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Stress & Anxiety

Who hasn't had anxious moments in their life? Stressful situations are part of our daily existence. Anxiety evolved as a coping mechanism to alert us to danger and allow us to act quickly and efficiently. It becomes maladaptive when it restricts our activities or causes our body to be in a constant state of fear.

In most cases, anxiety is due to thoughts or emotions. The situation that brings on anxiety is individual but our body reacts to the perceived threat the same way it would if there was an actual threat. In other cases, substances like caffeine, nicotine, toxins or lack of sleep can contribute to anxiety. Medical conditions such as hypoglycemia, hyperthyroidism, strokes, mitral valve prolapse, iron deficiency anemia or adrenal tumors cause the nervous system to respond with anxiety symptoms.

Anxiety causes physical stress on the body. The autonomic nervous system is activated resulting in a sense of uneasiness, sweating and trembling or outright anxiety attacks. Attacks can include diarrhea, heart palpitations, memory blocks and inappropriate behaviour.

Prolonged anxiety can manifest with headaches, digestive complaints, impotence, insomnia, an inability to relax or a sensation of a lump in the throat. Conventional treatment involves the use of antidepressants or tranquilizing drugs to reduce panic attacks. These treatments do not assess the root cause of the anxiety. Side effects of these drugs include drowsiness, light-headedness, fatigue, weight gain, decreased libido and dependency. Behavioural therapy and other forms of counseling can be of significant help to many who suffer from anxiety. Music and colour therapy as well as biofeedback have also been studied for anxiety.

You Can Support the Nervous System By:

• Taking a high quality B Complex vitamin.


• Using Herbs to aid relaxation.


• Avoiding coffee and other nervous system stimulants.


• Avoiding refined
• Consuming leafy green vegetables daily.


• Eating a whole foods diet.


• Reducing stress with meditation and breathing techniques.


• Getting adequate sleep.


• Supplement with Calcium & Magnesium

Stress & Lifestyle Connection

Stress is usually thought of as a negative factor in our daily lives but it is necessary part of life. Without stress life becomes boring. The key to stress, as with everything else in life, is balance. Enough to keep you interested but not enough to become overwhelmed. Individuals have different thresholds for stress. What is seen as stressful to one person may not be stressful to another.

The result of constant stress can be tense muscles, headaches, stomach cramps, teeth grinding, decreased immunity, exhaustion and insomnia. Emotionally stress can lead to memory problems, depression, emotional outbursts and panic attacks. It is believed that constant stress is a factor in the development of many chronic diseases.

We often ignore the first signs of stress, such as headaches and insomnia, and use medication to stop the symptoms. We use stimulants, like caffeine, to allow ourselves to keep working when the body is trying to tell us to slow down. The masking of stress symptoms eventually causes the body to breakdown. The standard North American diet is deficient in vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids. It is high in saturated fat, refined carbohydrates and chemical additives and preservatives. These substances not only do not give your body usable energy, but they also inhibit the use of good quality food by depleting enzymes and hormones necessary for energy conversion. The body must also deal with the toxic by-products of foods like bleached flour and sugar, artificial sweeteners and flavours and trans-fatty acids. All of these stressors compromise the health of an individual.

Irregular sleeping and eating patterns make one susceptible to stress related illness. Sleep is an essential component of our body's repair mechanisms. During sleep the body is in an anabolic, or building, state. It has time to regenerate cells and replenish hormones, enzymes and neurotransmitters. Insomnia prevents the repair of normal damage from the body's daily activity. The brain also requires sleep in order to process information that is learned throughout the day.

Irregular eating patterns stress the body by not providing nutrients at regular intervals. When the body is lacking nutrients it compromises the body's functioning. When an individual finally does eat the body rushes to use the nutrients and store whatever it does not need, in anticipation that the next meal may not come for a while

Lack of exercise contributes to stress by compromising the circulation of all molecules around the body, including food particles, oxygen and hormones. Circulation is also responsible for flushing waste products out of the cells and taking them to the appropriate organs for processing and excretion. The venous system contains no values so blood flow back to the heart is dependent on movement of the surrounding musculature. Exercise also removes tension from muscles and offers an outlet for unexpressed emotions.