Covid-10 & Health Information: Updates on Sleep, Belly Fat and Alcohol

RVAchironeuro • April 4, 2022

Hello everyone:

  I got a lot of feedback regarding my last blogs on sleep and alcohol, so just to give some pushback to the pushback I received, I want to share these two articles with you. Here are the fundamentals:

Even very light alcohol intake is associated with an increased risk for cardiovascular disease compared with not drinking at all, and the risk increases exponentially as alcohol intake rises, even at moderate levels, a new study shows.

A controlled study of sleep-deprived young adults has provided the first causal evidence linking the lack of sleep to a bdominal  obesity   and harmful visceral, or “belly” fat. 

Bottom Line:

  In a previous blog we covered how altered sleep patterns caused elevations of stress hormones, insulin, testosterone and estrogen, lowered melatonin, increased inflammation, destroyed mood, and damaged immune function. Here they show that it also results in obesity which causes and aggravates of all the above I just listed and more. So please go back to that blog and get a few tips on upgrading your sleep.

We also recently went over how no amount of alcohol was found beneficial to our health. To those who have expressed dismay about that, it would be a practical approach to this issue to go alcohol free until you reach your health goals, and if you absolutely must, re-introduce very small amounts infrequently…for example, one to two beers or one 4 oz. glass of wine once or twice a week. Please do not re-establish the lifestyle patterns that may have gotten you into the health crisis you originally sought assistance for.

Just make sure your sleep and alcohol patterns are congruent with your health goals. If you want to lose your health gradually or rapidly, then all you need to do is not get adequate sleep and drink some alcohol regularly among other things. A helpful way to look at this issue is the way a dentist looks at brushing and flossing daily. When asked, when can I quit brushing and flossing, the dentists reply is that you can stop whenever you want to lose your teeth and health. So…ask yourself the following questions:

  • When can I get less sleep?
  • When can I have alcohol?
    When can I eat processed and chemically treated foods?
  • When is it Ok to eat drive-thru ‘food’?
  • When can I go back to sugar and other bad carbs?
  • When can I stop exercising?
  • When can I stop praying?

The answer to all those questions is the same and it is that you can do those things whenever you want to lose your health or suffer. Why not make the commitment to go all in for your mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual health and see what happens? Put together a plan to upgrade each of those aspects of your life, take it one step at a time and go at a pace that does not overwhelm you…you will surely find some success that will be very gratifying.

By Mark Smith March 23, 2026
Health News Update: How To Fight Inflammation and Chronic Disease 3.23.26 Hello again everyone: You might wonder why I keep focusing on food…so here are some of the reasons: food choices are the leading cause of death in the U.S. and spreading around the world. Poor food choices lead to inflammation which slowly destroy health. It is that simple, plain, and clear and backed by research. The next question: how do we fight back? Introduction The positive impact of food on health was postulated by the ancient Hippocrates, father of modern medicine with his famous quote: “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food” [1]. In the 21st century, scientists have focused on the effect of nutritional habits in diseases. Nowadays, it is well documented that food plays a noteworthy role in the pathogenesis of chronic diseases namely cardiovascular diseases (CVD), metabolic syndrome, diabetes mellitus type II, and cancer [2–5], as it correlates with others with the lipid pattern, the blood pressure, and the endothelial function. The scientists examine the effect of nutritional habits on disease emergence and progression in both individual nutrient intake and dietary patterns models. Worldwide, two dietary patterns are usually compared—the Mediterranean diet (MD) and the Western diet (WD) [3,6]. The Mediterranean diet reflects the food culture of most Mediterranean countries based on olive oil consumption, seasonal fresh vegetables, cereals, and plants in balance with low consumption of meat [7]. The Western diet, on the contrary, is dominated by high-fat dairy products processed and red meat [8]. However, discordance in the different MD patterns and consumed food doses had been recognized. Without any doubt, those discrepancies could confine and restrict our knowledge on the health benefit mechanisms of the MD [9]. Due to the above, the medical community along with nutritionists and dieticians take a keen interest in MD and its traits [7]. https://www.academia.edu/45378994/biomedicines_Mediterranean_Diet_as_a_Tool_to_Combat_Inflammation_and_Chronic_Diseases_An_Overview?email_work_card=view-paper food choices can fight inflammation and chronic disease Bottom Line: This is a 2020 paper and since then literally hundreds of papers on the MD have emerged showing how the food plan lowers inflammation and the risk for developing multiple chronic illnesses. Even still, lots of research needs to be done to elucidate the many mechanisms of how food impacts our system and how to optimally individualize dietary recommendations. At this point, our best strategy to prevent and/or recover from any chronic condition is to eat as clean and natural as possible. It has become rather obvious that the further away from a natural diet we get, the sicker we become. On top of that, I have yet to see a full recovery from any health issue without the foundation of a predominantly plant-based, unprocessed, whole foods approach…which is why I keep posting about this subject. All the best to you and yours!
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