Help in the fight against stress: normalization of sleep, nutrition, vitamins

Under stress, the func­tion­ing of the hypo­thal­a­m­ic-pitu­itary-adren­al sys­tem suf­fers, due to which the bal­ance of hor­mones that reg­u­late meta­bol­ic process­es is dis­turbed. The body active­ly and often irra­tional­ly con­sumes vit­a­mins and min­er­als in order to pro­tect itself from neg­a­tive influ­ences. It is impor­tant to sup­port it dur­ing such a peri­od, tak­ing care of a full intake with food or in the form of sup­ple­ments of all the nec­es­sary com­po­nents. Equal­ly impor­tant is the reg­u­la­tion and nor­mal­iza­tion of sleep, which also sig­nif­i­cant­ly affects the func­tion­ing of this sys­tem.

Nutri­tion and addi­tion­al resources under stress

A com­plete healthy diet and reg­u­lar replen­ish­ment of the sup­ply of vit­a­mins and min­er­al com­po­nents sup­port the work of the hypo­thal­a­m­ic-pitu­itary-adren­al sys­tem and restore home­osta­sis. A sup­ply of ben­e­fi­cial brain nutri­ents is need­ed, includ­ing phos­phatidylser­ine and some oth­er lipid com­pounds found pre­dom­i­nant­ly in fish and meat foods.

Var­i­ous herbs are no less use­ful in nutri­tion — basil, tar­ragon, rose­mary, wild gar­lic. These herbs have been used to pre­vent stress and dis­ease for thou­sands of years, to improve vital­i­ty and main­tain health when the body is exhaust­ed, tired and active, hard at work. These nutri­tion­al com­po­nents help to neu­tral­ize the effect of excess stress and low­er the lev­el of cor­ti­sol (stress hor­mone), which neg­a­tive­ly affects the immune sys­tem, adren­al glands, mood and activ­i­ty of the brain and body.

What helps regulate hormone levels

Reg­u­lar intake of mag­ne­sium, thea­nine, B vit­a­mins, quercetin and omega‑3 unsat­u­rat­ed oils pro­vides pro­tec­tion against exces­sive stress and the effects of cor­ti­sol. In the body, hor­mones work in a com­plex, there are stress and anti-stress sub­stances that mutu­al­ly neu­tral­ize each oth­er’s action. So, against the back­ground of excess cor­ti­sol, the lev­el of DHEA (dehy­droepiandros­terone), the pre­cur­sor of sex hor­mones, decreas­es. This com­pound has a ver­sa­tile effect on the body, its defi­cien­cy is asso­ci­at­ed with the provo­ca­tion of var­i­ous patholo­gies, worse stress tol­er­ance.

A DHEA (dehy­droepiandros­terone) sup­ple­ment may be help­ful for some peo­ple who suf­fer from stress. Steroid hor­mones and their bal­ance are vital for a healthy metab­o­lism in the body. Some peo­ple may need long-term DHEA sup­port or sup­ple­men­ta­tion of oth­er adren­al hor­mones, but this is deter­mined by a blood or urine test for hor­mones. Lab­o­ra­to­ry tests are nec­es­sary for those who have chron­ic patholo­gies, or when symp­toms are doubt­ful and dif­fer­en­tial diag­no­sis is nec­es­sary.

Comprehensive protection against stress in pathologies

If a patient has osteo­poro­sis, heart dis­ease, thy­roid dis­ease, insom­nia, dia­betes, PMS, depres­sion, or anx­i­ety, they like­ly have HPA dys­func­tion and cortisol/DHEA imbal­ance. If against the back­ground of var­i­ous patholo­gies in life there is stress, com­plex pro­tec­tion is nec­es­sary.

In these cir­cum­stances, adap­to­genic herbs such as basil, eleuthe­ro­coc­cus, and rho­di­o­la will be help­ful. Sup­ple­ments such as pan­tothenic acid, rutin, B vit­a­mins, mag­ne­sium, and phos­phatidylser­ine are help­ful and work well with adap­to­genic herbs to reduce stress lev­els.

Good nutri­tion and reg­u­lar intake of vit­a­mins help to reset and bal­ance the hypo­thal­a­m­ic-pitu­itary-adren­al sys­tem.

What are the benefits of vitamins for stress?

Pan­tothenic acid, the active form of vit­a­min B5, is an essen­tial nutri­ent for the func­tion­ing of the adren­al glands and the brain, the entire ner­vous sys­tem. Clas­sic symp­toms asso­ci­at­ed with vit­a­min B5 defi­cien­cy include depres­sion, fatigue, low blood pres­sure, insom­nia, irri­tabil­i­ty, mus­cle spasms, anx­i­ety, hair loss, weak­ness, and heart pal­pi­ta­tions. Dai­ly stress depletes the lev­els of this sub­stance. Pan­tothenic Acid works best with B‑complex vit­a­mins and mag­ne­sium to help nour­ish the adren­al glands and ner­vous sys­tem.

The ner­vous sys­tem and adren­al glands con­sume B vit­a­mins for dai­ly work. Long-term stress, indi­ges­tion and insom­nia, immune dys­reg­u­la­tion and fatigue expe­ri­enced by patients increase the need for B vit­a­mins. High con­sump­tion of car­bo­hy­drates, sug­ar and con­ven­tion­al drugs deplete their stores.

Sleep disorders and stress

Chron­ic lack of sleep, poor qual­i­ty sleep increase stress lev­els. In addi­tion, sleep suf­fers due to a defi­cien­cy of mela­tonin, a hor­mone of the pineal gland that has an antiox­i­dant and anti-stress effect. This fact should be the rea­son for revis­ing the con­di­tions of sleep so that a per­son can get enough sleep and ful­ly relax.

Turn­ing off bright lights and elec­tron­ics in the bed­room one to two hours before bed helps main­tain the nat­ur­al rhythm of nat­ur­al mela­tonin in the body. But with irreg­u­lar work sched­ules, fre­quent flights, or late bed­times, mela­tonin sup­ple­ments can help reg­u­late sleep. Sup­ple­ments restore full sleep by nor­mal­iz­ing cir­ca­di­an rhythms and accel­er­at­ing the process of falling asleep. The use of nutri­ents such as mag­ne­sium, thi­amine, glu­ta­mate, which sup­port the func­tion­ing of GABA in the brain, can help mela­tonin work.

The recent­ly dis­cov­ered glym­phat­ic sys­tem of the brain, which is respon­si­ble for its “cleans­ing” of inter­me­di­ate metabo­lites and waste com­pounds, is active­ly work­ing at night. Its activ­i­ty allows the ner­vous sys­tem to “reboot” overnight and active­ly func­tion and pro­tect itself from stress dur­ing the day. If sleep is dis­turbed, dys­func­tion of the glym­phat­ic sys­tem is pro­voked, which can play a role in the devel­op­ment of neu­rode­gen­er­a­tive dis­eases. Hav­ing a healthy glym­phat­ic sys­tem allows for the removal of used or dam­aged pro­teins, includ­ing beta-amy­loid plaques asso­ci­at­ed with neu­rode­gen­er­a­tive con­di­tions. Stress man­age­ment is also impor­tant for this rea­son.