Food) and Trazodone in the Management of Sleep Disorders

Read the full article at MedScape.

Sleep and Addiction

Addiction disrupts every aspect of life, and sleep is no exception.

Researchers estimate that individuals with addiction are 5 to 10 times more likely to have sleep disorders during and after recovery.

Many people use alcohol or other drugs as a method to help fall asleep and treat their insomnia, and become addicted as a result. Even if sleep problems were absent before addiction, long-term substance abuse physically changes your brain’s sleep architecture, disrupting your sleep patterns and sleep quality. Then, just as individuals come to rely on addictive substances to function during the day, they become dependent on it for sleep.

Things only get worse in recovery, with sleep problems being one of the most common and lingering symptoms of detoxification. There is some hope though: addiction and sleep problems are treatable. The better you sleep, the lower your risk of relapse. Mastering sleep also makes the recovery plan easier to accomplish.

If you or a loved one are dealing with addiction and seeking help, please visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration online provider directory or call 800-662-4357 (available toll-free 24/7).

Commonly Prescribed in Rehabilitation Facilities: Trazodone

Trazodone is used regularly in rehabilitation facilities across the United States as a way to address sleep disorders during the recovery process.

Trazodone is known by a number of different brand names such as Oleptro or Desyrel, and was originally intended for the treatment of clinical depression. The drug’s sedating effect is the main reason it is more often used as a sleep aid for people that have various psychological disorders, including depression, anxiety disorders, and psychological disorders.

Long-term use of Trazodone may help improve sleep function, but can cost you more than you bargained for.

The Journal of Sleep Research warns that prolonged use of trazodone can also cause the following:

• Short-term memory difficulties
• Verbal learning issues
• Equilibrium disruption
• Next-day cognition problems
• Lack of arm muscle endurance.
• Addiction

How SentraPM® Can Help

Sentra PM® has been used in the clinical practice as a safe and effective way to fuel nighttime nervous system function. For over 15 years, medical professionals have recommended Sentra PM to help patients achieve naturally restful sleep without the dangers of prescription drugs.

Sentra PM is:

• Clinically Validated
• Non-habit Forming
• Safe For Long Term Use

If you or a loved one is on the path to recovery from addiction, consider Sentra PM as natural way to improve sleep.

Histamines are inflammatory chemicals released by the body when an allergic reactions occur. Histamine causes allergic symptoms such as stomach ulcers, hay fever joint dysfunction and even skin disorders.

Scientific studies indicate that grape seed extract contains bioflavonoid natural products and oligomeric proanthocyandins (OPC) that can inhibit the enzymes called histidine decarboxylase, which is responsible for the production of histamine. Grape seed extract phytochemicals are also found to prevent the release of the enzyme that pushes histamine into body tissues.

Another mechanism for grape seed extract to function as therapeutic agent is that grape seed extract can strengthen cell membranes of basophils and mast cells preventing them from releasing the substances that cause an over-reaction or hypersensitivity to pollens and food allergens. Grape seed extract may significantly contribute to the well being of allergy suffers, by strengthening the immune system in an optimal conditions, a natural antihistamine without side effects.

Clearwayz contains 450mg of grape seed extract per dose, and is combined with a patented ingredient technology that facilitates the absorption of this key ingredient. This product is gluten free and natural, and is not associated with many of the dangerous side effects of common allergy and sinus medications. 

† The contents in this website have not been evaluated by the US Food & Drug Administration. CLEARWAYZ® grape seed extract is a nutritional supplement, not intended to diagnose, treat, care for or prevent any diseases.