Stress
natural remedy, herbs vitamins, food
How to ease it naturally with diet and
supplements
April 5 2018 by
Ray Sahelian, M.D.
Stress is the disruption of our mental and physical balance through physical or psychological stimuli. Stressful stimuli can be mental, physiological, anatomical or physical reactions. In this article I will review natural ways to deal with stress through dietary supplements, vitamins, foods, and diet. The term 'stress' in this context was coined by Austro-Canadian endocrinologist Hans Selye, who defined the General Adaptation Syndrome in 1936.
Dietary
supplements
There are a number of natural
supplements that could help reduce stress. Some of these include Hydroxytryptophan, also known as
5-HTP, the serotonin precursor;
theanine the amino acid,
kava, an herb from the South Pacific; and Passion Flower, a gentle herb that helps you relax. Some people prefer
an herb used in Ayurvedic medicine such as the herb
ashwagandha. Consider reading about the
function of the
adrenal glands in the body since these glands have a strong influence
on the stress response. See also information and natural treatment of
anxiety disorders.
Pharmacol Biochem Behav. 2013. Anti-stress effect of theanine on students during pharmacy practice: positive correlation among salivary α-amylase activity, trait anxiety and subjective stress. Theanine, an amino acid in tea, has significant anti-stress effect on experimental animals under psychosocial stress. Anti-stress effect of theanine on humans was evaluated in 5th-year university students during pharmacy practice. Theanine or placebo (lactose) tablets (200 mg, twice a day, after breakfast and lunch) were taken from 1 week prior to the pharmacy practice and continued for 10 days in the practice period. Results suggest that theanine intake suppressed initial stress response of students assigned for a long-term commitment of pharmacy practice.
Stress is common to everyone. Our bodies
are designed to feel it and react to it. It keeps us alert and ready
to avoid danger. But it is not always possible to avoid or change events
and it is easy to feel trapped and unable to cope.
When stress persists, it can affect the body and illnesses can occur.
The key to coping is to identify stressors in your life and
learn ways to direct and reduce them. Learning an effective means of
relaxation and using it regularly is a good first step. Allow yourself
some "quiet time," even if it's just a few minutes. Examine and modify
your thinking, particularly unrealistic expectations. Talking problems
out with a friend or family member can help put things in proper
perspective.
Keep a positive attitude.
Believe in yourself.
Accept that there are events you cannot control.
Be assertive instead of aggressive. "Assert" your feelings, opinions, or
beliefs instead of becoming angry, combative, or passive.
Exercise regularly. Your body can fight stress better when it is
fit.
Eat well-balanced meals.
Limit or avoid use of
alcohol and caffeine.
Get enough
rest and sleep. Your body needs time to recover from stressful events.
Learn to use stress
management techniques and coping mechanisms, such as deep breathing or
guided imagery.
Consequences of excess stress include
Overeating leading to obesity. The urge to chow down on sweets and
fast food at stressful times is common. Female first-year college students from
Germany, Poland and Bulgaria all reported eating more of these types of foods if
they felt stressed out, and fewer fruits and vegetables, Dr. Rafael T.
Mikolajczyk of the University of Bielefeld in Germany reports in Nutrition
Journal, 2009.
Stress can slow a metabolism and lead to weight gain.
Immune system malfunction, making us more susceptible to colds and various
infections. Certain germs or immune cells fighting these germs can
potentially cross the blood-brain barrier and damage brain cells. Lack of
sleep significantly interferes with proper immune function.
Stress increases the risk for heart disease, high blood pressure, and stroke. Chronic
damage to arteries leading to the brain can decrease blood flow to vital
systems. There is a type of brain deterioration called multi infarct
dementia that occurs when frequent small clots travel to the brain and
limit the blood supply to brain cells. Tiny strokes that go unnoticed can,
over the long run, damage a number of areas in the brain. When enough
damage occurs, noticeable signs of mental malfunction become apparent. A
large blood clot can cause a blockage of a major artery incapacitating a
wide segment of the brain thus causing a major stroke.
Patients with coronary heart disease who have both depression and
stress are at increased risk of myocardial infarction and death.
May elevate blood sugar levels. Adv Surg. 201. Stress-induced hyperglycemia: is it harmful following trauma?
Psychological trauma may leave a visible trace in a
child's brain. Children with symptoms of post-traumatic stress have poor
function in the part of the brain that stores memories.
Stress leads to higher likelihood for chronic fatigue and various musculoskeletal aches
and pains. These chronic conditions can lead to low mood and can
necessitate the use of painkillers that can have detrimental effects on
brain function.
Luckily we can do something about stress by attempting to channel our
thoughts into a more positive direction. Some of the stress we encounter
is self-induced or self-aggravated. While stuck in traffic, we can boil
with frustration or we can turn on the radio and hum along with the songs.
Some of our daily stress is not necessarily due to external circumstances.
Rather it is due to our underdeveloped coping skills. How we handle stress
is often more important than the nature of the stress. Does every little
thing throughout the day that doesn't go according to your plans upset
you, or do you calmly adapt to unplanned situations?
The first step in dealing with stress is to identify its source. The next step is to take specific action to relieve or eliminate the source. Take a moment now, or later, to list any sources of stress in your life in a private journal. Beside each entry write down how you plan to deal with that stressor. There are times when life is cruel, and our load is so heavy, that we just want to sit and cry. That's perfectly okay. Crying helps to wash away toxic chemicals and hormones built up during stress, which in turn improves mood. It's healthy to cry once in a while.
Ways to Reduce Stress
There are many ways to relieve stress: vacations, playing with pets,
improving sleep and physical health, finding satisfying work, consulting
with an understanding friend or family member, establishing financial
security, and participating in exercise, sports, yoga, prayer, or
meditation.
Daily meditation might slightly help some people relieve anxiety, depression and pain, Johns Hopkins University researchers report online Jan. 6, 2014 in JAMA Internal Medicine. Researchers reviewed 47 prior studies that looked at meditation's effect on various conditions that included substance abuse, eating habits, sleep, pain and weight in addition to depression and anxiety. Meditation while walking may be a better option.
Dietary supplements, vitamins, herbs
If all of the above suggestions are not enough to
relieve your stress, you can temporarily use certain natural supplements
available over the counter to help you ease your tension. The most
effective ones are the herb kava, the amino acid theanine, and the nutrient 5-HTP, the direct
precursor to the brain chemical serotonin which helps with relaxation and
sleep. The B vitamins, in low dosages, are also very good in helping us
build resistance to stress. Many other nutrients, such as methyl donors, mind energizers, and certain herbs such as
ginseng can improve energy levels and well-being and hence make it easier
to deal with everyday stress but use low dosages since taking too much can
cause anxiety.
Phytomedicine. 2018. Effects of a fixed herbal drug combination (Ze 185) to an experimental acute stress setting in healthy men - An explorative randomized placebo-controlled double-blind study. The present study examines the effects of a fixed combination of valerian, passion flower, lemon balm, and butterbur extracts (Ze 185) on biological and affective responses to a standardized psychosocial stress paradigm. The results show that Ze 185 attenuated the subjective emotional stress response during an acute stress situation, without affecting biological stress responses.
Avoid drinking sodas or drinking a lot of coffee or caffeinated drinks, they cause anxiety and poor sleep.
Who is commonly at risk?
Women, people with chronic medical conditions, the poor and those
without health insurance are more likely to struggle with serious
psychological distress.
Stress and asthma
It is known that stress exacerbates the symptoms of asthma in
children, but the biological reason for this has been unknown. Now,
scientists in Canada have discovered that a stressful home life diminishes
the expression of certain proteins on the surface of cells that regulate
airway responses and inflammation. Researchers interviewed 39 children
with asthma and 38 healthy children, ages 9 to 18, regarding acute and
chronic stress over the preceding 6 months. Blood specimens were obtained
to measure levels of the so-called glucocorticoid receptor and
beta-2-adrenergic receptor. In general, children with asthma expressed
higher levels of beta-2-adrenergic receptor and glucocorticoid receptor
than did healthy children. However, the researchers found that asthmatic
children exposed to chronic stress, such as abrasive family relationships
or an unstable home environment, expressed less beta-2 than those not
exposed to chronic stress, whereas healthy children expressed more. Major
life events alone did not affect expression of these proteins in either
group of children.
Work stress danger
Stress at work has been linked with heart disease and diabetes, but the biological processes
were unclear. A study provides new evidence for the biological plausibility
of the link between work stress and heart disease.
Researchers examined the association between work stress and the metabolic
syndrome (a cluster of factors that increases the risk of heart disease and type
2 diabetes) in 10,308 British civil servants aged between 35 and 55, over a 14
year period.
Work stress was measured on four occasions between 1985 and 1999. Components of
the metabolic syndrome, such as obesity, high blood pressure, and high
cholesterol levels, were measured between 1997 and 1999. Social position and
health damaging behaviours, such as smoking, heavy alcohol consumption, and lack
of exercise, were also recorded.
A dose-response relation was found between exposure to job stress and the
metabolic syndrome, even after adjusting for other risk factors. For example,
men with chronic work stress were nearly twice as likely to develop the syndrome
than those with no exposure to work stress. Women with chronic work stress were
also more likely to have the syndrome, but they formed a small group.
Both men and women from lower employment grades were more likely to have the
syndrome, confirming previous reports that the syndrome has a social gradient.
The association between the metabolic syndrome and exposure to health damaging
behaviors was stronger among men than women. Poor diet (no fruit and vegetable
consumption), smoking, heavy alcohol consumption, and physical inactivity were
all associated with higher odds of the syndrome.
Despite some study limitations, a dose-response relation exists between exposure
to work stress and the metabolic syndrome, even after other risk factors are
taken into account, say the authors.
One possible explanation is that prolonged exposure to work stress may affect
the nervous system. Alternatively, chronic stress may reduce biological
resilience and thus disturb the body's physiological balance (homoeostasis).
When workplace difficulties, such as a difficult boss, spills over
into your personal life, your family's well-being can also suffer.
Sick
Building Syndrome?
Work-related stress, rather than building conditions, may be what's
behind the constellation of symptoms known as "sick building syndrome."
In a study of more than 4,000 government employees in England, high job
demands and perceptions of poor support were more closely related to
sick-building symptoms than were the physical conditions of the workplace.
The findings suggest that "sick building syndrome" may in fact be a
misnomer
Job Stress and Drug Abuse
Young workers who feel high stress on the job may be at increased
risk of using drugs. In a survey of nearly 1,000 young adults, researchers
found that those who reported high job strain when they were first
interviewed for the study were more likely to have started abusing
marijuana, cocaine, heroin or other drugs one year later. Specifically,
"low control" jobs, where workers have little leeway in how to accomplish
their tasks, were linked to a higher risk of
drug abuse.
Stress and War
Nearly one in 10 American soldiers who served in Iraq are diagnosed
with post-traumatic stress disorder, most after witnessing death or
participating in combat.
Feelings of confusion, difficulty concentrating and
memory lapses are fairly common among a sample of U.S. soldiers examined
after they returned from wartime duty in Iraq. While the majority of
veterans may not be afflicted with the flashbacks and dark moods
associated with post-traumatic stress disorder, unwelcome psychological
changes affected many returning soldiers. Several often "subtle" changes
in mental function can occur among U.S. Army veterans. Deployment effects
on sustained attention, learning and memory following Iraq deployment
cannot be attributed to pre-existing dysfunction.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
Nearly one in 10 U.S. soldiers who served in Iraq suffered from
post-traumatic stress - a disorder that can lead to nightmares, flashbacks
and delusional thinking.
Subtle neurologic deficits appear to predispose some individuals to the development of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) related to combat experiences. Neurologic soft signs include mild impairments such as altered sense of direction, difficulty identifying objects by sight or touch, difficulty in performing specific tasks and impaired reflexes. Combat veterans with PTSD have higher neurologic soft sign scores than veterans without PTSD. The conclusion is that subtle neurologic dysfunction in PTSD patients is not associated with PTSD-related brain damage, but instead represents a family vulnerability factor, which was there before exposure to the traumatic combat events. Archives of General Psychiatry, May 2006.
Stress natural remedy
questions
I work at a very stressful job and I even get muscle twitches around the eyes.
The stress causes me too wake up at night and I'm unable to get back to
sleep because my brain is racing about work. This lack of restful sleep
further compounds the problem. I'm wondering if SAM-e supplement would be
a good OTC supplement as a natural stress remedy to help manage the stress
and help me get a better nights sleep?
It is possible that low dosages of SAM-e supplement, at 50 mg
taken in the morning, may be helpful, but higher dosages of SAM-e
supplement can cause anxiety and alertness late into the night that can
cause insomnia.
If you are under a great deal of stress that HRT
hormone replacement therapy will not work?
A lot of stress can have a wide variety of effects on the body
including medications not to work as well.
One pill touted as a natural
remedy for stress
includes the following nutrients and herbs
Vitamin C (ascorbic acid)
Vitamin B-1 (thiamine hydrochloride)
Vitamin B-2 (riboflavin)
Niacinamide
Vitamin B-6 (pyridoxine hydrochloride
Folic acid
Vitamin B-12 (cyanocobalamin concentrate)
d-Biotin
Pantothenic Acid (d-calcium pantothenate)
Magnesium (gluconate)
Choline (bitrate)
Inositol powder
PABA (para aminobenzoic acid)
Kava Kava Root Extract (30% kavaloctones)
St-Johns Wort (0.3% hypericine) Hypericum perforatum
Hops Flower Powder (flower)
What is the right dosage of
withania somnifera for
relaxation and stress reduction?
One could begin with 500 mg of the regular powder in the
evening and base future dosage on the initial response.
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