Practitioner Training Level I - Amazon S3 · Practitioner Training Level I ... •Based on research conducted by Dr. Charles. F. Ehret and others, Dr. Baker created his own system

Hompes MethodPractitioner Training Level I

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Lesson Eight

“Nutrition, Sleep and Circadian

Rhythms”

Nutrition, Sleep and Circadian Rhythm

• Several years ago I was working with a professional football player (and his wife, actually). I’d straightened out his eating, and he’d run some functional lab work from the Hompes Method Testing Toolkit.


• The only problem was that he wasn’t really feeling much different, despite following all my recommendations. He felt okay, but I knew there was a lot more to come and his energy level needed boosting in the morning (thankfully he trusted me as his wife was getting really great results with her menstrual symptoms).


• One day I was doing some work on the computer when something popped into my mind. I realised I’d committed a cardinal sin by completely overlooking my client’s bedtime. I sent him an SMS immediately, and asked if we could have a quick chat.


• It turned out that my client was going to bed at 1am or 2am each night. I was both horrified and pleased at the same time. I felt bad that I’d overlooked this basic lifestyle factor, but pleased because knew he’d feel a lot more energised if he got to bed earlier.


• And so it proved: he started going to bed between 10 and 11pm, without fail, and his energy level improved significantly almost overnight (forgive the pun). It taught me a valuable lesson: don’t forget the basics!


• Here was a client who’d spent a considerable amount of money on testing and supplements, only to find that a simple change in his bedtime and sleep habits was the deal breaker.


• I’ve experimented with my own bedtime, waking and rising habits and I can say with certainty that when I go to bed at 10-10:30pm and get up between 6-7am, I feel considerably better.


• My energy levels are better.

• My mood improves.

• My digestion and elimination is better.

• My appetite is more even.

• I feel tired at the right time of the day – i.e. the evening, and not in the late morning or mid-afternoon.


• Time and time again I’ve seen the same improvements in clients and the reason is simple: the human body, as with all organisms on the planet, are designed to function rhythmically.


• Many of the patients/clients you consult will have scrambled their daily/circadian rhythm, will not be sleeping well, and will not be achieving adequate growth and repair as a result.


• In this lesson, we’ll explore the concept of the circadian rhythm and I’ll teach you how you can implement simple strategies to help your clients and patients reset their natural daily physiological rhythms.

Paul Chek on Circadian Rhythm

“Today, we live in a highly-caffeinated world full of air travel, late night entertainment and shift work that

goes well into the night. The fact is we were not designed to withstand these stressors night after night,

week after week and month after month, if at all!”

http://www.ptonthenet.com/articles/Success-Series---Part-2-1230



“Our body is very sensitive to circadian rhythms (24-hour cycle). Our hormonal system, nervous system and immune system are all heavily influenced by circadian

rhythms. If you are seeking long-term resolution to your client’s problems, addressing circadian rhythm

disturbance should be viewed as a priority in any assessment protocol or corrective procedure.”




“Though it is well known that sleep provides numerous benefits for us, less well known is the importance of the

times we sleep every night. In his seminars, Bill Timmins, ND states that between the 10:00pm and 2:00am, the body focuses on physical regeneration

while between 2:00am and 6:00am the body focuses its healing energies on psychogenic repair.”



What Rhythms?

• What kinds of rhythms are we talking about? Well, ALL physiological processes in ALL organisms operate on daily or circadian, monthly, seasonal and even annual cycles.

What Rhythms?

• Seasons, food availability, migration patterns, and other natural factors influence rhythms and behaviours. Some say that cosmic and astrological factors are important (something I won’t disagree with).

What Rhythms?

“The most conspicuous ways Nature marks the tempo are the annual rhythm of the earth’s voyage round the sun, the moon’s 28-day cycle and the earth’s rotation –the 24 hour cycle of day and night, within all of which

your body chemistry and its innate circadian cycles operate.”

“The Circadian Prescription”

Sidney MacDonald Baker, MD

What Rhythms?

• I’m sure you realise that for menstruating women, the 28 day (or monthly) cycle is very important, but to keep things simple, we’ll consider the fundamental light and dark cycle as being the most significant influence on daily rhythms.

What Are Circadian Rhythms?

• The term “circadian” was coined by a scientist at the University of Minnesota, named Franz Halberg, whose research showed that blood counts in animals varied according to a strict rhythm that coincided with a cycle that was a little longer than the 24 hour day and night cycle (the term replaced “diurnal”).


Circadian rhythms have now been the subject of comprehensive scientific study for more than three decades. In humans, blood count, temperature and most other measurements of body chemistry, hormone secretion, mood, attentiveness, visual acuity, physical strength, digestive secretion, even rate of hair growth change from hour to hour.


• If you measure any function at 8am and mark it on a piece of paper, put the 9am measurement next to it and continue this process every hour for a day, the points you have marked, once joined, will look like a wave, as in the following graphs.


• The wave will have its crest at a certain time in the 24 hour span and its trough at another. The peaks and troughs occur at different times depending on what you measure, but they are almost precisely the same for all people.


“The complex interaction of all the body’s functions is like the harmonious sound of an orchestra. The players in this orchestra are your body’s one hundred trillion

cells, and Nature is the conductor.”

“The Circadian Prescription”

Sidney MacDonald Baker, MD

Examples of Circadian Rhythms?

• The following slides show some illustrations of how these rhythms play out in the human body (the diagram references can be found in the resources section for this module).

The Catabolic / Anabolic Cycle

A Range of Circadian Highs and Lows

http://www.theholykale.com/2011/10/the-body-earth-rhythm/

http://www.theholykale.com/2011/10/the-body-earth-rhythm/

The Menstrual Cycle (Monthly)

Why Do Cycles Fall Out of Sync?

• So you can see how our physiological function varies on a daily basis. But what are some of the reasons for these cycles falling out of balance?

You Are When You Eat

“We are not only what we eat but when we eat.”

~ Franz Halberg


• Meal timing and meal composition can have a bearing on circadian rhythm. Let’s start with meal timing. Do you think the following “days in the life” would yield the same physiological responses if a bunch of parameters were to be measured through the day?


• Breakfast 7:30am

• Mid morning snack 10am

• Lunch 12:30pm

• Mid afternoon snack 3pm

• Dinner 6pm

• Bedtime snack 9:30pm

• 2 strong coffees 9:30am

• Breakfast 10am

• Lunch 3.30pm

• Dinner 8pm


• It’s obvious: there HAS to be a different set of responses to people eating different foods at different times of the day - hormones, digestion, detoxification! What’s less obvious is that many people don’t have set routine from day-to-day.


• In fact, their day-to-day meal times and food choices may be completely different on Mon, Tue, Wed, Thurs, Fri, Sat and Sun. How can circadian rhythm be optimised if food intake is ad hoc and slap dash? It can’t.

Meal Composition and Daily Rhythms

• Certainly, food timing, and possibly even the composition of meals, can have a dramatic impact on circadian rhythm. The macronutrient ratio, through its influence on blood sugar (and therefore energy production and hormones), can influence circadian rhythm.


• A like The Circadian Prescription by Dr. Sidney McDonald Baker; I don’t agree with everything he says, but he has some good ideas.


• Based on research conducted by Dr. Charles. F. Ehretand others, Dr. Baker created his own system for helping restore circadian rhythms. His ideas are different from the principles we’ll explore in the next part of this lesson, but it’s worth keeping this option in your back pocket if the Hompes Method recommendations fail to bring improvements in clients.


• Dr. Baker recommends:

– Higher protein breakfast and lunch to provide precursors/building blocks for various hormones and neurotransmitter needed to cope with the stress of “daylight” activities.

– High carbohydrate, low protein dinner to help maintain blood sugar levels through the night.


• I highly recommend you read his book for further information on this topic and for a slightly different perspective (it’s always helpful to see things from the other side of the fence).

Other Influences on Circadian Rhythm

• Bed time, sleep quality and quantity and time of waking and arising can obviously have a dramatic impact on circadian rhythm.


• Sleep quality and patterns can be affected by the following behavioural factors, amongst others:– Time to bed

– Waking time

– Shift work

– Travel (time-zones / jet lag)

– Inappropriate exercise timing

– Warm or cold room

– Exposure to stimulants at night (caffeine, computers, phones, TV)

– Exposure to EMFs in or close to the bedroom

– Stress


• Sleep quality and patterns can be affected by the following mechanical and biochemical factors, amongst others:

– Low blood sugar and increased stress hormones

– Hormone imbalances (cortisol, melatonin, oestrogen, progesterone, thyroid, etc.)

– Inflammation caused by bad bugs, foods, toxins

– Detoxification stress (1-3am)

– Nutrient deficiencies, including magnesium

– Neurotransmitter imbalances (serotonin, dopamine, GABA)

– Chronic pain

Optimising Circadian Rhythm

• In the next part of this lesson/module, we’re going to look at simple, big-bang strategies to help clients and patients improve their sleep and circadian rhythm.

Thank You!

• As always, thank you so much for consuming this information. Let’s move swiftly on to some practical recommendations!

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Practitioner Training Level I - Amazon S3 · Practitioner Training Level I ... •Based on research conducted by Dr. Charles. F. Ehret and others, Dr. Baker created his own system