SPEAKER_01: 1:41

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 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 joke. And welcome back to another episode of A Healthy Shift. Now, if you work shifts, your body is under pressure. Not sometimes, but all the time. And this one here is a very, very important topic that I really want you to set up, pay attention to, because there's simple solutions and it's something that you really do need to do. But what happens is it actually goes by the by and it causes all sorts of problems. Before I get into it today, I want to ask you a favor if you could share the podcast. Let other people know about it. And if you could be so kind, because you've all been really slack. A lot of people are listening to the podcast. No one's really giving it a rating or a review. Now it's really simple. On Spotify, all you do is go to the main page, and at the top left, you literally just hit the review. And you can just give it, I'd like it, you give it five stars, but give it what you think's worth what it's worth. And on Apple, you can actually go, I think on your app, because I'm not an Apple user, I think you go down to the very bottom, or you can just click on it review. You can give it just five stars, or you can give it five stars and just take a couple of minutes and just write a review. What it does is it actually helps other people to find the podcast. And as we march into 2026, my goal is to get more education and out there and reach more people with the education that I've learned along the way to educate people in simple ways so that they understand. Because I firmly believe that we can thrive in our shift working lives. And unfortunately, one of the biggest problems that we do have is we sacr we sabotage it. But we don't sabotage it deliberately. It's just that when we started, no one had taught us how to go about it. And then what we do is we learn the habits from other people, and then we keep going along like that, and we learn what other people do and how other people go about it, and then we start introducing things like medications for sleep, and we become more tired, and we become more sedentary and we start to gain weight. And then in years to come, we suddenly wake up and we think, oh God, what happened? I've put on weight, I feel awful, I've become really snippy, I'm not sleeping well, my body's so blown up it it doesn't even know who it is anymore. And it becomes a real problem. And I just want to talk about one thing today, or actually three main things, but I want to talk about the health markers that shift workers must track. Now, I'm not I'm not for tracking, I'm not for tracking anything in particular because nothing's super accurate. But these are these are really accurate and they're really, really important things that we need to track. So if you work shifts, that body of yours is under pressure. You might not realize it, but it is, and all the time. Because shift work disrupts your circadian rhythm, and that rhythm is actually controlling your sleep, it controls hormones, your blood pressure, your blood sugar control, and it also controls your heart health. Now you can feel fine and still your body is heading in the wrong direction. And this is the exact danger that I want to flag with you in this podcast today. And this is why it's really important that you understand this. Because a lot of things can be going wrong internally, but you can be feeling like okay on the outside. So today I want to talk about three simple health markers that every shift worker must track. Not because you're broken, far from it, but because early signs really matter. And these three markers will let you see stress inside your body before it turns into disease. Now, the three things are your daily resting heart rate, your blood pressure, and regular blood tests. When should we be looking at all of these things? And that's what I want to talk about. I want you to think of this as like internal monitoring. Just like we monitor safety on the job, because your health is part of the job, and you are important. And you're sacrificing your health for the health of others, most of you that are listening to this. So, what about you put yourself first and just have a little listen to this one? Number one, if you've got a garment or an Apple Watch, or you're wearing a galaxy watch, or a wristband, or a ring, or a um whoop band, or something like that. All of those track your resting heart rate. And what this does is it actually tells you how hard your heart is working at rest. And this it spits this figure out every single day. And what it is, resting heart rate can be a marker of stress, physical stress, mental stress, sleep debt, inflammation, excess weight. A lower resting heart rate usually means that your heart is more efficient, and a higher one means that your heart is working a lot harder than it should. Now, I want to give you an example, and this is something that's really important. I've worked really hard to get my resting heart rate down as low as I possibly can. I do this by walking at a fair clip. And my resting heart rate sits around about 51 beats per minute. Now, for someone who's 61, this is pretty good as a resting heart rate. Ideally, I'd love to have it under 50, but it's not there yet, but I keep working on it. It's hard. Now I want you to think about what yours is. Now, I address this with clients because the data comes through in their check-ins. And a lot of clients are sitting somewhere between 60s, high 60s, and mid-75s. Now, I want to explain this to you, and this is your reality today. That's a 20 plus beat difference. Not a day, not an hour, every single minute. And let me just make this really clear. That actually equals 28,800 extra heartbeats per day. It equals almost 900,000 extra beats per month. It equals over 10 million extra beats per year. Now let that sink in. That is literally someone who's sitting between 65 and 75 beats per minute versus my 51. Now, I'm not big noting myself, I'm just saying that that is the difference. That's the reality. That's why it's something that's so important. Your heart is a muscle. And if you're continually working at 10 million extra beats every year, what do you think that is doing to your life expectancy? Is it any wonder that shift workers suddenly drop dead with a heart attack or a stroke? The strain on the heart is outrageous. And it's not nothing. It's extra wear on your heart year after year after year. Now many shift workers sit in the high 60s or 70s and think it's normal. It's actually really common, but it's not harmless, and it's not healthy for you. It's not healthy. It is bad. You should be sitting at your age, depending on your age. But if the majority of the people who listen to this between the ages of 25 and 50, as a general rule, your heart rate should be down in the low 50s at the least. Because other than that, it's showing all sorts of issues that are going on in your body, and you can work on it and you can make it better. Don't you want to for your children, for your partners? Don't you want to be here?

SPEAKER_00: 11:02

Now we need to check on this every day, and this is my number one rule. We gotta talk about the one, seven, and six. This is number one. Track your resting heart rate every day.

SPEAKER_01: 11:17

First thing in the morning, before you have caffeine, before any stress kicks in. You're not chasing perfection, you're just watching the trend of it, and it's really important. That's the first one. The second one is weekly blood pressure. Blood pressure is another silent signal. Now, shift work increases the risk of high blood pressure, and sleep disruption raises cortisol, and cortisol raises blood pressure.

SPEAKER_00: 11:47

Now you don't feel high blood pressure until it causes damage, stroke, heart attack. That's why checking it weekly really matters, and you don't have to go to your doctors to do it.

SPEAKER_01: 12:02

In fact, I've got my own Omron blood pressure motor at home. And we regularly check it here. They're not expensive. You'll go out and you'll buy yourself a new bag or a new toy to play with, or some new bit of kit, but get a blood pressure motor and start checking it. And start doing something about it if it's not within the range that it should be for your age. And it's easy to find out what it should be by just actually looking on the internet.

SPEAKER_00: 12:33

Just Google blood pressure range for whatever your age is. A good home blood pressure monitor is actually worth owning.

SPEAKER_01: 12:46

It lets you check calmly at the same time every week or a couple of times a week in your own environment, in the privacy of your own home. And you can keep an eye on it, resting instead of getting in the car, driving to the doctor's and having it done at the doctor's. And if you don't want to buy one, you can actually go to the local pharmacy and literally they will do it for you. Weekly checks of your blood pressure give you an early warning, and the early warning gives you options. Keep that one in mind.

SPEAKER_00: 13:17

So that's we've done the resting heart rate, we've done blood pressure. Now the last one. Blood tests.

SPEAKER_01: 13:28

Now blood tests are the window into your body. And here in Australia, they're actually free. And there's no good reason for shift workers to skip them. You can go every six months, go see the doctor, doctor will write a referral, you go and get your bloods done, doctor gives you the results. How simple? Blood tests show problems long before the symptoms start to appear. Early detection changes outcomes. And at a minimum, shift workers should check a full blood count. As in, you ask your doctor for a full blood panel count. You want iron studies, you want B12 and folate, you want vitamin D. You particularly want your thyroid function, you want lipids, you want glucose or HBA1C, and inflammatory markers, if needed. Your C reactive protein, CRP. Really important. And if you're a female shift worker, this matters even more. Because females are at a higher risk of low iron, low B vitamins, low vitamin D, and hormonal disruption, estrogen progesterone. Keep an eye on them. Iron deficiency alone can affect your energy and your mood and sleep and your heart rate and your tolerance to exercise. And so often it's just completely overlooked. Oh, you'll be right. Oh god, I'm so tired. I'm so tired, I can hardly function. And then we get blood stone after about two or three years, and you realize that your iron is in the toilet. Literally, because that's where the iron goes. Menstruating females need to keep an eye on their iron for the obvious reason. It's very important. Now your blood should be done every six months as a shift worker. Not once every few years, not once the doctor asks you, every six months. Because if something comes back that's off, it's not a failure. It's actually information that we can use. And if you need help interpret interpreting the results or fixing a root cause, reach out. The links are in the show notes. Go to the bottom and book yourself a one-to-one coaching assessment call, and I will steer you through this. So keep this in mind. The rules. I want you to remember this simple rule. Number one, daily resting heart rate. Number two, blood pressure every seven days. Number three, blood tests every six months. I call it the 176 rule. Now, this is not about fear, it's about control. Because shift work already takes enough from your body. Monitoring gives some of that control back. You do important work. You're sacrificing your health for the health of others. And your health needs to be protected with the same seriousness. Thanks for listening, and I'll catch you on the next one. Go and get that all done, please. Let me know how you go. 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 ahealthyshift.com. I'll catch you on the next one.