Stress and anxiety affect the balance of our body, especially in what touches the circulatory and immune systems and make us prone to disease and stroke. Fortunately, proper diet and other health measures reduce its impact.
Long health experts recognize that humans are more prone to diseases of all types when subjected to extreme stress situations. So crushing burden of work, family problems, traffic congestion, and examination periods and to the birth of a baby at home can have undesirable consequences for health.
The reason for this is a mechanism to respond to situations of danger or warning available to our body, we talked about it very often but we are not always aware of what is involved: stress.
Thus, the pace of modern life makes stress becomes problematic when it happens frequently (several times in a day) or persist for a long time (two or three days in a row) as a cause of alteration in the body's biochemical processes and this leads to physical and emotional problems.
Continuous wear
Research on the functioning of the organism have identified three stages in the stress response:
* Alarm. 's defense against an immediate threat. It happens even without our awareness and prepares us to overcome some risk.
* Adaptation or resistance. If the alarm stage is repeated or continues, the body tries to adapt to the effort and continues to operate, but not as stable as before. Begin to manifest headache, insomnia, nightmares, poor concentration or memory, irritability, digestive problems, significant variations in weight and tension in the jaw.
* Exhaustion. When resistance is continuing the body can not extend the effort, the energies are exhausted and fragile internal balance is broken. The ability to resist infection decreases while increasing the likelihood of infarction (tissue death from lack of blood supply, mainly in heart and brain), high blood pressure, ulcers and even cancer.
In addition, prolonged stress can worsen conditions that the individual suffered earlier, as diseases of the skin (itching, inflammation and rashes or pimples), asthma (inflammation of the airways that causes shortness of breath), premenstrual discomfort (emotional or physical symptoms occur days before a woman starts her menstrual cycle), allergies and pain in head, back and joints.
There are several resources to cope with stressful situations, and it is suitable to be put in place as soon as possible. We talked about taking short breaks (from "high" in the working day mini vacation to allow a change in routine), practice breathing exercises, relaxation or meditation, getting adequate sleep, talk with family and friends, to carry out recreational activities and eat healthy diet.
Nutritional Highlights
Delve into this point to understand why our food can help combat the devastating consequences of a stressful routine.
Note that many undesirable effects of stress, such as confusion, fatigue, insomnia and lack of concentration, due to the loss of essential nutrients for the brain and nervous system. Thus, it is essential to consume to benefit our mental performance and mood.
Basic rules in the diet
Combating stress through nutrition is to eat healthy and balanced diet, although this is important to remember some basics:
* Follow the schedules of meals and try to keep them stable every day. This will prevent sharp declines in the level of nutrients.
* Start the day with a good breakfast. The lack of carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals midmorning causes nervousness and irritability.
* The quality of sleep is altered because abundant dining and drinking plenty of fluids before bedtime. It is recommended not to take food in the 2 to 3 hours before sleep.
* Avoid "diets" to lose weight because not only reduce the intake of carbohydrates but also vitamins and minerals.
A proper diet to counteract the effects of stress should include fruits and vegetables in abundance (requires at least 5 servings a day) as the main source of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants that are available.
Thus, it is highly desirable to include a salad a day and at least one serving of fruit rich in vitamin C (one medium piece or the equivalent of a cup of orange, mandarin, guava and kiwi), without forgetting the importance of eating nuts ( almonds, pecans, peanuts) to provide essential fatty acids the body.
Other highly valued products are cereals, especially whole grains because they provide energy and fiber, which can help correct digestive problems. They are also suitable milk, yogurt and fresh cheese (preferably low fat), poultry (chicken, turkey) and fish, especially the so-called blue (salmon, trout, tuna, sardines, mackerel), and to counteract the thickening effect of adrenaline causes blood.
As for red meat (pork, beef, lamb) should be preferred or non-fat lean cuts. With regard to oils no restrictions, but preferably olive or canola for its beneficial effect on the circulatory system, without forgetting to be consumed in small amounts.
With respect to liquid water should eat simple, natural fruit juice and vegetables, as well as relaxing teas or antioxidant, such as linden, valerian, passionflower or green tea. As far as possible we must avoid alcohol, coffee (decaf is good choice, although not in abundance), soft drinks or that contain stimulants.
It is worth noting that you should avoid high-calorie products, dairy desserts and cakes, pastries industrialized, fatty meats and cheeses, butter, snacks and fast food. Also be reduced salt intake, blood pressure unfavorable, so we must avoid processed foods and meats in general.
In the food preparation methods are recommended that require little or no fat, grilled, baked, boiled or steamed. The consumption of fried products should be tempered and, for spice, you can make use of basil, fennel, cumin, tarragon, bay leaf, thyme, oregano, parsley, pepper, garlic, onion, vinegar, olive oil and even red wine, so to replace salt.
We can only say that other measures needed to counter stress are getting adequate sleep, exercise regularly, avoid alcohol and snuff, spend time on leisure activities, and practice relaxation.
However, when these resources no results are advised to see a psychologist or psychiatrist to talk about concerns and problems that emphasize the emotional stress. Fortunately, this type of therapy offers many resources and tools to deal adequately with the pressure.
Is it advisable to take multivitamins?
As we have seen, stress involves a great physical and mental, so that the use of supplements of vitamins and minerals is favorable, although always under the supervision or advice of a doctor. This is because some brands include ginseng and extract rich in caffeine, which are exciting the nervous system and may worsen the situation.
For the same reason and should be avoided "energy drinks" even those who claim to include factors contributing to the nervous system, including B vitamins, since many contain stimulants that are highly detrimental in people with ongoing stress.
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