Restful sleep, regular physical activity, healthy and diversified diet and small hormonal rebalancing:the winning combo to keep the punch who is in us at the start of the school year! We've barely come back when we're already lassified. Between the resumption of the daily routine, the drop in sunshine and the night falling earlier and earlier, the dynamism takes a hit. But no, this time, we will not let ourselves be won over by the ambient lethargy. So as not to be one of those people washed out from the start of the school year and approach autumn in punchy mode , it is better to set up an effective attack program today... and realistic.
"In order to have more energy during the day, you have to start by improving the quality of your sleep", insists Professor Damien Léger, head of the Sleep Center at the Hôtel-Dieu hospital in Paris and president. from the National Institute of Sleep and Vigilance (INSV). It is during the night that the essential energy saving is organized to prepare the body to face the following day correctly:drop in heart rate and respiratory rate, drop in temperature, repair of injured muscle tissue, restoration of immune defences... In case of deficient sleep, the optimal conditions necessary for our daily performance and our energy balance are not met.
Go to bed at regular times, avoid naps of more than half an hour in the afternoon, do not abuse stimulants (coffee, tea, etc.) after 5 p.m., stop the computer and video games at least an hour before going to bed and getting a minimum of seven hours of sleep per night are therefore the first rules to adopt. But that's not enough, especially when you live on a hectic tempo and the professional pressure is enormous.
Video of the day:"Physical activity is an excellent way to evacuate stress and increase the restorative effect of sleep, believes Professor Léger. It acts on the biological clock in a similar way to that of intense light, by resynchronizing the circadian rhythm of the body." In addition, it transforms nervous fatigue into physical fatigue, which in particular favors deep sleep with slow waves:the most regenerative.
An American study, conducted in April 2008 at the University of Georgia, thus clearly showed that the practice of physical activity, even at low intensity, was enough to perk up the most "suppressed" among us. Thirty-six volunteers in good health but lacking in energy were divided into two groups. Some had to participate in three weekly gymnastics sessions, the others remained inactive, without their way of life differing otherwise. After six weeks, the verdict was conclusive:the former felt much less exhausted than the latter. Their signs of fatigue had decreased by 65% and their energy had increased by 20%. Of course, the more sustained the physical effort, the greater the gain, no doubt due to the production of endorphins (feel-good hormones) which are triggered to reduce the sensation of pain when the muscle cells begin to suffer. .
As proof:researchers from the University of Tel Aviv (Israel) followed for nine years 1,632 executives exhausted by an overflow of professional stress. Their work, published in January 2012 in The Journal of Applied Psychology , have clearly established the existence of a causal relationship between their sports schedule and their capacity for physical and intellectual resistance. Employees who regularly devoted themselves to sport four hours a week did not fall into burnout, unlike those who do less. But be careful, "we must not exaggerate either, warns Dr. Christophe Lelong, sports doctor. Beyond six hours a week, fatigue takes over."
The ideal is to practice twenty to forty minutes of exercises two or three times a week.
In the event of a pump stroke, we believe that sugar will give us a boost of vitality. Well, not at all ! Unless you have skipped a meal, made an intense physical effort or experienced a strong emotion, there is little chance that you are in real hypoglycemia.
Due to its anxiolytic action, sugar certainly produces a temporary feeling of well-being, but the energy it provides is of poor quality. And the backlash is violent:a few hours after ingesting quick sugar, we are even more tired than before. By binding to proteins, a reaction known as glycation, sugar blocks the release of energy. Result:our cells malfunction and our body becomes exhausted.
Being at your best without a healthy and varied diet is also mission impossible.
First step, stock up on vitamins C and B. Think red pepper (three times richer in vitamin C than orange), broccoli flowers, blackcurrant, mango or even kiwi.
Another mine of anti-fatigue nutrients, wheat germs, rich in vitamins B1, B2, B6 and B9, necessary for the assimilation of complex carbohydrates that provide energy, and in zinc, essential for strengthening the immune defences. Rabbit, calf, lamb or poultry liver, and seafood are interesting for their high vitamin B12 content, essential for the formation of red blood cells and therefore for good tissue oxygenation.
We also force on magnesium, the mineral of the tone par excellence. The recommended intakes (350 mg/day for women and 420 mg/day for men) are far from being reached in many of us (one in four women would be deficient).
In question ? Repeated diets, stress, hormonal treatments, certain medications (insulin, diuretics, etc.) and an unbalanced diet. To remedy this deficit, favor green vegetables, whole grains, pulses (lentils, peas, etc.) and oilseeds (almonds, walnuts, etc.), and choose mineralized waters (such as Hépar, Badoit or Contrex). ), which show more than 80 mg of magnesium per liter.
To increase intake, it can also be taken in the form of ampoules or tablets. The most interesting are those called third generation, based on glycerophosphate. Unlike the others (chlorides or organic salts), they do not have laxative effects and are well assimilated by the body.
To recharge your batteries, you also gorge yourself with tryptophan, "an amino acid involved in the synthesis of serotonin, a hormone that controls the emotional state and the sequence of sleep cycles", explains Dr Yann Rougier, co-founder of the 'Institute of Neuronutrition and Applied Neurosciences (IN2A).
Serotonin is also a precursor of melatonin, the famous hormone that governs the regulation of our biological clock.
Tryptophan is found in dairy products, meat, cereals such as wheat, barley, rye, rice, parsley, pumpkin seeds or soybeans. "But for this amino acid to cross the door of the brain, it must be accompanied by starchy foods (pasta, rice...)", specifies Dr. Rougier. If we have difficulty falling asleep, two wholemeal biscuits and a yogurt at snack time should help us.
If our nights are choppy, in this case we rather drink tryptophan at dinner. On the other hand, if you sleep like a log but wake up tired, it is better to drink four cups of green tea a day. "It's packed with theanine, an amino acid that helps boost your production of serotonin and calming alpha waves in the brain," adds Dr. Rougier. Food supplements that contain it also give spring. Give it a try when you're feeling overwhelmed.
But faced with stubborn fatigue, it is absolutely necessary to turn to your doctor. Many hidden organic disorders and undiagnosed illnesses can drain all of our energy.
A major urinary tract infection, for example, is exhausting as the body battles the bacteria that breaks in. A viral infection (hepatitis or mononucleosis) puts even more on your knees. Anemia (hemoglobin level below 13 g/dl in men and 12 g/dl in women) also since it decreases the amount of oxygen transported to the various organs. Another very common cause of low tone:hormonal imbalance, especially thyroid.
The thyroid gland plays a crucial role since it orchestrates the basic energy metabolism, heart rate, transit speed, body temperature, etc. However, it turns out that its functioning is increasingly disturbed. One in ten women over the age of 45 has a failing thyroid, causing her body to run in slow motion. The signs of hypothyroidism are diffuse (fatigue, chilliness, cramps, unexplained weight gain, pale complexion, hair loss, etc.), so they are not always easy to identify. Only medical examinations (TSH assay, search for antithyroid antibodies, ultrasound of the gland, etc.) can establish the diagnosis and find the cause:iodine deficiency, autoimmune disease, etc. /P>
Other hormonal deficits may also be responsible:a deficiency in dopamine, the motivation hormone, or in cortisol, the stress hormone. If the latter is lacking, getting up in the morning can become a real superhuman effort. All this can be corrected with enormous profit:in a few weeks, we recover a beautiful energy in order to fully enjoy all the pleasures of life.
Two medicinal plants have scientifically proven anti-fatigue properties.
