Assessing the Impact of Shift Work

Speaker 1 0:00

In today's episode of the podcast , I'm going to ask you to do one very , very simple thing . Today . What we're going to do is we're going to stop , we're going to hit pause and we're just going to take a few moments to have a look at where we're at in our shift working life . 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 this podcast , I aim to educate shift workers , using evidence-based methods , to not only survive the rig as a shift worker , 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 . Welcome back to a healthy shift podcast , where I uncover evidence-based strategies to help shift workers thrive , not just survive . I'm your host , roger Sutherland . I'm a veteran shift worker of almost four decades and an evidence-based nutritionist , and I , as always , get great pleasure in personally welcoming you to this episode of the show , and I thank you sincerely for listening . Today , we're just going to hit pause for a second and what we're going to do is we're going to assess where we are at in our shift working life . Every single one of you that are listening to this episode are in a different position , totally different position to anybody else . In your shift work life , your homework , your home life and your social life , everyone we're totally different , and that gives you a clue to start off with Now . All three of these shift work life , home life and social life impact on us greatly , and every single one of them all intertwine with each other . Now I want to unpack some of this today and go through it with you , but I want you to really concentrate on this today and really reflect on where you , the shift worker , are actually at in relation to all of the things that I'm about to flag with you . Okay , now confess , literally how many of you are crawling from one shift to the next , literally just getting through surviving . Now , you know , my caption is I teach you how to thrive , not just survive and the amount of people that come to me literally surviving and I mean just surviving they don't do anything outside of their shift working life other than land around in bed , crawl across the floor , land on the couch , grab the remote control and just scroll TV and eat until they have to go back in for their next shift , and this is going to catch up with you . I can promise you without any doubt whatsoever that this will catch up with you . Now , how is that impacting on your home life ? How is it impacting on your relationships , both at home and also with your friends ? And have you got any time for a social life ? Don't worry about the time , but the bottom line is we just don't even have the energy or we can't even be bothered . Is that you ? I'm actually talking to all of you , each and every one of you , and if this really hurts , then I'm talking to you and you need to have a really good hard think about where you're at in what you're doing Now .

Speaker 1 4:03

Research in this is very clear and I know that your secondary shift work impacts greatly on our mental health . The isolation from friends , family and social events is an absolute killer . It hurts us greatly because we are literally crawling from one shift to the next . We've got no energy , we've got no idea how to go about it and we just haven't got the energy to nurture those relationships . We haven't got time to catch up with friends and when we do , we just go out and eat like pigs or we cause ourselves all sorts of grief problems in that area as well . Relationships they are really hard for a shift worker , especially if you are both shift workers , because you're both bringing in the stresses of that shift working life .

Speaker 1 4:58

Now , shift work will also bring out the absolute worst of us at home . Like , think about it , how short is your fuse ? Like , really , we go off at those smallest things and we've got to have a think about it , because that is not only shift work , but it's the stress on our body , it's the stresses from the job and we think we can get away with it with the people who we love and adore at the best of times . But we can't do that . We can't just unload and make their life a misery just because I'm a shift worker . You can't do that . That's not an excuse . All right , all right , have a think about it .

Speaker 1 5:40

Also , your nutrition really suffers , right , it suffers because we just feel like we don't have the time , we don't know how to go about it . It's all too hard . Everything's difficult Is that you Do ? You find it really hard to work out what you need , what you want to eat , how to go about it . Are you putting pressure on yourself with . I've got to have broccoli , rice and chicken and containers . You know the top can't be bothered with all that . It's all just too hard . We don't have the energy to do anything with our partners , with our relationships , with our friends , with our children . We just haven't got the energy and we get short-tempered and grumpy around that .

Speaker 1 6:23

And here's another one for you how are you nurturing the intimate side of your relationships ? It's understanding , it's underestimated , but it really is so important . Man , woman , let's be brutally honest here and I'm going to talk about it . Men , we just have this innate ability to be able to disconnect our brains from our penises and we can just whatever , no problems at all . Ladies , I know you're nodding , but women , you have to be in exactly the right place at exactly the right time , with everything nurtured . Your vagina is connected to your brain , and if the brain is not right , then the vagina is not right either . And let's be brutally honest down that line as well .

Speaker 1 7:04

So , men , are we expecting too much from our women when they're not looking after themselves in every other area ? And women , are you not looking after yourself ? Now , don't tell me that you don't enjoy or want to have sex . We are on the planet to reproduce and we enjoy sex . But if you're not enjoying sex , it's because you're not nurturing all of those other areas in your life to bring it together so that you are in a better position to be wanting to do that .

Speaker 1 7:34

You might think I can't be bothered , I haven't got time , I haven't got the energy . It's just not worth it . That's because you are in not a good place in every other area of your life and that is going to have a severe impact on you down the track . And men , we're the same , make no bones about it . It takes massive stresses and that's where , with the stresses of shift work , the stresses of what we're doing and how we're going about it , that's where you end up with erectile dysfunction . Really , we need to have a think about all of those sort of things as well .

Speaker 1 8:09

Now that I've covered off on that and you've really thought about it , let's just have a think about the five pillars that I work with all the time and how strong are these pillars for you ? Let's have a look at sleep Now . Number one is sleep for me , always , we have to focus on sleep . How do we go into night shift ? How are we actually coming out of night shift ? How are we going through the night shift ? How are we coping with our afternoon day rotating shifts ?

Speaker 1 9:34

Sleep impacts massively on our health . It is actually the number one pillar because of the functions that occur when we're actually sleeping the brain detoxes , our body grows , our body repairs all of those things take place . You can't turn around and say , oh , I'm just not a good sleeper , because you need to focus on sleep and poor sleep has clues . So what we need to do is we need to work through that and really have a good think about where we're going wrong when it comes to our sleep , because it has a massive impact on our health all around . It has a massive impact on our physical health . It has a massive impact on our mental health and there is no arguing in relation to that . Medications for sleep , our caffeine all night , and then we take sleeping tablets to sleep during the day or outside of that no , just no medications when it comes to sleep .

Speaker 1 10:35

You are not sleeping , you are unconscious . Now you might think that you need to be unconscious , but your body doesn't need to be unconscious . Your body needs to go through those normal 90 minute cycles of sleep the REM sleep , the deep sleep , the light sleep . It needs to go through all of those cycles in order to restore the health of your body while we sleep , and that's why it's important . And when you're taking sleeping tablets to do this , you are not sleeping and your body is not going through those functions . And when you turn up at work the next night and someone says how much sleep did you get ? Oh , I slept for nine hours , I took a rest of it , or I took a sleeping tablet . Yeah , see , you weren't actually asleep , you're unconscious . And I'm sorry to bear the bearer of bad news for that , but if you are someone who suffers really badly with sleep , if you go and see a doctor , quiz your doctor about the necessity for the particular sleeping tablet that they're actually giving you . Remember , doctors are actually going to give you solutions to the problem . They're not going to get to the root of the problem . So let's get to the root of the problem and find out what that actually is and work on that .

Speaker 1 11:51

And I don't throw melatonin into medications . Melatonin can be manipulated really well and I've done a podcast on melatonin as well . Remember , only use melatonin that is actually been prescribed by a medical practitioner because of its efficacy , because the stuff that's being sold online is absolute garbage Some good , some bad it's . The efficacy of the dosage in each pill is completely different . And the other thing that I want you to know about melatonin as well , which is really important , remember , with melatonin it only puts you to sleep . So if you find 10 milligram melatonin , I think beauty , I'm going to whack myself out . You're not doing that . What you're actually doing is it's only putting you to sleep . So half a milligram to a milligram is more than enough because you want to be a little bit careful of the impacts that it can have externally in other areas of your health as well . So I don't throw melatonin into medications , because it's literally just a hormone , so that's not a medication .

Speaker 1 12:56

Now , the next thing we're going to look at is nutrition . That's my number two pillar . Now , time Do we have time ? Are we coming home in a flood , in a flutter ? Are we in a position where we've had to pick the kids up , run the kids around , come home and we're looking at oh God , we just got to grab some macros or grab some Uber Eats when we get home because I just haven't got time . That's what happens in a disorganized life around your nutrition . When we get tired , we make poor food choices and those poor food choices make us more tired . So we're in an ever cycle of making poor decisions around our nutrition , eating poorly and then making worse decisions as time goes on . In nutrition , we have a responsibility as parents and adults to feed our children properly as well , not use I'm a shift worker as an excuse . So you need to start putting strategies in place around that so that you can actually work in those areas to make sure that you're raising either your husband or your wife or your children the right way around nutrition as well . And stop using I'm a shift worker as an excuse , because it's not the excuse that you can use at all , and I'll prove to you why .

Speaker 1 14:12

Number three hydration . How good is your hydration ? Make sure that your hydration is up . As shift

Shift Work and Health

Speaker 1 14:18

workers , we are really poor at hydrating , and a lot of it is because of our role , and I totally understand that . With the equipment that the females are wearing , it's very difficult for them to get to the bathroom . For the people that are out in transport , it's very difficult for them to get to the bathroom . For the people that are in hospitals . It's very difficult for them to take a break , to get to the bathroom or with the PPE that they're wearing , I totally understand that , but we have 16 hours outside of that . That . We can make sure that our hydration is good , but we don't . Hydration is extremely important to our health . Poor hydration or dehydration actually leads to fatigue , and also hydration supports our immune system as well , giving it really good support , and also transports nutrients around our system . So it's really important that we keep ourselves properly hydrated . Poor hydration , fatigue Make sure that you're keeping your hydration high and the bottom line with that is clear your own . That's that simple .

Speaker 1 15:22

The other thing , pelophor movement . Let's have a look at movement . We haven't got time to crawl from one end of the house to the other or clean it or do anything else . So where do we get time for movement ? No exercise . Well , let me just be clear with you no exercise leads to poor health , end of story . Your Digestive track won't work properly . Your body doesn't work properly . Yeah , nothing works properly .

Speaker 1 15:46

Now , when I say movement , I Mean movement . I don't mean that you got to put all your gear on , go to the gym and squat 160 kilos . I'm literally just talking about movement , going for a walk out in the daylight , just getting some sort of movement because if you don't get that movement , your digestive trait does suffer . Your insulin resistance is increased because you're not using anything out of your muscle and you are going to end up with the buildup of body fat because you're not burning the energy that you are intaking . It's not about exercising for fat loss . This is literally about keeping your endocrine system moving and getting all those hormones pumping around your system so that you feel better in yourself , and this is really really important to do so . If you're having digestive problems or you are putting on weight , then the movement is the situation that you actually need more movement . You've got to change that energy balance . The only way that you put on weight is when your movement is Less than your energy intake , ie you are not moving as much as you're eating . That's that simple , and you can try everything on me . You can talk about hormones or you can talk about anything . It doesn't wash , it doesn't work . The research is clear . The only way that you put on weight is if you are moving less than what you're reading and a story All right .

Speaker 1 17:24

The last one that I want to focus on as my pillars of health is stress . Stress is a major impact on everything . Highly stressed bodies are Stress just by doing shift work . We are highly stressed just by doing shift work . Our body is De-synchronized from our circadian rhythm and it is in a world of hurt . It doesn't know what it's supposed to be doing , what hormones it should be releasing and are we helping it ? That's the question .

Speaker 1 17:55

And Stress from the demands of the job . A lot of industries are very , very short-staffed at the moment and there's a lot of demands that have been put on people in Relation to work . The workloads are horrendous , the time having to be at work is horrendous , and that is putting massive demands on us mentally . So what is that doing to us at home ? It's causing stress at home . How short-tempered are we with our children , with our husband , with our wife ? It's not good enough . You find yourself actually tooting , beeping , yelling at people in the car . That's the problem . There's another indicator of stress as well , and not only that . How your relationships with your friends going ? Do you find that they're strained ? Strained or stressed , or you just literally can't be bothered ? That stress as well , you know , and it causes stress because we can't catch up with them because we just can't find the time or we're on opposite schedules , and that causes massive problems for us as well .

Speaker 1 18:54

They're my five pillars . Let me just revisit sleep , nutrition , hydration , movement and stress , and if you can take one tiny little step in the direction of each one of those and Get those right , then you start heading in the right direction . Because if you don't , your health suffers . Shift work Brings poor mental health . Shift work brings poor physical health . It brings weight gain , type 2 diabetes , cardiovascular disease , heart attack , stroke , cancers . The evidence is very clear and the one thing that I can promise you is this if you don't take a step today to improve that and start taking a 1% step in the right direction , every day , it will get worse . It won't get better . Don't think that some doctor or some professor or some researcher is gonna come out with the anti-shift work pill and the anti-shift work pill . You just take it and everything comes good .

Speaker 1 20:04

This body that you are walking around in needs you to look after it , because it will reward you if you actually look after it . I can promise you that . Look at all the times that it's got you better when you've been ill . Look at the times that it's recovered from surgery . Look at the times that it's carried you wherever you've gotta go , walk , run , do whatever you've got to do . If you're a female and you've got children , it's bore children . You have raised children . You are in your home life . You're doing what , everything you're doing . You're loving , you're home making . You're doing everything your body is carrying you through all of that .

Speaker 1 20:39

Look after it , because if you don't look after it you're going to have problems with it . If you don't arrest it now , it gets worse . It's that simple and the only thing that makes it better is to build habits and routines that become your life . And I know starting out and finding where to start it's really hard , but it just has to be done . No one is coming to save you at all .

Speaker 1 21:06

You can scroll socials , the internet or anywhere as much as you like for where the magic pill is or where it comes from , but I can assure you , as I told you , no researcher is working on the anti-shift work pill . I can promise you that that's the case . You've already tried everything . You've spoken to Karen at the office , to Phil at the office , to Jenny . You've asked them what they do and how they go about it . They're not you . They are very different from you .

Speaker 1 21:35

You're desperately looking for a solution , and there is only one , and that is to do the work Now . That's all doom and gloom , and I know it's all doom and gloom , but I really want you to pause and have a really good look at where you're at , because this will get worse and by the time you finish your work it will have destroyed you . It will have caused you all sorts of problems . Go and ask an ex-shift worker how much better they feel having finished shift work , but how hard it's been for them to lose weight or do that or to just live their life , and they will tell you that they didn't realize just how much it was impacting on them . But I'm here to tell you today , on the back of this podcast , that there is ways that you can go about doing all of this , because all of the research that's been done around shift work is research that's been done on people with no idea of how to go about it , with no science or research in the background to help them as to how to go about doing it and doing it successfully , how to transition in and out of night shifts , how to get that early movement , how to structure their days , how to structure afternoons and day shifts , when to eat and what to eat . Research is helping with that and I can help you . I can help you with all of that and that's why I'm here . This is why I made this transition .

Speaker 1 23:04

While I was looking at all of my colleagues and friends and shift workers really suffering from shift work , why I decided that I need to take control of this and I need to help with this . And even I have a coach that helps me in business , in marketing , in . I have my own PT that helps me with PT . You know I have to do that so that I get the guidance and the accountability , because , of course , I can scroll the internet no problems , and I can find the workouts and I can do whatever I need to do , etc . But you can't be having a coach that can individually guide you along the way with it . And if you're someone who's sat there and had a really good think about all of that that I've just mentioned and the impacts that that is having in your life , I can help you with that , because that's what I do . You don't have to sit in front of me . My coaching is all online .

Speaker 1 24:02

I'm happy to have a free zoom with you to discuss how I can help you and if you would like to do that , reach out to me through my website , a healthy shift dot com , and you can have a look there . There is submission forms that you can go through and I can help you to sort you , sort through your shift work life . We will go through your , the impact it has on your home life , your social life , your work life , how to put boundaries in place , how to prioritize what needs to be done . Simple nutrition strategies to make sure that you're eating well , making sure that you're feeding your family well . I take the pressure off you .

Speaker 1 24:41

This is not about here's your calories , here's your macros . This is what you got to do . You're a shift worker . You don't have time for that , but I can help you and I come at you after four decades or almost four decades of shift work experience . So I get it . I have the . I can offer you the empathy that's required , but you do have to do the work . Just the little bits and pieces . We build habits . I have a habit tracker on an app that you can go through and you can complete the habits and we start to lay foundations and we start to let go of the diet culture and we start to put boundaries in place and work through how we can get movement in and you start feeling better . And you can go to my website and you can have a look at all the testimonies on my website of the people that I have actually helped , and I highly recommend that you do , because this is not about tracking , this is not about macros or smashing yourself in the gym . This is about putting simple strategies in place which are going to improve the metabolic damage that you're doing by just literally doing shift work and the impact that it's having on your health and your mental your mental health and your physical health , because it is silent and it is actually manifesting internally and you need to arrest it now .

Speaker 1 26:04

Whew , that was a big one . What a lot of bad luck for you , but that's it . I know I've done shift work for 39 years just over 39 years so I get it . I understand what it's like and I'm still here at this point in time , so I'm doing something right . All right , if you haven't got the time , reach out . Let's reach out , let's talk and let's try and get your life set up so that you start to thrive and not just survive in shift work . All right , thank you very much for joining me today . I really really appreciate you and I would be ever so grateful and it does help me enormously if you would please , on Spotify or on Apple , give the podcast a five star review .

Speaker 1 26:49

If something that I said in this podcast today has resonated with you , please share it to your colleagues , to your family , to your friends , to anybody that you think would benefit from it , because it is such an important podcast that I've done here today . It really is so relevant . So , if you found the episode helpful , please don't forget to hit follow as well , because I'm dropping some bonus episodes every now and again . And please share with your fellow shift workers and keep the questions coming in as well , because when you ask me a question , you give me a topic for discussion , which is great . And remember that you do have the power to be a true shift work champion .

Speaker 1 27:27

And , as always , please remember , be patient and be kind to yourself as you navigate the challenges of shift work

Prioritizing Mental Health and Well-Being

Speaker 1 27:34

and prioritize your mental health and your own well-being . And , as always , I want to thank you for tuning into a healthy shift . Keep moving forward one percent of the time and you will make yourself a healthy shift . 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 ahealthyshiftcom . I'll catch you on the next one .