Managing Holiday Stress – InVite Health Podcast, Episode 467
While the holidays are a time of great joy, they can also bring a lot of stress, with planning, traveling, shopping and more. The good news is there are nutrients that can help.
Tag: stress
Focus and Attention Support – InVite Health Podcast, Episode 460
Are you having a hard time maintaining focus or attention throughout the day? This may be brought on by stress. Turn to powerful nutrients that have been shown to support the body’s ability to fight stress and promote brain function.
The Power of Adaptogenic Herbs – InVite Health Podcast, Episode 447
adaptogenic herbs
InViteⓇ Health Podcast, Episode hosted by Amanda Williams, MPH
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You’ve probably heard us talk about adaptogenic herbs in the past, whether it’s on a podcast or on one of our radio shows. Today, I want to talk about what in the world an adaptogenic herb actually is.†
What happens to the body when we are stressed?
We know all about stress and we’re always trying to find different mediators to the stress response. Let’s talk about what is actually occurring within the body when we are under acute stress. The body itself has become reliant on this acute stress response to overcome any issues that arise.†
The problem is that many people are not experiencing acute stress and that fight-or-flight response, but they’re experiencing chronic stress. It is this chronic stress that is creating dysregulation within the HPA axis, which is the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. Once we start to affect that, then we are starting to see more issues when it comes to every single system in the body, including our blood glucose response, blood pressure response and our ability to fend off oxidative stress.†
Chronic stress can create significant health issues by impacting our sleep cycle, immune defenses, microbiome, cardiovascular health, metabolism and mood. This is when we have to start thinking about how we can adapt to or manage this.†
The heart of adaptogenic herbs
Managing stress in the body is a multi-pronged approach. Obviously, we want to try to make some lifestyle modifications to help minimize our stress as much as possible.†
Then we get into adaptogenic herbs. So what is an adaptogen? Adaptogens are nutrients that have been used for thousands of years to help counteract the negative effects of stress. The way that these adaptogens work is through restoring the body’s natural balance. Research has shown how adaptogens can help to fight off different harmful biochemicals and the emotional effects of stress.†
We need to create balance or homeostasis within the body to avoid the long-term damage of chronic stress and that is what adaptogenic herbs are known to do. For thousands of years, they have been utilized and we now understand the science behind how they offset the negative impact of chronic stress. We can look at the way things like ashwagandha or rhodiola are working to help to normalize a happier cortisol response and at the same time, really heighten the cellular ability to fend off oxidative stress and generate energy. Research has shown how ashwagandha can help to support the cardiorespiratory system and how rhodiola has been used for exercise endurance and muscle recovery, in addition to in the setting of mood and anxiety. We can see how these nutrients work in the body to support our cognitive and physical performance.†
RHODIOLA BENEFITS BEYOND STRESS – INVITE HEALTH PODCAST, EPISODE 27. Listen Now>>
In this episode, Amanda Williams, MPH discusses adaptogenic herbs, an important category of nutrients that help the body fend off the damages of chronic stress. She explains the difference between acute stress and chronic stress and also explains stress affects the body.†
Key Topics:
- The impacts of chronic stress on the body
- How lifestyle changes can help with stress responses
- The damaging effects of long-term chronic stress
Thank you for tuning in to the InViteⓇ Health Podcast. You can find all of our episodes for free wherever you listen to podcasts or by visiting www.invitehealth.com/podcast. Make sure you subscribe and leave us a review! Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at InViteⓇ Health today. We’ll see you next time on another episode of the InViteⓇ Health Podcast.
How to Support Your Adrenal Glands – InVite Health Podcast, Episode 380
Have you ever felt both tired and wired, like you’re lacking energy but can’t seem to unwind? This type of stress is related to your adrenal glands, so it is important to turn to powerful nutrients that can help support your ability to fend off stress and decompress.
Nutrients to Target Migraine Headaches – InVite Health Podcast, Episode 364
Migraine headaches can hold you back from your everyday life. The good news is that there are nutrients that can help you combat these painful headaches.
Theanine: The Little Amino Acid That Packs A Powerful Punch – InVite Health Podcast, Episode 311
theanine
Invite Health Podcast, Episode hosted by Amanda Williams, MPH
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When it comes to staying calm, cool and collected, this can be a challenge. There can be a lot of different factors that can alter our perception within our own environment in terms of how we manage stress or how we actually handle the stress itself. I wanted to talk today in regards to theanine because I think theanine is one of the most useful amino acids out there when it comes to stress management.†
There is so much science and research out there that really reinforce the utilization of theanine. Oftentimes, we refer to theanine in its nomenclature of L-theanine. When they put the ‘L’ in front, we’re just talking about the actual structural form of theanine. I want to talk about all of the interesting and unique studies that have come out recently on theanine. Researchers have been looking at theanine for many, many years, but there is some new research that has come out that is reinforcing what we already know about this very, very powerful amino acid.†
The Real Impact of Pandemic-Related Stress and Anxiety – InVite Health Podcast, Episode 206. Listen Now >>
What is theanine?
When we think about amino acids, we know that they play a role as being that building block to proteins. They are heavily relied on in the body for many different functions. Theanine is quite unique because it is kind of this blend of glutamate and glutamine.†
Glutamine is an amino acid that has many different functions that are incredibly important in the human body. It plays a very important role in the intestinal lining, for example. It is important for making sure we have the best uptake for different nutrients into our system. We can also see its role in cellular energy, lipid synthesis and regulation of acid-base balance. Then, theanine would make a lot of sense in terms of working within the human body.†
Theanine is actually plant-derived and predominantly where we find the highest abundance of theanine coming from plants is from green tea. This is why green tea touts so many different medicinal benefits beyond that of just the antioxidant that it possesses.†
Stress Management
We know that theanine has been most widely researched when it comes to stress and management of stress. The reason why is because theanine is working in a means to actually decrease the binding capacity of the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate. Glutamate is excitotoxic and if we have too much of this, this can create problems.†
Theanine can actually downregulate the glutamate, but at the same time, it can help to enhance or upregulate the production of gaba. Gaba is the primary inhibitory neurotransmitter. That’s what allows for that calming effect. What’s interesting is that when we have different imbalances between the neurotransmitters glutamate and gaba, then we can start to see some of those clinical implications. This is why, oftentimes, people will utilize even prescribed medications that will help to downregulate glutamate and enhance gaba production.†
Nutrients To Help Mitigate The Impact of Stress – InVite Health Podcast, Episode 182. Listen Now >>
How theanine is actually working in the brain is quite interesting. We’re using an amino acid that is derived from green tea that has this ability to inhibit that excitotoxicity that’s occurring because of too much glutamate and it helps to enhance the calming properties of gaba. It’s actually mimicking gaba’s effects. We know that prescription anti-anxiety drugs can also do this, but we also know that these drugs can come with a whole slew of side effects, which can certainly become problematic over time.†
Learn more about the powerful impacts of theanine and the research behind it by tuning into the full podcast episode.
Thank you for tuning in to the Invite Health Podcast. You can find all of our episodes for free wherever you listen to podcasts or by visiting www.invitehealth.com/podcast. Make sure you subscribe and leave us a review! Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at Invite Health today. We’ll see you next time on another episode of the Invite Health Podcast.
