{"id":53191,"date":"2015-07-23T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-07-23T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/07\/23\/3-kickstarters-for-your-morning\/"},"modified":"2015-07-23T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-07-23T05:00:00","slug":"3-kickstarters-for-your-morning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/07\/23\/3-kickstarters-for-your-morning\/","title":{"rendered":"3 kickstarters for your morning"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nBy Michael Huckabee, Ph.D., professor and director of the University of Nebraska Medical Center Division of Physician Assistant Education.<\/em> Dr. Huckabee has more than 30 years’ experience as a physician assistant, mostly in rural Nebraska. His columns appear on <\/em>livewellnebraska.com<\/em><\/a>, a health and wellness website published by the Omaha World-Herald.<\/em><\/p>\n

\nSunrise Stooling<\/strong><\/p>\n

\nThe benefits of a morning seat on the throne has little research behind it, but many believe a regular morning bowel movement sets the stage for a good day. In any family practice clinic setting, I’ll wager that at least once a week a patient is seen with a concern about why their first-thing-in-the-morning bm isn’t happening. Harriet’s comment to me is memorable, "I can’t do anything until Bud’s parked his custard, no matter how long it takes."<\/p>\n

\nIf a morning number two is a necessity for your day, you have likely discovered that your cup of morning Joe helps. Turns out a little caffeine stimulates the bowel muscles in the lower colon. A small study<\/a> measured the muscle contractions in 12 healthy European subjects with a six-sensor probe inserted in their midtransverse colons. They were given Columbian coffee, decaffeinated coffee, water, and a meal in random order. While the meal not surprisingly triggered contractions in the intestinal muscles, the cup of caffeinated coffee gave a comparable effect, and was 23 percent stronger than the cup of decaf and 60 percent stronger than water.<\/p>\n

\nMorning Nookie<\/strong><\/p>\n

\nThe benefits of morning sex are underrated. It just makes sense that when we’re rested and fresh, the body is physiologically functioning at the top of its game. Several hormones, such as testosterone in men, are usually peaked in the morning. Having a go at it boosts levels of estrogen that improve the texture of skin and hair in women, and immunoglobulins are released that can protect against infection. The brain is wonderfully bathed by all kinds of hormones and endorphins that bring increased blood flow as well as pleasure.<\/p>\n

\nFears of morning breath can be quelled by a quick mouth rinse or tooth brushing; the minty flavors mix well in the moment. Concerns of appearance are equalized as bedhead is universal. The psychological benefits are manifested best in a relationship between faithful partners. If the safety of monogamy is at risk, a daybreak quickie may leave feelings of guilt and suspicion. In a secure relationship, the benefits of gaining a positive mood<\/a> lasting into the next day are clearly supported and not found by solo sex.<\/p>\n

\nWaking Happy<\/strong><\/p>\n

\nIt’s important to measure our first thoughts when we wake. As the sleepiness fades, it’s the easiest time to consciously focus our thinking. We should direct our first ideas of the day on the positive. This may be a two-minute meditation, a prayer, or a meaningful quote to dwell on. Nourishing our minds at the start of the day with ideas of peace, contentment and vigor can be seeds that sprout through the thousand and one weeds we’ll face later in the day.<\/p>\n

\nKeep in mind that meditation is not the end all answer. A review of 47 separate studies<\/a> including 3,500 participants showed that mindfulness meditation had a moderate improvement on anxiety, depression and pain, but a smaller effect on stress. This review did not find meditation helpful for those dealing with substance abuse, sleeping issues or dieting. While meditation may assist some, for other health issues it should be one component of a plan of therapy that your clinician can help with.<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Michael Huckabee, Ph.D., professor and director of the University of Nebraska Medical Center Division of Physician Assistant Education. Dr. Huckabee has more than 30 years’ experience as a physician assistant, mostly in rural Nebraska. His columns appear on livewellnebraska.com, a health and wellness website published by the Omaha World-Herald. Sunrise Stooling The benefits of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":44299,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","department-intercom"],"yoast_head":"\n3 kickstarters for your morning<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"By Michael Huckabee, Ph.D., professor and director of the University of Nebraska Medical Center Division of Physician Assistant Education. Dr. Huckabee\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/07\/23\/3-kickstarters-for-your-morning\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"3 kickstarters for your morning\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Michael Huckabee, Ph.D., professor and director of the University of Nebraska Medical Center Division of Physician Assistant Education. Dr. Huckabee\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/07\/23\/3-kickstarters-for-your-morning\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Newsroom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/unmcedu\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-07-23T05:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Huckabee.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"288\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tom O'Connor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@unmc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@unmc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tom O'Connor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/07\/23\/3-kickstarters-for-your-morning\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/07\/23\/3-kickstarters-for-your-morning\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Tom O'Connor\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/8171e6fec87d2b600ff48511fa418536\"},\"headline\":\"3 kickstarters for your morning\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-07-23T05:00:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/07\/23\/3-kickstarters-for-your-morning\/\"},\"wordCount\":603,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/07\/23\/3-kickstarters-for-your-morning\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Huckabee.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/07\/23\/3-kickstarters-for-your-morning\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/07\/23\/3-kickstarters-for-your-morning\/\",\"name\":\"3 kickstarters for your morning\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/07\/23\/3-kickstarters-for-your-morning\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/07\/23\/3-kickstarters-for-your-morning\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Huckabee.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-07-23T05:00:00+00:00\",\"description\":\"By Michael Huckabee, Ph.D., professor and director of the University of Nebraska Medical Center Division of Physician Assistant Education. Dr. Huckabee\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/07\/23\/3-kickstarters-for-your-morning\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/07\/23\/3-kickstarters-for-your-morning\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/07\/23\/3-kickstarters-for-your-morning\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Huckabee.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Huckabee.jpg\",\"width\":500,\"height\":288},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/07\/23\/3-kickstarters-for-your-morning\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"3 kickstarters for your morning\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/\",\"name\":\"Newsroom\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#organization\",\"name\":\"University of Nebraska Medical Center\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/overview-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/overview-1.png\",\"width\":500,\"height\":153,\"caption\":\"University of Nebraska Medical Center\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/unmcedu\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/unmc\",\"https:\/\/instagram.com\/iamunmc\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/UNMCEDU\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/8171e6fec87d2b600ff48511fa418536\",\"name\":\"Tom O'Connor\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/author\/35f4a8d465e6e1edc05f3d8ab658c551\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"3 kickstarters for your morning","description":"By Michael Huckabee, Ph.D., professor and director of the University of Nebraska Medical Center Division of Physician Assistant Education. Dr. Huckabee","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/07\/23\/3-kickstarters-for-your-morning\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"3 kickstarters for your morning","og_description":"By Michael Huckabee, Ph.D., professor and director of the University of Nebraska Medical Center Division of Physician Assistant Education. Dr. Huckabee","og_url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/07\/23\/3-kickstarters-for-your-morning\/","og_site_name":"Newsroom","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/unmcedu","article_published_time":"2015-07-23T05:00:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":500,"height":288,"url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Huckabee.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Tom O'Connor","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@unmc","twitter_site":"@unmc","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Tom O'Connor","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/07\/23\/3-kickstarters-for-your-morning\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/07\/23\/3-kickstarters-for-your-morning\/"},"author":{"name":"Tom O'Connor","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/8171e6fec87d2b600ff48511fa418536"},"headline":"3 kickstarters for your morning","datePublished":"2015-07-23T05:00:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/07\/23\/3-kickstarters-for-your-morning\/"},"wordCount":603,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/07\/23\/3-kickstarters-for-your-morning\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Huckabee.jpg","inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/07\/23\/3-kickstarters-for-your-morning\/","url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/07\/23\/3-kickstarters-for-your-morning\/","name":"3 kickstarters for your morning","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/07\/23\/3-kickstarters-for-your-morning\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/07\/23\/3-kickstarters-for-your-morning\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Huckabee.jpg","datePublished":"2015-07-23T05:00:00+00:00","description":"By Michael Huckabee, Ph.D., professor and director of the University of Nebraska Medical Center Division of Physician Assistant Education. Dr. Huckabee","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/07\/23\/3-kickstarters-for-your-morning\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/07\/23\/3-kickstarters-for-your-morning\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/07\/23\/3-kickstarters-for-your-morning\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Huckabee.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Huckabee.jpg","width":500,"height":288},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/07\/23\/3-kickstarters-for-your-morning\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"3 kickstarters for your morning"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/","name":"Newsroom","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#organization","name":"University of Nebraska Medical Center","url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/overview-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/overview-1.png","width":500,"height":153,"caption":"University of Nebraska Medical Center"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/unmcedu","https:\/\/x.com\/unmc","https:\/\/instagram.com\/iamunmc","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/UNMCEDU"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/8171e6fec87d2b600ff48511fa418536","name":"Tom O'Connor","url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/author\/35f4a8d465e6e1edc05f3d8ab658c551\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/78"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}