The Lifestyle Medicine Nurse

The Lifestyle Medicine Nurse RN-Adult | Practice Nurse | BSLM Member

Note to self + patients: get outside more!! 🥾 Raising your heart rate and moving your muscles has to be FUN for you to W...
05/06/2024

Note to self + patients: get outside more!! 🥾

Raising your heart rate and moving your muscles has to be FUN for you to WANT to build healthier habits 📈

I’d rather look over beautiful scenery then a blank wall at home, so hurray for summer hikes soon ☀️

You like your exercise…

MEAL PREPPING 🥗 🍴 Trying to get better at this, and it’s something I genuinely enjoy doing in the evening to wind down 😌...
09/01/2024

MEAL PREPPING 🥗 🍴

Trying to get better at this, and it’s something I genuinely enjoy doing in the evening to wind down 😌

✅ Save time, reduce stress
✅ Save money on buying quick meals
✅ Help with weight control
✅ You decide ingredients and portions
✅ More likely to choose nutritionally balanced diet

WHOLE FOODS • PROTEIN • HEALTHY FATS • BROWN CARBS • RAINBOW VEGGIES!

Do you do this? Willing to try?👇

Resource:
https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/meal-prep/ #:~:text=Can%20ultimately%20save%20time,to%20eat%2C%20or%20rushed%20preparation

Shown: wholewheat penne, cucumbers, carrots, tomatoes, red onion, spinach, lentils, tahini I’ve oil lemon dressing 😋

Is caffeine bad for you? ☕️ How much do we really understand about caffeine?🤔It is a chemical stimulant found naturally ...
16/11/2023

Is caffeine bad for you? ☕️

How much do we really understand about caffeine?🤔

It is a chemical stimulant found naturally in some plants such as coffee beans, tea leaves, and cacao beans. It can also be synthetically made and added to energy drinks, some food, tablets and supplements. 🍵

PROS
✅ Caffeine in moderate doses (40-200mg) acts within the brain to decrease fatigue and increase alertness.

✅ It decreases appetite and can therefore reduce weight gain.

✅ Associated with decreased risk of depression and su***de in some studies.

✅ Can improve muscle strength and power, as well as delay fatigue with exercise.

✅ Associated decreased mortality and reduced risk of type 2 diabetes, endometrial cancer, Parkinson’s disease...etc.

MYTHS
🔮 Caffeine is neither pro-inflammatory or anti-inflammatory.
It can inadvertently lower inflammation by offering antioxidant properties and regulation on blood glucose and certain hormones.
However, it can also increase inflammation indirectly, e.g. derived from energy drinks with high processed sugar or sweeteners.

CONS
🔴 In pregnancy it is linked to low birth weight, preterm birth and miscarriage.

🔴Can cause increased anxiety and sleep difficulty.

🔴Caffeine tolerance is built up over time and can cause a dependency.

🔴Withdrawal symptoms can develop with regular use of stopped suddenly, such as headache, fatigue and depression.

🔴 Increases blood pressure with long term use (but will return to normal once caffeine consumption is stopped for awhile).

OVERALL
➡️ Research suggests that healthy adults can safely consume up to 400mg of caffeine per day. Be mindful of your in take!

➡️Choose natural derivatives such as dark chocolate, green tea… etc. over the synthetic processed high-sugar alternatives of energy drinks and sodas.

➡️ Caffeine has addictive properties due to the withdrawal symptoms, but if you slowly reduce your intake you may not have symptoms at all. It is therefore why experts don’t label regular caffeine use as an addiction.

🤜 Combat long term inflammation through healthier diet changes, move your body regularly, get enough sleep and stress less! ☺️

Sources:
drruscio.com/does-caffeine-cause-inflammation/
van Dam RM, Hu FB, Willett WC. Coffee, Caffeine, and health. N England J Med.
2020;383 (4):369-378 do:10.1056/
JNEJMra1816604
webmd.com/diet/caffeine-myths-and-facts
healthline.com/nutrition caffeine-tolerance -line

16/11/2023

Did you know… research indicates that exposure to natural sounds can lower stress levels, reduce anxiety, and improve overall mental wellbeing? 🌊

Our brains interpret constant noises of a pleasant pitch as non-threatening, which helps us reduce our fight-or-flight response. This means our stress levels diminish, therefore, we relax and focus easier. 💛

📍 Ramsgate, Kent

—

https://silvotherapy.co.uk/articles/why-are-nature-sounds-so-relaxing?format=amp

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-do-nature-sounds-have-soothing-effect-when-working-meditopia?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios&utm_campaign=share_via

—

What is Lifestyle Medicine? 🤔According to 👉 Lifestyle Medicine is an evidence-based discipline which aims to support pa...
16/11/2023

What is Lifestyle Medicine? 🤔

According to 👉 Lifestyle Medicine is an evidence-based discipline which aims to support patients (and everyone, clinicians included!) to prevent, manage and reverse certain chronic conditions, using supported behaviour change skills and techniques to create, and sustain lifestyle changes.

Lifestyle Medicine focuses on 6 fundamental principles:

1️⃣ Mental Well-being 🧠

2️⃣ Minimising Harmful Substances🍺

3️⃣ Healthy Relationships👫🏻

4️⃣ Healthy Eating 🥗

5️⃣ Sleep 💤

6️⃣ Physical Activity

It also considers broader factors impacting on individuals’ health and well-being including ecological health, poverty and health inequality.

Encouraging the importance and POWER that individuals hold to change their own health without solely relying on medication and interventions is the future to a happier and more effective healthcare system. 🙌

Do you agree?👇

16/11/2023

Fresh air and exercise have long been recommended as a way for many to feel better, physically and mentally. 😌

Research shows that people who are more connected with nature are usually happier in life and more likely to report feeling their lives are worthwhile. 🙌

Nature connectedness is also associated with lower levels of poor mental health, particularly lower depression and anxiety and better concentration. 🌱

Mounting evidence supports daily exposure to nature and fresh air helps to lower blood pressure, reduce nervous system arousal, enhance immune system function, reduce anxiety and increase self-esteem. ✅

Your body makes vitamin D through your skin when exposed to direct natural sunlight, which aids in the absorption of calcium and other important nutrients to protect your bones, muscles, nervous system and immune system. ☀️

“Forest Bathing” is the term coined by Japanese researchers for walking in the woods. It is suspected that aerosols from trees, when inhaled during a forest walk, are one factor responsible for elevated immune system Natural Killer (NK) cells, which help fight off infections and tumor growth. 🧬

So many reasons to go outside 🌿

Resources:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/15598276231174863 #:~:text=Time%20spent%20in%20nature%20has,anxiety%20and%20increase%20self%2Desteem.

https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/our-work/research/nature-how-connecting-nature-benefits-our-mental-health

https://health.ucdavis.edu/blog/cultivating-health/3-ways-getting-outside-into-nature-helps-improve-your-health/2023/05

16/11/2023

Here’s an extremely embarrassing video of shy 17 year old me when I discovered my love for evidence-based lifestyle medicine. At the time I was in college studying healthcare and sciences, so I chose a research niché in biology to gain a further extended project qualification to add to my resume.

It started with the incredible book ‘The Telomere Effect’ by Dr Elizabeth Blackburn, which led me down a fascinating rabbit hole of what it truly means to age, and how that science can lead to living well for longer within our means of control.

Fast forward 6 years and I am now a registered practice nurse within the NHS and enrolled onto a fellowship course. In this course, I was lucky enough to hear Dr Ellen Fallows of the British Society of Lifestyle Medicine do a talk about lifestyle medicine- and it finally clicked that my passion had a name, and that there were other practitioners out there that shared this enthusiasm and could teach me so much more.

Traditional medicines and treatments are fantastic, where would we be without them? But we often forget the power we have ourselves to not solely rely on these interventions, but perhaps broaden our approach to improve mental wellbeing, social connections, healthy eating, physical activity, sleep, behaviour…etc. I could definitely use some help with some of these!

So I’m starting as a beginner and opened this page to share as I learn more about this field and try to implement it into my own life- as well as my patients.

I hope we can all learn together to live happily and healthily 💛

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