What to do about Stress...

Modern everyday life can be stressful, and often is. Stress can be caused by the simplest of things and is often the cause of many illnesses and out of control emotions. Everyone has stress, but stress affects everyone differently. Momentary stress can cause temporary tension or nervous energy, such as feeling wired, anxious or temporarily hot under the collar. For example, speaking to computer tech. support in another country always seems to do this to me. But a prolonged stress response can offset normal body maintenance and leave you weak, tired, or emotionally exhausted.

Your personal stress and how you respond are unique. You don’t have to avoid your stress, you just need healthy ways to manage them. Here are a few tips:

• Be armed with quick and long-term stress relievers to help you repel the effects of stress. 
• Be smart about “hand-to-mouth” responses. If stress makes you eat, then have healthy choices handy. Caffeine and nicotine can also increase stress.
• Be active to relieve stress quickly and build your immune system.
• Be rested and make time to relax—even in small chunks.

Each stress response “type” has its own intensity, symptoms, and characteristics. Identifying these can help us recommend targeted nutritional support, such as rehmannia, licorice, polygala, ginseng, holy basil, and other plant extracts. These herbal “adaptogens” can help balance the natural events of the stress response—to help you manage stress better. In addition, vitamins B & C, the so-called "stress supplements", are excellent choices to help relieve stress. Amino acids like L-theanine, 5-HTP, or Gabba may also be used. Finally, there are an entire array of herbal supplements like kava-kava and St. John's Wort that may do the trick. And if none of these suggestions work for you, try my own special stress-reduction mode, a glass of red wine and an old Honeymooners episode....it works every time.