Is Sleep just as important as diet and exercise?

February 7, 2022

Kirstie Vesseur

Health

Is Sleep just as important as diet and exercise?

Sleep. It’s kind of a weird requirement is it not? Once every 24 hours the body requires us to lie down for anywhere from 7-9 hours in order for us to ‘reboot’ for the next day and go about our daily lives. Some of us tend to think that sleep is a waste of time, it’s ‘for the lazy and unsuccessful’ or they think ‘I can sleep when I’m dead’, which you will learn could be sooner rather than later if we don’t start paying more attention to our nightly zzz’s. So, what is sleep? and why is it so very important to our health and overall sense of well-being?

January 26, 2022

Kirstie Vesseur

Mind

Are we eating our way to poor mental health?

January 26, 2022

Kirstie Vesseur

Mind

Are we eating our way to poor mental health?

There’s soooo much attention paid to the role poor nutrition plays in the global obesity epidemic, diabetes and heart disease, and so there should be it’s a serious issue. But very little attention is paid to the link between poor nutrition and depression, anxiety and suicide. Suicide rates are at an all-time with ‘the number of people who have taken their own lives in New Zealand [my home country] the highest since records began, with 668 dying by suicide in the past year’(1). I myself have had a family member die of suicide and can attest to what devastating effects this has on the family left behind.