Natural Medicine for Stress and Anxiety
Updated: Nov 24, 2022
We live in stressful times, and being proactive now is vital for our future wellbeing.
Our central nervous system is responsible for activating our response to stress, but didn't evolve to be switched 'on' all the time.
Long-term stress and elevated cortisol has been linked to insomnia, chronic fatigue syndrome, thyroid disorders, dementia, depression, and other conditions.
In our clinic, we often see adrenal dysfunction as an underlying factor in many presentations. We offer a 5-point saliva cortisol test to assess your adrenal function. This test is much more accurate than a serum (blood) test, and tells you when and where in the day or night your adrenal glands are under or over producing hormones.
Want to get tested - Book in for a FREE chat: CLICK HERE
Signs that your adrenal hormones may be out of balance:
Feeling shaky
Rapid heart beat
Feeling stressed out
Irritability or impatience
Digestive issues
Skin issues such as eczema, psoriasis or allergies
Waking up with excessive energy
Feeling tired between 2-4PM
Find it hard to relax before bed - poor sleep
Can't tolerate noise
Often when the adrenals are out, so is our SLEEP.
One of the first things we address when you see us is sleep - it is the key to healing and cellular rejuvenation.
Weight gain and STRESS
If your cortisol is elevated, the sugar in your blood will be stored as FAT around your mid-section!!
Under stressful conditions, cortisol provides the body with glucose by using protein stores via gluconeogenesis in the liver. However, elevated cortisol over the long term consistently produces glucose from the liver stores and muscle tissue, leading to increased blood sugar levels - even if your DIET is low in carbohydrates and sugars.
Once we know the function of your adrenal glands and the blood sugar system, you might discover that the exercise that you were doing to lose weight was actually what was putting it on!
Of course, I don't recommend that you stop exercising - the body needs motion. What I am saying is that sometimes too much exercise actually unbalances the hormones for some people.
Natural Medicine can help
Addressing a stress disorder generally needs more than medication to band aid the symptoms - such as anxiety or depression drugs. It is usually more complex than that, involving deep nutritional deficiencies, hormone imbalance, toxic load, poor diet choices and an unsupportive lifestyle. Working with a holistic practitioner allows you to get guidance from a trained professional who is experienced in treating the body holistically - taking all factors into account.
We have access to some wonderful herbs that can be used medicinally to support adrenal repair, improve cortisol output, calm anxiety, soothe the nervous system, and help to calm a busy mind.
Nutritional deficiencies have a major impact on the body and good diet alone will not correct this, this is where testing your levels first is needed so that supplementation doses are adequate. Most nutritional deficiencies can be optimised in 12 weeks, resulting in a great turnaround in health symptoms!
Best Natural Stress Busters......
The Power Of Adaptogens
Chronic stress can lead to continual activation of the sympathetic nervous system, this in turn effects the immune system, causing inflammation in the body and low immune function which can open you to recurrent infections.....
Herbal medicine can help modulate the stress response to assist immune function.
Adaptogen (in herbal medicine) a natural substance considered to help the body adapt to stress and has a harmonising effect upon bodily processes.
Immunomodulation refers to any process in which an immune response is altered to a desired level.
Herbs with these actions include: Withania, Astragalus, Korean Ginseng, Siberian Ginseng.
A gentle start at home:
Here are some lovely herbal teas that help you feel more mentally balanced by supporting your nervous system, immune function, and brain health.
Lemon Balm: Calms and relaxes the nervous system and calminative, relaxing a nervous gut and promoting healthy digestion.
Oats: Restorative to the nervous system, improves energy and resilience
Lavender: Calming and relaxing to the nervous system and promotes healthy sleep
Chamomile: such a classic tea, but underestimate it's effectiveness. It is carminative and a mild sedative - a great before bed time tea.
Passionflower: Orally, passion flower is used for insomnia, anxiety, and sedation, pain including neuralgia, attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and symptoms of opioid withdrawal. Passion flower is also used for menopausal symptoms, painful periods, premenstrual syndrome (PMS), muscle cramps, and fibromyalgia. I LOVE this herb for anxiety. Some studies report that the anxiolytic and anticonvulsant activity of passion flower is similar to that of benzodiazepines.
Teas are wonderful, no doubt about it. But herbal tinctures are way more powerful and therapeutic. These need to be prescribed by a trained herbalist or naturopath to ensure your medications are balanced. So if you are needing more support here, book in your first appointment and let's start your journey to better resilience!
We love seeing our clients get such amazing results - it truly is what inspires us! Seeing someone go from exhausted, unhappy, in pain, to healthy, full of energy, and feeling great!
It all starts with a free 30-minute call to chat about how we can help - click here for an appointment.