Boosting Healthcare Workers
Since the beginning of the pandemic, healthcare workers have been working tirelessly, often forgoing their own needs to bring care and wellbeing to the ill, the broken, the elderly, and the endangered. The sacrifices of care home staff, nurses, doctors, support staff, and first responders are a large part of how we will overcome the challenges of COVID-19 and emerge healthier and stronger.
Being a healthcare worker comes with a very unique set of challenges, including long shifts (often stretching past the 12-hour mark) as well as day and night time rotations. Lengthy hours and interrupted sleep schedules can cause havoc on the human body. Night shifts have been shown to increase the risk of breast cancer, heart attacks, depression, and the chance of workplace injuries. Shift workers are also more likely to see changes to their metabolism, which likely plays a role in higher obesity and diabetes rates among those on the night shift.
Too much caffeine is a bad thing
Combating shift work side effects leads many in the healthcare field to reach for heavily caffeinated beverages to keep them moving. Unfortunately, heavy caffeine intake can cause more problems than it solves.
Loading up on coffee during the workday seems like a logical choice, however, too much caffeine can lead to anxiety, dehydration, increased heart rate, bladder problems, muscle breakdown (known as rhabdomyolysis), digestive issues, insomnia (something no shift worker wants to deal with), and fatigue (the dreaded caffeine crash).
The situation can be further exacerbated when consuming sugary energy drinks, which contain even more caffeine than the average cup of coffee, along with massive amounts of sugar.
Lifestyle changes make a difference
So what can our healthcare heroes do to stay healthy and alert while helping others?
A healthy diet, rich in easy-to-digest foods will help to promote digestion, especially when combined with plenty of water. The digestive problems that shift workers encounter can be balanced by smart meal planning with the right nutrients, helping one to sleep when they need to sleep and be alert when it matters.
Regular exercise and an active lifestyle also promote better sleep cycles. While staying active is not a problem for many hard-working nurses and healthcare staff, long periods behind the wheel or sitting at a desk won’t help with getting sleep when it's needed.
Made for pilots, works for everyone
PilotsFriend was created by NATO pilots to help them stay alert and healthy in high-stress situations. As we explained earlier, too much caffeine can lead to shakiness and anxiety, which can result in the pilot being grounded. As such, our story begins when a group of pilots sought a group of European bio-scientists and nutritionists to create a tonic that would give the perfect amounts of caffeine, while also offering other health benefits.
One can of PilotsFriend offers less than ⅓ of the amount of caffeine found in the average cup of coffee, which provides a subtle boost to any workday without any of the negative side effects or the dreaded crash.
Crafted with great yellow gentian, ginger, and cardamom, PilotsFriend also contains properties to promote healthy digestion for anyone on a long shift. It also contains quinine and black carrot, providing anti-inflammatories to help sore muscles and tired joints.
PilotsFriend also gives a serious immunity boost, via the antioxidants and vitamins present in apple, lemon, orange, cane sugar, acerola, and chokeberry. In the era of COVID, especially in the healthcare sector, it has never been more vital to have a strong defense against getting sick.
If you’re grinding away on night shifts and feel like making a healthy change, give PilotsFriend a try. It’s formulated for health and performance and is available in stores and online across Canada.