STRESS & ANXIETY
Stress & Anxiety are extremely prevalent health issues in todays society.
95% of the clients that come to me, are dealing with chronic stress.
Whilst everyone will experience some stress or anxiousness in their lives, feeling stressed and anxious everyday is not a normal process, and can wreak havoc on your body.
Stress isn’t just about the mental/emotional side but also about what is going on at a physical level in the body.
Anxiety either with or without stress can be caused by a range of things including allergies, nutritional deficiencies, neurotransmitter deficiencies and trauma.
Whilst everyone will experience some stress or anxiousness in their lives, feeling stressed and anxious everyday is not a normal process, and can wreak havoc on your body.
Stress isn’t just about the mental/emotional side but also about what is going on at a physical level in the body.
Anxiety either with or without stress can be caused by a range of things including allergies, nutritional deficiencies, neurotransmitter deficiencies and trauma.
A deficiency of the neurotransmitter GABA plays a significant role in the symptoms of anxiety.
Stress has been shown to be just as detrimental to our health as smoking, so it is essential we not only address the underlying body processes that cause stress and alleviate symptoms, but also provide strategies to help deal with stressful situations in a way that will reduce the harmful impact to the body.
Stress is when several chemical processes in the body are altered when the body is put under an intense amount of mental and physical pressure or workload.
Naturally our bodies have an innate response to stressors. This is called the ‘fight or flight’ response. This is to ensure our survival by literally giving us strength to enhance our physical capabilities to either help us to run away from danger or to fight off said danger.
The issue is in todays society, we are constantly bombarded with things that stimulate our ‘fight or flight’ response.
Stress has been shown to be just as detrimental to our health as smoking, so it is essential we not only address the underlying body processes that cause stress and alleviate symptoms, but also provide strategies to help deal with stressful situations in a way that will reduce the harmful impact to the body.
Stress is when several chemical processes in the body are altered when the body is put under an intense amount of mental and physical pressure or workload.
Naturally our bodies have an innate response to stressors. This is called the ‘fight or flight’ response. This is to ensure our survival by literally giving us strength to enhance our physical capabilities to either help us to run away from danger or to fight off said danger.
The issue is in todays society, we are constantly bombarded with things that stimulate our ‘fight or flight’ response.
Long work hours, raising children, finances, never getting a chance to unwind and lack of sleep among other things will all activate this response.
When this fight or flight response is constantly activated it can lead to a range of health issues due to the different chemicals that are being pumped out.
The problem with stress, anxiety and the constant activation of the fight or flight response is that increases the release of stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline.
These then adversely affect the following processes:
The problem with stress, anxiety and the constant activation of the fight or flight response is that increases the release of stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline.
These then adversely affect the following processes:
- Blood Sugar Dysregulation & Insulin Resistance
- Poor Gut Health & Digestion
- Chronic Inflammation
- Poor liver detoxification pathways
- Hormonal Balance
- Low Grade Nutritional Deficiencies: Chronic stress burns through B vitamins, magnesium, zinc, omega 3’s, vitamin c, chromium, calcium and proteins. These nutritional deficiencies then further exacerbate stress and anxiety symptoms and it becomes a vicious cycle
- Accelerated Ageing
Some physical symptoms of stress due to the imbalance of hormones and nutrients include:
- Weight Gain (particularly around the stomach area)
- High Blood Pressure
- Trouble falling asleep & waking in the night
- Fatigue
- Sugar cravings
- Thyroid issues
- Anxiety
- Poor immunity
- Poor wound healing
- Depression
- Insomnia
- Inflammation
- Low libido
Working with me 1-1 I tailor a protocol to your health, nutrition and lifestyle needs also taking into account time constraints, work/family commitments, so you will never feel deprived, or stressed about living your healthiest life possible.
I utilise functional pathology and nutrigenetics when needed to assess a wide range of risk factors including oxidative stress, systemic inflammation, hormone levels and liver function.
Clinical nutritional medicine is used to address nutritional deficiencies along with using therapeutic nutritional supplements to enhance body processes.
Clinical herbal medicine is the icing on the cake and we use this to improve hormone levels, support and enhance adrenal function, improve liver detoxification pathways, reduce inflammation, enhance immunity and most importantly reduce stress.
I also use several other evidence based lifestyle interventions to further enhance health and longevity.
