Nutrition. Vitamins. You.
Photo by Vu Thu Giang on Unsplash In honor of National Relaxation Day, we’re bringing you some tips on how you can stay relaxed and focus today (and everyday)! Your life is hectic. You may be a busy mom trying to juggle a full time …
Photo by Ishan Seefromthesky on Unsplash School may be out but work can be just as stressful. According to a recent study, a high-pressured work environment can lead to common mental health issues like anxiety and depression, which can also impact your life outside of …
Whether your doctor feels its best, or you feel your body is out-of-whack, speaking with your doctor about a cortisol level test is never a bad request. It can tell you a lot about what’s going on in your body, including your level of stress and issues with your pituitary and adrenal glands.
According to former Director of Nutrition for InVite® Health, Millie Lytle, ND, MPH, CNS, cortisol is a stress hormone produced in the adrenal glands. “We need this hormone to simply wake up in the morning. However, too much stress can stimulate our brain, signaling the adrenal glands to produce cortisol too often. High cortisol can cause issues with your mood, weight, and sleep patterns. Over long periods of time, and if left unattended, cortisol secretion may actually trigger a vicious chain of events that leads to some of the most common lifestyle illnesses, including depression, anxiety, obesity, hypothyroidism and diabetes.”
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A simple blood test is all that is needed for your doctor to test your cortisol levels. He or she may want to review your current medications, as this might affect your cortisol results. Speak with your doctor for directions before your cortisol test.
According to the University of Rochester’s Medical Center, normal cortisol levels are usually highest early in the morning and lowest at about midnight. normal ranges vary depending on the type of test. For most tests, normal ranges are:
Review your results with your doctor to confirm what your score may mean.
“Cortisol tends to deplete memory supportive, feel-good brain chemicals like serotonin, dopamine and acetylcholine. Lacking these brain chemicals can negatively affect mood, memory, appetite control and overall brain function. Luckily, nutrients like GABA (gamma amino butyric acid), and L-Theanine help to clear out excess cortisol and rebuild essential brain chemicals,” reports Lytle.
GABA slows down the firing of nerve cells, can benefit mood and supports memory, attention, focus and learning, as well as relaxation and restorative sleep. Theanine, an extract of green tea, helps to calm the central nervous system and supports the production of alpha brain waves, which are made during relaxation, meditation and sleep.†
Getting adequate rest is very important for well-being, especially when stress becomes overwhelming. Supporting tranquility during the day and restful sleep at night may be the key to helping the body resist the harmful effects of stress on memory, mood, and sleep, restoring your waking vitality. Natural remedies keep cortisol and other wellness-zapping hormones in check and build healthy, positive brain chemistry. With the help of some natural remedies, you can get your biochemistry back on track, and not only survive, but thrive with stress.
Photo by Gian Cescon on Unsplash Rhodiola is a plant that grows in the northern-colder parts of Europe. It has been used for centuries to help cope with the cold winters in Norway, Sweden, and Iceland and was used by the Vikings to improve stamina, …
Photo by Chad Madden on Unsplash According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the U.S., affecting 40 million adults ages 18 and older, or over 18% of the population each year. And, according to …
Do you feel overwhelming stress at work? A new study published in the journal Lancet Psychiatry set out to research whether or not the intensity of a high-pressured work environment can lead to common mental health issues like anxiety and depression. This study suggests that it can.
The Anxiety Disorders Association of America (ADAA) Stress & Anxiety Disorders Survey reports that most working Americans experience stress or anxiety both at work and at home, which can interfere with everyday functioning. They found that stress and anxiety most often impacts the employee’s workplace performance by 56%, relationship with coworkers and peers by 51%, quality of work by 50%, and relationships with superiors by 43%.
According to the World Health Organization’s Department of Health and Substance Dependence, “Stress at work can cause poor health and can increase rates of work-related injuries and accidents.
So, what exactly are the leading causes of these issues? Some potential causes of work-related stress are overwork, lack of clear instructions, unrealistic deadlines, lack of decision-making, job insecurity, isolated working conditions, surveillance, and inadequate child-care arrangements.”
The National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH) estimates that 16.2 million people in the U.S. have experienced major depression at least once in the past year. Over 19% of the entire U.S population is estimated to have had an anxiety disorder in the past year.
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The research, led by associate professor Samuel Harvey from the Black Dog Institute in Sydney, Australia, examined the impact of job stain, defined as “a combination of low job control and high job demands”, on mental health and general employee wellness. People have also seen how work-related stress can have an impact on their family relationships. Sometimes work-related stress can cause a stress-related illness such as depression or heart problems.
Harvey and his colleagues analyzed data from 6,870 individuals enrolled in the UK’s National Child Development Study. They focused on whether people who experienced a high level of job strain at age 45 would go on to develop mental health issues by age 50. To determine job strain, the participants answered questions about their decision-make abilities at work and their ability to use their skills at their discretion to answer questions about workload, work place and other demands the job entailed.
Overall, by the age of 50, the study participants who had experienced higher job strain were up to 14% more likely to develop a common form of mental illness.
“The results indicate that if we were able to eliminate job strain situations in the workplace, up to 14% of cases of common mental illness could be avoided,” explains Harvey.