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How Stressed Are You?

Quote of the Month

“It’s not stress that kills us, it’s our body’s reaction to it”

I always ask my clients how well they handle stress.

Not surprisingly, many say they’re okay.

I personally, know that’s really not the case. The problem is, how to get people to understand ‘stress’ properly!

Ironically, I watched a webinar the other day about stress by a fellow Nutritionist, Lorene. It explained stress in a new way…very good! I’ve summarized some of the key points below, so that hopefully, you can understand stress properly and whether you’re ‘really’ affected by it.

First of all, stress feels emotional, but it’s really a physiological process. In other words, it’s something out of your control.

People assume that in order to be stressed, you have to feel it.

This is not true.

Being busy in either a good or a bad way both cause stress. For example, exercising (physical) versus, work deadline (mental) stress. Both scenarios increase your cortisol levels.

Stress is involves the entire body and can produce a multitude of symptoms. This is why many people don’t realize their symptoms are stress related.

If people are stressed, they’re in fight or flight mode.  When someone is in fight or flight, they’ll

  • be more alert
  • have more energy
  • burn sugar not fat, causing drops in blood sugar triggering the need for stimulants, which then raises blood sugar too quickly creating a vicious cycle

The longer you’re awake during the day, the longer your cortisol levels remain high…so what’s the catch?  You won’t see it as stress; especially if you don’t feel stressed.

Researchers found that there are 2 ways we respond to stress –

  1. “fight or flight” – stop any process that isn’t essential and get ready to defend or run away
  2. “tend and befriend” – protect loved ones (tend) and befriend others to get protection from the group

The other KEY point to be aware of, is that the feeling of anxiety, panic or stress is random! It doesn’t have to happen at the time of the event!

Here are some key things that you can do to help manage stress better:

  1. Practice awareness – pay attention to how and when you react
  2. Supplement with the following:
    1. Support the liver (Dandelion, Milk Thistle)
    2. Support the gut with probiotics (Physica Flora Syntropy)
    3. Normalize your blood sugar – complex carbs, chromium, true cinnamon
    4. Support nervous system – Omega 3’s in the form of Seal (Auum oil only), B and C vitamins, Magnesium, take adaptogenic herbs and adrenal glandulars

Did You Know

  • Meditation helps lower cortisol
  • Vacations help stress even more!
  • Adrenaline is more associated with IBS and Cortisol more associated with Crohn’s
  • People disengage mentally and behaviourally during a flight response