Modern day life has people saying I’m busy and stressed too often. It is not a badge of honor to be busy all the time. Stress is both physical and emotional. It can detrimental to your health and should be taken seriously. Stress shuts down many parts of the body. The below statement sums it up perfectly.
“A significant part of the damage is due to norepinephrine (adrenaline), which has a function to redirect the body’s resources away from maintenance, regeneration, and reproduction and towards systems that require active movement”.
Norepinephrine protects the body in a fight or flight situation. The body is not designed to be constantly releasing stress hormones day after day.
Consequences of this include digestive issues, inflammation, irregular menstrual cycles, infertility, sleeplessness, low libido, increased abdominal fat, depression, impaired disease resistance, and addictions.
Stress is the silent killer. Don’t be complacent and say it is part of the job, or it’s modern day life. We need to deal with it and manage our stress levels appropriately by taking time out to look after ourselves. No job, no amount of money and no one is worth you dying for. Chronic health conditions don’t happen overnight, it takes years to develop an illness such as heart disease, diabetes, adrenal fatigue and so forth. Prevention is always better than cure, do something before you must make time for yourself.
Reflect on your current situation. There needs to be a nice happy medium between stress and the sweeter things in life that bring contentment.
Here are some tips to manage stress:
- limit alcohol and caffeine.
- exercise. If you are chronically stressed consider gentle forms of exercise like yoga or pilates are best.
- get quality sleep each night with regular sleep and wake hours. Have a sleep routine.
- limit technology two hours before bed to encourage melatonin synthesis (our sleep hormone).
- limit time spent with emotionally draining people.
- play with your pets.
- spend time in nature, walk barefoot on the grass or sand.
- eat a balanced diet that supports healthy brain function.
If your health is suffering from the consequences of stress a nutritionist can help. It isn’t a one consult fix as it takes time to get your body back into balance and heal. A nutritionist will do a thorough case history and put together a health protocol for you to follow with regular follow-ups. The number of follow-ups depends on the severity of your condition. Please get in touch for bookings or enquiries.
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