Mental alertness--key for performance and safety; omega-3's, key for mental alertness

Little did Captain Sullenberger anticipate last Thursday, as he ordered breakfast at his New York hotel, that within hours he would be called on to have split second reaction time, absolute mental clarity, complete decisiveness in his thinking, recall of every training session he'd ever completed, and utter confidence that he could manage the most challenging situation his life had ever laid before him.

By now we all know the story well. This man is now the pilot many Americans want to fly whatever plane they may be boarding for whatever business or vacation plans they may have.

If you're NOT a pilot and you stumbled on this blog, take heart, what Sully and his crew did, is what any crew in the same situation would be doing to maximize your personal safety. I don't say that to minimize the bravery displayed last week, but rather to recognize that it takes a certain bravery of character to even BE a pilot. We as passengers are just incredibly fortunate that it is not often we have to be reminded of that.

I'm grateful for the bravery and training of every single pilot who has ever safely delivered me to my destination.

Nothing is more important than experience and training in flight emergencies. However, I couldn't help but think about how many qualities of omega-3's pertain to a pilot's job duties. Research has shown that these essential fats, to name just a few:

--help the brain filter out unnecessary information and focus on important information
--help the brain retrieve information from its memory
--help with reaction time
--improve focus
--help improve sleep architecture so that daily functioning is more productive
--help the brain respond to anxiety producing situations in a way that promotes focus on problem solving rather than being paralyzed out of action
--controls rises in blood pressure to keep things going

They're truly key in making sure an emergency gets the correct sequence of responses.

If you're not eating a lot of fish, consider starting. If you don't like fish, consider fish oil capsules.

There will be a lot more on this topic to come. For now, just consider that even if you're not called upon to land a huge aircraft in a ridiculously challenging situation...the right kind of fats can put you in the best possible position to orchestrate all those every day challenges (near misses, wind shear, etc.), that most passengers never even realize you've protected them from.

Happy New Year Air Crews!

I hope whether this post finds you on a stopover, a layover, or happily at home with loved ones, that 2009 is a year you are looking forward to.

Diane and I are very excited to bring this idea to life, and we'd love to hear more from you if you have ideas about information you'd like to see more of, less of, what kinds of services we can offer to augment this blog, you name it. Air Vitals is YOUR venue, and we're simply here to make sure it happens.

We'll be meeting later this month to formalize some of our plans, and our planning will be so much more meaningful if it contains thoughts and ideas from those who travel for a living.

Please, anytime you have an idea, contact us! You can either comment here on the blog, or you can email me at monika@afterthediet.com, or Diane at whelanmphrd@roadrunner.com.

Safe travels, and we'll see you soon!

Monika M. Woolsey, MS, RD
Co-founder, Air Vitals

A holiday wish for all of you!

Dear Aviation Friends,

Here's to a great start in 2008 and looking forward to many good times shared with all of you in 2009!

Travel safe, and we'll see you here very soon.

Monika

PS If you'd like to share this card, you can find it here.

Eat your veggies and sleep!

I've become fascinated with sleep. How much we need it. How little we value it. And what happens to our health when we don't get it. Sometimes I wonder if we should be obsessed with sleep and not worried about what we eat.

Now the two worlds have collided!

It has been found that melatonin is a component of some vegetables. Some Japanese researchers gave a group of women high amounts of six specific vegetables. Another group of women was asked to avoid these same vegetables during the same time period. The women who consumed the vegetables had higher amounts of melatonin by-products in their urine.

Melatonin, as you know from reading this blog, is a sleep enhancing hormone and a very powerful antioxidant.

Of course, the very first thing most people will ask on reading this, is "what vegetables?"

I don't think the power in this study comes from the melatonin content of the vegetables. Melatonin is a highly unstable compound and it would be challenging to have it stay intact in a compound that is harvested, stored, chopped, and cooked before eating.

What may be happening here, is that vegetables are great sources of antioxidants. And since melatonin appears to be the ultimate antioxidant, it is called to duty when other antioxidants are in short supply and cannot do their job. If your melatonin is on cleanup duty, it can't be used to help you sleep!

The melatonin in the urine, I'm guessing, came from the fact that melatonin was allowed to function as melatonin, and not changed as it was used as an antioxidant.

So...the strategy appears to be, to eat as many different vegetables as you can in order to have maximum antioxidant power. And that will give you a better chance at getting a good night's sleep.

I know that it's difficult not to yawn if you see someone else yawning, so on behalf of helping you feel sleepy, here's a wonderful blog a friend told me about yesterday!
It's called Cute Things Falling Asleep.

Oba S, Nakamura K, Sahashi Y, Hattori A, Nagata C. Consumption of vegetables alters morning urinary 6-sulfatoxymelatonin concentration. J Pineal Res. 2008 Aug;45(1):17-23. Epub 2008 Jan 15.

We're so honored to be partnering with Zing!

You've heard us rave about Zing, and we're not the only ones! They've just been chosen the healthiest nutrition bar by Kitchen Table Medicine.

Remember, all you website readers can get Zing Bars free of shipping charges with the coupon code "flyaway".

We are very honored to not only do business with Zing Bars, but to count Michael, Sandi, Kathleen, and Minh-Hai of Zing as personal friends. Good work dude and dudettes!

Oh! Be on the lookout for more posts. Between a 3 day cat sitting gig that became a 3 week cat sitting gig and holiday celebrations, blogging fell off the calendar here. I know Diane has been clearing her plate to make more Air Vitals room as well. We're excited about everything that's soon to come and hope you come back to visit!

Special offer from one of our sponsors

I hope this e-mail finds all of you well!

We are offering a 10% Discount on all Zing Flavors, good through Dec 31.

For those of you who prefer to order online, enter the coupon code ‘december’ at checkout.

Thank you all for your support this year, it has been a pleasure working with you. We are looking forward to new Dairy & Gluten free flavors early in 2009, so please stay tuned.

Happy & Healthy Holidays to you all!

Dr. Michael Kaplan, CEO

Northwest Nutritional Foods, LLC

www.zingbars.com

(206) 362-3989

(206) 770-7220 fax

What is depression....really?

Ever had one of those days when you're stuck on approach with too many flights stacked and waiting to land on too few runways? The process eventually happens, it just might be slowed down.

That's really all depression is to your brain. Too much information trying to travel through too few pathways.

Depression is to the brain and nervous system what heart disease is to the circulation--the end result of inflammatory and oxidative processes.

It's kind of like a rusting out process wreaking havoc on your nervous system. As neurons are oxidized, or rusted out, they lose their ability to function. If it's neurons in the emotional center of the brain, you can feel sad. If it's in the sleep center, you may not sleep well. If it's in the reproductive center, it may affect your fertility. When the cortex is involved, you may find you have a hard time with attention span, and making what are normally easy decisions.

A lot of every day factors can accelerate the processes that are the stepping stones into depression. Stress. Sleep disruption. Lack of exercise. Diet.

You don't have depression because your body has a deficiency of psychiatric medication. If the factors causing the problem aren't addressed, medication may be what it takes to jump start your nervous system out of its funk. But there are a lot of things that can help, way before you get to that point.

The first step is to understand what depression is, and what it isn't. It is a condition largely affected by lifestyle choices. It isn't a character weakness. It is very similar to heart disease, only it is affecting a different organ system--the nervous system.

Depression isn't an indication that you're crazy. It may be an indication that your body is having a hard time keeping up with all of the physical and emotional demands it is being asked to absorb.

Nutritional strategies for depression are kind of like opening up more runways...they make information flow more easily. It's not that medication doesn't, but that strategy is more like trying to force all those extra landings in the same limited space. Pilots are no different than non-pilots in this regard; it's just that they have a unique, career-related reason to build the runways that other people don't.

It is something I am excited to talk to you about, because I've seen people achieve great things with a few small changes.

Stay tuned, or subscribe to this blog, as I'll be getting into more details in later posts.