News — stress

Stress is a natural reaction of the body. But too much stress zaps the joy out of living. Stress can be defined as a state of mental or emotional strain resulting from demanding circumstances. There is a lot of current research about the harmful effects of stress and its increase on the risk of everything from the common cold to cardiovascular disease. While the jury is still out on exactly how stress affects human beings, we can all agree on one thing: stress is not fun. Do you ever feel like stress is wearing you down? In one form or...

  Our modern lives can be stressful, no doubt, so it's nice to know we have nature's adaptogenic herbs on our side. Ashwagandha has been praised as a longevity and vitality tonic for millennia. It is revered in Ayurvedic medicine for its restorative, energizing, and strengthening properties. It is known to promote rejuvenation in the mind, body, and soul. In Sanskrit, ashwagandha means "the smell of a horse", indicating that the herb holds the strength of a stallion, and has traditionally been prescribed in ancient Ayurveda to help people strengthen their immune system after an illness. The herb, also known...

What is the relationship between stress and disease? Medical doctors agree that the psyche plays an important role in the persistence of chronic disease, but because there is no scientific way to study this clinical phenomenon, for a long time it has been ignored. Our disease model is extremely effective when treating acute illness, it saves lives during instances of heart attack, appendicitis and infectious diseases like pneumonia and E. coli. Today, doctors look at the human body as a complicated machine with infinite independent parts. Hospitals are separated into departments with specialties including everything from cardiology to gastroenterology, gynecology,...

The gut-brain connection is at the core of our overall well-being . . . when there's stress at one end, there will be stress at the opposite end as well. Your gut is totally in cahoots with your brain. There truly is a gut-brain connection. Have you ever noticed how when you're feeling angry or anxious, it can throw your body into complete chaos with a digestive disaster such as  acid reflux or diarrhea? Or on the other side of the spectrum . . . an agitated emotional state stops you in its tracks, leaving you constipated, sluggish, and feeling...