Stress. We all have it, don’t we? Even if you don’t feel stressed when a stressful event occurs it still affects your physiology. Your physiology is your bodies response to an event of emotionally nature, chemical or physical nature. What that means is that there is a response to an event that triggers a cascade of chemical release in your body to combat what your environment is telling you.

For example. If you are in a stressful conflict with someone your body will produce chemicals to counteract your perception of the event. This ramps up cortisol production to send into your bloodstream. This focuses more blood flow into your muscles. Your heart beats faster to accomodate for this.

What this does is create a situation as we call fight or flight. This is okay short term but if we become stuck in it for too long then it can wreak havoc on our minds and bodies.

Symptoms of chronic stress can include:

• aches and pains throughout body

• insomnia

• Change in behavior

• Social isolation

• Low energy

• Change in appetite

• weight loss or gain

These are some of the symptoms. There are many more. If you are under chronic stress for too long more severe symptoms such as depression can occur. It is imperative to get stress under control before it takes over your life.

That leads us into the main topic of this blog post. What can we do about it? For one getting enough sleep is crucial and controlling the environment that you are in is a must in order to calm your system down. Seeing a life coach or a therapist is of so much benefit you should think deeply about seeing one of those as well.

With that being said, there are supplements that you can take to help combat the effects of stress on our physiology. We will go over the top 5 that you should be taking on a regular basis to help with the stress in your life.

1. Glutathione

Glutathione is number one on this list for a reason. It is the bodies master antioxidant. It helps to combat the free radicals that stress cause. Free radicals can damage your bodies tissues causing you to further stress with more symptoms. Getting the free radicals quenched is a must and this is the best go to for that. We utilize S-acetyl glutathione in office due to its better absorption into the system. It doesn’t do you any good if you are taking supplements that your body can’t absorb. This form is amazing. We use Safecell Glutathione for this reason.

2.NADH

NADH is important in stress because it helps to create energy and transport. This is vital during stress because when you crash from the stressful response you will be tremendously fatigued. At least that is what happens when I go through a stressfull event. It helps to keep you going.

3. SAMe

SAMe stands for S-Adenosyl- methionine. This molecule can help ease depression and the low mood involved when you crash from a stressful environment or event. It does amazing to help balance out mood and keep you level headed. One caution however. If you are taking antidepressants or suffer from bipolar disorder stay away from this supplement.

4.Inositol

Inositol is related to the B vitamins in how it acts. It can help with panic attacks, OCD, and depression. Taking 250 mg twice daily helps with stress levels on your body.

5. Taurine

Last but not least is Taurine. It is an essential amino acid involved in brain and heart protection. It is very useful during stressful times to help protect the brains function.

Utilizing all of these supplements in a combination supplement or on their own is crucial. It is very difficult to find all of these in combo form. What I do is take them separate which allows me to dial in the dosing for my particular situation. Some times you may need more of a certain supplement and other times you can dial it back. Working with a holistic health practitioner like we have here at Avad will not only help you to form a game plan but they can walk you through the process to combating stress.

If you have any questions or comments leave them below!