Covid-19 & Health Update: Chronic Stress = Inflammation & Illness
RVAchironeuro • February 28, 2022
Hello again everyone:
Stress is an inevitable part of life, and we do need some stress to function optimally. Without any stress we would atrophy and wither across all of our systems including muscular, bone, brain, heart, immune etc. However, too much stress for too long is degenerative across all systems as well. We can measure our stress response to see if it is normal by looking at the normal ups and downs of the primary stress hormone, cortisol. This hormone is highest in the morning and lowest at night. When this normal up and down curve happens, researchers find we have the fewest health problems…yet when the curve is flattened or reversed, we have the most health problems.
Highlights
- Meta-analysis shows flatter diurnal cortisol slopes are associated with worse health
- Results are significant for 10 out of 12 health outcomes and across multiple age groups*
- Strongest effects are found for Inflammation and immune system outcomes
- Effects are found across most types of diurnal cortisol slope measurement
- Use of objective compliance monitors is associated with larger effect size
*immune and inflammatory system dysregulation, fatigue, cancer, obesity/BMI/adiposity, externalizing symptoms, internalizing symptoms, depression symptoms and disorders, other mental health, other physical health, and mortality outcomes were all associated with a flatter diurnal cortisol slope.
Bottom Line:
Chronic stress leads to immune dysregulation and inflammation across multiple organs and systems. As you all know, inflammation causes, perpetuates, or aggravates every known human ailment. There are several things that may ameliorate and normalize the diurnal cortisol slope and most of us will need to incorporate several of them together to successfully reduce stress:
- Get 7 to 8 hours of restful sleep every night.
- Exercise at least every other day and go for a walk on non-exercise days, but at the minimum we should move daily even if we just walk every day…yoga is fantastic!
- Avoid foods that increase inflammation such as sugar and processed foods of all types.
- Consider taking adaptogen herbs to help normalize the stress response: ashwagandha; ginseng; rhodiola; tulsi
- Meditate and/or incorporate mindfulness strategies daily.
- Consider anti-inflammatory food plans and supplements such as turmeric or Boswellia or ginger.
- Avoid unpleasant news such as TV and other media.
- Reduce screen time and spend more time outdoors and read uplifting books
- Reduce or avoid alcohol, tobacco, and nicotine products…study and practice relaxation methods.
- Make sure your short- and long-term plans, goals and expectations are realistic.
- Our time is one of our most precious resources…consider spending your time only where you feel good and being there furthers your life purpose and service goals.
- Consider removing yourself from the presence of negative influences or find a way to detach but remain loving and helpful if possible.
- Take some ‘me’ time when possible…read the book “One Minute for Yourself”
- Connect with others with whom you feel close to or are important to you or who share similar values.
- Practice peace in every aspect of your life.
Our sincere thanks to you for spending some of your precious time with us. Our mission is to supply you with empowering information to upgrade your life and health. Love and gratitude to all!
The post Covid-19 & Health Update: Chronic Stress = Inflammation & Illness appeared first on RICHMOND CHIROPRACTIC NEUROLOGY.
Health News Update: Sleep Timing, Mood & Performance 4.6.26 Hello everyone: In taking a history at the start of a healthcare process, I often find people of all ages have sleep schedules that do not match optimal circadian rhythms and have un-knowingly contributed to degrading their health. Sleep is a significant component of leading an anti-inflammatory lifestyle as it fosters autophagy (an immune based essential self-cleaning function, hormonal regulation, stress reduction, immune resilience, optimal aging, and more. As it turns out, getting your sleep timing right lowers depression, reduces morning fatigue, improves physical functions, and can markedly increase your ability to think, recall things and overall cognitive functions. Proper sleep timing aligned with our natural circadian clocks may also decrease mortality risks. Background There is conflict between living according to our endogenous biological rhythms and our external environment, with disruptions resulting in negative consequences to health and performance. This is often documented in shift work and jet lag , but ‘societal norms’ (eg, typical working hours) can create profound issues for ‘night owls’, people whose internal biological timing predisposes them to follow an unusually late sleep-wake cycle. Night owls have also been associated with health issues, mood disturbances, poorer performance and increased mortality rates . Results Overall, participants demonstrated a significant advance of ∼2 h in sleep/wake timings as measured by actigraphy and circadian phase markers (dim light melatonin onset and peak time of the cortisol awakening response), whilst having no adverse effect on sleep duration. Notably, the phase advance was accompanied by significant improvements to self-reported depression and stress, as well as improved cognitive (reaction time) and physical (grip strength) performance measures during the typical ‘suboptimal’ morning hours. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1389945719301388?via%3Dihub resetting sleep timing improves brain function and overall health. Bottom Line: For long term health, assisting recovery, optimal aging, improving immune resilience, lowering your total inflammatory burden thus reducing your risk for developing chronic diseases…it looks like a very good idea to get your sleep cycles in line with your natural biological rhythms. The researchers aimed to accomplish this using only simple practical natural lifestyle methods…no medications. Here is some of what they did: · Avoid blue light after dark. · Get some early morning sunshine…even 5 minutes will help. · Exercise in the morning or early afternoon. · Adopt early time restricted feeding schedules (eTRF). · Fix a time to sleep and stick to it. If you have any chronic health issues, or just want to optimize the aging process, simply adopt a few simple lifestyle strategies. I have seen this clinically be one of the major keys to the success when it comes to overcoming fatigue, brain fog, digestive issues, and any chronic health problem. Best wishes to you for a healthy life!
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Health News Update: How To Fight Inflammation and Chronic Disease 3.23.26 Hello again everyone: You might wonder why I keep focusing on food…so here are some of the reasons: food choices are the leading cause of death in the U.S. and spreading around the world. Poor food choices lead to inflammation which slowly destroy health. It is that simple, plain, and clear and backed by research. The next question: how do we fight back? Introduction The positive impact of food on health was postulated by the ancient Hippocrates, father of modern medicine with his famous quote: “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food” [1]. In the 21st century, scientists have focused on the effect of nutritional habits in diseases. Nowadays, it is well documented that food plays a noteworthy role in the pathogenesis of chronic diseases namely cardiovascular diseases (CVD), metabolic syndrome, diabetes mellitus type II, and cancer [2–5], as it correlates with others with the lipid pattern, the blood pressure, and the endothelial function. The scientists examine the effect of nutritional habits on disease emergence and progression in both individual nutrient intake and dietary patterns models. Worldwide, two dietary patterns are usually compared—the Mediterranean diet (MD) and the Western diet (WD) [3,6]. The Mediterranean diet reflects the food culture of most Mediterranean countries based on olive oil consumption, seasonal fresh vegetables, cereals, and plants in balance with low consumption of meat [7]. The Western diet, on the contrary, is dominated by high-fat dairy products processed and red meat [8]. However, discordance in the different MD patterns and consumed food doses had been recognized. Without any doubt, those discrepancies could confine and restrict our knowledge on the health benefit mechanisms of the MD [9]. Due to the above, the medical community along with nutritionists and dieticians take a keen interest in MD and its traits [7]. https://www.academia.edu/45378994/biomedicines_Mediterranean_Diet_as_a_Tool_to_Combat_Inflammation_and_Chronic_Diseases_An_Overview?email_work_card=view-paper food choices can fight inflammation and chronic disease Bottom Line: This is a 2020 paper and since then literally hundreds of papers on the MD have emerged showing how the food plan lowers inflammation and the risk for developing multiple chronic illnesses. Even still, lots of research needs to be done to elucidate the many mechanisms of how food impacts our system and how to optimally individualize dietary recommendations. At this point, our best strategy to prevent and/or recover from any chronic condition is to eat as clean and natural as possible. It has become rather obvious that the further away from a natural diet we get, the sicker we become. On top of that, I have yet to see a full recovery from any health issue without the foundation of a predominantly plant-based, unprocessed, whole foods approach…which is why I keep posting about this subject. All the best to you and yours!
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