Speaker 1 0:00

We all struggle when we come out of night shift , and there's a number of reasons as to why this actually occurs . But in today's episode , i'm going to discuss something that you can do that is going to make an enormous difference to the way that you recover from the night shift . Shift work can be brutal , but it doesn't have to be . Welcome to a healthy shift . My name is Roger Sutherland , certified nutritionist , veteran law enforcement officer and 24-7 shift worker for almost four decades . Through these podcast , i aim to educate shift workers , using evidence-based methods , to not only survive the rigors of shift work But thrive . My goal is to empower shift workers to improve their health and well-being So they have more energy to do the things they love . Enjoy today's show and I would like to welcome you to today's episode of a healthy shift podcast . Thank you so much for tuning in All right . So night shift now . We all struggle coming out of the night shift , don't we ? it is Brutal on our system and there is no arguing that at all , and the reason for this is because we are actually at the Opposite end of what our circadian rhythm is dictating to us . So , for argument's sake , our light and dark cycles are at direct opposite . Now I've spoken about how we need to keep that in line as much as we can possibly do , but this is impossible When it comes to night shift . Now , i'm just going to make this a really short episode today , but before I get into the episode , i would really , really appreciate it if you would be ever so kind and just go back to the main page and Just rate and review the podcast . If you could find it in yourselves to do that , that is greatly helpful . This comes to you for nothing . I enjoy doing it , but I'd enjoyed a whole lot more if you gave it a rating and review , and people are not doing that at the moment . All right , so now , why is it one of the main reasons why we struggle coming out of the night shift ? Obviously because we've been out of line with our circadian rhythm . Now I've banged on about the circadian rhythm and being in line with that enough , so let's go into a completely different aspect of it today , and I'm tipping that this is going to be one that you've not heard of before .

Speaker 1 2:31

Now , research has shown that night shift workers have elevated triglycerides in their bloodstream , and triglycerides are The fat that's in your bloodstream for up to 48 hours post the last night of your night shift . Now , these elevated triglycerides are what causes us all the damage . This is what actually Increases our LDL cholesterol , which is leading to atherosclerosis and then causes hardening of the arteries and leads to heart attacks and strokes . But it also leads to obesity , type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease . Obviously , now we need to do something about this . So what is there that we can actually do to try and help us to get rid of these triglycerides out of our bloodstream ?

Speaker 1 3:23

Now , one of the strategies that I talk about for people when they're first coming out of night shift is when you get home . Once you're home from night shift , as soon as you get home , have something to eat and go straight to bed and get three and a half sorry , get three or four and a half hours sleep . Now , the four and a half hours is generally what people choose , but then you've got to force yourself to get up and get that daylight , get some water , get some caffeine in and take yourself for a walk so that we are introducing those three main Zetegevers which I've spoken about in previous podcasts being the light , being movement and being nutrient timing getting those in so that we're telling our system that we are actually awake , alright , and moving . But one of the problems that we do have now is we're learning more that people that are coming out of the actual night shift have these elevated triglycerides in their bloodstream , and this is really detrimental to us and it takes quite some time to get rid of it . Now , the problem that we have is that these elevated triglycerides in our bloodstream are not only detrimental to our health , but it also leaves us feeling really ordinary as well , because it's causing us all sorts of problems internally And we need to work out how can we get rid of those , and as sooner we can get rid of them , the better we actually feel and we recover .

Speaker 1 4:52

Now , if you're one of these people who comes out of night shift and it just takes you a whole week to get over the night shift , strap yourself in , because I've got something for you that's going to make a big difference . Alright , when we come home from night shift , now what we're going to do is we're going to go home , we're going to go to bed , we're going to go to sleep and we're going to get up in four and a half hours . We're not going to stay awake , because that's going to cause us more problems . Get up and wake up and get up as soon as that alarm goes off at four and a half hours . Open the blinds and get that light , movement and those nutrients in as well . Then what we want to do is we're going to undertake a period of 30 minutes of list training . List training is low intensity , steady state training . Now what we're going to do is we're going to undertake this at 65% of our maximum heart rate . Now you're going to need a pen and paper and I'll go through it with you .

Speaker 1 5:51

I've spoken about this on a podcast before as one of my best bang for buck exercises , but this has become very , very pertinent now with our understanding around these elevated triglycerides . Now , when we exercise at 65% of our maximum heart rate , we are literally just burning fat for fuel . Now I want to be very clear on this This is not a fat burner , whereas it's burning our fat stores . So it's burning fat office , but what it is doing is it's actually burning the triglycerides out of our bloodstream as fuel . It's not using carbohydrate . It is literally just using the fat out of our bloodstream . Now , this is the way that we actually get rid of those triglycerides out of our bloodstream by exercising at 65% of our maximum heart rate . All right , so pick up your pen and grab your piece of paper or bookmark this time in the podcast All right , to work out 65% of your maximum heart rate .

Speaker 1 6:58

What you need to do is you need to start with 220 and then you minus your age , whatever your age is offered , you minus that and you hit equals and that will give you a number . So if you're 40 years old , then what you will do is you will have 220 and then you will minus 40 of that , which will be 180 . And then what you're actually going to do is you are literally going to multiply that figure of 180 by 0.65 , which will give you 65% of that 180 . That figure that you'll get there will be 117 . So if you're 40 years of age , you're List training 65% maximum heart rate will be at 117 beats per minute . Now you might think but that's not very much , and that's exactly right . It isn't very much . It's 65% of your maximum heart rate . You will hardly raise a sweat doing this And in fact you'll be able to hold a telephone conversation or you'll be literally be able to have a talk to the person on the piece of machinery next to you .

Speaker 1 8:17

Now what I actually suggest that you do is get on a stationary bike and adjust the stationary bike until it holds your heart rate at 65% of your maximum heart rate , so within about two to three beats either side of that 65% maximum heart rate . So , to use the example , before , you'd be at 117 beats per minute . Now this means that you can go to 120 , but it also means that you can be around 114 . But faster is not better . Now we don't want to stress an already stressed body . We're coming out of night shift , remember people , so we want to not stress an already stressed body , but we need to burn that rubbish out of our bloodstream that is accumulated over our night of night shift .

Speaker 1 9:08

All right , once you get your heart rate to the 117 or to your 65% maximum heart rate , what you then do is you would then pedal or walk on the treadmill for 30 minutes . Now , if you can do longer , fantastic . If you can do 40 minutes or 45 , tremendous . But you only really need to do half an hour , and in that half an hour you will hardly have a trickle of sweat running down the back of your neck . It's not difficult in any way whatsoever . But let me be the one to tell you the benefits are absolutely enormous .

Speaker 1 9:46

Now , exercising at the 65% maximum heart rate , as I've said , literally just burns the fat out of your bloodstream . It's not using carbohydrate , so you're not going to be tired doing it And it's going to be very , very simple for you to do . If you do this , you will find that when you walk out of the gym or off the bike and move around over the next hour or so afterwards , you will feel absolutely fantastic And for the days following you will also feel so much better . Now , this is because you've burnt not only those triglycerides out , but because you're exercising at just above what is a resting heart rate , at 65% , you're actually exercising your heart as well . Now , what you will also find while you do this exercise is you will find that where you start today doing this and where you have to adjust the bike pressure to , or the treadmill pressure to , or incline on , you'll find that you'll have to gradually increase that , because you are literally exercising your heart and you're not putting any straight on it , but you're actually improving your heart health by doing this as well .

Speaker 1 11:02

Now , that is the secret to coming out of night shift really well , and I can assure you that lounging around , crawling out of bed and crawling to the couch and sitting on the couch and smashing your packet of chips and watching TV and excusing yourself because I'm a shift worker and I've just done night shift and I'm tired , doesn't wash it . You need to take some sort of initiative to actually make a big difference to your own health and recover out of this night shift yourself . So if you really do struggle coming out of it , ask yourself the question if you're doing everything possible . Now , this is not something that I've talked about before , because it's something that I've literally are learning about now in relation to the elevated triglycerides . So I'm passing this on to you Now . You don't wanna end up with these triglycerides floating around in your bloodstream for two days after you finish night shift .

Speaker 1 11:59

And if you're a person who snacks on night shift or you're eating your chips and your chocolates and your lollies and things like that on night shift , your triglycerides are actually even elevated more and it makes it even worse , and I've just given you a simple solution to get you feeling so much better . So I implore you to give that a try . So there's another tool in your box for coming out of night shift . Number one get straight home , get straight to bed after your last night of night shift , get up after four and a half hours , get straight outside , get your coffee caffeine in , get your daylight into your eyes and then take yourself for either a walk around the block or get yourself in the car and get to the gym and jump on a stationary bike or on the treadmill and do 30 minutes of list training and watch how much better you feel coming out of the night shift . And that's one of my secret hacks for coming out of a night shift . Give that a go , guys . Now it's only a short one today . That's all I've got for you .

Speaker 1 13:08

But if you really got something out of this podcast , i ask that you please tell your friends , tell your family , tell anyone that will listen . Please pass the podcast on to other people . I really , really want to get it out there for evidence based advice , like the advice that I've literally just given you , and if you get any benefit out of what I'm telling you here , for goodness sake , tag me in it , share it on your Instagram stories , share it around and let me know that you've benefited enormously out of it , because it absolutely makes my day . Thank you for listening . If you enjoyed this episode , be sure to subscribe so you get notified whenever a new episode is released . It would also be ever so helpful if you could leave a rating and review on the app you're currently listening on . If you want to know more about me or work with me , you can go to a healthy shift dot com . I'll catch you on the next one .