Everyone is familiar with energy drain. Researchers are studying the links between what we eat, how we work and live and how we feel. There are different kinds of fatigue and different ways to improve your energy level. How do you know if your low energy is caused by underlying disease or is the result of lifestyle factors, stress, poor diet, lack of sleep, or normal aging?
Health – Fatigue, Biological rhythms, Aging, Vitamins, herbs, and supplements
Harvard’s Special Health Report, Boosting Your Energy, provides advice and information. It includes a Special Section: A 7-Step Plan to Jump-Start Your Natural Energy.
Diet – Nutrition, Food, Snacks
There is evidence changing your diet can change your metabolism and brain chemistry, ultimately affecting your energy level and mood. Research has shown antioxidant-rich whole food diets are the best choice we can make.
Antioxidants are high in vitamins, minerals and fiber and are intimately involved in the prevention of cellular damage — the common pathway for cancer, aging, and a variety of diseases. USDA recommends top 20 best sources of food antioxidants as measured by their total antioxidant capacity per serving size.
Research demonstrates the antioxidant-rich Mediterranean Diet reduces the risk of heart disease, cancer, and a reduced incidence of Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases. The characteristics of the Mediterranean Diet are:
- Primarily plant-based foods, antioxidant-rich fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes and nuts;
- Replacing butter with healthy fats such as olive oil and canola oil;
- Using herbs and spices instead of salt to flavor foods;
- Limiting red meat to no more than a few times a month;
- Eating fish and poultry at least twice a week;
- Drinking red wine in moderation (optional).
When your energy level is flagging it’s time to fuel your body with a nutritious snack. I shared my 7 favorite energizing snack foods in an earlier post. I also find Green tea, Oolong and herbal teas increase energy levels. I located Energy Foods Slideshow: A Diet to Boost Your Mood and Energy Level and think its useful.
Exercise, Energy, Stress, Mood
Exercise boosts levels of energizing brain chemicals dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin. There’s evidence that changing your exercise and stress levels affect both your energy level and mood.
Fortunately, those benefits don’t require spending hours pumping weights in a gym or pounding on a treadmill. Making mild exercise part of your everyday life, and increasing your heart rate in moderate exercise several times a week, will give help you become more energized and better able to cope with stress.
Exercise improves energy by: increasing muscle mass; increasing the heart’s pumping volume; reducing body fat; lowering fat in the blood such as bad cholesterol; improving the body’s regulation of blood sugar; improving circulation; and boosting mood and mental capacity.
According to research funded in part by the Arthritis Foundation, yoga poses, breathing and relaxation significantly reduce joint tenderness and swelling for people with rheumatoid arthritis. Yoga has also been seen to reduce symptoms of chronic pain and psychological stress in women with fibromyalgia.
In experiments conducted by Robert Thayer, PhD, at California State University, a brisk 10-minute walk not only increased energy, but the effects lasted up to two hours. When daily 10-minute walks continued for three weeks, overall energy levels and mood were lifted.
When it comes to exercising for me that means working through pain from arthritis and fibromyalgia. I do stretching and yoga asanas daily to help prevent injury, increase my range of motion, reduce stiffness, and reduce pain. Walking briskly is my 5 days weekly aerobic exercise. My routines start with a yoga warm-up (asanas and breathing), and then move on to briskly walking with awareness, rhythm, and integrated breathing.
Research suggests a 90-Minute Plan for work projects is the optimal human limit for focusing intensely on any given task. I concentrate for about 40 minutes on a task before I take a break.
National Institutes of Mental Health found that a 60-minute “power nap” can not only reverse the mind-numbing effects of information overload, it may also help us to better retain what we have learned. It’s not workable for me as I don’t fall asleep when I try to nap.