One of many benefits of being a TV presenter, notably for those who’re somebody who likes to self-experiment, is that you simply discover out a lot of surprising issues about your self.
Although not all of that is excellent news. 13 years in the past I found by a random blood check that I had sort 2 diabetes, and went on a journey (with digicam crew in tow) to see if I may treatment myself.
Extra just lately, I’ve been making a sequence about sleep, and found why I’ve insomnia — and that I’ve one other life-shortening situation, obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).
OSA is extremely widespread, with as much as ten million Britons affected. Basically it means you repeatedly cease respiration whereas asleep, as a result of your throat and tongue muscle tissues chill out, blocking your airway.
Your mind, ever alert, wakes you up simply sufficient so that you shift on to your facet and begin respiration once more. This may occur greater than 30 instances an hour. These affected are likely to make gasping, snorting or choking noises, as they attempt to get air into their lungs.
Dr Michael Mosley found his insomnia is attributable to obstructive sleep apnea – a situation the place an individual repeatedly stops respiration whereas asleep
Not surprisingly, you probably have OSA then regardless of being asleep for eight hours or extra you’ll most likely really feel actually drained through the day and will undergo from reminiscence lapses. However it might even have a horrible affect in your long-term well being. Nonetheless, lower than 15 per cent of Britons who’ve it know they’ve it, not to mention get any therapy.
Whereas I knew that I used to be sleeping badly and infrequently felt drained within the day, I believed that was as a result of I’d recurrently get up through the night time and discover it laborious to get again to sleep.
Then final yr I went to Australia to make a sequence on sleep: this included collaborating in a revolutionary trial being run by Flinders College at its sleep well being institute in Adelaide.
The thought was to take 30 individuals who have struggled with their sleep for years and use cutting-edge know-how to diagnose their issues — then see if a tailor-made sleep programme may assist.
All of us needed to spend an evening being noticed in a sleep lab – we had electrodes hooked up to our heads to report our sleep, and had been additionally filmed and noticed through the night time.
Professor Danny Eckert, an knowledgeable on sleep problems who led the crew, instructed me that my knowledge confirmed I had reasonably extreme OSA, and it was notably unhealthy once I was mendacity on my again.
This was a nasty shock as a result of, in addition to making you’re feeling drained, you probably have untreated OSA then that significantly will increase your threat of coronary heart illness and stroke.
And it turned out that I used to be not alone. A 3rd of the volunteers within the trial had been discovered to have OSA, and lots of, like me, had been blissfully unaware of it.
So what are the danger components for OSA? Most individuals who’ve it additionally smoke, drink (each trigger your higher airway muscle tissues to chill out), or are considerably chubby and have a big neck — however none of those are true of me.
Nonetheless, OSA can also be extra widespread in older males (tick) and will have a powerful genetic element (tick, my dad had it).
As for treating it, whereas weight reduction will be useful, my BMI is already within the wholesome vary.
The crew knew I wasn’t eager on a CPAP machine (which entails sporting a masks whereas asleep, which pushes air into your airway to maintain it open), in order that they recommended some alternate options.
First I used to be fitted with a mandibular development system, a sort of mouth guard that pushes your jaw ahead. This stops your tongue flopping again and blocking your airway.
The second system they advisable was a strap that’s worn across the neck which detects if you’re mendacity in your again — it then emits a buzzing sound to provide you with a warning to shift on to your facet.
You might additionally attempt cheaper, low-tech approaches, as recommended by the NHS, resembling stitching a tennis ball into the again of your pyjamas or shopping for a mattress wedge. However it turned out that my sleep issues weren’t confined to OSA.
All of the trial individuals needed to swallow an digital capsule, which measured our core physique temperature. This fluctuates over the course of 24 hours, however is generally lowest round 4am, when try to be at your sleepiest.
However my core physique temperature is at its lowest round 1am, three hours sooner than regular.
That might clarify why I discover it laborious to remain awake a lot past 10pm and why, once I wake at 3am, I discover it so laborious to get again to sleep (my physique clock thinks it’s daybreak and time to get up).
So the reply for me was expose myself to vivid mild last item at night time.
As Professor Leon Lack, a psychologist at Flinders defined, this is able to assist shift my physique clock later and imply I used to be much less prone to get up at 3am feeling so vivid and alert.
He additionally advisable I attempt ‘bedtime restriction remedy’, which in my case concerned going to mattress at 11pm each night time, and getting up at round 5.30am each morning for at the very least 4 weeks.
The thought is to show your mind to affiliate being in mattress with sleep, reasonably than mendacity awake. When you begin sleeping higher you may progressively enhance the time you spend in mattress.
It’s powerful, at the very least initially, however can also be an efficient means of treating long-term insomnia (for extra element about all this see my new ebook, 4 Weeks To Higher Sleep).
All this has made an enormous distinction to my sleep; I’ve now acquired my OSA and insomnia underneath management and consequently I really feel stuffed with vitality through the day.
Better of all I can participate and revel in household actions, the place beforehand I might need felt so drained I’d withdraw into myself.
As for the remainder of the trial individuals, greater than 80 per cent skilled life-changing enhancements of their sleep.
One mentioned to me: ‘I’m now getting sleep that’s so good it needs to be unlawful.’
The outcomes of the trial had been so spectacular they’re going to be revealed in a number one sleep journal later within the yr.
Humanity has had a long-running battle with nasty microbial infections, however we additionally owe microbes quite a bit: with out them turning sugar into alcohol there can be no beer or wine.
And it appears we are able to additionally thank them for our capacity to assume.
A examine by the Cambridge Institute of Science discovered that our capacity to provide myelin (the insulation round our nerves, which permits messages to quickly journey to and thru our brains) is because of a virus that contaminated a relative of ours tens of hundreds of thousands of years in the past. One thing to ponder if you get your subsequent chilly.
Like many others, I’m more and more involved concerning the rising risk posed by plastic air pollution.
It’s not simply the plastic luggage that scatter the hedges once I go for walks, however microplastics, the tiny particles of the stuff which are actually in every single place and are more and more seen as a serious well being threat.
Direct proof for this got here from a examine revealed within the New England Journal of Medication. Researchers in Italy examined samples of plaque (the fatty deposits that line your blood vessels) from sufferers who’d just lately had surgical procedure to take away it.
Microplastics are tiny particles of plastic which are in every single place and are more and more being seen as a serious well being threat
Practically 60 per cent of the samples contained microplastics — moreover, the sufferers with microplastics of their plaque had been practically 5 instances extra prone to have a coronary heart assault, a stroke or to die within the 34 months after surgical procedure.
The researchers assume the microplastics trigger persistent irritation, which in flip causes coronary heart illness and stroke.
Evaluation revealed that many of the particles had been made from polyethylene, sometimes present in meals packaging and plastic purchasing luggage; or polyvinyl chloride (PVC), utilized in plastic bottles.
There’s not quite a bit you are able to do to avoid microplastics, although at dwelling my spouse Clare and I keep away from heating or microwaving something in a plastic container. We additionally drink faucet water reasonably than bottled.
You might additionally boil faucet water for a few minutes, then filter it when it cools. A examine within the journal Environmental Science & Know-how Letters discovered this eliminated greater than 80 per cent of microplastics, notably if the water is difficult.
That’s as a result of boiling releases calcium carbonate (i.e. limescale) from the water, which then traps the microplastics, which you’ll be able to then filter out.