What does stress management have to do with disease you may ask? It actually has everything to do with it, studies show that stress (or proper stress management)  contributes to disease prevention and to the ability to control and reduce symptoms of illness. Prolonged stress contributes to about 80% of all major illnesses. The ability to reduce stress can even lower your risk of some major illnesses such as heart disease and cancer. ‘Stress’ in itself doesn’t have to be bad; it actually is the body reacting to physical, emotional, mental or social situations. It's how we react to each individual situation or the ability to deal with stress that has either a positive or negative affect on the body.
 
The reaction we have to stress to a degree is a choice, however at times it is difficult to just put aside, it must be endured. Pressures from work, family, the economy, weather, pain, or health conditions all weigh on our ability to function under stress. Being under constant stress can cause fatigue, headaches, low self-esteem, insomnia, lower the immune system, raise blood-pressure as well as cause many other symptoms. Some individuals react well to stress, thus it has little reaction or impact on their physical, mental or emotional health. 
 
The results of being under stress is a very real situation, it’s not all in your head. When you are under stress the adrenal system is taxed. When the stress goes away our body regenerates itself. However the longer you are under stress the more your adrenals are fatigued. Our adrenal system is responsible for the production of adrenaline,   metabolism of fat, protein and carbohydrates. Many of the disorders that arise from stress result from dietary deficiencies. With prolonged stress the body becomes deficient in many nutrients and is unable to support the adrenal glands properly, thus B vitamins that normally balance the system are eaten up along with electrolytes. This leaves a unhealthy environment for free-radicals to grow and damage body tissues.

It is easy to say "you need to avoid stressful situtuations", another to do it. By employing some simple stress management techniques and supplements to your daily routine, you can reduce the affects of prolonged stress and slow or lower the risk of major disease. Living a 'stress free' life isn't possible, however learning to live with stress is.

First you need to learn to identify stresses in your life to give them proper attention and prioritize them. What are your biggest stresses? Use the following list as a place to start, put a number next to each one to give them proper placement in your life.

Allergies/dietary requirements
Chronically ill child/family member

Commuting
Danger
Death
Divorce or separation from loved one
Finances/debit
Health/injury/illness
Jail term/community service
Job/losing employment
Marriage/family/kids
Moving/relocating
Personal relationships
Pregnancy
Relationships
Retirement
School/studying for exams 
Surgery

Indentifying sources of stress can be an important first step in managing stress. Once you identify what is causing the problems you can  put them in order of what you
need to deal with first, thus making the list seem easier to manage. Once you deal with each item or make some sort of resolution within the item itself, move it to another part of the list. Not everything can be number one. 
 
Remember each person, adult or child, will put each stressful item in a different place. What one person can process better will help to support those that have a more difficult time with the same thing. Try to help each other through each situation by giving loving supportive reminders, this helps to soothe the soul and makes it easier to move on to the next item.
*photo credit by photolioni

What defines stupidity better than doing the exact same thing and expecting a different result. If you are trying to reduce stress without making some form of change, the chances of you doing so is slim, try doing something different. For some people, alternative medicine and treatment seems scary, if it is that way for you start with one of these three simple options noted below.

Deep Breathing Excercises - Leaning how to breathe was taught to you right from birth, however learning how to incorportate deep breathing for relaxation and stress reduction has to be remembered and practiced to be useful. There is nothing strange or spiritually influenced about taking a few moments to lay on the floor, sit in a comforable chair and just focusing on relaxing your muscles and taking nice deep full breaths in through the nose and our through the mouth. This is one of the easiest ways to reduce stress.

Aromatherapy - This can be done right in your own home. Through the use of essential oils (pure herbal extracts) either released into the air, added to a warm bath or used with a carrier oil directly on the skin, can have a positive affect to the mind, body and spirit. Not only do essential oils help please the sensory factors but can have pharmaceutical properties as well. Essential oils have been known to help calm a busy mind, relax muscles, soothe skin and relieve pain.

Get only good quality essential oils, this does make a difference in how you react to the aromatic oils. Some oils contain chemicals that can actualy case allergic reactions or headaches. Good aromatic stress reducers are: Bergamot, Sweet Orange, Chamomile, Clary Sage, Frankincense, Jasmine, Linden, and Ylang Ylang oil. Do not use oils in full strength, always dilute them first. You can add them to a carrier oil or to water in a steam bath or soak (see below for options).

The following are some ratios for dilution and use:

Bath - Add up to 4 - 8 drops essential oil to 1 cup water then add to your bath. This is 8 drops total, using more than 8 drops can irritate the skin.
Body lotion - Add up to 25 drops essential oil to 8 oz unscented lotion.
Facial oil - Add up to 6 drops essential oil to 1 oz apricot or jojoba carrier oil. Using more than 6 drops can irritate the skin.
Hair shampoo or conditioner - Add 1 drop essential oil to 4 - 6 oz unsecented shampoo or conditioner. 
Massage oil - Add up to 25 drops of essential oil to 2 oz almond, apricot, grape seed, avecado or oilve oil.
Perfume - Add up to 12 drops essential oil to half an ounce purified water or jojoba oil.
*Essential oils are percious and breakdown quickly, use within a short amount of time. Best used within 6 months or better.

Massage - Runs parallel to Acupuncture, from feather touch to deep tissue, massage ranges like mountains to the ocean. Not all techniques work the same for everyone. Chances are though if you have never had a massage or don't get one regularly, you probably need one. At once thought as 'dirty' has turned into a necessity for those with health issues, tense muscles hold onto stress and toxins. By getting rid of the tension throughout the body your physical stress will release, this also allows the body to heal correctly and function smoothly.

For more stress reduction and treatment options see the Alternative therapy tabs under IBS, Hepatitis or Cancer Prevention.
**Photo credit by Breathe Body Works of St Johns - Our resident massage therapist

Being active is a perfect way to reduce stress, we are not necessarily talking about taking a walk on a warm weekend, or being a weekend warrior. Find an activity that you can do reglarly, daily if possible. Some people prefer being alone during an activty others prefer group or team based activity, choose something that you can easily keep regular doing. Most people who are dealing with stress on a constant basis also have a ‘time’ factor there just doesn’t seem to be any time to do anything else. Truth is, there is only 24 hours in a day, no matter how much time you devote to each what you do, it still only equals 24 hours. So what do you do? you make the time or buy it out from another activity.

Here are some ways that people have successfully counteracted stress with activity.

Go for a walk - Adding a 20 minute walk to your day has proven effective in stress reduction. In fact, adrenaline when tapped into your blood stream will hang out for 20 minutes, if you find yourself getting angry, upset or frustrated this might be a good time to literally take a walk. Walking is also a good way to keep the blood moving when sitting for long periods of time the body accumulates toxins, circulation slows, body fat accrues. By walking a few minutes a day it helps to ward off illness and keeps the body in a healthier state.
 
Join a gym - Having gym membership helps many to feel accountable it also gives you somewhere to go to be active, with others that are doing the same. Just by knowing you have to be somewhere at a particular time for a class, or to do an activity on the way home from work, even a place to go after a ugly doctors appointment, it can help keep you on track. By being at the gym at the same time each day you go, your body will gear toward that time plus those around you will notice you a ‘regular’. Knowing you are someone that other people look forward to seeing is encouraging to them as well. As you get to know people, and they find out that you are there to help reduce stress because of heath matters, it encourages them more.

Dust of your bike – Many find that riding their bike to work, or for a few minutes after they get home from a busy day helps to clear the mind. Breathing fresh air and moving the body’s large muscles push the toxins that have been building up during the day out of your system, leaving you with a clear head and physically refreshed.

Sign up for a race – There are many different kinds of races or causes you can walk, run or ride for. By signing up to support one of these it can help you keep on an activity schedule because you more than likely will have to train or prepare in some way for the event, this can also help you focus on something else other than the stresses immediately at hand. Having activity goals can also help you eat right and maintain proper weight which will help your over all performance. Note; due to illness, if you are not feeling healthy enough at the time of the race, have someone in your support group do it in your honor, this has a strong impact on many people.

If the above things are out of the question try one of these that you can do at home: 
Exercise bike
Exercise videos and workouts
Palates
Stretching routine
Tai chi
Treadmill
Weight training and routine
Yoga

No matter what type of activity you choose, anything will be better than nothing. Set reasonable limits, every day will be different, have different challenges and different
tasks. Getting out to pick up the mail can even be a challenge for some, if that's what you choose to do, go for it and feel good about your doing it.

Sleep or the lack there of is a contributing factor to stress loads and getting enough sleep can be difficult especially when life throws a curve ball at you. Knowing that you need to get to sleep can even be more stressful which causes you not to sleep. Many doctors and occupational therapists agree that following a good night time routine can also help you get to sleep and stay asleep. Training your mind for sleep can be a process, but a worth while one. Try checking your routine at night and incorporating one or more of the following suggestions.
 
Start early - This doesn’t mean you have to go to bed while it is still light out, this just means start your routine earlier in the evening. Lock the doors, shut windows, put the cat out, whatever you do to start heading for bed, do it earlier. Give yourself enough time to settle your system so you don’t jump in bed with your adrenaline in high gear.  

Stay away from caffeine - Caffeine after 3pm is never a good idea. Many people don’t feel that caffeine affects them, sorry to say it actually does. In fact most people should avoid most products that contain caffeine after lunch time. This includes things like chocolate, coffee ice cream, black and green tea (non-decaf). Test it out and
see, you many be surprised at what you find.

Get regular exercise - Having exercise as part of your daily routine will help the body to burn stressors out of the system. Exercise also helps exhaust the muscles, this then requires the body to relax and recuperate.

Eating before bed - No eating right before bed, it really isn’t a good idea. Eating just prior to hitting the pillow is contradictory to what you’re asking your body to do. Though sometimes eating may make you sleepy, to eat means to tell your body its time for activity, putting food into your system requires action from your ‘awake’ body. So eating prior to bed keeps your body in an active state, thus making it very difficult for it to relax and fall asleep.

Watch your fluid intake - Don’t drink fluids 1 hour before you head to bed. This can be hard to do, especially if you take medications. We aren’t talking about not taking what’s required, we are talking about the ‘oh my goodness I didn’t drink enough water today, I’m parched’ and then drink a gallon of water. Drinking too much before bed can cause you to have to get up during the night. 

Don't go to bed mad - Try to resolve any issues prior to heading to bed. Don't wait until tomorrow to make a phone call you can make today to settle the mind. Try not to get into an heated or intense converation prior your night time routine. The body holds adrenaline in your system for at least 20 minutes, that's assuming you quit putting it into your system 20 minutes ago. If you feed the adrenaline, it will make it very difficult to sleep.

Bed is for sex and sleep - Don’t do anything else in bed, no reading, no writing, planning for vacations or heavy discussions that will cause you to loose sleep. Training
your mind for sleep means that your body has to know that when it hits the pillow, it is time to rest and nothing else. If you find you aren’t falling asleep in 20 – 30 minutes, get up, go read a boring book, do a word search, play solitaire, something that will bore your mind not activate it. Television watching is not for the bedroom either, the activity that is on the screen keeps the mind from resting, and puts images in your mind that makes it become hard to relax with. 

Sleep medications - Be careful of sleep aids, unless you absolutely require medication, try not to take it. Medication for sleep can cause a dependency that becomes very difficult to break. Try drinking a short mug of very strong sleepy tea before bed, chamomile is good for this. Also natural sleep aids such as kava kava, passionflower, polygala and sour jujube all are powerful soothing agents your body can work well with. Taking tyrosine, ashwagandha or valerian before bed has been known to be very successful. Some of these remedies are better taken on an empty stomach, try not eating 2 hours before bed to ensure an empty stomach. Always verify with your health care provider if natural remedies will react to any current medicaiton you may be taking.
*photo credit by epSos

There are many supplements and items that have been known to help the body recover and process stress. The following is a list of items that has been helpful to many people and why they may prove beneficial for you. What we have listed is not a guarantee you will immediately recover, nor is this a cure. Normally it takes some time if not a few short weeks to replenish what your body has lost, and if you are still under stress you body will continue to be heavily taxed. So be sure to give yourself time, when you do, you will be happy that you did. Yet what we suggest is to help fortify your body so you can have the best chances of a quicker and healthier body during stressful periods.

B Complex ~ Needed for proper muscle tone in the gastrointestinal tract. B vitamins improve circulation, build red blood cells and absolutely necessary for liver function. Take with meals to avoid stomach upset.

Chamomile Tea ~ Traditionally used to reduce anxiety and stress. Acts as a nerve tonic, helpful for headaches, pain, diverticulosis, colitis and fever. Also good for menstrul cramps, indigestion and insomnia. Reduces inflammation, aids in digestion and helps better sleep.

Multivitamin ~ Supplies those nutrients lost or not absorbed and all nutrients are necessary to maintain proper balance within the body. When hit by any major illness let alone chronic disease, the body is depleted of a number of key nutrients. Use a hypoallergenic formula.

Purples Super Foods ~ From a company called Food Science of Vermont, is an anti-aging, drink mix that combines 19 nutrient rich whole fruits, vegetables and extracts. Some of nature’s most protective foods are darkly colored fruits & vegetables because they are rich in antioxidants such as phenols, anthocyanins, ellagic acid, proanthocyanidins, bioflavonoids and Vitamin C, which provide a variety of health benefits. Also included are anti-aging nutrients: Alpha GPC, L-Carnosine, and Folic Acid to supports mental energy, focus and clarity.*

SAMe ~ Promotes the health of the liver, helps protect against serious disorders as cancer, heart disease and many age related problems. Anyone with manic-depressive disorder (bipolar mood disorder or any other mentally related medication should consult their doctor before taking this supplement. It should always be taken on an empty stomach for best absorption.

*These statement has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.