women’s heart health by the clock - meno clinic...drink clean water to keep your cells hap-py and...

WOMEN’S HEART HEALTH BY THE CLOCKMaking heart healthy decisions one hour at a time.

BY DR. MARK MENOLASCINO MEDICAL DIRECTOR OF THE MENO CLINIC CENTER FOR FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE

AUTHOR OF HEART SOLUTION FOR WOMEN

WOMEN’S HEART HEALTH BY THE CLOCKA guide from Dr. Mark Menolascino, author of Heart Solution for Women2

When we think about taking action to optimize our health, to make life-style changes that can prevent future disease or heal existing damage, we tend to take a big picture perspective. We may look to the New Year as a time to make some resolutions about eating right and exercising more, or we may look to middle age as a time to watch cholesterol and blood pressure and leave off worrying about it for the time being.

The trouble is that big picture thinking—while an important part of improving health—keeps us thinking about what we’re going to do in the future and distracts us from taking action to improve our health today.

It makes you cringe, right? Planning to make life-bettering changes later is so much more fun than making life-bettering changes today. But while this method of best-intention-based health procrastination is certainly popular, it is also entirely ineffective.

Your body only cares about what you have done up until now, not what you plan to do. Your heart cares about how often you have elevated your heart rate, how well you have managed stress, the foods your parents fed you as a kid, and the foods you fed yourself over the last decade, year, weeks, and days.

In my work as a functional medicine physician with master’s degrees and four board certifications, I’ve found that my patients do best when they bite off much smaller pieces of their lives and implement health improve-ments in a day-to-day and even hour-to-hour manner rather than taking on the intimidating challenge of changing the whole of their lives.

So, let’s forget about New Year’s resolutions, health ambitions for when the kids move out, getting more exercise next season or next weekend, eating healthier when you have more time to cook—and all the other usu-al excuses—and consider the quest for optimal heart health not related to the calendar, not related to the stages of life, but by the clock, today.

—Dr. Mark Menolascino Medical Director of the Meno Clinic Center for Functional Medicine

A NOTE FROM DR. MARK


This twenty-four-hour approach to healing and optimizing your life is more than just a way to implement a healthier life in bite-sized pieces—what you do at different times of the day has very real and measurable physiological effects that benefit your heart, brain, genes, gut, hormones, natural detoxification processes, and energy levels in dramatic and long-lasting ways.

Some of these timing concepts are controversial, such as when is the best time to consume calories, how much of a benefit you get from eating right after exercise, and when is the best time to exercise. Even with my ongoing research, I can’t make absolute recommendations on these elements of timing, but what I can say with conviction is that there are several straightforward dos and don’ts of optimizing your heart health throughout the day, around the clock, that I am certain will help everyone.

WHY THE CLOCK MATTERS TO HEART

HEALTH


Eat protein and fiber with breakfast every

day. Fiber helps to slow digestion so the

sugar you eat (provided it’s not too much)

is delivered to your cells at a pace they

can handle.

Eat a hearty breakfast. The data isn’t clear

on what time of day is best to eat the

majority of your calories, but one thing is

sure: You’re less likely to snack on lousy,

inflammatory food if you have a hearty

breakfast to start the day.

Drink clean water to keep your cells hap-

py and hydrated. Your daily goal should

be one-half ounce of water per pound of

body weight per day.

Indulge in a protein smoothie every morn-

ing. Use a pea-based smoothie mix (rather

than whey-based)—and only use with high

quality organic ingredients. By starting

your day with a high-protein nutrition plan,

you can reduce blood sugar levels by as

much as 40 percent.

Enjoy a single cup of high-quality, organic

coffee (if you enjoy coffee), but do so with

a large glass of water to offset the diuretic

aspect of coffee.

Exercise! Morning is a great time to ele-

vate that heart rate. This boosts metabo-

lism for the rest of the day, helping to use

energy rather than store it as fat. There’s

nothing wrong with exercising other

times of day if it doesn’t fit with your

morning schedule.

Eat carbohydrate-based sugar bombs (but

you knew that already) or those breakfast

sugar rolls that I like to call “sticky buns”.

Drink a big glass of juice with breakfast.

Fruit juice has a comparable glycemic

index as soda which means it bombards

your system with sugar. Why? Because

juice doesn’t have the fiber of the whole

fruit and your body sees it as the same

sugar load as a soft drink. If you love your

juice too much to give it up, try drinking a

small glass, drink it alongside a high-fiber

(think: oats) breakfast and consider mixing

the juice with carbonated water to reduce

the sugar load while still enjoying the

yummy refreshment.

Drink a pot of low-quality coffee; that

stuff shouldn’t even be called by the same

name as high-quality, organic coffee.

Tell yourself you’ll exercise later—but then

you don’t quite get around to it. If you’re

a procrastinator who often puts things off

so long they don’t happen at all, get your

exercise in the morning so you make sure

it happens.

MOR

N I NG

DOs DON’Ts


Have a late morning protein snack. Protein

helps temper any blood sugar extremes

and will sustain your energy which reduc-

es sugar craving. Also, a protein snack

late morning will help prevent eating too

much at lunch.

Get up from your desk, sofa, or chair,

and walk around a little at least every

fifteen minutes.

Talk your colleagues and friends into a

walking meeting. Your brains will work

better and your bodies will thank you.

Save money and eat healthier at lunch by

starting with dinner the night before. Make

a little extra protein for dinner, then bring

the leftovers to work.

The math: A week of high quality lunches

made with leftover protein from dinner

and fresh organic vegetables costs no

more than a week of the cheapest, trans

fat– and sugar-loaded fast food lunches.

Leave your desk and use lunch to

rejuvenate your mind and body.

Eat lunch at your desk, choking down

food as you work.

Think the only fast food is junk food. An

avocado roll from the sushi cooler is

faster than the drive-through during the

lunch hour (and cheaper if you factor in

the health care costs later).

Sit for more than two hours straight.

If you work at a desk, switch to an

adjustable desk, if possible, so that you

can adjustable sitting and standing.

Stand for more than two hours straight.

If you work at a standing desk, alternate

with sitting. Adjustable desks are better

than standing desks.

Stare at a computer or other screen for

more than two hours straight without a

break. (It doesn’t count if you stare at

your phone when you’re taking a break

from your computer.)

MID DAY

DOs DON’Ts


&

E V E N IN

G

DON’Ts

A

FTE

R N OON

DOs

Have a protein snack. This will prevent

that low blood sugar “hangry” feeling,

and it will also help you resist junk food

snacking after work.

Get outside and share it with a friend.

Gardening, walking in the park, doing a

project outside rather than on the sofa

will give you a little sunshine medicine

in the form of vitamin D.

Exercise. Even if you squeezed in your

morning exercise, try to move around a

bit in the afternoon or after dinner. If you

can’t fit exercise into the morning window,

the late afternoon is the next best option.

Just thirty to forty-five minutes of mod-

erately strenuous cardiovascular exercise

almost every day is the ticket for heart

disease prevention, resistance, and repair.

Take time to prepare dinner, or research

restaurants that serve healthy food. Look

to Mediterranean and Japanese cuisine for

the healthiest ideas.

Eat bigger portions of vegetables than

carbohydrates, and try to eat fish or

hormone- and antibiotic-free poultry

at least twice a week.

Eat fatty high-carbohydrate dinners—

these reduce sleep quality and are

damaging to the heart.

Eat red meat more than twice a week—

and when you do, choose grass-fed

hormone- and antibiotic-free beef.

Eat portions of meat that are bigger

than about the size of your palm.

Eat dinner alone. Enjoy dinner with

family or friends instead. The data

clearly shows that as social engagement

declines, heart disease increases.

Eat dinner late. Consider intermittent

fasting where you go fifteen hours without

food before eating the next morning—

eat at 6 p.m. and then again at 9 a.m. and

(why do you think they call it breakfast?). You may sleep better, have more ener-

gy, improve your metabolism for optimal

weight, burn fat more efficiently, and have

improved energy and heart health.


Take care of any computer work or

cell phone use before going to bed, and

ideally turn electronics devices off at

least an hour before bed time. Excessive

exposure to the blue light from screens is

disruptive to your circadian rhythm.

Drink a cup of soothing, chamomile-type

tea to start your get-sleepy sequence.

Try supplemental melatonin (1 to 3 mg)

about thirty minutes before bed if you

have sleep problems, but make sure it’s

of the highest quality.

Have a small protein snack an hour before

bed, if you have trouble staying asleep.

If you tend to wake up in the middle of

the night, it’s probably due to a cortisol

drop that initiates a blood sugar plum-

met, which results in an adrenaline surge.

A small protein snack an hour before bed

will help soothe the blood sugar drop and

help you sleep through what is known as

the “adrenal hour” in Chinese medicine.

Question the guidelines for alcohol

consumption; it’s quite likely that the

current recommendations of “two drinks

if you’re a man and one drink if you’re

a woman” is excessive and will be

changing soon. New data shows that

more than 5 units of alcohol in a week

increases disease risk.

Spend more than one hour on average

per night watching television or on any

other screen.

Use electronics in bed. Even better,

leave them in another room or at least

away from the bed.

Don’t read, eat, or watch television in bed

if you have issues falling asleep.

Deal with insomnia by lying in bed feeling

helpless. Get up and sit in a comfortable

chair and read until you get sleepy again,

then go back to bed. If you haven’t fallen

asleep in thirty minutes, repeat the

process and continue the pattern to “train”

the body that bedtime is sleep time. Save

the bed for sex and sleep.

Drink alcohol within an hour of bedtime

and never have more than two drinks

during this window. Alcohol just before

bed may help you fall asleep, but your

sleep won’t be as restorative. You’re

also likely to wake up just a few hours

later due to a blood sugar drop, and you

will have a hard time falling back to sleep.

N

IGHT TI M

E

DOs DON’Ts


Well, the short answer is that your heart, brains, gut,

and genes interact in a complex web of hormonal

communication, energy use and storage, and inflamma-

tory and (ideally) anti-inflammatory responses. These

tips are intended to facilitate the optimal functioning of

these systems over the course of your day, keeping

you fit, energized, and rested.

The long answer is better, but to unpack it, I had to

write an entire book: Heart Solution for Women— which Dr. Jeffrey Bland, the godfather of functional

medicine, says is “a must-read for anyone concerned

with how to prevent the leading cause of premature

death in women.”

With this guide and my book I hope to help you on

your journey toward a happier you and a healthier heart.

YOU MAY BE WONDERING, HOW WILL ALL OF THESE DOS AND DON’TS

AFFECT MY HEART HEALTH?

women’s heart health by the clock - meno clinic...drink clean water to keep your cells hap-py and...

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