A woman of a certain age

I’m not great at being ill. I haven’t got the time or patience. I certainly am not one for taking tablets if I can avoid it. If I have a cold, I don’t bother to take remedies (unless its really bad), preferring the symptoms to ride out their nature course; for me it seems to get it over with quicker. It’s like I can almost tell myself not to be ill. When I feel symptoms of something coming on, I mentally tell myself I haven’t got the time to be ill right now so go away, it is kinda works to some degree.

Now that I’m a woman of a certain age, I’m conscious things might have a propensity to start getting worn out. Whether its my joints or skin, or hair, or nails, or immune systems, whatever. I have always been a bit cautious around the taking vitamin supplements. I’m not convinced they really work, and they could possibly contraindicate other medication you might be on, and we shouldn’t be self-subscribing chemicals. However, I am aware that taking additional supplements can have beneficial effects for some.

For example, C takes a daily dose of cod liver and glucosamine. Now, I don’t really know if they work, but he seems to think they do. I call it into question when he more regularly wears wrist supports for #bellringing nowadays though.

I’m reading more and more articles in health and wellbeing magazines about the benefits of taking supplements in older age to help with muscle, joint and other ailments. At the moment I don’t appear to have any. So, should I consider starting to take them now, before I get symptoms? Are they as effective after the damage has already been done, so to speak?

So, I’m going to try an experiment. I have bought a bottle of multi vitamins intended for women of a certain age. There are 30 tablets in the bottle and the recommended dose is one per day. I realise that it can take some time for these things to have an effect, but by the time I’ve finished the bottle I ought to be able to tell if there’s been any change in my overall health, vitality, mood etc.

Netdoctor suggests that “When it comes to feeling the benefits, there’s no single answer, thanks to a variety of factors that impact vitamin absorption – from the type of supplement you’re taking to the ways certain nutrients interact with each other in the body.” Biologically vitamins are absorbed in a matter of hours and are supposed to have immediate metabolic effects, but there are a number of reasons why their efficacy may prevent you getting the full benefit:

Deficiency levels – if you are already deficient it may take longer, or you may need a higher dose of that particular vitamin or mineral;
Type of supplement – those taken in liquid form are known to work quicker than those in tablet or capsule form as your body doesn’t have to breakdown the casing first;
Water vs fat-soluble – vitamins A, D, E and K are fat-soluble meaning they need fat to be absorbed and should be taken with food. Water solubles dissolve in water and can have a faster effect;
Nutrient pairing – many vitamins and minerals are interrelated in how they work, for example vitamin D helps your body absorb calcium so if you have low levels of vitamin D, you’ll likely have low levels of calcium too. But there are those that compete against each other too, like zinc and copper so if taken together you might have a higher intake of zinc because the recommended dose is higher than that of copper;
Lifestyle and habits – drinking alcohol and smoking can interrupt absorption levels. Caffeine can block vitamin B6, calcium, iron, and magnesium so it is advised not to have caffeine for 45 minutes before or after taking any supplements;
Health issues – underlying health issues may prevent you being able to absorb properly, such as coeliac, or because you lack the right hormones that are intrinsic to B12 absorption.

Having read that, I need to adjust the time of day I take my supplement as I started taking it in the morning with my coffee. I best hold off for a while!

So how will I be able to tell if any of this is working? Of course, there’s no straight answer. Its dependent on each and every person and which vitamin combination they are taking. It is also dependent on age, gender, digestive health, pre-existing levels, diet, pre-existing medical conditions and more.

It’s more helpful to look for signs of deficiencies, which vary depending on which supplement you’re deficient in. It is unlikely that you will feel or see anything if you’re nutritionally replete – however, you will notice signs of fatigue, poor skin, or nails if chronically lacking nutrients and these are all signs to look out for.

The only symptom I have on a regular basis is tiredness. I can sleep for Britain. I fall asleep very soon after our evening meal, wake up in time to go to bed, then more often than not sleep through until the alarm. I can fall asleep pretty easily at any time of the day, even when I haven’t been up long. I don’t know if I have any other deficiencies. I can’t think of any outward signs.

In 30 days’ time, I’ll see if taking a multi-vitamin for a woman of a certain age has made any difference whatsoever. I’ll try to keep open-minded about it.

Do you skip breakkie?

I used to skip breakfast every day. I don’t seem to be able to eat first thing in the morning. I physically can’t move my mouth so soon after waking up. That meant I’d usually be hungry mid-morning and fall in to the trap of snacking sugary, carb laden treats rather than something that would keep me satisfied until lunch time. I have only started regularly eating breakfast in the last two years or so, but even then it’s usually a couple of hours after waking up.

In an article in December’s Top Sante magazine the debate of whether skipping breakfast is any better or worse for weight loss seems still up for debate. It records that more people are skipping breakfast putting it down to time restrictions, or jumping on the latest intermittent fasting fad. It seems the benefits of fasting and skipping breakfast are no more than eating a good breakfast and cutting out the morning snacking.

A trail in 2014 investigated whether eating breakfast versus skipping it over a 16 week period had any impact on weight loss. It concluded that there was no improvement in weight loss associated with eating breakfast relative to skipping breakfast. Further studies tested the belief that skipping breakfast lead to more snacking late in the day and that eating breakfast helps improve satiety for the rest of the day. Again, they concluded no consistent evidence one way or the other. Researchers did find that those who eat breakfast tended to follow a healthier lifestyle generally, exercise more, got to bed earlier, consume more fibre and smoke and drink less.

The article reported that those who skip breakfast tend to have high blood sugar, acid and blood pressure levels and lower HDL cholesterol. They are more likely to have higher body weight, greater risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes and increased chances of clogging arteries. This can result in a higher risk of heart attack and stroke, regardless of whether they have history of poor health or not.

In a different trial lean and obese participants cut out breakfast for an extended period. Those that ate breakfast had to eat at least 700 calories by 11am with a minimum of 50% of those within two hours of getting up. It seemed that eating breakfast resulted in a drop in fat burning genes in the lean individuals. That’s because the body switches to burning the food that has been consumed, rather than body fat. When those participants then changed to skipping breakfast, their body fat burning improved. In a fasted state the body moved to burning body fat to fuel their day. Therefore if you are lean and active, some fasting may improve your ability to burn body fat.

With the obsess group of participants when they ate breakfast it resulted in a drop in fat burning genes and decreased the activity of genes involved in insulin resistant. Eating breakfast in this group improved their ability to take up carbohydrates and glucose control. Eating breakfast helped this group. For this group skipping breakfast increased inflammation which worsens glucose control. It worsened blood glucose response to lunch.

So, it seems that if you are overweight, the right kind of breakfast appears to be important for protecting against Type 2 Diabetes and other adverse health effects of high blood sugar. If you’re active and have a healthy body weight occasionally skipping breakfast can support metabolic health. Essentially, an individualised approach is important, context matters.

As someone who fits in the overweight category, I eat oats based pancakes and half a grapefruit for breakfast a couple of hours after waking on the days I’m at work. It usually keeps me satisfied until lunch time. It hasn’t helped me lose any weight, but at least I’m not trying to fill up on cake and biscuits instead. I don’t tend to eat breakfast on a Friday when I’m at home. Saturday’s is a bit of a bad habit of bacon buttie, but then no breakfast on Sunday.

Do you eat or skip breakfast? What’s you go to breakkie?

If only every day could be this way

I had a most enjoyable day on Saturday.

The day started with a lazy wake up. No alarm set, we got up when we woke up. As has become the norm during lockdown and lack of reason to be out early on a Saturday morning C made the customary bacon rolls for breakfast.

Whilst C was in the shower I made the Leftover Buttercream Cookies I talked about a few days ago. I added a bit of sparkle to a few. They were delicious.

I then received a lovely message from my brother saying they read my blog regularly and sometimes find it helpful. That was nice to hear. If you do enjoy reading my blog tap a ‘Like’ or leave a comment so I know you’re out there.

I picked some freshia and calla lillies from the garden. There’s an abundance of greenery after a few days of rain and its lovely to have fresh flowers about, even more so when they come from your own garden.

We popped into town to the fruit and veg stall to stock up for the week. I’ve decided not to make my usual Biscoff Pancakes for breakfasts, opting for a 0% fat free Greek yoghurt and berries combo instead. We stocked up on grapefruit (not for C though), strawberries, raspberries and blackberries and some red grapes for snacking. I can no longer say I don’t like fruit.

I bought yet another baking book, still using up vouchers from Christmas and birthday (side note: no more book vouchers please and thank you). Having looked through the recipes I look forward to making my way through them all.

In the afternoon I spent a few hours dealing with some #bellringing work, took a call from one of the workgroup leads, finalised the latest photo competition round, messaged the winners, sent their prizes, wrote up the articles for publication next week. I then had a good clear out of my many inboxes. I have Central Council, local association and personal inboxes to get through. Its nice to get back to just having the essential messages to be dealt with left.

We had a lovely facetime chat with R. Her Internet has been down for a couple of days and still didn’t look like it was going to be fixed before the weekend was through. She’d been to a small venue gig which she said was oddly not odd to be in a room with that many people. We’re going down to visit next weekend for the Hampton Court Palace Food & Drink Festival. Really looking forward to seeing her in the flesh but does mean I won’t be at a CC meeting. Opportunities to see R trump all else so, passing the baton on to someone else from my workgroup to attend the meeting in my place. R had been double jabbed on Saturday morning, so that’s good news. Thanks Dolly.

I had previously asked C if he would make his “full fat” lasagne for dinner. We’ve had slimming world friendly ones of late, which are very nice and all, but he makes THE best lasagne. So much so that I won’t order lasagne in a restaurant because I know it won’t be as good. He obliged and it was accompanied by a bottle of red wine. Y U M!

We then passed a convivial evening watching TV and reading, taking some time to chill.

I had a thoroughly pleasant day. I hope you had a good one too. How was yours?