Categories
Site Menu
- Home
- Health
- Specific Health Problems
- Physical and Psychological Approaches to Stress
Physical and Psychological Approaches to Stress
- By Steven H Horne
- Published February 9, 2008
- Specific Health Problems
- Unrated
Natural Remedies for Stress
upplements for Stress
I don’t want to spend a lot of time here discussing supplements for stress. However, I do need to cover the basics.
Most herbs that help the body relax are going to inhibit the sympathetic nervous system and/or stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system. So, all our standard nervine formulas can be used to help reduce stress levels by helping us to “unwind.” These include Stress-J, Nerve Control, Nerve Eight, Chinese Stress Relief and Herbal Sleep. Any of these can be good combinations to take at the end of a long, hard, stress-filled day. They’re work better than a “night-cap” and are a lot healthier, too.
For really chronic stress, however, we need adaptagens. Adaptagens reduce the output of stress hormones from the adrenals. Eleuthero Root was the first one discovered. I’ve taken it off and on during periods of stress and found it to be very helpful. Adaptamax, Mineral Chi tonic and Suma Combination are all good adaptagenic combinations. If you feel like you’re under a lot of stress, I highly recommend them.
Cortisol is an important hormone in this stress cascade. It is one of the glucocorticoids produced by the adrenals which help to regulate blood sugar. It also dampens inflammation. So, in one way it is part of the healing process. Too little cortisol and inflammation runs rampant. Too much and the immune system is depressed. Too much cortisol and you also gain weight, which is what happened to me when I went through that seven-year period of intense stress.
When cortisol levels are high, as in acutely stressful conditions where you feel “all wound up,” Nature’s Cortisol can help. It has adaptagenic effects and helps reduce cortisol output from the adrenals.
In spite of the negative effects of excess levels of cortisol, it isn’t “a nasty little hormone” as some TV commercials have suggested. When cortisol levels are too low you’ll get chronic inflammation (as in autoimmune disorders, asthma, chronic fatigue, etc.) Here, yucca, licorice and wild yam can all be used to support the adrenals and reduce the inflammation. Nature’s Cortisol should be avoided when the cortisol levels are low because it reduces rather than enhances cortisol.
When the stress has really gotten to you, and your adrenals are beginning to get exhausted, you’ll find Nervous Fatigue Formula or Adrenal Support to be indispensable. The first signs of “burn-out” are disturbed dreams and restless sleep. Later, you start to feel tired during the day, but toss and turn all night long, waking up frequently. You’ll feel confused, moody, lose your memory and feel “unable to cope.”
When I was going through some severely stressful periods a few years ago Nervous Fatigue Formula saved my sanity. Later, Adrenal Support really helped me rebuilt.
Like I said, all this nutritional stuff is covered in a lot more detail in this month’s Sunshine Sharing and Herbal Hour Video. So, what I really want to talk about now is the physiological aspect of stress.
Is It All In Your Mind?
Last month, when my son and I went to the Whole Foods Expo in Anaheim, California, we went a day early and went to Disneyland and the new California Adventure park. Space Mountain, Tower of Terror, etc. and we had a blast. What’s interesting is that all these amusement park rides are causing the release of the same hormones we associate with stress. Yet, it was fun!
The same is true for rock climbing, hang gliding, surfing, riding motorcycles and so forth. People do this because it gets “stress” hormones pumping in their bodies and they love it.
It’s also interesting that the body reacts the same way to an imagined experience as it does to a real experience. The same chemicals are released. So, when we watch an action-adventure or horror film we get the same chemical response as when we ride a roller coaster. In both cases we’re “flirting” with danger. On the roller coaster, our senses tell us we’re in “danger” but we know we’re really not, and we have the same experience in the movie theater.
So, it’s quite obvious that people can actually enjoy the physiological effects of stress. That’s because stress hormones can help us feel good. They give us energy and can even create a kind of internal “high.” If we don’t produce enough of them, then we feel tired and depressed. So, as with any other aspect of health, balance is the key.
But, let’s go back to that perception thing. Remember that an imaginary experience can cause the same physical stress response as a real experience. That’s why what is stressful for one person can be fun for another. It really depends on the attitude and perceptions of the person.
My gardening is hard work, but it’s relaxing to me. It reduces my stress level. Now, if I hated the outdoors and hated getting dirty and I was forced to do gardening, I would have an entirely different reaction wouldn’t I? So, it isn’t just the activity or event itself that causes stress, it’s our perception of it. Anxiety and excitement create the basically the same chemical reactions in the body, but one is perceived as enjoyable and the other as negative.
So, what really creates the reaction we call stress is when we perceive that something is “bad” and we mentally resist it. Taking the same situation and thinking, “Okay, I don’t like this, but I’m going to make the best of it,” takes most of the stress out of it.
Furthermore, you’ll note that we don’t put “stress” as a root cause of disease on the Disease Tree model. Instead, we say, “unresolved mental and emotional stress.” It’s the stressful events and situations that we are unable to resolve and let go of that really cause us to get sick. It’s the stuff that happened 10 years ago that we still get upset about when we think about it.
So, if we change our perception of something we can actually take a lot of the stress out of it. For example, we could fuss and fume about a traffic jam, or we could decide, “hey, this is a great time to relax” and put on some nice music or a motivational program. In other words, stuff isn’t just happening to us, we are assigning meaning to the stuff that is happening to us. And, if we assign a negative meaning to any event in our life, it will cause us stress. If we chose (and we can chose) to see the event in a different light, the stress can be defused.
My father in his 50s and 60s could outwork me with I was in my teens and early 20s. In fact, he could outwork most men who were 20-30 years younger than he was. He shared with me his secret. He said he stayed relaxed, but just picked up the pace. He said that when you tense up, you get tired faster.
So, when faced with a stressful event, we have a choice. We can fuss, fume, stew and otherwise resist what is happening, OR we can take a deep breath, allow ourselves to relax and just take things one step at a time. Doing the former will give us an ulcer or worse, doing the later will keep our mind clear, our body primed for action, and have us doing our best to resolve the situation. The choice is ours.
In fact, when I practice what my now deceased chiropractor Michael Brenay said, and practice having a “gratitude attitude,” stressful situations rapidly diminish into manageable situations. When one is grateful, it dissolves resistance, and that dissolves tension, which dissipates stress. And that keeps us healthy, physically and emotionally. So, as Dr. Brenay would say, “Glide down the glory road of life with a gratitude attitude.”
I don’t want to spend a lot of time here discussing supplements for stress. However, I do need to cover the basics.
Most herbs that help the body relax are going to inhibit the sympathetic nervous system and/or stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system. So, all our standard nervine formulas can be used to help reduce stress levels by helping us to “unwind.” These include Stress-J, Nerve Control, Nerve Eight, Chinese Stress Relief and Herbal Sleep. Any of these can be good combinations to take at the end of a long, hard, stress-filled day. They’re work better than a “night-cap” and are a lot healthier, too.
For really chronic stress, however, we need adaptagens. Adaptagens reduce the output of stress hormones from the adrenals. Eleuthero Root was the first one discovered. I’ve taken it off and on during periods of stress and found it to be very helpful. Adaptamax, Mineral Chi tonic and Suma Combination are all good adaptagenic combinations. If you feel like you’re under a lot of stress, I highly recommend them.
Cortisol is an important hormone in this stress cascade. It is one of the glucocorticoids produced by the adrenals which help to regulate blood sugar. It also dampens inflammation. So, in one way it is part of the healing process. Too little cortisol and inflammation runs rampant. Too much and the immune system is depressed. Too much cortisol and you also gain weight, which is what happened to me when I went through that seven-year period of intense stress.
When cortisol levels are high, as in acutely stressful conditions where you feel “all wound up,” Nature’s Cortisol can help. It has adaptagenic effects and helps reduce cortisol output from the adrenals.
In spite of the negative effects of excess levels of cortisol, it isn’t “a nasty little hormone” as some TV commercials have suggested. When cortisol levels are too low you’ll get chronic inflammation (as in autoimmune disorders, asthma, chronic fatigue, etc.) Here, yucca, licorice and wild yam can all be used to support the adrenals and reduce the inflammation. Nature’s Cortisol should be avoided when the cortisol levels are low because it reduces rather than enhances cortisol.
When the stress has really gotten to you, and your adrenals are beginning to get exhausted, you’ll find Nervous Fatigue Formula or Adrenal Support to be indispensable. The first signs of “burn-out” are disturbed dreams and restless sleep. Later, you start to feel tired during the day, but toss and turn all night long, waking up frequently. You’ll feel confused, moody, lose your memory and feel “unable to cope.”
When I was going through some severely stressful periods a few years ago Nervous Fatigue Formula saved my sanity. Later, Adrenal Support really helped me rebuilt.
Like I said, all this nutritional stuff is covered in a lot more detail in this month’s Sunshine Sharing and Herbal Hour Video. So, what I really want to talk about now is the physiological aspect of stress.
Is It All In Your Mind?
Last month, when my son and I went to the Whole Foods Expo in Anaheim, California, we went a day early and went to Disneyland and the new California Adventure park. Space Mountain, Tower of Terror, etc. and we had a blast. What’s interesting is that all these amusement park rides are causing the release of the same hormones we associate with stress. Yet, it was fun!
The same is true for rock climbing, hang gliding, surfing, riding motorcycles and so forth. People do this because it gets “stress” hormones pumping in their bodies and they love it.
It’s also interesting that the body reacts the same way to an imagined experience as it does to a real experience. The same chemicals are released. So, when we watch an action-adventure or horror film we get the same chemical response as when we ride a roller coaster. In both cases we’re “flirting” with danger. On the roller coaster, our senses tell us we’re in “danger” but we know we’re really not, and we have the same experience in the movie theater.
So, it’s quite obvious that people can actually enjoy the physiological effects of stress. That’s because stress hormones can help us feel good. They give us energy and can even create a kind of internal “high.” If we don’t produce enough of them, then we feel tired and depressed. So, as with any other aspect of health, balance is the key.
But, let’s go back to that perception thing. Remember that an imaginary experience can cause the same physical stress response as a real experience. That’s why what is stressful for one person can be fun for another. It really depends on the attitude and perceptions of the person.
My gardening is hard work, but it’s relaxing to me. It reduces my stress level. Now, if I hated the outdoors and hated getting dirty and I was forced to do gardening, I would have an entirely different reaction wouldn’t I? So, it isn’t just the activity or event itself that causes stress, it’s our perception of it. Anxiety and excitement create the basically the same chemical reactions in the body, but one is perceived as enjoyable and the other as negative.
So, what really creates the reaction we call stress is when we perceive that something is “bad” and we mentally resist it. Taking the same situation and thinking, “Okay, I don’t like this, but I’m going to make the best of it,” takes most of the stress out of it.
Furthermore, you’ll note that we don’t put “stress” as a root cause of disease on the Disease Tree model. Instead, we say, “unresolved mental and emotional stress.” It’s the stressful events and situations that we are unable to resolve and let go of that really cause us to get sick. It’s the stuff that happened 10 years ago that we still get upset about when we think about it.
So, if we change our perception of something we can actually take a lot of the stress out of it. For example, we could fuss and fume about a traffic jam, or we could decide, “hey, this is a great time to relax” and put on some nice music or a motivational program. In other words, stuff isn’t just happening to us, we are assigning meaning to the stuff that is happening to us. And, if we assign a negative meaning to any event in our life, it will cause us stress. If we chose (and we can chose) to see the event in a different light, the stress can be defused.
My father in his 50s and 60s could outwork me with I was in my teens and early 20s. In fact, he could outwork most men who were 20-30 years younger than he was. He shared with me his secret. He said he stayed relaxed, but just picked up the pace. He said that when you tense up, you get tired faster.
So, when faced with a stressful event, we have a choice. We can fuss, fume, stew and otherwise resist what is happening, OR we can take a deep breath, allow ourselves to relax and just take things one step at a time. Doing the former will give us an ulcer or worse, doing the later will keep our mind clear, our body primed for action, and have us doing our best to resolve the situation. The choice is ours.
In fact, when I practice what my now deceased chiropractor Michael Brenay said, and practice having a “gratitude attitude,” stressful situations rapidly diminish into manageable situations. When one is grateful, it dissolves resistance, and that dissolves tension, which dissipates stress. And that keeps us healthy, physically and emotionally. So, as Dr. Brenay would say, “Glide down the glory road of life with a gratitude attitude.”
