Everybody feels stress and knows it intimately, but very few of us think about what stress actually is.
Stress is a thought. That’s it. No more, no less. If that’s true, then we have complete control over stress, because it’s not something that happens to us but something that happens in us.
The dictionary definition of stress is, “bodily or mental tension resulting from factors that tend to alter an existent equilibrium.” It is your thoughts out of balance. (more…)
It is estimated that 86% of deaths and 77% of the disease burden is related to diet and lifestyle. A new European Union backed project will to optimise research into diet and health by pulling together scientists and research tools in order to make realistic recommendations in the area.
The project, known as EuroDISH, will pull together experts and methodologies from various countries and topic areas in order to assess ‘the current state of play’ when it comes to diet and health, before eventually making ‘advanced and feasible’ recommendations to the European Strategy Forum for Research Infrastructures (ESFRI), the HORIZON2020 programme, and various other EU stakeholders and policy makers. (more…)
“Let food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food” Hippocrates
With the increase of people affected by depression and mood disorders rising to nearly 20 million just in the US alone, so have the number of prescriptions for antidepressant medications written.
However, we have also seen that these medications often produce undesirable and often devastating side effects. There have been countless reports of violence, suicide, insomnia, psychosis, anxiety and more. Furthermore, it’s been shown that these medications are often not even effective, and only work for about 30% of the people taking them.
Antidepressant medications work to increase the levels of serotonin, which is the “feel good” neurotransmitter needed in the brain to balance mood and behavior. Imbalances in serotonin can lead to anxiety, depression, seasonal affective disorder, hyperactivity among others.
So What Happened? (more…)
When we hear the word “hormones,” our first thought is about sex hormones. However, the hormones discussed here are not sex hormones, they are hormones that control or affect our weight. An endocrine hormone is actually any chemical messenger that travels from where it is produced through the bloodstream to another part or parts of the body where it exerts its effect. Our hormones interact with each other to create a fast-acting chemical control system for our entire bodies. For weight control, hormones rule! (more…)
By Dr. Mercola
As much as you may try to ignore it, you cannot separate your wellness from your emotions. Every feeling you have affects some part of your body, and stress can wreak havoc on your physical health even if you’re doing everything else “right.”
The classic definition of stress is “any real or imagined threat, and your body’s response to it.” Celebrations and tragedies alike can cause a stress response in your body.
All of your feelings, positive or negative, create physiological changes. Your skin, heart rate, digestion, joints, muscle energy levels, the hair on your head, and countless cells and systems you don’t even know about change with every emotion.
Stress plays a major role in your immune system, and can impact your blood pressure, cholesterol levels, brain chemistry, blood sugar levels, and hormonal balance. It can even “break” your heart, and is increasingly being viewed as a cardiovascular risk marker.
Women are more vulnerable to feeling sadness and anxiety than men, according to research, and feel the pressures of stress more than their male peers, both at work and at home.
You cannot eliminate stress entirely, but you can work to provide your body with tools to compensate for the bioelectrical short-circuiting that can cause serious disruption in many of your body’s important systems.
By using techniques such as the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), you can reprogram your body’s reactions to the unavoidable stressors of everyday life. Exercising regularly, getting enough sleep, and meditation are also important “release valves” that can help you manage your stress.
It is estimated that 86% of deaths and 77% of the disease burden is related to diet and lifestyle. A new European Union backed project will to optimise research into diet and health by pulling together scientists and research tools in order to make realistic recommendations in the area.
The project, known as EuroDISH, will pull together experts and methodologies from various countries and topic areas in order to assess ‘the current state of play’ when it comes to diet and health, before eventually making ‘advanced and feasible’ recommendations to the European Strategy Forum for Research Infrastructures (ESFRI), the HORIZON2020 programme, and various other EU stakeholders and policy makers. (more…)
Life has its ups and downs — but for an easy way to make sure you’ve got more ups than downs, take your vitamins.
Ordinary multivitamins can help protect your mood, slash your stress levels, and help keep you happy overall, according to new research — and that’s on top of giving you the essentials needed for overall good physical health.
The new study looked at data from eight “gold standard” double-blind trials in which multivitamins went head-to-head against placebos — and the multis came out on top by nearly every mental measure. (more…)
Most people are surprised to learn that their favorite coping mechanism for stress actually causes more problems than it solves. Let’s look at five steps to effectively dealing with stress and five reactions to stress that trick you into prolonging it.
Imagine something simple that might cause emotional stress, such as coming home to find that your husband has ignored his promise to clean the house and is self-absorbed in his favorite hobby.
To deal with this situation effectively, you can 1) take notice of how you feel and 2) make sure your feelings are valid. Then, 3) express your feelings assertively, 4) clear up any misunderstandings, 5) create new expectations and a plan. Then, you can let the stress go, feeling like you have dealt with the situation. (more…)
Natural Allopathic Medicine has a potent protocol for breast cancer. I am almost finished with Surviving Breast Cancer and feel compelled to share an important chapter. The Natural Allopathic protocol shines in terms of breast care because so much of its delivery system is transdermal. There are many non-toxic medicinals that can be applied transdermally to the breasts to help them recover from cancer and any other breast disease. Because the breasts are exposed and covered with an ample expanse of skin they are directly accessible in terms of intensive topical/transdermal cancer treatments with safe effective medicines, something that is virtually unknown to contemporary oncologists.
Breast cancer confronts women with the deepest issues of vulnerability and womanhood. There is no cure for breast cancer from the orthodox oncology point of view. “This is the road map for how we might cure breast cancer in the future,” said Dr. Matthew Ellis of Washington University. The New York Times published a piece about a new study that was, according to Ellis, “fundamentally reshaping the scientific understanding of breast cancer.” So far they have not understood or cured this disease that kills 35,000 American women each and every year.
Researchers and patient advocates are still cautioning that it will take years to translate recent insights into transformative new treatments. Women fortunately do not have to wait till they lose their breasts and then their lives for a breast cancer cure. There is a cure for breast cancer if one is willing to bring together an understanding of the body, breasts, toxins, emotional feelings, issues of womanhood including sexuality and nutrition that come together to create the condition of breast cancer. (more…)
Modern-day living and all the busyness and stress that comes along with it can do a real number on your central nervous system, especially if you are not taking proactive steps to counteract this perpetual negative effect on your body. Rather than feed energy and nutrients into your body’s productive systems, an overtaxed nervous system typically expends most of its resources just trying to defend the body against attack, whether it be in the form of anxiety, panic, or stress, which depletes your energy reserves and potentially even harms your endocrine system. (more…)