Dr Ben Sinclair, Founder – Dr Finlay’s Private Practice
Get Smart: Ring In The Changes To Your Lifestyle
Hectic business life? Keen to track your health? Go Smart! It’s time to ring in the changes to your lifestyle.
Prince Harry, Facebook-Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Hollywood star Jennifer Aniston, Rachel in ‘Friends’, all wear a Smart Ring, in their case an Oura.
It’s a great way to monitor your health stats while ‘on the go’. Check out the Samsung Galaxy ring and, reportedly, an Apple ring soon.
This device (approx. £350 / $300-$550) gives readings to back up how you feel daily, letting you observe trends in your lifestyle that might be influencing key metrics.
Constantly monitoring oxygen levels, heartrate, movements and steps, the Oura is worn on either hand, usually on your index finger.
Will this great tool improve your health? Absolutely! Any questions? Email me on drben@businessinfluencer.co.uk. PS, Don’t give me a ring – I’ve got mine already.
Are You Backing Up?
Spending hours in the sedentary position? This can lead to lower-back pain, very common among my business community patients.
Our anatomy is designed to be stood up, moving more than sitting, so we must counteract with risk-reducing strategies.
Office-based? Request a workstation assessment from HR. Home-based? During lockdown, we used laptops on beds, knee pillows and sofas. Inadvisable.
I’m helping lawyers with this common workforce complaint, assisting their company. Try a standing desk. Why not pop a treadmill under it?!
Charge Up With A Power Nap
Monitoring your health stats with a device? You’ll discover a short, day-time nap improves productivity, rests your heart and lowers blood pressure.
Plug in to the power of The Nap! Set an alarm so you remove fear of oversleeping, lie down in a darkened room for 20-40 minutes, and give yourself permission to drift off.
Pre-warn colleagues not to interrupt you. Use any office furniture available. Put your feet up, chair back, and I recommend an eye mask, noise-cancelling headphones and soothing music. Breathwork also achieves a relaxed state.
Napping often induces Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep when the subconscious becomes active and re-orders our thinking. So, power naps can increase creativity and calm your busy mind between meetings.
Naps won’t interrupt quality sleep later. However, if you snooze over 40 minutes, you risk eroding deep sleep at night-time. Sweet dreams!
Come On, Step Up!
Over-working induces fatigue. To boost energy, increase your step count, ideally in your commute or before you start work at home.
Office-workers using transport, alight a couple of stops early, briskly walking the rest of the way. Aim for 10,000 steps daily. Many of us do less.
Workers at home, take walk before computer-time to increase blood flow to the brain, heart and fire up your metabolism.
Flying? Use airport escalators, travelators and staircases to increase steps and reduce risk of blood clots.
Got a business and health-related question for Dr Ben? Why not email him on drben@businessinfluencer.co.uk