Managing Stress Naturally
Healthy Habits to Support Your Nervous System
Life is filled with challenges, conflicts, problems, and sometimes hardships and tragedies. Some of these are personal, others involve major world events, and both can cause stress. For example, in recent years, there has been a global pandemic, food shortages, rising cost of living, multiple wars, and a range of natural disasters. How you are managing stress is important for your health.
The Health Risks of Not Managing Stress
It’s important to learn how to manage stress, as chronic stress can adversely affect your health. Chronic stress interferes with digestive function and can lead to indigestion, gastritis, constipation, or diarrhea. It can also cause muscle tension, leading to various types of pain, such as back, neck, and headache pain. Chronic stress is also closely connected to inflammation because elevated cortisol levels may affect digestion, immune balance, sleep, blood sugar, and pain levels over time.
Stress increases heart rate and blood pressure, and it’s a contributing factor in heart disease. It also suppresses immune function, leaving you more susceptible to infections and illness. It may also be a contributing factor in diseases like cancer and dementia. The good news is that all of these health risks can be reduced or even eliminated by learning how to develop stress skills. Stress is not just about what happens; it’s also about how you react to it.
Understanding Stress
Stress is part of the fight-or-flight response. Anything that makes you worried, scared, or threatens you involves stress. It is a natural mechanism of the body and is designed to protect you, not harm you. There is also good stress, like having a baby, moving into a new house, or planning a wedding.
Good stress usually comes and then goes, while chronic stress remains and keeps your fight-or-flight activated, leading to health issues and increased hormones, including adrenaline and cortisol, which leaves your adrenal glands overworked and usually fatigued.
Stress and Your Gut
Stress has a huge impact on your gut health due to the gut-brain axis. Your central and enteric nervous systems communicate. The enteric nervous system is in the digestive tract. When you are under chronic stress, and your body is releasing the stress hormones like cortisol, that impairs your digestion, disrupts your beneficial bacteria, and can lead to increased permeability and other disorders like IBS and GERD.
Lifestyle Habits for Managing Stress Naturally
Managing stress is a necessity for your health. Here are a few healthy habits tips to help you manage it better.
Eat Whole Foods: When you are under stress and cortisol kicks in, so do cravings for sugar and high-fat foods. Focus on eating whole foods that offer your body the nutrients it needs during this heightened state. Whole foods are also anti-inflammatory.
Practice Relaxing: I know it sounds funny, but you can alleviate the body’s response to stress by practicing deep breathing. Deep breathing helps your body reset the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve runs from the brain through the digestive tract and is the primary pathway of the parasympathetic nervous system, which is your body’s natural rest and recovery mode. Just doing this simple practice will help counteract the stress response. This will also promote better sleep, which your body needs to repair and recover.
Keep Active: When your body is under stress, it is looking for you to do something to get away from the threat it is feeling. So do something, like write a note about what is going on, or take a walk around the room or outside.
Seek Support: Many of us, from time to time, have experienced something that is too much to manage by ourselves. If you feel this way, seek outside support from a professional, family, or friends.
Nutrients for Support During Stressful Times
Even if you have cleaned up your diet, when you are under stress, your nervous system may need additional support. Below are some suggestions.
B Complex Vitamins are great for supporting your nervous system, adrenals, and energy levels. I always say that stress eats these up. Nutri Calm is one of my favorite NSP products during stressful times.
Vitamin C also helps lower cortisol and supports the physical and mental aspects of stress through its antioxidant properties.
Omega-3 fats help reduce cortisol and inflammation and protect your cells.
Ashwagandha can help support the nervous system and adrenals during times of chronic stress.
Magnesium helps balance the nervous system and promote sleep.
L-theanine can really help promote calmness and relaxation.
Creating healthier lifestyle habits, focusing on managing stress by deep breathing and staying active, and supporting your body with supplements that support nervous system and adrenal health are a great place to start. We offer a Nervous System Reset program that helps you learn more about the natural ways you can support your body during times of stress as well as pain.
How Stress Affects Your Body After 40, read here
This article was originally published as part of the Sunshine Sharing newsletter series.
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