Anxiety is the most common mental illness in the United States. It affects around 40 million adults each year, or 18.1 percent of the population. While most of the people who have an anxiety disorder go without treatment, you don’t have to have a full-on disorder to experience anxiety and stress. [Read more…]
8 Signs Your Stressed and How To Fix It Now
While we all have bad days and stress is a normal part of life, when we’re overstressed it can wreak havoc in a number of ways, resulting in all sorts of physical and emotional symptoms. Sometimes, when we’re under chronic stress, those symptoms are more subtle, but if they aren’t addressed it can lead to more serious issues from depression to heart problems.
These signs say that your body is trying to tell you that you’re under too much stress, and it’s time to make an effort to change things now.
Insomnia
If you’re suffering from a lack of sleep, it could be due to high cortisol levels caused by stress. This “stress hormone” as its often called, is supposed to decrease at night to allow your body to rest and recharge. But if the stress response is constantly “on,” your going to have a hard time sleeping.
Frequent Headaches
When you’re stressed, all of that tension tends to build up, resulting in a tension or a stress headache. You know that dull, aching pain that feels like it’s wrapped around your head? If you’ve been getting these type of headaches frequently, you’re probably pretty stressed.
Your Jaw is Sore
If your jaw is sore, it’s probably because you’ve been grinding your teeth, something that’s common when you’re stressed out
Skin Problems
Stress tends to increase inflammation, which can lead to breakouts and acne. If your skin frequently breaks out, or you develop a skin rash like eczema, it’s a sign that you’re under a lot of stress.
Your Hair is Thinning or You Have Bald Patches
If you notice that you’re hair is falling out more often, it’s thinning, or worse, you have small bald patches, it could be due to excess stress. While it may be related to a particularly stressful event, alopecia can also be the result of chronic stress, which is when the immune system starts to attack hair follicles, causing hair loss.
Fatigue
If you don’t have insomnia and your fatigue isn’t connected to something obvious, like running a marathon or staying up too late, it could be the result of stress.
Anxiety
Everyone experiences some anxiety now and again, but if you’re anxious all the time, it could be that you’re overstressed. Anxiety is just one of the many ways your body reacts to stress.
Digestive Problems or Frequent Bellyaches
If you frequently suffer from digestive woes, it could very well be due to stress. Stress can actually cause a bellyache, constipation or diarrhea. Medical director of the Digestive Health Center at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in North Carolina Kenneth Koch, MD told Everyday Health, “Stress can affect every part of the digestive system,” adding, “Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the great German writer, and philosopher, believed that the gut was the seat of all human emotions.”
Koch further added, “Although stress may not cause stomach ulcers, celiac disease, or inflammatory bowel disease, it can make these and other diseases of digestion worse.”
In a 2002 study reported by Prevention magazine researchers found that of the nearly 2,000 participants, those who experienced the highest levels of stress were over three times as likely to have abdominal pain as compared to their counterparts who were more relaxed. While the reason behind it isn’t totally clear, some experts believe that it’s because the intestines and the brain share nerve pathways. When your mind reacts to stress, your intestines are getting that same signal.
How to Fix It Now
If you’re seeing yourself among these signs, it’s important to address it as soon as possible. Here’s how you can fix it now.
Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff
Do the best you can to let worries roll off your back. Don’t let those inevitable little things like traffic or a grumpy grocery store clerk get to you. Remember, in the scheme of things, it’s all the small stuff that adds up, building and building until you feel like your head is going to explode. Instead of worrying about everything, make the changes you’re able to and then make a decision to accept that you won’t be able to change everything. If there is nothing you can do about a perceived problem, let it go.
Be Mindful
Focus on what’s happening right now, this very minute, and not what happened yesterday, last week or last year, or what might happen tomorrow or the next day. By concentrating on the present moment, it can dramatically reduce stress.
Practice Deep Breathing
Deep breathing offers immediate stress relief. Multiple studies have found that the practice of deeply inhaling, holding your breath and then slowly exhaling, to a count of five for each, can active lower cortisol levels which helps to reduce stress. Researchers have found that it can even lower blood pressure too.
In 2014 research reported in Frontiers in Psychology, volunteers were asked to count nine breaths in sequence. They used a keyboard to tap one key for each breath, and a different key for the last breath in each sequence, causing them to be more aware of their breath. At the end, the experts found that it resulted in a more positive mood in all the participants.
Get Moving
Just about any type of physical activity helps to relieve stress, but walking can be done pretty much anytime, anywhere. Even if you’re at the office, you can get up out of your chair and walk around the building or up and down the halls. At home, you can walk around the house or even up and down the stairs if the weather isn’t cooperating. Whenever you can, aim to get outside as the fresh air combined with exercise serves as kind of a “double whammy” for battling stress.
Exercise in Shorter Periods
If the thought of exercising for long periods is stressing you out, or causing you to skip it altogether, you should know that it can be just as beneficial to workout in shorter periods. Try to get at least 30 minutes of physical activity a day, but you can accomplish that by doing it 10 minutes (or more) at a time, for example, walking after each meal.
Get Sufficient Sleep
A lack of sleep contributes to stress, actually causing cortisol levels to rise. Aim to get seven to eight hours of sleep every night as often as you can. If you struggle, make it a point to change things by creating a more conducive environment, such as avoiding your cell phone, tablet or laptop about an hour before bedtime, and making sure all those little lights from your electronics are shut off. Wearing earplugs can be a big help if noise is preventing you from sleeping or waking you up at night too.
-Susan Patterson
What is Cryotherapy and Should I Try It?
The term “cryo” means involving or producing cold, especially extreme cold. Cryotherapy is a type of treatment that involves exposing the body to temperatures colder than negative 200 degrees Fahrenheit for several minutes. It can simply mean sitting in an ice bath, but the type of cold therapy we’re talking about involves immersing oneself in a chamber and having liquid nitrogen sprayed into the air to bring temperatures down.
While taking a prolonged dunk into a freezing cold tank may seem like a strange way to enhance one’s health, it’s becoming an increasingly popular thing to do.
Cryotherapy, Now and Then
You might think cryotherapy is a new trend, but it’s actually been utilized in a number of different ways for centuries in order to lessen pain, decrease muscle spasms, speed healing, slow cell aging and improve health. Doctors use it as well, for example, to freeze off cancerous cells or warts. While it is unpleasant initially, proponents of the treatment say it gets better each time with the body adjusting to the low temperature.
Cryotherapy has often been used in Japan since the 1970s for treating health issues like multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis, and in the ’80s, it spread to Western nations, mainly for alleviating sore muscles in elite athletes, as reported by the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews in a paper published in 2015. Famed life coach Tony Robbins, known for his infomercials, self-help books, and seminars, claims to use a cryotherapy chamber as part of his regular daily routine, and a number of other celebrities have as well, including James Bond AKA Daniel Craig, “This Is Us” star Mandy Moore, singer Harry Connick, Jr., and superstar athletes like Floyd Mayweather.
Is It Safe?
Although cryotherapy is generally considered safe, experts advise speaking to a healthcare professional before trying it. Treatment that lasts longer than a few minutes can be fatal, and it’s also dangerous to children, pregnant women and those with heart conditions or severe hypertension.
Treatment can vary depending on where you go – be cautious of any place that makes outrageous claims, as if it sounds too good to be true, it most likely is. Technicians should always explain the process, provide a warning as to the potential risks, take a blood pressure reading and answer all questions that you might have. If you’re left alone, it’s a serious red flag, as a trained technician should always be in the room with you, not only before the procedure but during, so that you can be closely monitored.
The Benefits
Advocates of cryotherapy swear by it for its numerous benefits, which include the following.
Relieving the Pain and Soreness of Muscle, Joints and Other Issues. The primary benefit of cryotherapy has long been easing muscle and joint pain. If you’ve ever iced an ankle you twisted, or a sore neck, for example, you’ve treated yourself to a form of effective cryotherapy. Applying cold to an injury for 15 minutes at a time, three to four times a day is well-known to offer benefits that may even promote faster healing of injuries. Doing so serves to improve blood circulation while promoting healing and pain relief. This may also help to soothe pain related to rheumatoid arthritis, according to a German study conducted in 2000.
Speeding Workout Recovery. Athletes have known and used ice for centuries to help speed recovery after intense workouts, something that’s been supported anecdotally as well as in scientific research. Some studies have shown that it’s effective against delayed onset muscle soreness and many well-known athletes, including basketball star Kobe Bryant, have claimed to enjoy these benefits.
Reducing Inflammation. Inflammation is the body’s response to an injury or disease. A type of protective mechanism, it has a key role in the body’s healing process, but if it becomes excessive and chronic, it can head to a wide range of health issues, such as diabetes, arthritis, high cholesterol, obesity and even cancer. Lowering inflammation, therefore, may also improve overall health, while decreasing the risk of many chronic ailments.
In the 1970s, Dr. Toshima Yamaguchi started using cryotherapy to help his patients with rheumatoid arthritis in order to lower inflammation and decrease pain. The treatment triggers anti-inflammatory norepinephrine release as well, which also reduces short-term pain from injuries. It decreases inflammation while simultaneously putting enough stress on the body to keep cells in check. Low doses of physical stress from a cold plunge are known to elicit an adaptive response and boost the immune system by increasing white blood cells and immune cells, helping it to more easily kill off viruses and other ailments.
Lowering the Risk of Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease. As cryotherapy can reduce inflammation, it may also lower the risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, as 2012 research from Poland notes. It suggests that the treatment can decrease inflammation and the oxidative stress that’s linked to dementia, mild cognitive impairment, and other age-related forms of cognitive decline.
An Improved Mood and Better Sleep. Being exposed to cold triggers the release of “feel-good” hormones known as endorphins while increasing the production of norepinephrine, a hormone, and neurotransmitter involved in the sleep-wake cycle. Norepinephrine provides significant positive effects on one’s mood, energy, and sleep patterns which experts believe may be due to its role in neurogenesis, which is the production of new neurons in the brain, something that’s associated with an improved mood and memory. A decrease in the stress hormone cortisol and an increase in norepinephrine is well known for supporting a healthier sleep-wake cycle. healthy sleep-wake cycle. That rush of endorphins and relaxed feeling that follows may be why so many people are now using cryotherapy for improved sleep.
Relief From Anxiety and Depression. That same “euphoric feeling” so often reported may also help to relieve anxiety and depression systems. Experts say the theory behind that is the release of endorphins that are triggered, as well as natural adrenaline. It improves blood flow which can also be helpful for those experiencing mental health issues like depression and anxiety. For now, most professionals agree that cryotherapy is best used when combined with other, more traditional treatments and discussed with a mental health professional.
The Bottom Line?
Both scientific research and anecdotal evidence have suggested that cryotherapy may help with a range of concerns for many people, provided that treatment is provided under the close watch of a professional.
-Susan Patterson