Start thinking about Bone Mineral Density.

Bone Mineral Density is a cumulative history of energy availability, hormonal fluctuations, genetics, good nutrition, behaviors and environmental factors. As you get older, bone mineral density falls as our muscular infrastructure changes. When you do damage to your body, by starving/binging yourself, exercising too hard, not getting enough sleep and allowing stress to become a regular component in your life, you seriously alter your future body.

Sleep is an essential functional part of being and staying healthy. For athletes, it is a strong factor in performance. Most of the repair and strengthening in your body occurs during stage 4 of the sleep cycle–your deepest sleep. But if you don’t go through all the cycles appropriately, you won’t get to the 4th stage, inhibiting many vital functions needed to repair, restore and strengthen your body.

Stage 1: In the first stage, your muscles relax as you fall asleep.

Stage 2: Five to ten minutes after falling asleep, you enter a deeper slumber and your brain starts to produce chemicals that release hormones.

Stage 3 & 4: These are the deepest and most reparative stages. The body releases growth hormone, which helps repair bone and muscle.

REM Stage: The 5th stage of sleep is vital for pain tolerance and motor skills. It strengthens cognitive and nervous system function.

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According to the National Sleep Foundation, 75% of Americans have problems sleeping and are not getting the recommended 7-9 hours per night our bodies need to recuperate from the daily grind.

Here’s how sleep affects our system:

Cellular Repair
Repair for the daily wear and tear on the body is correlated with how much deep sleep you get. If you don’t have a regulated night cycle, you won’t get to the deepest stage of sleep that is required for release of growth hormone. These hormones shift the body’s process to anabolic–where it is able to initiate muscular repair, break down fat and stimulate cell division to replace old or malfunctioning cells.

Digestion and Weight Regulation
It is a digestion regulator, releasing hormones that break down fat to supply energy for tissue repair. Adequate sleep is required for weight management. Sleep deprivation causes hormones like leptin–a hormone that regulates a feeling of fullness–to decrease. You end up feeling hungrier without being satisfied by what you eat, causing you to eat more and gain weight.

Muscle Relaxation
During the night muscles can take a break and relax. Respiratory muscles also relax, resulting in the breathing rate slowing down. During REM sleep, muscles become so relaxed that they actually become temporarily paralyzed, called muscle atonia. When muscles are relaxed, there are less metabolites formed, allowing for additional cellular repair and replenishing.

Immunity
It keeps the immune system in check by releasing hormones that act as messengers, telling the immune system to produce antibodies, kill potentially cancerous cells and decrease inflammation.

Cognitive Function
It also enhances cognitive function by consolidating memory. Storing short term memory to long term memory occurs during sleep through the strengthening of neuronal connections.

Revive bills itself as a luxury hangover “cure” clinic, where one can lay down, put on headphones and get an intravenous solution of “whichever medications, vitamin additives, antioxidants, or additional fluids the physician deems appropriate for your unique condition and symptoms.” I called to find out just what they put into these packs that make it the $99 price tag worth our while, but have not been answered as of press time.

What can we be sure of when it comes to intravenous solutions? Though this “clinic” is presumably “run” by registered nurses and overseen by a licensed physician, typically this means the person administering the IV is not a registered nurse or physician. And, as for a hangover cure, an IV bag of D5 and water—what they give you at the hospital for dehydration–is a bag of dextrose 5% (sugar) and water.

That’s like me handing you 4 vitamin waters and charging you $100. My advice would be to save your money, get some vitamin water and make sure you sleep enough that your body can recuperate.

2. Soybu Compression Pants $70

3. KT Athletic Tape $19.99

4. Yoga Tune Up Trigger Point Massage Ball $9.95

5. Garden of Life Vitamin Code Multi-Vitamin $24.99

We felt it yesterday afternoon. That urge to high five the guy sitting next to you as the Bears defeated the Vikings. That chemical reaction in our brain–that Oxytocin surge–is responsible for feeling the bond between teammates, players and even fans. Now imagine a draft pick based on Oxytocin production–a team with higher production levels is going to be a better performing team…?

Oxytocin is a unique chemical produced by our pituitary and released in our brain. It evokes feelings of contentment, reductions in anxiety, and feelings of calmness and security around the mate.^[23] Many studies have already shown a correlation of oxytocin with human bonding, increases in trust, and decreases in fear. It is no wonder that more and more health professionals have begun to acknowledge the correlation between Oxytocin production and performance in athletes.

Recently a study in The Scientific World Journal