Welcome to The Rise – your weekly dose of circadian sunshine, decentralised health wisdom, and actionable tips to help you live healthier, stronger, and more empowered.

Get healthier and stronger this week by learning all about:

• The kitchen closing time that protects your heart overnight
• Which exercise study just outperformed antidepressants in 57,930 people
• What your Mondayitis and hair have in common
• And everything you need to know about the hormone quietly running the show behind the scenes. Hint: it’s cortisol and it’s not the enemy.

Have suggestions — or something you’d love to see covered here? Help me better serve this vibrant community of health rebels and send me your feedback here.

Much love and sunshine, ☀️
Sandy xx

P.S. Don’t keep The Rise a secret. If you know someone who needs this issue — pass it on. 🤍

Issue #109 • 1 March, 2026

🌅 Rise Report

Close the Kitchen 3 Hours Before Bed — For Your Heart’s Sake

Here’s a small habit with an outsized payoff. Researchers at Northwestern University just published findings that could change up your evening routine — and it has nothing to do with what you eat, only when you stop.

The study followed adults at elevated risk for cardiometabolic disease (think blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease) and asked one sample group to stop eating at least three hours before bed and dim their lights at the same time. Nobody was asked to cut calories or change what they eat.

After just 7.5 weeks: nighttime blood pressure dropped 3.5%, heart rate fell 5%, and blood sugar control improved significantly. Most beautifully, participants’ heart rate and blood pressure followed a stronger natural rhythm — rising during the day and falling properly at night, exactly the way your body is designed to work.

“Timing our fasting window to work with the body’s natural wake-sleep rhythms can improve the coordination between the heart, metabolism and sleep, all of which work together to protect cardiovascular health.” — Dr. Daniela Grimaldi, lead author

The takeaway? Close your kitchen three hours before you sleep tonight and step away from the fridge. Dim those lights at the same time, and you’ll be already ahead of most people. This is not a matter of restricting food – it’s about restoring your body’s natural rhythm. Your heart resets overnight. You just need to let it.

Exercise Just Beat Antidepressants. Again. In the Biggest Study Ever.

If a pharmaceutical company developed a treatment that worked as well as (or better) than antidepressants, was free, had zero negative side effects, and also improved heart health, bone density, and longevity simultaneously, it would be a sell out and front-page news. Well, that treatment exists. And it’s called movement.

A sweeping umbrella review just published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine — pulled together 800 individual studies and 57,930 participants aged 10 to 90. It found that exercise consistently reduced symptoms of both depression and anxiety, often matching or outperforming medication and talk therapy across every age group.

Every type of exercise worked – from dancing to swimming, from walking to roller-skating (if that’s your thing!). But the standout finding was, aerobic exercise in a supervised or group settings produced the greatest benefits for depression. Which makes sense. We are social creatures and who hasn’t had a little chuckle with a friend whilst downward dogging?

The decentralised wisdom? Simple – just move your body. Ideally outside and ideally with others.

(Note: If you’re currently on antidepressants, please don’t stop them without the guidance of a trusted healthcare professional. This research is a powerful conversation to take into your next appointment.)

Your Mondayitis Is Literally Changing Your Brain Chemistry

Here’s something that might make you feel both validated and slightly alarmed. Or it may just get you singing Boomtown Rats all day…”I Don’t Like Mondays”…

Researchers at the University of Hong Kong found that people who feel anxious on Mondays carry a measurable biological signature of that anxiety for months afterwards.

They measured cortisol in participants’ hair — which is a window into cumulative stress over the past two months, not just a snapshot of today. People who reported Monday-specific anxiety had cortisol levels 23% higher in their hair samples than those who felt equally anxious on other days. And here’s another kicker: the effect was just as strong in retirees. This isn’t about your job. It’s about how deeply society’s calendar has been wired into your stress physiology.

Researchers described Mondays as a cultural “stress amplifier”, and linked this biological pattern to the well-documented 19% spike in heart attacks that occurs every Monday morning.

The decentralised wisdom? Given the fact we can’t suddenly erase Mondays or call in sick every week, we need to develop tools to overcome this physiological change.

Rather than trying to “push through” or “think positive”, the goal is to protect your Sunday evenings fiercely, start Mondays slowly and gently, and give your nervous system a real signal of safety before the week begins. And if Mondays really are causing you that much stress and angst – perhaps that’s a clear sign that something needs to change – for your hair and health’s sake!

Cortisol

Let’s talk about the hormone that everyone loves to hate, and that gets blamed for everything, belly fat, burnout, anxiety, insomnia, but is also completely essential to your survival and your ability to function. Cortisol has a serious PR problem. And once you understand what it’s actually designed to do, you’ll start to see it very differently.

Cortisol is a hormone produced by your adrenal glands, two small walnut-shaped organs that sit on top of each kidney. The common message and understanding out there on the street seems to be this: cortisol high = bad. But that’s where most people go wrong: cortisol is supposed to be high in the morning.

Within 30–45 minutes of waking, cortisol naturally surges — this is called your Cortisol Awakening Response — and it’s your body’s built-in get-up-and-go system. It mobilises glucose, sharpens your focus, primes your immune response, and gets you ready to take on the day and kick butt (calmly of course). Throughout the day it should gradually decline, reaching its lowest point at night so your body can do its repair work while you sleep. When this rhythm is working, cortisol is genuinely one of your most powerful allies.

But something has gone wrong. In our “always on” society with constant pinging and demands, the problem isn’t cortisol. It’s chronic cortisol, and when your body gets stuck in high-alert mode because modern life keeps sending unresolved danger signals. Traffic. Deadlines. Financial worry. A phone that never stops.

When cortisol stays elevated day after day, something remarkable and alarming happens in your brain: the hippocampus — responsible for memory and learning — begins to physically shrink. At the same time, the amygdala, your brain’s fear and threat-detection centre, begins to grow. Chronic stress literally rewires your brain to think less clearly and feel more afraid.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. You are in control of your cortisol button more than you know. Keep reading to discover how to calm things down, naturally.

🔢 Number Crunch

20 seconds: Sustained hugs (around 15–30 seconds) increase oxytocin, supporting feelings of joy, calm, connection and safety. Wanna hug?

The information in this newsletter is for educational purposes only and not intended as medical advice. Always consult with a healthcare professional for personal health decisions. This post may contain affiliate links, and I may earn a small commission if you make a purchase, at no extra cost to you.