Lifestyle top tips
Feeling tired and wired? Naturopath Sara Gatt has some words of advice.
When our ancestors were faced with life and death situations, stress hormones would be released to make the heart pump faster, giving an instant energy boost to the body and brain.
Known as fight or flight, these responses saved many lives back then. However, today, our responses to stress remain the same and, unfortunately, they trigger heart attacks, strokes, cancers, stomach ulcers and even Alzheimer’s.
Why? Because in the long term, if we don’t disperse stress hormones through regular exercise or relaxation, they become highly toxic to every major organ in the body. If instead of going for a walk, breathing deeply and calming down, we head for the coffee or coke machine to keep us going, we trigger the release of even more adrenaline, which exacerbates the situation.
So how do we keep stress levels in check? Here are a few tips:
• Try and get eight hours of sleep a night; sleep deprivation is a major stress in itself and lowers your tolerance to other stresses.
• Get plenty of exercise.
• Take a deeper breath every 20 minutes; this slows the release of stress hormones.
• Learn to meditate.
Finally, we must never underestimate the power the type of food consumed has in the way it affects our stress levels and our ability to cope with them.
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