Dr Morag Thow

Promoting health and wellbeing at retreat

What determines if we are healthy?

• Your genes determine 25 % of your health

•75% is what you do with your own health behaviour exercise, food, smoking etc.

•This is YOUR CHOICE!!

When you see these shout EVIL!

Focus for today?

1. Sitting, standing and our posture

2. Reducing our sitting time

3. Walking and exercising at work more

4. Diet and hydration

Poor posture sitting !

Negative physical and cognitive effects !!

Improve your sitting posture!• Gravity is working on

us all the time!!• Think tall string on top

of your head pulling you up!!

• Do sitting exercises

Seated exercises• Neck rotation right and left. Look up

and down (Don’t roll your neck!). Pull chin in and out

• Shoulder shrug• Reach to the side• Wrist rolling• Open close fingers• Toe heel raises• Ankle rotations• Slump and let string pull you up!• Rotation spine• Side stretch• Knee to chest• Ham string stretch

Improve your sitting station !

Standing stations

• Try not to brace your knees back keep soft knees

• Move from one leg to the other• Curl your toes in your shoes• Go up and down on your toes

and heels• Balance on one foot at a time for

30 seconds • Remember think and be TALL!

We can sit and stand now in a better posture!!

• Sitting for long periods is bad ad seats are EVIL

EVIL!!

Talk to partner beside you

1 How much do you sit at work?

2 Do you sit to go to work?

3 When you go home do you sit a lot?

Our time spent sitting??

How are we designed? Evolutionary Terms• We are designed to be persistent

hunter gatherers!

• Designed to move and be active for many hours at a time!

• Sir Harry Burns

What has happened over time

• Increases in inactivity • Decrease in activity

Industry activity?

Housework activity?

Transport walking?

Now computers!!

And TV??

Prolonged sitting bad seats are EVIL !

What happens when we sit long for periods>1 hour!!• As soon as you sit• Electrical signals to legs shut down• Calorie burning reduces 1 per minute

• After 1-2 hours• Good protective cholesterol drops

20%• Blood sugar starts to rise risk of

diabetes rises

Why is sitting so bad??

• Each 1-hour increment in sitting time was found to be associated with an 11% and an 18% increased risk of all-cause and Cardiovascular Disease mortality, respectively (Dunstan et al 2010)

• Less time sitting prolongs life (Hidde et al 2012)

Avoiding sedentarism/sitting

• Don’t sit for long periods of time.

• Break up your sitting as much as you can.

• Every 30mins stand every 60mins go for 3-4 mins walk or sit to stand 10 times

• Introduce inconvenience into your daily life!!

Some solutions !• Put an hourglass on your desk • Install a screen saver to

prompt you to get up and move every hour.

• Another stickier that reminds you of 30mins or 1 hour one hour

• Set a timer on your mobile phone

• Walk to water station and printer

• Stand up to talk on phone • When you meet stand or walk• Stand every 30mins walk

every 60mins or 10 sit to stand

Get up every 30mins!!

Sit to stand 10 times NOW!!

Walking and exercising at work

Physical Activity Recommendations• So what and how much

activity should we all be doing to benefit our health?

Aerobic Exercise• What is aerobic

exercise?

• What does it do for our health & well-being?

Aerobic Exercise & Fitness

• Activities which increase your heart & breathing rates.

AND

• Which you can do continuously for a fairly long time.

What are some of the benefits exercise and active lifestyle can give?

• Psychosocial (7!)

• Physiological(10!)

Psychosocial benefits1 Improves cognition2 Increased social interaction3 Improved self-esteem

4 Increases self-efficacy 5 Reduced depression 6 Improved mood status 7 And more! (ACSM,2012)

Physiological benefits Anti-arrhythmic

Anti-ischaemic

Increased bone density

Anti-thrombotic

Improved muscle, ligament and tendon strength

Improved lipid profile

Improves balance and co-ordination

Endothelial function & BP

Weight control

Insulin sensitivity

Fitness protects !!

• Exercise capacity is powerful predictor of all cause mortality

• Inverse relationship between exercise capacity (fitness) and all Cause mortality!

(Blair et al 2006, Myers 2002, Kavanagh 2002)

Fitness protects! (Blair et al 2006)

Guidelines: Aerobic Fitness

• Moderate intensity activity for 30 minutes on at least 5 days per week (150 mins per week MINIMUM)

OR and • Vigorous intensity activity for 20 minutes

on 3 days per week

• 30 mins an be done in 3 ×10 minute bouts!!

BORG Scale how it should feel!

7 VERY VERY LIGHT A DODDLE

8

9 VERY LIGHT A SKOOSH

10

11 FAIRLY LIGHT NAE BOTHER

12

13 SOMEWHAT HARD PECHIN

14

15 HARD WABBIT

16

17 VERY HARD PUGGLED

18

19 VERY VERY HARD KNACKERED

20

Overload

Try to build in 30 min walking very work day• 3× 10 minutes ×5 days

= minimum recommendations for health

• Only 150min per week !!

• Needs to be at 100-120 beats per min !!

• (Staying alive Bee Gees =100-120 BPM)

Don’t be an active couch potato!

An Active Couch Potato No point in doing 1 hour gym session then sitting for 4 hours!!

Adopt the activity pyramid!

Or take the exercise pill!!

Diet and hydration

• Your diet and hydration will complement your exercise and activity.

• Eating healthy is just as important for your brain and body! The brain requires lots of energy and uses up one fifth of the blood pumped by your heart so food and drink are very important to keep your brain working properly especially when doing lots of brain work as an academic!

Foods and drink to boost your brain function

• Oily fish such as fresh salmon, herring and mackerel. These are an excellent source of omega-3, which your brain needs to stay healthy. Also good for your heart and blood vessels!

• Olive oil, which is a healthy source of fat in the diet and can help reduce cholesterol levels and blood pressure. Is may lower risk of stroke, cognitive impairment and memory loss.

• Berries and deep coloured fruits and vegetables, such as strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, acai berries, spinach, beetroot and beans. These are high in antioxidants, which help guard against disease by protecting cells in the body and brain from damage.

• ‘Good’ fats, like nuts, seeds and avocados. Foods containing polyunsaturated fatty acids (nuts, seeds, fish and leafy green vegetables) and monounsaturated fatty acids (olive oil, avocados, nuts) may reduce your risk of both depression and dementia.

Body composition

• There are many ways to measure our body composition for example BMI (not very accurate re body composition!).

• We know that where we have excess fat is an important health marker. Fat round our middles has a higher health risk especially for type II diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

• Your waist should be less than half your height

Body composition waist= half height!Your waist should be smaller than your hips!

33 in waist 5ft 9in tall= correct ratio45 in waist to 5ft 9in tall =overweight60in waist to 5ft 9in tall= obese

Hydration • The brain is about 80% water, so it is important for us

to drink lots of fluids for it to function properly. If we don’t drink enough fluid, this can affect our mood and importantly your concentration (important in your academic journey!!)

• Top tip: Drink 6-8 glasses of fluid every day! • Water, milk and fresh fruit juice are all healthy ways

to keep hydrated.

• Tea and coffee are OK as but limit your caffeinated intake drinks to about 3 cups per day.

• Avoid sugary drinks drink fresh water regularly (and walk to the water station to build up your walking!).

Marys tale I am a mature student who is now in the final phase of a part-time PhD. I work full-time in a busy University and undertook a PhD for personal and professional satisfaction.

• I am amazed at the difference re-starting exercise and eating more healthily has made to me! I am enjoying my PhD studies more than I ever did and have found that taking time away from the computer, from reading and from thesis writing to do some exercise has improved the quality of my thinking, analysis and output. I also feel SO much better, physically and mentally.

• Another strategy that has helped is my regular attendance at Writing Retreats where not only do I produce a lot of text in a short period of time, but am able also to maintain a healthy work-life balance because exercise breaks are built into the Retreat Programme. I believe that maintaining a healthy lifestyle and writing a thesis ARE compatible.

Top 10 tips!!

1 Don’t sit for more than an hour at a time. Stand every half hour walk every hour. 2 If you are still working at a desk at break times try to do three bouts of 10 minutes of brisk walking. (150 minutes MINIMUM. DO MORE!!) 3 It is of little use strolling! Walk at about 100-120 steps per minute. 4 Avoid using escalators or lifts. Stair climbing uses twice the calories of walking!!5 If you have a laptop you can put it on a high shelf and stand as you use it. Standing is better than sitting.

6 If you are sitting think TALL Try not to be still and in the same position for too long7 Try to eat regularly. We often have sugar lows at about 11am and 3pm. Don’t be tempted to eat a bar of chocolate or high sugary drinks. 8 Incorporate structured exercise into your life. 9 Walk and/or cycle to work if you can. 10 Try to incorporate the activity pyramid

Thank you I hope you have a more healthy academic life!

Dr Morag thow MBE

Be a Healthy Academic!

How you can help yourself and your retreat participantsDr Morag Thow