SELF HEALTH + HEALING

Feeling overwhelmed affects everything from digestion to stroke risk.

The advice, “Stop worrying! Stress is bad for you” is true, but as with a lot of health guidance, its vagueness makes it less effective.

It’s like when people say that getting lots of sleep is important, or that you should eat more fiber—it’s the kind of thing people might like to do, but will probably keep forgetting to do, because it’s not immediately clear how it will make them healthier.

Most people intuitively understand that exercise can improve your mood, but it was only last week that scientists figured out how it works. Their findings are of enormous importance to everybody who experiences stress at work.

According to a recent article in the New York Times, exercising causes your muscles to release a set of chemicals that block other chemicals the body releases in response to frequent stress.

In other words, constant stress brings you down, but consistent exercise lifts you up.

Considered the “stress syndrome” of the 20th century, adrenal fatigue is still an under-diagnosed and little understood condition. More people than ever before are battling with chronically depleted adrenal glands, yet it is unrecognized by most doctors.

Perhaps you have struggled for a long time with always being tired, for reasons you just can’t quite understand. Maybe several years of stressful circumstance after stressful circumstance have left you frequently sick, irritable, worn out or depressed. You might have pushed yourself physically too hard for too long, and found yourself suddenly unable to push anymore, your reserves completely drained.

If good sleep could be encapsulated in a pill, it would be the strongest medication ever produced. Numerous studies have connected inadequate sleep to chronic diseases and shortened lifespan. But alas, sleep is not that simple. In fact, it’s the one natural process that might cause the most issues for modern-day adults, with around 30 percent of the American population having some degree of sleep disruption. 

“Correcting sleep deficits could be the single most important thing you do for your health…”
Why is that? Well, we tend to work in offices for long hours during the daytime, often staring at computer screens for hours on end. Occasionally we head to the gym to bust out an intense workout, and then rush to get dinner prepared before trying to get some zzz’s. With that fairly unnatural schedule, is it any wonder that our circadian rhythms are screwed up and unfettered sleep can be hard to come by?