Combating Stress-Induced Loss of Focus and Attention – InVite Health Podcast, Episode 212
Let’s discuss nutrients that can be beneficial for optimizing attention, focus and overall brain-supporting power when dealing with stress.
Tag: stress
The Real Impact of Pandemic-Related Stress and Anxiety – InVite Health Podcast, Episode 206
There have been a slew of scientific research studies looking at the implications of the stress and anxiety in just this month alone.
Experiencing Brain Fatigue? L-Tyrosine Can Help! – InVite Health Podcast, Episode 190
Invite Health Podcast, Episode hosted by Jerry Hickey. Ph
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We’ve all experienced staying out late at night, but still having to get up early for work the next morning. You can feel awful and miserable all day long. If you’ve ever burnt the candle at both ends like this, the supplement L-Tyrosine can help. L-Tyrosine can offset the mental grogginess, grouchiness and fatigue, so you don’t feel awful all day. L-Tyrosine is not a replacement for sleep, but on days when you have not had enough sleep, L-Tyrosine can combat mental fatigue.†
Why Should Tyrosine Help Fatigue?
Our brain uses a wide variety of chemicals called neurotransmitters that are used to communicate messages. Science knows approximately 100 different neurotransmitters. Our body uses tyrosine to make neurotransmitters for mental alertness and focus. L-Tyrosine enters the brain and makes these important neurotransmitters. They are called dopamine and norepinephrine. When released appropriately, these neurotransmitters foster arousal, alertness, attention, motivation, and anticipating and seeking a reward but also, and importantly, reducing brain fatigue. L-Tyrosine enters our brain easily and is quickly converted into the neurotransmitter dopamine. It can also be converted into norepinephrine and, when needed, epinephrine, which is also known as adrenaline.†
Feeling Burnt Out? Rhodiola Can Help! – InVite Health Podcast, Episode 186. Listen Now >>
When tyrosine is converted into dopamine, it is involved in the reward system. This takes place in conjunction with other neurotransmitters and multiple brain regions, but mostly takes place in the mesolimbic dopamine pathway and the mesocortical dopamine pathway. These pathways improve motivation and reward seeking. Norepinephrine is involved with alertness, focus, attention, and arousal.
Dopamine and norepinephrine support many activities of the brain, including:
- Memory†
- Sleep and awake regulation†
- Paying attention and being focused†
- Arousal†
- Alertness†
- Motivation for willingness and goal seeking†
- Seeking reward†
- Motivation†
- Reducing brain fatigue†
Tyrosine is commonly used to improve learning, memory, and alertness, and works especially well if used during stressful situations.†
What is L-Tyrosine?
L-Tyrosine is an amino acid. Proteins are made out of amino acids, so when you eat protein you get some L-Tyrosine. When you eat yogurt, meat, fish, eggs, nuts, beans, oats, and wheat, you get some L-Tyrosine. But you’re not getting enough to combat occasional fatigue or help during stressful situations.†
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When to use an L-Tyrosine supplement
- Mental performance: Research shows that taking tyrosine improves mental performance under stressful conditions. These include cold-induced stress, noise-induced stress, or even studying for an important exam like the LSATs or MCATs.†
- Memory: Research shows that taking tyrosine improves memory during stressful conditions. These include cold-induced stress, multi-tasking, or just overload of the brain.†
- Improving alertness following the loss of sleep: Taking tyrosine helps people who have lost a night’s sleep stay alert for about 3 hours longer than they otherwise would. Also, early research shows that tyrosine improves memory and reasoning in people who are sleep-deprived.†
For jet lag, take melatonin at bedtime and L-Tyrosine when you wake up. Tyrosine is not used in elderly people for brain energy or memory. It is used in healthy adults who’ve just overdone it and are experiencing brain fatigue. You don’t use it every day, you use it when it’s needed. You can keep tyrosine in your medicine cabinet and have it at your disposal for weekends when you stay up too late or have to focus on an important exam. To learn more about the role of tyrosine in the body, make sure to tune into the full podcast episode.
Feeling Burnt Out? Rhodiola Can Help! – InVite Health Podcast, Episode 186
Rhodiola rosea, also known as Viking Ginseng, offers support for stress, mental and physical fatigue and energy. It can also support your immune system.
How Panax Ginseng Supports Safe Energy – InVite Health Podcast, Episode 183
Who isn’t stressed right now? We are still trying to get back to normal, while keeping safe at the same time. This can cause stress, lack of sleep and fatigue. Panax ginseng may be extremely beneficial to help get you back on track.
Nutrients To Help Mitigate The Impact of Stress – InVite Health Podcast, Episode 182
Invite Health Podcast, Episode hosted by Jerry Hickey. Ph
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What are the long-term impacts of stress and how can you manage your stress in a much more efficient way? So many people deal with stress on a daily basis. It can come in different forms and be caused by a variety of things. Let’s talk about what you can be doing to help mitigate its impact.
STRESS, ANXIETY AND YOUR BODY
In the United States alone, there are over 40 million adults who experience some form of anxiety. Anxiety disorders on a whole are highly treatable, yet only about a quarter of these people are actually receiving proper treatment or therapy to manage their anxiety. People with anxiety disorders are 3 to 5 times more likely to see a physician and 6 times more likely to be hospitalized for different psychiatric disorders. Anxiety disorders develop from a complex set of different risk factors, including brain chemistry, life events, and genetics. It is not uncommon for someone who has stress and anxiety to also suffer from issues such as depression. Panic disorders, social anxiety disorders, and generalized anxiety disorders are all very common. There are people who have specific phobias, as well as people who have issues with PTSD, OCD, depressive disorders, and depressive episodes. These issues activate internal stressors in the body, which can really impact our overall wellness. The occurrence of anxiety can also be heightened in people with certain health conditions. For example, people with irritable bowel syndrome, sleep disruption, insomnia, and fibromyalgia, amongst other medical issues, often experience a comorbid condition of anxiety.
MANAGING STRESS THROUGH COVID-19 – INVITE HEALTH PODCAST, EPISODE 58 >>
Regardless of the cause, we have to know how to best manage the chronic stress that we can be under for years. Chronic stress can affect the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, which then impacts many important hormones in the body. For instance, their adrenal gland can be overrun, causing it to excrete excess cortisol. This can then affect the pancreas and insulin levels, as well as the blood sugar. Chronic stress can also impact focus, attention, and memory. This is why it is so imperative to learn to manage it.
HOW CAN YOU MANAGE YOUR ANXIETY AND STRESS
There are many ways to treat anxiety and stress, but oftentimes, they are not treated properly. I find that people frequently overlook food and how much it matters. I go back to the phrases “You are what you eat” and “Let food be thy medicine.” These statements hold so much truth. If someone is under stress and getting fast food as a time-saver, that’s probably not the best approach in terms of re-nourishing and supporting your body at a cellular level. We have to know that foods are first and foremost. For more information about why food is so important for managing stress, make sure to listen to the full podcast episode.
HOW TO MANAGE STRESS AS YOU RETURN TO SCHOOL – INVITE HEALTH PODCAST, EPISODE 166 >>
Trying to adhere to a Mediterranean diet is really your best choice because it helps you receive that comprehensive blend of vitamins and minerals that support the immune system. You get antioxidants that are naturally coming from those foods to fend off oxidative stress and ease inflammation. Omega-3 fatty acids are in a higher abundance in a Mediterranean diet. Eating fruits and vegetables is also important, as well as healthy fats. Snacking on things such as walnuts, almonds, and pumpkin seeds throughout the day can be beneficial.
There are certain nutrients, such as the amino acid tryptophan, that are derived from your diet and are essential to the body’s ability to manage stress. Tryptophan is needed to manufacture serotonin, which is the body’s happy neurotransmitter. In the absence of serotonin, we are going to experience higher levels of neuroinflammation, loss of focus, and feeling more on edge. The brain is just one pathway that chronic stress can impact. As it begins to affect more organs and pathways, it also weakens your immune system, diminishing your ability to heal, recover, and adapt. Chronic stress can cause many serious diseases, and if we don’t manage it, we are really setting ourselves up for some really harmful effects.†
We can also focus on what kinds of movement can help us deal with stress and add them into our routine. It could be running, yoga, meditation, or walking. You don’t have to go out and join a gym or become a marathon runner, but you do have to find something that you’re passionate about and something that you can enjoy doing. It could even be turning on your radio and moving to the music. These become means of decompressing. We have to take a mind, body, soul approach to managing stress.
There are also several nutrients that can be advantageous for managing stress.
- Omega-3 fatty acids like fish oil and krill oil are important. People with low levels of this nutrient are more likely to have greater levels of inflammation, stress, anxiety, panic, and depression.†
- L-Theanine, which is an amino acid predominantly derived from green tea, is also important because it supports GABA, which is our calming neurotransmitter. It also helps fend off oxidative stress from the brain, preventing damage to brain cells.†
HOW L-THEANINE RELIEVES STRESS WITHOUT FEELING DROWSY – INVITE HEALTH PODCAST. Listen now >>
It is so important for each of us to take our health seriously and that clearly includes taking care of stress, whether it’s from work, family, chronic disease, or something else. 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.
