Nutrition and Stress
How can I keep myself healthy during stressful times?
The Subtle POWER of the Supplement Strategy
T’is the season and we need all the help we can get! For the next 4 months we need to utilize any support that is available for our physical body – one month before and three months after New Year’s to be on the safe side. Diet, exercise, meditation and supplementation are all tools we can employ to get through the holiday season healthfully. Here are a few notes for your review - I trust this will help you to choose the proper supplements and ways to get through the holidays healthfully.
Medicine has come a long way. So has the technology of natural supplements!
The standard fix for the common cold hasn’t changed in centuries: bed-rest and chicken soup. Why? Rest bolsters the immune system, and allows the body’s resources to rally against the onslaught of infectious microbes. The hot soup keeps the lungs open, and moves the germ-laden mucus out. Simple and brilliant.
This simple regimen does not introduce any germ-fighting agents from outside the body that may have deleterious side effects. Moreover, this old-fashioned prescription of rest and hot fluids doesn’t simply chase symptoms the way contemporary antihistamines and analgesics do. Instead, this non-invasive approach just minimizes stress, adds nutrients and allows the body to restore and repair itself. This allows the miraculous human immune system to do its work. Use this as a model to pick a naturopathic plan of action for yourself. Above all do no harm and give your body the materials and tools it needs to repair itself.
This low-tech, cutting edge model of grandma’s has a lot to tell us today about protecting and improving our health. The wisdom is clear: often, the best thing we can do for our health is simply remove any obstacles to the body’s inherent ability to heal itself. Stand back, monitor, supply the resources, and let Nature take its course - unless the condition becomes a crisis – need I say, always consult your physician.
Ironically, technology and progress in the medical arena often prevent nature’s process from unfolding easily. Beginning in the early 20th century, there was an explosion of medical discovery. The first vaccines were developed. Simple complaints like diarrhea no longer became life threatening. Rampant killers like scarlet fever, tuberculosis and smallpox were contained, controlled, and virtually eradicated from the planet. The miracles of medical science!
The tremendous strides in pharmaceutical formulations, especially during the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, contributed to our culture’s space-race era infatuation with “science” versus the traditional approaches to wellness which included homeopathy, Ayurvedic (Indian) and Chinese medicine, naturopathy, herbal remedies, and other effective health giving methods discarded overnight as quaint folklore. Today, the most progressive members of the healthcare community combine pharmaceutical solutions with a subtle practice of supporting and empowering the body to heal itself. A program of nutritional supplements is the contemporary bridge between these two approaches, combining the best of scientific research and high tech drug formulation with an underlying belief that the body “knows best”, and will almost always gravitate toward balance and health if given the opportunity.
The supplement strategy is to support existing resources or to replenish needed resources (amino acids, calcium, iron, B’s, etc.). In some cases, your body does not produce sufficient resources on its own, so the supplements complement these deficient elements. This approach falls on the other side of the coin from the allopathic medical philosophy. The last century or so, focuses on illness and treating symptoms rather than digging deeper and identifying and arresting the illness at its source.
Using supplements in this new yet old way creates change which sometimes seems slow-moving compared with the instant, intense, blockbuster effects of the so-called “wonder drugs” to which we have become accustomed. A key difference is that a conscientious program of good lifestyle habits and supplements generally is intended to support the body as it repairs root, causal issues, or core-level health problems. Common symptoms and examples of root-level problems include things like:
Headaches – dehydration or blood sugar swings
Acne - poor digestion and elimination
Cold hands and feet - poor circulation
Desire for overeating - poor digestion
Sweet, salty and protein cravings - poor absorption of nutrients
Mood swings - mineral imbalance or PMS
you get the idea…
Becoming well and maintaining health - looking the best that you can - is a daily practice of maintenance. It’s like changing the oil in your automobile – you do it every 3000 miles because you know it is good for the health and longevity of your vehicle. You don’t see/feel results from this needed maintenance, but we all know that is good for your car! Remember, the best path towards ultimate health is prevention! Good maintenance will help us prevent disease.
We must become attuned to recognize the incremental changes that occur inside ourselves with all this good maintenance. Dramatic results can be seen, added to this maintenance, by giving your body resources, in the form of inflammation reducing, cell nourishing supplements. Then, the metamorphosis seems dramatically sudden, when in fact it is the cumulative result of many, many small, discreet internal transformations.
The changes which come from incorporating antioxidants and natural anti-inflammatories, in addition to improved health habits (like quitting smoking, improving digestion and elimination, getting adequate rest, walking/playing an hour a day, etc.) are deep, yet subtle and profound. They do not remain invisible for long. In fact, when people become sensitive to their body, the changes are felt as immediate and dramatic!
Within three months of beginning a program of the correct nutritional supplement system, tangible differences will be apparent. Is this approach suitable for a progressive, high-risk condition such as a malaria, cholera, dysentery, diphtheria, staph infection, measles, bubonic plague? Yes and of course not. Rapidly moving infectious disease can be brought down most effectively by our 21st century drugs, and we are truly fortunate to have access to them. However—the balancing and strengthening of the immune system through a regular program of nutritional supplements will make the body more resistant to contracting infection of all kinds, and will also make us more resilient and able to recover more quickly.
Before embarking on any program of supplements, consult with all of the health care professionals who are part of your ongoing self-care. This not only prevents problems, but also allows you to fully maximize opportunity and resources.
At the beginning of your nutritional adventure as well as several weeks into your program of supplements, take a hand-mirror outside into strong sunlight. Look at your skin. Does your complexion look different to you? As an experiment, keep a sleep journal for a week or two. Jot down in a notebook how long it takes you to fall asleep, how many hours you sleep deeply without waking, how often you experience insomnia, your level of wakefulness in the morning. Look over the results. Are you sleeping better? Do you feel more rested? You can keep a similar note of your energy level (which will increase), your zany food cravings (which will diminish- along with bloat, water retention and appetite); your moods (which will improve), your digestion (which will become more comfortable and efficient), and so on. Health is reflected by our skin, hair, nails and eyes. Even casual self-observation over the course of a few months will reveal positive, often-times pleasantly surprising changes.
So, after reading all this how do I pick my supplements? Well, feel free to e-mail me for my own specific regimen; and I will also offer you a few of my supplement distributors. I only ingest the best of the best of supplements – why else by and take supplements if they are not effective! As far as the general themes go you can see that the immune system is of the utmost importance! Pick a multiple antioxidant – one that has at least six potent antioxidants on the label. Why more than one antioxidant? You need one antioxidant for each free radical group; so, if an antioxidant is designed wisely it will have at least six with one antioxidant for each free radical group.
The next step is immune builders like betaglucan 1 and 3, essential fatty acids such as the Omega sisters three, six, nine and various forms of mushrooms like astragalus. Next step is to reduce stress source with a complete source of the complex vitamins and preferably with an endocrine support, such as adrenal, thymus, thyroid etc. .many people sleep poorly during the holiday season. I like to utilize calcium, Kava, 5 HTP and maybe some melatonin or restful herbal mixture/tincture. And last but perhaps most importantly digestive supports. If you cannot pinpoint your area of digestive weakness I would suggest you use all three groups of digestive supports – for the stomach the supplements would be HCl and/or L. glutamine; for the small intestine proteolytic and plant enzymes are very important; and for the colon, various forms of fresh probiotic (friendly bacteria like acidophilus) are the things to take. These are the major groups of supplemental supports that will get you through the holidays, and for that matter life, healthfully.
The following are three sources for supplements that I personally and professionally utilize. Feel free to call them and drop my name, as they only sell to health professionals.
HealthSprings – 888-908-3438
Royal nutrition – 800-524-3727
Molecular Biologics – 800-327-4104
I end up utilizing HealthSprings more often simply because they are not a manufacturer and contain the cream of the crop from most nutritional supplemental groups.
Stay healthy! Enjoy! Have a pleasurable and vigorous holiday season!