Ways to Reduce Your Stress (Vitamins and Stress Relief)

Ways to Reduce Your Stress (Vitamins and Stress Relief)

Stress is the silent killer.  Stress is your body’s natural response to stimulus. An increase in your stress will cause your body to increase the adrenaline output in your body, your heart pumps faster and sends more blood through your body, and your breathing rate is also increased.  Prolonged stress is very detrimental to your overall health and mental well being.  Prolonged stress leads to heart disease, obesity, and insomnia.  Studies show that 54% of Americans are concerned about the stress that they have in their lives.  A large number of children, teenagers, and college students report an increase in their stress over the past five years. Stress is a daily part of everyone’s life, there isn’t a way to eliminate all stress causing elements from our lives.  There are ways to help to counteract the harmful amounts of daily stress. Here are a few suggestions.

Exercise - Studies have shown that people that exercise at least three times a week are far happier and have less stress in their lives.  Good cardiovascular exercise will allow the body to produce chemicals that help in the reduction of stress your body.  Exercise also helps people to better manage their weight, which is another major cause of stress in people’s lives.  

Healthy Diet – Avoiding fatty foods will allow your body to function better.  Stressfully eating fatty foods increases the sugar in your blood stream which will increase the already high levels of stress causing agents.  A balanced diet will decrease the stressful elements in your body, provide yourself with energy to deal with stress related problems that you face, and help your body to maintain a healthy living pattern.  Something that is very simple to add to a stress reducing diet is a good multivitamin.  Multivitamins include many B vitamins.  Numerous studies have shown that B vitamins lower stress levels.  Many people, especially women, find it hard to maintain a sufficient level of B vitamins in their system.  A multivitamin is a quick and cost effective solution that will provide your body with the vitamins and minerals that it requires.

Adequate Sleep – Lack of sleep is a leading cause of stress in people’s lives.  Not being able to sleep causes a vicious stress cycle.  Too much stress causes insomnia and other sleep disorders.  Those sleep disorders don’t allow you to gain the adequate rest to lower stress levels, thus causing an increase in stress.  That increase in stress then increase the intensity of the sleep disorders.  Adequate sleep provides large amounts of stress relief in people’s lives.  There are many sleep techniques to research and use, if you have problems sleeping.  Yet, it is important, if you are unable to resolve your sleeping issues on your own, to seek medical advice.  Sleep disorders can be indicators of serious illnesses.

Limit Intake of Stimulants - Limit your intake of sugar, caffeine, or other stimulants.  When your body experiences stress it releases adrenaline into your system.  Stimulants will only increase the stress levels in your body.

Stress cannot be avoided in daily life, but it can be managed.  A change in diet, increase in exercise, getting some sleep, and adding a good multivitamin can do wonders to lower stress levels.