Looking to Reverse the Effects of Chronic Stress? Here’s How.
Looking to Reverse the Effects of Chronic Stress? Here’s How.
Tired. Worn out. Fatigued. We’ve all felt like that. You probably feel like that right now. It’s probably NOT because you didn’t get enough sleep last night — it’s most likely due to chronic stress. Chronic stress isn’t always something obvious, like when your boss puts you on the spot or your kid got in a fight at school. It’s the everyday factors that add up and cause serious consequences.
The Way Stress Affects Your Body & Mind
Here’s how it works. Many of your body’s functions are controlled by a part of your brain called the hypothalamus. To put it simply, the hypothalamus works to keep your body and its functions in a balanced state. When this balanced state is disrupted, it goes into an activated state — better known as stress. It’s during this state that the bad stuff happens. The proper function of your thyroid is suppressed, hormone synthesis is reduced, fat doesn’t decompose normally, glucose synthesis is increased and overall, your immune system is suppressed.
There are 3 basic ways your body can experience stress:
Physical stress: This is when you step on a Hot Wheels car in the middle of the night and fall on your face. That, and any kind of pain to your body you may experience.
Chemical stress: This happens inside your body when you breathe in too many man-made chemicals and is frustratingly difficult to avoid as they are nearly everywhere, largely in building and furniture materials.
Psycho-emotional stress: This occurs when you get laid off, or when you argue with your husband, or when you’ve been cramming for an exam for 5 hours straight. Basically, when you overtax your mental and emotional capacities.
Short Term Stress vs Long Term Stress
Here’s the thing…
Short term stress (like the aforementioned boss or kid examples) passes quickly through the system and your body goes back to normal.
Long-term, chronic stress, though — it doesn’t allow your stress system to return to normal. When that system operates long enough, just like everything else, the reserves get exhausted. If things don’t go back to homeostasis, but instead stay elevated, you get all kinds of non-optimum situations. This leads to a host of common illnesses, depression, neuroses, heart disease, ulcers and digestion issues, diabetes, obesity and alcohol abuse.
Immune problems – You didn’t need your immune system to be in top form for the fight or flight, so those functions got suppressed. Chronically, that means increased likelihood of inflammation, everyday illnesses, as well as plenty of higher risk of other health problems like heart disease and cancer.
Hormone problems – Those stress problems also lead to weight gain, digestive problems, and a host of other hormone-related problems.
Further stress – Poor health is another chronic stressor on the body, which compounds the problem, progressively worsening.
Now you don’t have protection against all the things that system is designed to protect you from, like chronic mental and physical fatigue, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, obesity and worse.
Let’s look at the immune system breakdown first. You may not realize how much work that really does. You’re opening yourself up to all kinds of infections, allergies, asthma, arthritis and even harming your body’s ability to heal injuries.
How to Reverse the Effects of Chronic Stress
You can only change your lifestyle so much to avoid the stressors that cause this breakdown. So what can you do to help your body regenerate and negate these nasty effects?
The answer lies within what’s called an “adaptogen.” These are natural (i.e. not synthetically manufactured in a lab) substances that have the ability to increase your system’s resistance to the wear and tear of stressors which in turn allows your body to adapt to stressful conditions — rather than overcompensate.
In short, adaptogens are what’s good for stress!
Sure, you say. Another supplement to take. Well, adaptogens are for real. They’re backed with science and in-depth studies. And these studies specifically show the benefits of extracts of 4 different plants, when used together, act to destroy the effects of chronic stress and make you feel like you again.
Adaptogen #1. Leuzea carthamoides extract
This is a plant that grows on the mountain slopes in Siberia. It’s been used for many years by locals in that area after noticing stags dig out and eat the root during mating season, after fights. They discovered the root had fatigue-busting properties.
It’s been studied since the 1940’s, and the results of the studies (still ongoing, even) show that this extract:
Increases physical performance and endurance
Increases skeletal muscle mass
Improves learning and memory
Reduces cholesterol
Prevents stress-induced sleep disorders
Positively influences cardio-vascular system
A specific active compound in the Leuzea extract, ecdysterone, has recently attracted more attention. Studies are showing that this compound shares many similarities with human steroid hormones. But steroids are bad, you say! That’s the wonder of this compound, actually. It turns out that if your body is already producing enough hormones on its own, ecdysterone doesn’t interfere. In fact, it doesn’t evoke a reaction at all. It’s only when your body has a deficiency that it jumps in and plays the part. Pretty cool, right?
Another fascinating aspect of ecdysterone is that it helps counteract the aging process, at least where muscle loss and decrease of power is concerned. When you get older, your body just isn’t as effective at utilizing protein. Ecdysterone again jumps in and plays the part, maxing out your ATP usage (Adenosine Triphosphate – the primary energy carrier in all living organisms) which in turn builds muscle.
Adaptogen #2. Rhodiola rosea extract
Another mountainous plant, Rhodiola is a plant that is so slow-growing that its location used to be kept a secret. It has long been valued for its ability to restore strength and preserve health, and was traditionally given to Siberian grooms on their wedding days to beef up their libidos.
This plant is unique in that it is polymorphous, which means its structure and biological compounds actually vary depending on which region it grows in! The original source of Rhodiola is from the southern Siberian mountains. So powerful was this particular location’s plant that Chinese emperors sent expeditions to search for the plant, while local inhabitants worked to keep the prized locations secret.
When scientists started studying it in the 60’s, they found that one of the compounds the Russian Rhodiola plant contains activates the transmission of nerve impulses in the brain. It’s also been shown to have a protective effect on the neuro-endocrine system (the one that really takes the brunt of the negative effects from chronic stress) and the cardiovascular system.
On the physical side, it improves exercise capacity and helps muscle protein metabolism. Using Rhodiola prior to exercise also helps reduce the negative structural disintegration in muscles. Sounds too good to be true? Well, scientists can actually SEE (with an electron microscope) the structural changes in mitochondria after using this extract.
Last but not least, Rhodiola has anti-toxic properties to actually reduce toxicity and improve memory and attention. In tests it was found to increase ability to perform concentrated intellectual work for long periods of time. It does this by modulating serotonin in the brain, raising contentedness and actually repairing damaged neural cells so the brain so those nasty ups and downs are smoothed right out!
Adaptogen #3. Eleutherococcus senticosus extract
You’ve heard of Ginseng, right? Well, this is “Siberian Ginseng.” And again, what sets this extract apart is not so much what it does, but what it does ONLY in the absence of your body’s natural abilities. It elevates immunoglobulins (the stuff that helps your body fight off invading germs) WHEN YOU NEED THEM. Too many of them leads to allergies, but too few and you’re looking at increased chance of infection. So what this does is act as a moderator of sorts for your immune system. And we know that boosting your immune system helps your body handle and reduce stress and anxiety.
Aside from the immune system pump, it’s also been shown to help glucose levels in diabetic rats. And mental health in the elderly. Not that you’re a rat. Or elderly.
Adaptogen #4. Schisandra chinensis extract
This plant extract comes from the fruit, where the berries have been used for centuries in China to restore workers after particularly hard physical labor. But you don’t have to work yourself to the bone to feel the benefit of this fruit – it doesn’t discriminate against those who are only mildly exhausted.
In Russia, researchers found this adaptogen’s extract protected against multiple stress factors while increasing physical capacity. Specifically, a compound called Schisandrin removes an overabundance of harmful molecules (free radicals) roaming around in your body, thus ensuring you stay healthy and free of chronic diseases.
The other scientifically studied component of this fruit is its anti-inflammatory properties. It even lowers toxic substances that enter your body on an everyday basis.
Put all the adaptogens together and you get BOOSTme®!
Yes, there IS a product that combines all of these amazing extracts. BOOSTme® utilizes all four plant extracts in one supplement. As with all the above extracts studied one by one, the effects of BOOSTme® as a whole have been extensively studied as well.
Other ways to reduce physical stress include:
Getting enough sleep
Drinking plenty of water
Eating well, especially fresh fruits and vegetables, which contain wide nutritional profiles for healing
Supplementing your diet with “helpers” like our adaptogen products
Immune system boost
The influence of BOOSTme® on immunity of ovarian cancer patients was studied in the Cancer Research Center in Moscow.
In 9 women who took BOOSTme® (270 mg a day) for 4 weeks following chemotherapy, the average number of the four T cell subclasses (a type of white blood cell which is of key importance to the immune system) was increased in comparison with the average number of the T cell subclasses in patients who did not take BOOSTme®. The results suggest that the combination of extracts from the adaptogenic plants may boost the suppressed immunity in ovarian cancer patients who are subject to chemotherapy. That’s some serious physical stress overcome!
Even better, some side effects that were a result of the chemotherapy (chronic fatigue symptoms and depressive mood) were lessened in patients who took BOOSTme® following the treatment.
Blast away the stress with BOOSTme®
If the above scientific proof doesn’t sway you (maybe science isn’t your thing?), try your own experiment. Take BOOSTme® for yourself and see how much better YOU feel!
Order BOOSTme!
The Adaptogen Formula for Feeling Awesome™!
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