The effect of stress on our overall health – Sunday Housecall with Dr. David Samadi

We don’t pay attention to some of the issues that we’re dealing with, and stress is something that I think is affecting all of us.

The majority of Americans are going through a very stressful time whether it’s the political divide that we have and I think the country is really divided whether you’re on the right or on the left there’s all this debate and argument is going and ultimately it’s affecting your health.

All of this is increases the stress and that’s risk can affect your overall health. The purpose of this article is not to get us healthy, only but to really help each other as a community I truly believe in that I have been given an opportunity to be a real American dream.

I came from a foreign country did all of my training in this country we’re so blessed to be part of this country, and anytime I have any chance to give back including a program like this you have me you have my entire team, and we’re there to help you.

How stress affects our lives?

There could be a lot of stress as a result of your work as a result of your job maybe you don’t get along with your coworker it could be a relationship maybe it’s a financial problem all of these stresses I really affect your entire health.

Our children are going through a lot of bullying our school system is tough today than when you and I grew up, together there is tremendous peer pressure on them and they have to be achievers and overachievers.

What does this kind of stress do to your body? How does it affect your health? What we know is that our Creator we call it God has created this fight-or-flight defense mechanism so in our body the adrenal gland really pumps all these adrenals and no epinephrine and norepinephrine hormones.

That’s why when you take the exam you see your palms get sweaty your heart rate goes up when you get into an accident you get excited all of that is the epinephrine and epinephrine that kicks in to save you.
That’s our defense mechanism and I think for a short period that’s actually healthy and that’s to our advantage but long term if you’re running at a very high-stress level with those hormones being really high that can affect your heart and can cause heart disease and stroke and eventually a heart attack.

I want you to remember this hormone called cortisol, cortisol is our biggest enemy, when it comes to stress the level of cortisol goes up and affects your immune system, the acid level in your stomach goes up and it really causes gastric ulcer it affects your skin so overall from your heart to your memory.

The fact that you cannot really judge or make a good judgment concentration and memory can be affected so what’s the best way to go about this. The first thing I want you to do is to find out that actually you are under stress and admit to it because men and women deal with stress in a totally different way find out someone that you trust a friend a family somebody who is not going to judge you and really open up to them.

Make sure that you cut down on nicotine on alcohol and and and coffee because even though I’ve been a big coffee advocate and helps with diabetes and dementia in this particular case get rid of the coffee because that’s all working against you.

There are many things you can do as far as making sure that you get a good amount of sleep.
Sleep is so important because it really gets rid of all the issues that you have during the day and exercise is important because it adds to the endorphin and it actually helps with your level of stress go down.

Let me remind you that deep breathe and is extremely vital and important take a deep breath and slowly relieve it, and that relaxes your muscle.
A lot of times you ask me what kind of food I should have and what kind of diet I should go through and you know something: modern medicine has failed us many times, and unfortunately, too many doctors are writing for too many benzodiazepine and Valium and Xanax, and that’s really not good for us.

Natural herbs, we can actually help you, I think adding to your breakfast oatmeal is extremely helpful I think oatmeal has not only a lot of fibers but it has tons of vitamin B and magnesium, and we’ve seen that low magnesium actually increases the anxiety.

So for breakfast, I recommend an old meal for lunch I think having some salmon is great because salmon not only has omega-3 fatty acid but it also has tons of vitamin B and also magnesium that will help you with increase your serotonin which is the happy hormones and lower the cortisol which is always working against us.

If you like asparagus you can add that that has folate and it has calming effect and I know that all of you are waiting to hear about dark chocolate dark chocolate has flavonoids it has poly phenols and that reduces the blood pressure and also reduces the cortisol so yes you can have a little bit of dark chocolate and you’ll be great.

I think through this diet you will be absolutely fine. Finally, I think you’ve heard me talk about passion flower.
Passion flower and also kava these are also common very calming herbs that you can use and if you get to a point where it’s really a crisis, and you need to see a psychiatrist to take those medications that’s fine under the supervision mind you.

Everything I recommend today in this program and future programs may or may not work for you this is a public recommendation I don’t know about your medical history I don’t know about your medications so after you hear me make sure you speak to your doctor and make sure that’s the right thing.

I hope this segment helped you we need to get together help each other support each other to get through any kind of stressful period because overall stress can kill you, and we don’t want that to happen.