Tag Archives: immune system

Stress and Your Health: The Body-Mind Connection

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Susan Boyle made people all over the world smile and cry when she achieved her dream of singing on Britain’s Got Talent. Sadly, what should have been the greatest moment of her life nearly overwhelmed her, and she ended up being hospitalized for stress and exhaustion. Most people are familiar with how tension and anxiety feel, but you may not know about the long term effects stress can have on your health. Even in the absence of an acute breakdown like Boyle’s, continued exposure to stress may be drastically impacting your body.

Our emotional well being is a finely balanced thing; any significant change in your life or routine, whether good or bad, can be enough to upset that balance. Moving to a new house, worrying about excelling at your job, illness in the family, or even just an upheaval in your schedule can set off the series of chemical reactions we call stress. It results from the release of hormones like adrenalin and glucocorticoids, and is related to the more primitive fight or flight response.

This response evolved in our ancestors as a protective mechanism to help us run for our lives in the face of serious danger. The hormones raise blood pressure, energize muscles, hyper-focus the mind, and dampen temporarily non-essential body functions like memory, reproduction, and digestion.  The problems arise when the same chemical reaction intended to save us from rampaging wild animals kicks in as a result of the daily, and comparatively minor, pressures of life. The hormones that would help save your life in the short term begin to do damage over time.

You’re likely to notice the emotional aspects of stress like anxiety and depression first, but the physiological side-effects can be even more wide ranging. Sudden spikes in your level of tension can contribute to headaches, insomnia, digestive issues like heartburn and irritable bowel syndrome,  skin rashes, changes in menstrual patterns, and sexual dysfunction. Sustained stress weakens your immune system to make you more susceptible to infectious diseases, increases your risk of heart disease, and may play a role both in infertility and certain cancers like breast and ovarian.

Knowing what stress is doing to your body, you owe it to yourself to be proactive. There are things you can do to help turn the body-mind connection in your favor:

  • Start by getting more exercise. The endorphins released during physical activity are natural mood boosters.
  • Seek out activities that are relaxing to you. Whether it’s yoga, meditation, knitting, reading, or dance, the key is to prioritize whatever helps you unwind and to do it on a regular basis.
  • Nurture your connections with other people. Research shows that individuals with strong social support systems and emotional ties to others suffer less from stress-related diseases. Oxytocin, a hormone related to love, nurturing, and bonding is another natural happiness aid.

Since a calm mind and a healthy body go hand in hand, when you learn to manage your stress, you’ll not only feel better right away, you’ll be investing in every aspect of your well-being. Then whatever life throws your way, you’ll be strong enough, physically and emotionally, to weather the storm.

How to Avoid Swine Flu and Other Viruses

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Concern over the threat posed by the H1N1 swine flu is returning to reasonable levels, but there’s a useful lesson to take away from all the coverage. Though we haven’t figured out how to cure viruses, there are a number of easy and efficacious steps you can take to reduce your chance of getting colds and flu in the first place. Indeed, most of what you can do to avoid getting viruses are the kind of good health practices you should be engaging in anyway.

The first thing your doctor, your mother, and recently, even President Obama tell you to do to keep from getting sick is to wash your hands frequently, and they’re all totally right. Every time you shake someone’s hand, touch a doorknob, or pick up the coffee pot at work, you may be exposing yourself to a bevy of germs. Thankfully, it’s not necessary to permanently don gloves to keep your hands clean. You don’t even need antibacterial soap. Copious amounts of running water and vigorous rubbing with regular soap for 20 seconds will do the trick.

Though soap and water are always the best option, keeping a bottle of alcohol-based hand sanitizer around can give you extra protection. Also, even if you’re vigilant about keeping your hands clean, try to avoid touching your eyes and nose. These are the primary routes by which viruses can enter your body.

Hand washing is great at keeping bugs out, but a strong immune is still your primary line of defense. An often-overlooked way to strengthen your immune system and keep from getting sick is to get plenty of sleep. A recent study at Carnegie Mellon showed that people who slept less than seven hours a night were three times more likely to catch a cold than people who slept eight hours or more. Obviously, a well-rested immune system is one that’s best equipped to keep you flu-free.

Other than getting enough sleep, the best boost you can give your immune system comes from the same big three that benefit your body in general: eat a healthy diet with plenty of fruits and vegetables, get moderate exercise, and work to reduce stress. Just as balanced nutrition that’s heavy on good fats and antioxidants and regular exercise pump up your immune response, stress can impede your body’s ability to stay well.

Thus, the good news is, most of what helps you avoid both seasonal colds and flu and new bugs like H1N1 are things that work you keep you healthy all time. And even if you do get sick, you can rest assured that a your robust immune system will help your body heal itself and get you back on your feet as quickly as possible.

Maitake Mushrooms Benefits for Weight Loss and Immune System

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In the northeastern woods of Japan and the United States grows a ruffly-looking, exotic fungus with exciting possibilities, both culinary and nutritional. Called maitake or hen of the woods mushrooms, their woodsy aroma, meaty texture, and rich flavor have long given them special status in Japanese cuisine. Now, research is showing that maitake have potential that goes far beyond the kitchen.

Traditional Chinese medicine credited maitake and other mushrooms with having medicinal powers for centuries, but in the last 30 years Japanese researchers have examined the specific ways mushrooms act within the body to fight disease and improve health. The results have been encouraging. According to various studies, maitakes appear to boost the immune system, reduce blood sugar levels, aid in lowering blood pressure, encourage weight loss, and help to both prevent and fight cancer.

Most of maitake’s health benefits seem to come from one main source. They contain beta-glucan, a polysaccharide compound thought to help the immune system by activating effector cells like macrophages, natural killer cells, and T cells. In addition to their role in general immunity, these types of antibodies also act against cancer. The polysaccharide is also thought to be the source of the mushroom’s ability to control blood sugar to help manage diabetes and improve weight loss.

On top of all that, maitakes are also a rich source of minerals like potassium, calcium and magnesium, B vitamins, and amino acids. With all that and the fact that they taste great too, it’s more than worth checking out these exotic fungal gems.

For an even easier way to harness the power of maitake mushrooms for your health, also check out Perricone MD’s Maitake Mushroom Extract.