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Stress Versus Burnout, Part 2 – InVite^Ⓡ Health Podcast, Episode 503

Hosted by Amanda Williams, MPH

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InVite^Ⓡ Health Podcast Intro: Welcome to the InVite^Ⓡ Health Podcast, where our degreed healthcare professionals are excited to offer you the most important health and wellness information you need to make informed choices about your health. You can learn more about the products discussed in each of these episodes and all that InVite^Ⓡ Health has to offer at www.invitehealth.com/podcast. First time customers can use promo code PODCAST at checkout for an additional 15% off your first purchase. Let’s get started!

*Intro music*

Amanda Williams, MPH: [00:00:40] Stress and burnout, part two. We’re going to tackle this and we’re going to talk about nutrients today. So we know that burnout is a real thing across all different occupational fields. Definitely, most of the research has zeroed in on healthcare, so statistically speaking, this is where most of the data is populated from. And we can clearly see that in healthcare, burnout is very high, not just amongst physicians, but amongst all workers in healthcare.† [00:01:14]

[00:01:15] Now, it was first described back in the 1970s, burnout syndrome. It was basically defining it as this work-related constellation of different symptoms that occurs in an individual without any prior history of mood disorders or any type of a psychiatric disorder. But they said it really kind of is triggered by this discrepancy between the expectation and the ideals of the employee and the actual requirement of their position. So maybe you go into to work and you think, “OK, this is what I’m supposed to do,” and then you find out, “Oh, wait, they want me to do X, Y and Z. And maybe that’s not my area of strength and so now I’m stressed out about this.” And then over time, we start to to see that all of these factors build up because we never address the, the underlying initial stressor. So then we start to drag and we find ourselves becoming more and more just low mood, no energy, difficult to concentrate. Even when we do accomplish something, as I mentioned in part one, we really are just like, “Eh, OK, so I finished that job,” instead of patting yourself on the back and saying, “Hey, you know, I actually did a pretty good job with that.” These are the issues that we see in burnout syndrome.† [00:02:35]

[00:02:37] So what can we do? I had mentioned in part one that it really comes down to like this multimodal approach in order to really get a grip on this so it does not take you over. So we have to think about what are we eating? Are we adding fuel to our fire because we are not eating the right foods? So having an anti-inflammatory diet, hence a Mediterranean diet, that’s going to incorporate fruits and vegetables, good, healthy fats. These are all key because they’re very nourishing at that cellular level.† [00:03:13]

[00:03:14] Now we also have to think about keeping inflammation at bay because we know stress will drive inflammation and inflammation is not good. So the combination of the two creates a real big problem in the body. So looking at something as simple as the addition of omega-3 fatty acids, which we know have been shown in clinical trials to target people who have major depressive disorder, that once they give them adequate amounts of omega-3s, this can help to improve upon someone who is clinically diagnosed as having major depressive disorder. So even if you don’t have major depressive disorder, but you just feel completely run down and you are at that burnout phase, then the addition of omega-3, whether that’s coming in the form of fish oil, whether that’s coming in the form of krill or green-lipped muscle, which you would find in our InflamMune formulation, or if you use flax for the vegetarian choice, any of those options. The key is to get the omega-3 into a daily routine.† [00:04:17]

THE PROVEN HEALTH BENEFITS OF OMEGA-3S FOR RESPIRATORY HEALTH – INVITE HEALTH PODCAST, EPISODE 187. Listen Now>>

[00:04:18] And then we can think about nutrients that can help with that energy component because we know that when we start to hit that true fatigue, that exhaustion can start to set in. And this is very difficult to be able to bounce back from. So this is why we look at the nutrients that we know that the cells need when it comes to making energy within the mitochondria. So we look at things such as carnitine, the amino acid carnitine. So whether you’re using straight L-carnitine at about 1000mg per day or you use the acetylated form, so Alcar, so the acetyl-L-carnitine at 1000mg per day. Both are very, very beneficial. The Alcar, the acetyl group, what that does is it helps to facilitate more of that carnitine across that blood-brain barrier to really potentiate energy production within the brain. So the Alcar may be the best choice.† [00:05:21]

[00:05:23] Now we also have to think about what’s another thing that the body needs to make energy. Coenzyme Q10. So supplementing with Ubiquinol, the antioxidant reduced form of CoQ10, will help to facilitate once again that energy production within the mitochondria. So we’ve got our fish oil, we’ve got our coenzyme Q10 Ubiquinol, we have our carnitine on board and then we say, “Well, what about something that’s going to help within the HPA axis?” Let’s think about rhodiola extract, which we know has been studied and shown to be incredibly helpful when it comes to targeting issues with fatigue, in the setting of chronic fatigue, as well as for burnout. So this is a absolutely fabulous adrenal adaptogenic herb that can really help in a non-stimulant way, so it’s not going to make you feel jittery. So sometimes when people are really feeling like they’re dragging and they have to go to work. They’re like, “Let me take some type of this high energy drink,” and the next thing you know, you feel all, like you have the jitters. We don’t want that to happen. So we know that with rhodiola, this will help to enhance the ability for that cell to make energy. But at the same time, it helps with that regulation of an over-responsive cortisol response system.† [00:06:48]

[00:06:49] Now, I’m going to tell you about a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial where they utilized rhodiola extract in the treatment of subjects who had stress-related fatigue. So what does that kind of sound like? Stress-related fatigue? They could be talking about burnout syndrome here. And they took this group of individuals and they gave them either rhodiola extract or they gave them a placebo. In the group that was given rhodiola, they found an enormous response when it came to the rhodiola, exerting an anti-fatigue effect. They had an increase in their mental performance, their ability to concentrate. They had this decrease in the cortisol response when they could actually test their cortisol levels and see cortisol levels had come down. So they said that this was incredibly beneficial in awakening stress in burnout patients and patients who had chronic fatigue syndrome. How long did this take? This was a 28-day trial. They were seeing improvements within the first few days of this trial.† [00:08:03]

[00:08:04] We can see the same thing when we look at ginseng. Perfect example of that would be looking at the True Energy formulation, which is a combination of rhodiola extract along with ginseng extract. So this is a real power punch when it comes to enhancing energy production. Now we also include in the True Energy formulation theanine, which we know is a key amino acid when it comes to the way that our neurotransmitter GABA is released, which helps to keep us calm. So we’ve got these two nutrients the rhodiola plus the ginseng extract to help with the energy. And then we have the theanine for this overall sense of well-being. So it’s an absolutely fabulous formulation. So that’s True Energy.† [00:08:50]

HOW PANAX GINSENG SUPPORTS SAFE ENERGY – INVITE HEALTH PODCAST, EPISODE 183. Listen Now>>

[00:08:50] We also have the Energy HxⓇ, which combines our CoQ10 Ubiquinol along with ginseng. So now you can see how there are different nutrients that can target cell energy production, ease inflammation, help to support neurotransmitters. So many different ways that we can help ourselves manage the daily stressors. So if we’re eating the right things, we’re not, you know, starting the day off with bad carbohydrates and sugar water. We start the day with good, healthy foods. Foods that should be included would be things like fruits, seeds, nuts, eggs, avocado, for example. These are all really power cell foods, foods that are going to ease inflammation in the body and allow that cell to create and generate the energy that it needs to be able to function and manage those daily stressors. Remember, if our energy stores are depleted, then we go back to that coping reserve. Our coping reserve is going to have a very difficult time and we’re going to slide right down into that burnout. We want to be able to remain resilient through all of the different stressors that we have, whether work-related, whether outside of work, whatever stressors that you have. We want to be able to stay resilient throughout that. And there are these nutrients that we can be utilizing that can help us in that achievement.† [00:10:22]

[00:10:23] So we’ve got True Energy, which is the packets. We have the Energy HxⓇ. We’ve got our Fish Oil, the Krill Oil, the flaxseed. We also have basic things like magnesium. And thinking about B-vitamins, so the methylated B-vitamin is an excellent option for those who are feeling run down. All of the different ways that those individual B-vitamins are responsible or play a role in the manufacturing of different neurotransmitters in our brain to help to support our mood, our outlook. There are key ways in which magnesium helps to support our sleep cycle. So just the addition of magnesium, fish oil, methylated B-vitamins, even if we were just doing those and not even looking at the adrenal adaptogenic herbs, looking at the ginseng, looking at the rhodiola, we would still be gandering ourselves a lot more support just from adding those three nutrients alone. Omega-3s, methylated B-vitamins, magnesium.† [00:11:31]

[00:11:32] But as you can now see, burnout is a real thing, and what it is, it is the result of having unmanaged chronic stress. We know the detrimental effects of stress throughout the entire body. It will affect every single system. So when you have stress and we all do, we need to be mindful of that. We cannot ignore it, push it off to the side and say this is just the way it is. We have to find ways to manage that stress. So having your own time during the day where you can just pause and be reflective, think about special things in your life that bring you joy. Don’t lose those things. Mindfulness is certainly key to this. Nutrients, in addition to a healthy Mediterranean diet, is key and staying physically active, getting out into your environment. Don’t become reclusive and withdrawn. Go out and see that there are birds, that there are squirrels. These are things that can make such a difference. You know, just the act of walking. Just walking for 10, 15 minutes can do so much for recalibrating our brain and our neurotransmitters. So we know stress exists. We know that chronic stress leads to burnout. We know burnout is a real thing. Now we’ve got some tools in our toolbox that we can turn to if you are feeling stressed or burned out.† [00:13:03]

[00:13:04] So I want to thank you so much for tuning in to the InViteⓇ Health Podcast. Remember, you can find all of our episodes for free wherever you listen to podcasts or by visiting invitehealth.com/podcast. Do make sure that you subscribe and you leave us a review. You can follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and we will see you next time for another episode of the InViteⓇ Health Podcast.† [00:13:04]