Introduction to The Healthy Shift

Speaker 1 0:06

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 rigours of shift work , but thrive . My goal is to empower shift workers to improve their health and wellbeing so they have more energy to do the things they love . Enjoy today's show and welcome back to another episode of the Healthy Shift podcast .

Speaker 1 0:48

As you know , my name is Roger Sutherland and I'm the host . I love to bring evidence-based strategies to shift workers . I really do to try and help them and I've helped literally hundreds of people one-to-one . But I just want to package a number of things up today , and that is how shift timing impacts your health and what the science is now showing us in relation to this . Now , I've been a shift worker myself for over 40 years and I know firsthand how much shift work can literally knock you around , not only physically , not only mentally , but also emotionally , and there's reasons for that . So today we're going to talk about something that's really mentally but also emotionally , and there's reasons for that . So today we're going to talk about something that's really important but it just literally doesn't get enough attention , and that is how the timing of your shifts can actually affect your long-term health , especially your risk of things like weight gain , diabetes and even heart disease all very , very common in our shift working community . Now , this isn't just theory , guys . There's a growing body of research showing how shift work is disrupting our body's natural rhythm and how that disruption can mess with your metabolism , your hormones and even how your body literally processes or metabolizes and stores the food that it is consuming . So let's break it all down into plain language , something that's really easy for you to understand .

Speaker 1 2:12

First of all , what are circadian rhythms ? Your body runs on a 24-hour internal clock . Every day , 24 hours , same time , same

Circadian Rhythms and Shift Work

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. It's just doing the same thing over and over again , and this is called your circadian rhythm . It's controlling things like your sleep , your hormones , it controls your digestion . It even controls your body's temperature .

Speaker 1 2:35

Now the problem that we have , as shift workers that are going about this without knowledge , is shift work literally throws that rhythm out of whack , because when you work nights or rotate shifts quickly , your body can't keep up and it doesn't know when to be alert or when to rest , which is the very reason why sometimes , in the middle of the day , you feel like you are literally up and about , and then you can crash . And then at night , you can feel the same . And this is because of that disruption to that circadian rhythm , because your body literally doesn't know where bout and then you can crash . And then at night , you can feel the same . And this is because of that disruption to that circadian rhythm , because your body literally doesn't know where it's supposed to be at in time or space . It definitely doesn't know when to eat or what to do with the food when you give it to it . So when you eat , it's confused . Why are you eating at this time ? This is a problem . It doesn't know what to do or it's got to fire the systems up . By the time it's confused , why are you eating it this time ? This is a problem . It doesn't know what to do or it's got to fire the systems up . By the time it's fired the systems up , the food's already passed through and it's been stored because it wasn't needed , and this is the problem .

Speaker 1 3:36

So what is research telling us ? Well , in 2023 , there was a review in the Lancet that actually looked at multiple studies and found something pretty shocking , and that is that night shift workers are at a much higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes , obesity and cardiovascular disease . And here is why Because your insulin sensitivity drops at night . What this means is , when you eat during a night shift , your body doesn't know how to handle the sugar as well as it does during the day . Your cortisol levels will stay higher at night . That's your stress hormone . Even though you don't feel stressed , your body is stressed because it's out of sync , and what this does is it makes it easier for your body to store fat , and it gets stored where Around your belly . Ever noticed the weight gain that's gone on around your belly since you started shift work ? Nod , that's right . And leptin and ghrelin , which are both our hunger and satiety hormones , get completely out of balance , and what this means is that you feel hungrier , even when your body literally doesn't need more food .

Research on Night Shift Health Risks

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It is making you feel hungry and that's literally hormonal . And this actually gets worse with rotating shifts and especially when they flip too fast or rotate backwards , and I'll talk about that shortly .

Speaker 1 5:01

So I'll give you a real-life example , because I can remember during my 30s , when I was on fast rotating rosters days , nights , split shifts , twilight shifts , all over the place and what I was doing was flipping my meals and I was eating during night shifts . Well , I was sleeping during the day , so surely I'd have to eat at nine . And this is what we do , don't we ? I was barely sleeping and I couldn't understand why I was gaining weight , despite being so goddamn active just in my job At the time . I was a dog handler , very active but I couldn't work out why I was gaining weight and why I was freezing up . My body was just freezing up in a really bad way . The truth is , my body was fighting against me . It didn't know if it was lunchtime , if it was bedtime or what it was , if it was whatever it was in between . But now I know why , and that means I can help you to learn too .

Speaker 1 6:00

So what can you do ? You might not be able to change your shifts , but you absolutely have to take responsibility and can reduce the impact . So what you need to do is you need to time your meals carefully . Try avoiding big meals between 9pm at night and 6am If possible . Try and fast from 9pm at night until 6am in the morning . This will reduce weight gain like you would not believe , and if you're a female , ladies , I can tell you categorically this will make an enormous difference to your gas , bloating and digestive issues that you all seem to suffer from on night shift as well .

Speaker 1 6:45

If you need to snack , if you need to have something , just stick to a light , high-protein snack instead . Just cheese , a couple of pieces of cheese with a few crackers . Have a Yopro yogurt with some protein powder in it , something like that , just a protein shake , something light , that will slip through your system really quite easily . We certainly don't eat a main meal between 9pm at night and 6am in the morning

Practical Solutions for Shift Workers

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. The next thing we need to do is we need to use our light to our advantage , because bright light any time during your shift will keep your body alert . But you've got to start turning your lights down when you finish so that it starts to wind you down and get you ready for sleep .

Speaker 1 7:32

On that , getting ready for sleep , you need a wind-down routine after night shift . You need a routine because our body thrives on routine . Once you put a routine in place , it starts to recognize that routine and will wind down with you . But when you go to bed , we need blackout curtains , not a darkish room blacked out . And it might help for you to take a small amount of melatonin coming out of night shift for you to go and sleep . That is after you've consulted your physician and got a quality melatonin , and we don't take more because it's not a sleeping tablet , it's a darkness signaler . So we just take around about half a milligram to one milligram and to give you an example , around about half a milligram to one milligram and to give you an example , naturally , your body only produces one milligram of melatonin . That's all it needs . So I think the body will know better than you buying more . All right , and we've got to reduce these screens before bed because it's inhibiting melatonin .

Speaker 1 8:47

Now the other thing that we need to do is we need to be consistent wherever we can . If you're on nights , we need to try and keep our meals , our sleep times and our activity at roughly the same time every single day , even on our days off . If we do that , it cues our circadian rhythm . The three main zeitgebers or time cues for our circadian rhythm is light , movement and nutrient timing . If you keep those roughly the same time every single day , you will find that your body will really respond well , will really respond well .

Speaker 1 9:32

The other thing that I would be considering if I was you , because I use it is to consider creatine , because we've got some really good new research that suggests that creatine might actually help support your mental clarity and wakefulness during those long night shifts . But I'm going to cover more of that . I've covered it plenty of times on socials , but I'm going to cover more of that as we get more information around this . But it's really important because creatine is shown to be less in females , naturally , than it is in males . So it's more important for females to supplement creatine than it is for males . But the more that we supplement , the more chance it's got of crossing the blood-brain barrier and going into our brain and actually bolstering up our creatine levels in our brain . If you're not on creatine , you've got to question why Every single person on this planet should be on creatine every single day .

Speaker 1 10:25

Now let's just give a quick tip about these rotating shifts . If you are in a role or you are in a position where you can advocate for forward rotating shifts , now what I mean by forward rotating shifts is it means you go from days into afternoons , into nights . So you're going in a forward rotation You're advancing . Some people do days , nights , days off . That's okay . That's called a forward rotation . Where we have problems is when we do a backward rotation Hello , quick changeovers where we do those afternoon shifts into day shifts . If someone died and put me in charge , they'd be banned immediately for the impacts that they have on our health . They are savage and they don't help our health in any way whatsoever . Your body will adjust much better on a forward rotation than it will on a backward rotation and it helps to gradually shift your natural rhythm instead of leaving it with absolutely no idea where you're at

Forward Rotation and Final Thoughts

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Now .

Speaker 1 11:36

To wrap this up , because it's only a short episode , shift work isn't going anywhere and for many of you it's not a choice . It's actually a calling and I acknowledge that . But we don't have to just accept the health risks as part of our job and I want to be clear on that as well Because with the right strategies and the right support , you can shift your health in the right direction , even while the clock is working against you . I've helped literally hundreds of shift workers just like you to unpack all of this with simple strategies that suits your lifestyle , not generic information stuff that suits your life . We look at your home life , your social life , your work life and we unpack that and simplify it with simple strategies . This is not about dieting . This is not about counting macros and weighing yourself for photos and everything else . This is literally about just putting simple habits in place for the enormous impact that it actually has , because the reason why you're heading in the wrong direction is because you're doing it all wrong , but you don't know because you haven't been educated . Now I can help you to unpack all of this with my one-to-one coaching . There's a link to my coaching page in the show notes , and I encourage you strongly to do something today before it gets out of control , because once it gets out of control , it's such an overwhelming battle to find your way back now .

Speaker 1 13:09

If this episode helped you , can you do me a favor ? Can you please share it with a colleague or someone who you really care about , who works shifts ? Oh , and if you want more support , come and join us inside the community of shift workers that I've built online and it's called the Shift Workers Collective . It's my private online community just for shift workers just like you , and you'll find a link in the show notes or , if you like , go to ahealthyshiftcom . That's ahealthyshiftcom and you'll see all the information there . There's a link up the top . Thanks again for listening . Please , I beg you , look after yourself and remember a healthy shift is a better 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

Resources and Community Support

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next one .