GUT HEALTH, IMMUNE SYSTEM, AND SLEEP ISSUES?

IMPROVE THEM ALL WITH THIS ONE SIMPLE CHANGE.

It’s the middle of winter, wet and snowy outside (contrasted to the beautiful sunny day of fishing Dr. Pete is experiencing above) but the kids are exhibiting the hair pulling signs of cabin fever. So...what do you do? I get it, sometimes (let's be real, oftentimes) the last thing I want to do in the dead of winter is wrestle my two year old into her snow gear for 15 minutes, only to spend a total of 96 seconds outside before she’s wanting to go back in. While the messy post-snow mudroom chaos certainly doesn’t hold much appeal to most (me included haha), there are some things that may help shift our mindsets toward being more inspired to venturing outdoors in less than ideal weather. 

When it comes to outdoor time, we typically all have the common understanding that it's great for our health in a diverse number of ways. But even knowing the overall benefits, sometimes that’s STILL not enough to entice us to leave the comfort of our homes. In the spirit of The Nest, we’re here not to supply a generic list of benefits, but rather dive into some less known facts that can supplement our health, thus bringing more value to our lives. 

When it comes to our gut microbiome, diversity is the name of the game. Meaning, cultivating LOTS of different types of beneficial bacteria is the main goal. So many things can influence this diversity: the food we eat, our past antibiotic exposure, how we were birthed (vaginal versus cesarean), and how much movement we get. Another thing that influences it? You guessed it - the amount of time we spend in diverse outdoor settings. This is theorized to happen when the microbes in nature land on our skin, and we subsequently ingest it somewhere along the line throughout the day.

While making it a goal to visit every state park in your vicinity may sound fun and realistic for some, that simply may not be the case for some (me particularly with small children and business to run). So, what can we do to foster some easy gut enhancing habits? 

So you’re telling me that being outside more can make me less prone to allergies and chronic illness? YUP! In a study done on teenagers in Finland, there were teenagers who lived and experienced less biodiverse areas, and some who experienced the opposite.

The study showed that the teenagers who had less markers for specific antibodies known to be indicative of levels of allergies were the ones who lived in more biodiverse areas! 

Now this doesn’t mean that if you live in an apartment complex with no yard that you’re out of luck. Simply combat this by exposing yourself to different outdoor areas on a more regular basis! Now with anything, consistency is the key to success. Does that mean if you can only be outside for limited amounts of time that you’re out of luck? Of course not!

Simply try to introduce new environments as much as realistically possible, and enjoy the benefits that come from the consistency of your efforts!

A lot of talk in the wellness world revolves around “hacks” to improve our overall health. In regard to sleep, our circadian rhythm comes into the conversation. In a nutshell our circadian rhythms are physical, mental, and behavioral changes that follow a 24-hour cycle. Meaning, we wake up bright eyed in the morning ready to roll, and get a little more drowsy as the sun starts to set, initiating our wind down for the evening.

Now, if that circadian rhythm is thrown off by being introduced to artificial light too early or late in the day, it will throw off our cortisol levels (our stress hormone), our blood sugar (affecting our hormones), melatonin production (sleepy hormones), and eventually our sleep! Exposing our eyes to sunlight (or infrared light) in the morning upon waking helps our body to suppress melatonin production, which keeps us energized in the morning and allows our cortisol to rise, thus keeping us feeling that way! 

On the flip side, exposing our eyes at sunset helps trigger our body to increase melatonin production, inducing sleepiness just in time for bed! Now say you’re in Montana, and the sun doesn’t rise in the winter until 8:30/9am, and it starts setting at 4pm. That is where the infrared light tools can come in handy, to help support appropriate red light exposure! 

This was a LOT of information (which i love!!! Knowledge equips us with confidence to make more informed decisions for ourselves and families), that I hope gives you some tangible things you can FREELY incorporate into your daily routines. As a mom, wife, business owner, and friend, I know the feeling of being stretched in a million different directions - that adding ONE more thing to do just seems downright impossible.

But the nice thing is, so many of the things that can possibly benefit our health already fit into the routines we have established for ourselves. Meaning that, we’re already driving to run errands a bunch of times throughout the week, we can easily roll down the windows to expose our bodies to more biodiversity. I’m already up at the crack of dawn preparing for the day, so it’s simple to walk outside and watch the sunrise for 90 seconds.

The beautiful thing about cultivating true and LASTING health, is it truly is simple. And although simple doesn’t always equate with easy, it does mean that by making some minor tweaks in our routines and habits, we can MAJORLY tweak our health in the positive direction - no matter how busy we are!

Dr. Jordan + Dr. Pete