The World of Wellness: Are sleeping pills putting you at risk?

Do you have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep? There are many ways that assist in helping people fall asleep and I can teach you those ways. I often talk about stress and how it will affect your life; well, I hope this new research evidence does not make you lose more sleep. 

~ A new study in the British Medical Journal, suggests that the sleeping pills we use to help rest may increase the risk of early death. The claim is that the risk is more than fourfold even amog those taking fewer than 18 doses a year.

Commonly used sleeping pills, or “hypnotics,” such as Restoril and Ambien, which are prescribed for short-term insomnia, are associated with the risk. People taking more than 132 doses a year were also 35% more likely to be diagnosed with cancer compared to people of a similar health status who are not taking sleeping pills.

While the study did not show the drugs actually caused cancer or death, the authors said there were many known ways for sleeping pills to shorten life because they were associated with depression, which can trigger suicide, as well as interfering with motor and cognitive skills, which can cause accidents. Sleeping pills are also known to cause sleep apnea for some people, which can lead to heart failure.

~ Well, put another W in the win column for fish oil. Now researchers are saying that eating fish can help keep your brain young. This is after finding that diets lacking Omega-3 fatty acids hastens brain shrinkage and mental decline. The findings showed that people who eat the least amount of omega-3 fatty acids, a key nutrient found in fish oil, had less brain mass – equivalent to about 2 years of chronological aging.

There has been an explosion in the number of foods fortified with Omega–3 oils such as chicken; margarine, eggs, milk and bread, but they contain only small amounts.

I encourage all my clients to eat at least two servings of fish weekly.The types of fish that contain high levels of Omega-3 are tuna, salmon, mackerel, herring, sardines, and anchovies. Whitefish is also a healthy food, including cod and haddock, but they contain lower levels.

We should all be getting the proper amount of fish oils weekly, either by supplements or eating the fish mentioned above. We have known that it was good for your heart and now we know that it is good for your brain as well.

~ Have you heard? Congratulation goes out to Hawaii. Once again, Hawaii came out on top. The annual Gallup health ways well-being index was released this week finding that the island state still ranked highest in well-being in the USA. Rounding out the top 10 states with the highest scores were North Dakota, Minnesota, Utah, Alaska, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Hampshire, and Montana. The bottom six states include Alabama, Arkansas, Missouri, Florida, Tennessee, and Nevada.

For the survey, Gallup phoned 353,492 American adults in each state every day in 2011. The interviewers probed participants about six key areas of well-being:

• Life evaluation, including participants’ ratings of their present life situation and what they anticipated for themselves in five years
• Emotional health, including whether people smiled or laughed a lot, felt happy and engaged, were treated with respect, or experienced worry, stress, anger, or depression
• Work environment and job satisfaction, including whether they were able to use their strengths to perform at their best every day
• Physical health, such as disease, obesity or other health problems and daily ailments like headaches and colds
• Healthy behaviors, including diet, exercising and not smoking
• Basic access to healthy food, clean water, a safe place to exercise, a safe home, and health care

If you would like to have a life coach to help you get healthier and learn how to reduce the stress in your life, I am currently offering free wellness consultation sessions. I would love to work with you.

Contact me: On the Web @www.lifecoachdoug.com or call me at 678-793-5399

God bless you,

Life Coach Doug