Health and Wellness for Journalists

under 40

By
Kofoworola Belo-Osagie
Development Journalist
 My hypothesis

Journalists are predisposed to conditions that

lead to chronic diseases like CVD/Diabetes etc.
 Stay with me...
What causes High Blood
Pressure?
 HBP and…
• HBP hardly occurs alone.
• It is usually associated with
high blood sugar (diabetes);
heart attack, stroke…
 Journalists are prone to stress
• What are the stressful situations you face in
your work life?
 But it’s not just stress…
• Four important factors
that affect our health
are:
1. Stress
2. Diet
3. Sleep
4. Exercise
Are you really healthy?
About six
billion people in
the world are
unhealthy
Healthy is a spectrum
 If you have these symptoms…
• High Blood Pressure • Tingling in fingers and toes
• Belly fat • Food cravings
• Waist is above 40 (men) 35 • Insulin resistance
(women) • Acanthosis nigricans (dark
• Night sweats sports in body folds –
• Irregular menstrual cycle is a armpit, neck, thighs, under
sign - PCOS. bust)
• Frequent urination • Skin tags on different parts
• Fast heart rate - heart of my body;
palpitations • Restless legs syndrome and
• Fatigue poor sleep
• Obesity • High blood pressure
 If you don’t but you
• Take alcohol
• Smoke
• Drink sodas daily
• Eat processed foods
• Eat big portions
Then you’re on your way to having serious
health issues
 Stressssss…
Within and without
• External factors
• - Workload
• - Work environment (relationship with peers/bosses)
• - Diet

• Internal factors
• The Stress hormone - cortisol
1. - affects sleep
2. - Causes production of blood sugar
3. - Increases cravings
4. - affects mental health
 Diet
• Food is medicine!
Between 30 and 40 percent of all cancers are
preventable by having healthy diet and lifestyle
habits in place
World Cancer Research Fund
 Medicine can be good or bad
• What are bad medicine?
• Examples of bad medicine ?
• Characteristics of Hard drugs
• - cravings
• - addiction
• - ADHD
 Food can be good or bad
• Bad food
- Sugar
- Ultra processed foods (containing chemicals
you can’t find in your kitchen)
- Simple carbs
- Excess of starchy carbs
 How much should you eat?
• Every year past 30 years old you have to eat 0.7 percent
less food every year just not to gain weight and its
cumulative so

• at 40 its .07 times 10 so at 40 you have to eat 7 percent

less

• at 50 that's 14 percent less and

• at 60 you have to eat 21 percent less than you did at 30

in order not to gain weight
 What are how should you eat?
• Eat more proteins
– We need protein to build and maintain muscle mass.

We start to loose muscles as early as in our 30s. Muscle

mass is “use it or lose it” and one is deconditioned, the
other active.

• You can burn more calories (close to 200g/day) simply

by increasing your protein intake.
 What to eat
• Add more fibre to your diet
• Think cabbage, ugwu, carrots, spinach, nuts,
ewedu, bitterleaf, etc
• Improve your gut health with fibre and
fermented foods (gut and brain are linked)
 Watch your carbs
• Dump processed foods
• Limit added sugars (found in ready-to-eat
foods
• Carbohydrates break down to glucose (sugar)
in your body so choose complex carbohydrate.
• If you symptoms, limit intake
 Exercise is medicine
Sedentary lifestyle increases insulin resistance.
• Move daily
• Exercise helps
• - metabolic health
• - Reduces inflammation
• - Reduces stress/cortisol
• - Improves Microbiome balance in your gut
• - Improves sleep in many people
 Sleep
Poor sleep leads to
– higher cortisol levels
– Inflammation
– Insulinresistance
– Cravings
 Why sleep is important
• An hour of poor sleep causes the hunger
hormone (Gruelin) to increase and the satiety
hormone (lepton) to decrease.
• It also causes the stress hormone (cortisol) to
increase and Insulin (responsible for moving
sugar to your cells) to increase.
 My life now
• I eat tablespoons of rice (portion control)
• More protein
• Exercise is must
• Intermittent fasting helped me lose weight
• I try to reduce stress
• Sleep is my biggest challenge
If you think medication is the way forward

• Medication treats only symptoms and cause

complications down the line

• Medication used to treat BP, antipsychosis,

can cause IR, stations given to control
cholesterol levels, hormonal contraceptives,
insulin