Speaker 1: On seven hundred wlwoh, yes, the time change. You wake up,
Speaker 1: it's dark outside, you get home from work, it's dark outside,
Speaker 1: just darkness and developing like we need this right now. Well,
Speaker 1: all the bad news in the world, it just makes
Speaker 1: things worse. Doctor Catherine Athens is a expert in this
Speaker 1: area and author of numerous books. And there's a connection
Speaker 1: between the darkness and our mental health. We all know
Speaker 1: about this, but what new information is there out there?
Speaker 1: And how do you cope with it? As we lose
Speaker 1: time another hour this weekend, Doctor Catherine, good morning, how
Speaker 1: are you?
Speaker 2: I'm fine, Thank you, good morning, thanks for having me,
Speaker 2: and good morning to all your listeners as well.
Speaker 1: I'm already just thinking about the time change, getting depressed.
Speaker 3: I know. It's funny.
Speaker 1: When I was younger, I mean, I love cold weather,
Speaker 1: love the snow and all that stuff. But the fifteen
Speaker 1: hours of darkness a day, it really hasn't effect the
Speaker 1: owner I get the worst it is? Is there some
Speaker 1: is there connecting with an age and lack of sunlight?
Speaker 2: Well, we don't get as much sunlight when we get older,
Speaker 2: do We were not outside playing all the time? You know,
Speaker 2: kids are outside, We tell them go outside. And play
Speaker 2: and although you know with a digital age it may
Speaker 2: have changed a lot. But adults are behind a desk,
Speaker 2: usually sitting under a fluorescent light, which is not good
Speaker 2: for the brain at all. And usually we're stooped over,
Speaker 2: we're dehydrated, we're drinking coffee to stay away, or maybe
Speaker 2: eating that nice jelly donut, and we're just trying to
Speaker 2: brace ourselves to get through the day. So the thing
Speaker 2: to do in the morning is to drink some warm water.
Speaker 2: You can drink it with lemon. You can put a
Speaker 2: little bit of apple cider vinegar in there, which is
Speaker 2: good for cleaning the kidneys and the liver, which are
Speaker 2: two organs that help get rid of poisons. So why
Speaker 2: do we get depressed? We become over poxified in our
Speaker 2: bodies because we're stationary and the things we eat aren't
Speaker 2: necessarily nurishing. They taste good, though, So I tell people
Speaker 2: think about the basics. Think about doing some deep breathing,
Speaker 2: starting your day with an affirmation of something positive. Think
Speaker 2: about that during the day, and sip water. Bring a
Speaker 2: water bottle or water container, sip it all day. The
Speaker 2: brain needs water to function, and most of us are dehydrated, especially.
Speaker 1: When you're inside and the air is dryer, it's not
Speaker 1: as humid, you're not, so you spend more time in
Speaker 1: die Why you get sick because you're dried out. So
Speaker 1: hydration is a critical thing to remaining well in the
Speaker 1: winter months, for sure. What does a lemon do for me?
Speaker 3: Though? How does that?
Speaker 1: Does that beat depression in the lack of sunlight? Is
Speaker 1: it's vitamin C.
Speaker 2: It's vitamin C. But it also helps to cleanse the liver.
Speaker 2: And you know, God bless our livers because they're always
Speaker 2: pulling toison out of our bloodstreams for us and trying
Speaker 2: to get rid of it so it doesn't circulate so
Speaker 2: much around the body, and the limit helps the liver
Speaker 2: do that. It also helps the kidneys to function, and
Speaker 2: it helps the water to taste better so you'll drink it. Sure,
Speaker 2: So there's lots of good reasons. You know. The thought
Speaker 2: of this darkness is horrific for people. So I help
Speaker 2: people look start by getting out in the sun more
Speaker 2: often when there is sun. Try to take your lunch
Speaker 2: break and maybe take something like this sandwich that you
Speaker 2: can eat while you're slowly walking, or go to the
Speaker 2: park and sit in the sun. And they have a
Speaker 2: little bite to eat, so that way you're getting more sun.
Speaker 2: Even though we're not getting more sun, that will help
Speaker 2: the brain a.
Speaker 1: Lot, right, But I mean, here's the problem here, doctor
Speaker 1: Catherine Athens. Here's the problem with Cincinnati, Ohio. Problem with Cincinnati,
Speaker 1: Ohio is we literally will not see the sun until
Speaker 1: opening day this year when the red started, and even
Speaker 1: then that may be again, but there may be a
Speaker 1: couple hours. I think in the next six months we'll
Speaker 1: see the sun. But it's just a mere rumor. It's
Speaker 1: actually a lot of people right around April start to
Speaker 1: question whether or not the sun actually exists, if it's
Speaker 1: not just one of those Internet rumors or a myth
Speaker 1: or fake news or something like that, because we're pretty
Speaker 1: sure after by the time we get through February that
Speaker 1: the sun just doesn't exist anymore.
Speaker 2: Okay, all right, Well, there are things you can do.
Speaker 2: There is something called full spectrum light bulbs that you
Speaker 2: can buy and replace your light bulbs at home with
Speaker 2: the full spectrum because part of the seasonal effective disorder,
Speaker 2: that depression, is we're not getting some of the spectrum
Speaker 2: of the sun. If you're really bad off, there are
Speaker 2: machines that you can buy. They're not too expensive, and
Speaker 2: they will you can sit have them sit in front
Speaker 2: of you. You can watch TV or listen to the
Speaker 2: radio and they will project full spectrum light at you.
Speaker 3: Okay, how many? How many hours?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 1: My wife got me one last year of Christmas. I
Speaker 1: said I'm gonna try. I never used it because I'm
Speaker 1: just naturally positive. As you can tell here. I'm a
Speaker 1: national treasure, is what I am. Doctor, and I have
Speaker 1: a user. Yeah, I plan on maybe cracking that thing.
Speaker 2: Now?
Speaker 3: How long?
Speaker 1: How many hours a day? If you've got the happy
Speaker 1: light as they call them, they're pretty cheap. You can
Speaker 1: get on Amazon too. I didn't know about the light bulbs.
Speaker 1: You could full spectrum light bulbs and the same thing.
Speaker 1: So if you got your I don't know, your easy
Speaker 1: chair next to your couture, you know, light next to
Speaker 1: your touch plays, use that when you're sitting there watching TV.
Speaker 3: How many hours a day do you need that?
Speaker 2: Though not very many? Actually you could start off with
Speaker 2: maybe two, one in the morning and one in the evening.
Speaker 2: You know, maybe two. If you don't have two, start
Speaker 2: off with twenty minutes a few times a day if
Speaker 2: you're home, but at least twenty minutes at a time,
Speaker 2: and it's really very useful. It helps a lot. It
Speaker 2: helps to retard that sad kind of syndrome in the
Speaker 2: winter with no light. Another thing is, if it's too
Speaker 2: cold to go outside, do some aerobic exercise inside. Get
Speaker 2: the blood going through your body, you know, get circulation
Speaker 2: going along with the light, and that will help the
Speaker 2: feeling of sadness and depression. It will actually make you
Speaker 2: feel better, more positive.
Speaker 3: Well, exercise is good for you.
Speaker 1: I mean I noticed in the days that if I
Speaker 1: go a few days between workouts, I notice I start
Speaker 1: to get a little more tired and irritable than I
Speaker 1: normally am. And it's because I'm missing my workout. So
Speaker 1: I get that. Doctor Katin Athens on the show this
Speaker 1: morning on seven hundred WLW got the time change. We
Speaker 1: lose an hour and now darkness will encompass us and
Speaker 1: develop us here for the next five months, roughly in Cincinnati,
Speaker 1: we won't see the sun maybe for a couple of minutes,
Speaker 1: I think, in the next five months here too. Some
Speaker 1: may say the sun was cut out in an extreme
Speaker 1: some sort of extreme budget cut or something like that,
Speaker 1: and or maybe the sun was captured and stolen by
Speaker 1: aliens or we just don't get You will not see
Speaker 1: the sun for quite some time in Cincinnati that south
Speaker 1: is Does that effect your sleep then too? I know
Speaker 1: that sun and sleep generally are at odds with one another,
Speaker 1: but does it mess with a sleep cycle too?
Speaker 2: It absolutely does. Our sleep cycle or circadian rhythms all
Speaker 2: get off. So I ask people to go to bed
Speaker 2: that hour earlier. Even though it says, you know, it
Speaker 2: says four o'clock, it is actually five. So go to
Speaker 2: bed when you normally go to bed for a while,
Speaker 2: and then you can increase your bedtime maybe ten minutes
Speaker 2: each week, but go to bed. Try to maintain those
Speaker 2: same habits you have and get a lot of sleep.
Speaker 2: And yes, the sun, the sun activates trying to think
Speaker 2: of the name of the organs in the back of
Speaker 2: your head, and when you're in the sun, they're activated.
Speaker 2: When you're in the dark, they secrete melatonin. So you
Speaker 2: want to be in a dark room to sleep, but
Speaker 2: you want to have had some full spectrum light, whether
Speaker 2: it be the happy machine or you're light bulb, or
Speaker 2: for some reason there is some sunshine. Because that balance
Speaker 2: is the brain. Now you notice in the winter time,
Speaker 2: people become less friendly, more irritable, just because we're not
Speaker 2: moving as much and we're not drinking enough water. I mean,
Speaker 2: just think about the holidays here. You don't drink all year,
Speaker 2: and you don't eat much, and suddenly you're drinking like
Speaker 2: crazy on Thanksgiving. You're eating all kinds of stuff you
Speaker 2: never eat the rest of the year, and then you
Speaker 2: feel miserable and you go, why am I feeling so bad?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I'm living my life like a medieval
Speaker 1: king or something. I'm eating literally just eating giant geese
Speaker 1: neck and the drumsticks, and I'm drinking wine and meat,
Speaker 1: and I'm just having a black asked. But then you
Speaker 1: feel like crap after. It's kind of like when you
Speaker 1: eat all the Halloween candy, the same.
Speaker 2: Thing, right, right, So don't I tell people don't use moderation.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but that's no fun. That's no fun though, It's
Speaker 1: it's uh. I. I I'm the other extreme though. I
Speaker 1: believe in everything in its excess. I think if you
Speaker 1: I think it'll balance, it balances. I'll work out for
Speaker 1: three straight days and I'm gonna eat for nine straight days.
Speaker 3: What about that?
Speaker 2: All? What most people do you're right in the groove.
Speaker 2: Oh I worked out? Why am I gaining weight? When
Speaker 2: did you work out last week?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 2: Okay, Well, I don't.
Speaker 3: Want to rush into anything. I could strain something.
Speaker 2: That's true. That's true.
Speaker 1: I don't want to I don't want to jump in
Speaker 1: this exercise thing. You know, Well, at the time change
Speaker 1: here and losing an hour sleep. It's also to trying
Speaker 1: to get your body set because uh, you know the
Speaker 1: week when they tell you the clock changes, and then
Speaker 1: it take a week to get your body right again.
Speaker 1: Is it better? Is it kind of like jet legs?
Speaker 1: Should you just go to bed at the same time?
Speaker 2: Or yes, go to bed at the same time. We
Speaker 2: actually gain an hour, but the hour we gain is darkness.
Speaker 2: So go to bed at the same time, get up
Speaker 2: at the same time, and then slowly work into the
Speaker 2: new time zone. You know, if you can go to
Speaker 2: bed at the same time, get up at the same time.
Speaker 2: Drink your water. Now, if you want to know how
Speaker 2: much water you should add, take your body weight. Say
Speaker 2: you weigh one fifty, divide it in half. That's seventy
Speaker 2: five and those are ounces. You need seventy five ounces
Speaker 2: of water a day, which is huge it's more than
Speaker 2: half a gallon.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's something you sip on a little
Speaker 1: bit of water all day. Go I had like two
Speaker 1: bottles of water. That's not it's not from it. And
Speaker 1: then if you're active, you need even more water.
Speaker 2: For that matter, if you're active, you need more water.
Speaker 2: And so the brain doesn't function without water. It doesn't function.
Speaker 2: Functions on glucose, water and amino acids. And most of
Speaker 2: us don't get enough amino acids because we're dieting or
Speaker 2: we're eating some kind of green and we're not looking
Speaker 2: at the fact. We need a variety of amino acids
Speaker 2: for the brain to function properly. But we also need
Speaker 2: each other. We need human interaction face to face for
Speaker 2: the brain and the neural pathways to function properly. I recommend,
Speaker 2: if you do nothing else, go to the market or
Speaker 2: the hardware store or the Walmart, whatever, and start saying
Speaker 2: hello to people, Hello, how are you good morning?
Speaker 3: What if you just hate people? Is there no hope
Speaker 3: for you? Is it terminal? What's going on there? Doctor?
Speaker 2: Oh, it could be no.
Speaker 3: The reels, I don't go it's because people piss me off.
Speaker 2: Okay, well, well that's another story.
Speaker 1: Just too many idiots in the world. I think people
Speaker 1: are listening to the going right slowan. There's too many
Speaker 1: idiots in the world, and that's why I tend to
Speaker 1: just stay home and eat and be mindless of myself.
Speaker 1: All right, we have do you think as a doctor
Speaker 1: and you studied this stuff again on the show this morning.
Speaker 1: It's doctor Catherine Athens, and she is an expert in
Speaker 1: the area of sleep. And we've got one in five
Speaker 1: Americans experiencing winter blues, according to the Cleveland Clinic. And
Speaker 1: they would know because there's no more depressing place in
Speaker 1: the world in Cleveland. So the Cleveland Clinic people, I
Speaker 1: would agree with them, and maybe even two and five
Speaker 1: at this point too. But she's a clinical and health
Speaker 1: psychologist and she's on the show talking about the time
Speaker 1: change here and what that means for you, how to
Speaker 1: combat with happy lights and making sure you're getting hydrated
Speaker 1: well enough and all that. Should we get away with
Speaker 1: daylight savings time in the clock four o'clock back?
Speaker 2: Nonsense, you bet you we should. And in California we
Speaker 2: voted I think six years ago to do away with that,
Speaker 2: but we still have to do it. Someone isn't listening
Speaker 2: to the people over here.
Speaker 1: Well we have that problem here too. So it's not
Speaker 1: just Ohio, it's also California.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, oh yeah, so big what is here?
Speaker 1: But yes, time change the least of those problems you
Speaker 1: got over there, that's for dam I'm sure. So uh yeah,
Speaker 1: it seems to me. I just keep one steady, constant
Speaker 1: time and we're good there this, you know, jumping back
Speaker 1: and forth every six months. So really, you know, I
Speaker 1: could see back in the day where you needed natural
Speaker 1: daylight in order to get stuff done. But we have
Speaker 1: electricity now, we've had electricity at least I think for
Speaker 1: the last three or four years.
Speaker 2: I believe, well we do. But you know, the charcoal
Speaker 2: lobby wanted this daylight savings time because they found out
Speaker 2: that was another hour or so of sunlight. They make
Speaker 2: more money, the charcoal lobby. The charcoal lobby, no idea,
Speaker 2: blame them for this.
Speaker 1: Good lord, there's a big big charcoals behind all this
Speaker 1: big kings. Yeah, yeah, there's a lobby for any you've
Speaker 1: got politicians, you'll have a you'll have a lobby.
Speaker 3: There's no doubt about it.
Speaker 1: So doctor Catherine Athnes Athens at H A. N. S.
Speaker 1: And thanks again for the time. And she has written
Speaker 1: of several books as a matter of fact, the latest
Speaker 1: call it The Heart Brain. And doctor Catherine Athens, thanks
Speaker 1: for coming on the show.
Speaker 2: It's my pleasure. And please everyone drink your water, don't
Speaker 2: don't push yourself. Everybody's going through this miserable time change together,
Speaker 2: so please just take your time and work yourself into it,
Speaker 2: and then a few weeks you'll be you'll.
Speaker 3: Be better, hopefully.
Speaker 2: But well, let's not get get out your happy machine, right.
Speaker 3: Well, the good news is we have cheap flights to Florida.
Speaker 1: If all else fails, get on a Legian or Delta
Speaker 1: or whatever and get the hell out of town for
Speaker 1: a few days.
Speaker 3: That always helps. To doctor Catherine all the best.
Speaker 2: Thanks the YouTube. Bye bye.
Speaker 1: Now today is the day because Sunday. Okay, time change.
Speaker 3: It's Sunday.
Speaker 1: You're watching football, the big deal. Monday rolls aren't yesterday.
Speaker 1: And now it's starting to affect you a little bit. Okay,
Speaker 1: sun's coming up in the morning or and when I
Speaker 1: get home, it's getting dark and your mind is preparing
Speaker 1: for sure. In addition to that, today is election day.
Speaker 1: Election day. If you're in OHI make sure, you take
Speaker 1: that id with you're gonna need it if you are
Speaker 1: going to vote, and of course that pulls open. We'll
Speaker 1: get a full update on what's happening there. We'll also
Speaker 1: chat with the council candidate if you haven't voted yet.
Speaker 1: Anthony Weiner running for council, one of the what twenty
Speaker 1: nine people running for councils some along those lines, twenty
Speaker 1: six people. It's a lot, let's put it that way,
Speaker 1: a boatload of folks. Why should you vote for him?
Speaker 1: And what he sees from an outsider's perspective, what's going
Speaker 1: on in is Mayol race? Very interesting. We'll get to
Speaker 1: that just ahead here slowly seven hundred WLW