Stress:  How To Cope

Stress.  The cumulative effect of external physical and mental forces upon our body. Long term stress can lead to a multitude of disorders including heart disease, obesity, skin outbreaks, and even cancer. It's very common for a doctor to diagnose a malady as stress related and to prescribe or recommend stress management programs to their patients.

There are ways to manage stress

Stress at work. The current economic climate has led to massive layoffs in the workplace, substantial losses in retirement accounts, and uncertain corporate viability across American industry. Stress at home. Rising unemployment and decimated investment and savings accounts have created an immense cloud of uncertainty and fear over American households. 

The symptoms of stress can be seen and felt. Minor reactions, such as a rush of nervous energy, to more serious effects, such as persistent chest tightness or headaches, are clear signs that our bodies cannot effectively manage stress. All indicate that stress-related chemical reactions are happening inside the body, and that the body does not how to cope with them. Reactions that can lead to the eventual breakdown of critical components and processes.

In addition to the potential for leading to disease and injury, stress prematurely ages us. High stress levels accelerate the production of specific hormones and cell destroying free radicals in the body. To cope with this increased production, the body shifts energy to the maintenance of critical systems, leaving non-critical components such as muscle tissue, skin tissue, and bone density to deteriorate. In addition, the release of these destructive chemicals leads to changes in the body that directly tear apart many of the nutrients our bodies need to survive. Even more nutrients are lost when the body goes into repair mode once the stress period has passed. The stronger the severity and the higher the frequency of stress events, the greater the internal damage and loss of critical nutrients.

Stress management techniques utilizing supplements

Stress management supplement products, whether they come in liquid, pill, or powder form, generally come in one of two categories (although new products are combining the effects):

1) Nutrient Replacement - these products will contain robust combinations of the nutrients that are typically depleted during the stress and stress recovery cycles. The influx of nutrients will facilitate the body's coping and repair mechanisms thus reducing the starvation signals that typically result in the shut down and deterioration of non-life supporting systems.

2) Body Relaxation - these products contain various herbs and/or extracts that relax the body and essentially fool our system into thinking it is not as stressed as it would be without the added calming supplements. This will lead to reduced levels of destructive hormones and free radicals being produced.

Neither approach is better than the other, and in fact, a synergistic combination of both should be utilized to deal with both day to day stress and the periodic severe stress events that can wreak havoc on the body.

Vitabase's Super Stress Complex contains a unique combination of vitamins and herbs that will both help replace nutrients depleted by stress, as well as provide herbal extracts that work to calm the body. Super Stress Complex comes in time released capsules to ensure a steady supply of the healing ingredients throughout the day. Vitabase, long known for the ingredient purity and concentrations of their supplements, has designed this stress management formula to reduce the effects of stress and bring peace back to your life.

We also highly recommend Holothink's Totally Tranquil audio series. It's a revolutionary technology that is designed to synchronize your brain waves via audio stimulation to achieve a specific state of mind. Pretty wild stuff that does seem to work at some level as a stress relief technique.

They offer a free demo, so check it out. I've put it on my iPod and will sometimes plug in just before I go to bed. Really helps to calm me down and sleep more soundly.