Page 69 - Prevention - USA (April 2020)
P. 69
How to
Hack Your
sleep-deficient conditions), and even
the average night owl from GI distress. Jet Lag
IT INFLUENCES YOUR HEART RATE: Adults
are two to three times as likely to suffer
a heart attack in the morning as at Traveling across multiple
time zones confuses your
night, with peak hours between
circadian rhythm; for the first
6 a.m. and noon. “When you’re few days it thinks it’s still
sleeping, everything slows down a bit, on hometown time, but the
including your heart rate, because you light conditions of your far-
away location beg to differ.
don’t need as much blood flow,” says
Try these tricks when trav-
Martha Gulati, M.D., editor in chief of eling eastward, which tends
the American College of Cardiology’s to be more disruptive than
CardioSmart.org. “But as it becomes going in the opposite direc-
lighter outside, your body starts to wake tion because going to bed
earlier than usual is harder
up, and your heart rate and blood pres-
than going to bed later.
sure begin to rise—almost like warming
Set your watch to your
up your engine.” In a healthy person,
destination’s time when
this process is harmless, but in someone you awaken on the day of
with underlying cardiovascular disease, departure (or, better yet, the
the rise in heart rate and blood pressure day before), then live your
may trigger a heart attack. If you are on day on that time. If you have
a late-afternoon flight from
medication for heart disease, ask your
L.A. to New York City, don’t
doctor if taking it at night might grab coffee once you arrive
benefit you; a 2018 study showed a at the airport—it’ll be late
67% reduction in heart attacks and evening on the East Coast.
other major cardiovascular events Wear sunglasses inside
when patients took their meds at the brightly lit airport
prior to departure to
bedtime instead of in the morning.
mimic the darkness at
IT HELPS YOUR SKIN HEAL: Your skin the new location.
houses circadian clocks that are more Take a melatonin
active during the day than at night, supplement to help you fall
and this can influence healing time. asleep at your destination.
Chalk it up to evolution—in prehis- Heading west? Try evening
toric times, cavemen were more likely exercise. Research suggests
that working out later may
to get hurt during the day when they
help reset your body clock
hunted, so wound-healing skin cells to your new time zone.
called fibroblasts had to be primed for
action. Animal studies have found that
AP R I L 2020 • PREVENTION.COM 67
