Stress & Anxiety

What is Stress & Anxiety?

Chronic stress is probably the primary cause of many health conditions in the modern world today, especially in the crowded urban centres of industrially developed societies such as those found in Australia and the USA.

The human body is only equipped to deal with the sort of stress people faced in the pre-industrial world, such as crossing paths with a sabre-toothed tiger, tribal warfare, avalanches, floods and other situations that provoke the fight-or-flight response.

Today, those same biochemical responses are triggered, hundred of times throughout the day and night by frustration in the office, marital strife, repressed rage, bad news on television, exposure to microwaves and abnormal electromagnetic fields, fear, alienation, peer pressures and other hazards of modern life. However, instead of making high-energy physical responses, people repress their rage, fear and other negative emotions provoked by stress, thereby failing to utilize the powerful hormones and neurochemicals released into the blood.
It is these chemicals that cause changes to our neuro chemistry that leads to mental health conditions like anxiety, depression and chronic stress and fatigue.

There are 3 Stages of Response

  1. Alarm Phase – The fight or flight response.  A natural response to stress should be short in duration.  The body releases adrenalin.
  2. Resistance  / Adaptation Phase – Increased levels of cortisol are produced to protect the body and produce enough energy to sustain life
  3. Exhaustion Phase – Cortisol levels run out and people become exhausted.  Also known as adrenal burn out, adrenal fatigue or chronic fatigue.

Stress will mean your body is in one of these 3 categories, anxiety often occurs when the alarm phase becomes chronic, when we feel like the sabre tooth tiger is constantly chasing us down the street.  Other conditions such as chronic fatigue and exhaustion happen when the chronic stress doesn’t go away and eventually we end up in stage 3 of the alarm phase also known as the exhaustion phase. In this phase the sabre tooth tiger has been chasing us for years down the street and we no longer have the energy to run, or think clearly, make good decisions, and participate in some of the most basic day to day activities.

Stress and anxiety has affected each of us at some time in our lives. Unfortunately stress and anxiety can have a major impact on our day-to-day lives, our relationships, jobs, families and our general enjoyment of life. Natural medicine offers real and proven ways to help you over come and better cope with stress in your life.

Natural Ways to Support Stress & Anxiety

Meditation & Mindfulness

Meditation is a fantastic way to reduce both perceived stress and anxiety. Meditation practices take brain waves from high beta – the brain wave of stress and anxiety into Alpha and Theta brainwaves, brainwaves of relaxation, restoration and healing. Continued practice trains the brain to move out of chronic patterns of stress into patterns of relaxation. This change in brain function allows one to better cope with the activates of daily life without the need to be continuously in a fight or flight mode.

Diet

Eating a healthy nutritious nutrient dense diet supports a healthy microbiome. Studies are finding out more and more that the health of our microbiome has a direct effect on the production of our neurotransmitters and our brain health. By modifying our diet to support a healthy microbiome, we in turn support the healthy, balanced production of neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine. This in turns improves mood, stress response and wellbeing.

Nutritional & Herbal Medicine

Chronic long-term nutritional deficiencies can both increase our risk of developing anxiety and depression as well as altering our ability to cope with and handle stress. Nutritional testing helps us determine if there is any nutritional deficiencies present and then address and treat them to bring your body back into an optimal state of health, vitality and relaxation.

Exercise

Our ancestors had a stress response to fight off predators or run for their lives. The stress hormones were then depleted during a phase of intense activity allowing the body to reset back to a normal healthy base line. The modern western world spends the day sitting and feeling stressed from words on a computer screen, which does not allow our bodies to use the stress hormones in a healthy way. Exercise is a great and simple way to burn off the stress hormones and reduce the negative impacts of these hormones on the body.

Signs & Symptoms of Stress & Anxiety

People who have been under extreme stress or anxiety for extended periods will find they experience the following:

  • Fatigue
  • Impaired Thyroid function
  • Impaired Liver function
  • Severe fatigue in afternoon & evening
  • Flushed or hot & sweaty
  • Excessive thirst or constant dry throat
  • Restless mind
  • Insomnia, waking at 3-4am
  • Poor shot-term memory
  • Talks fast
  • Prone to nervous exhaustion, (depression, psychosis)
  • Tachycardia
  • Palpitations
  • Cold sweats
  • Fine tremors; Dizziness
  • Overall motor weakness
  • Butterflies in stomach
  • Nausea and sometimes diarrhoea
  • Respiratory changes
  • People may observe feelings of being disconnected from people and objects around them combined with sense of unreality, which together prolong anxiety attacks
  • Fear of loosing consciousness and or dying

Pathology Testing

To help us understand why your body is responding to your environment the way that it is, and to make sure that I am treating the cause of the disease and NOT just the symptoms, I often utilise pathology testing to help get a better understanding of your individual imbalances and needs.

The following pathology tests may be considered:

  • TSH (Thyroid Stimulating Hormone)
  • Electrolytes – Abnormalities may stimulate anxiety symptoms
  • Saliva Hormones – Hormonal imbalances may be indicated in anxiety conditions
  • Cortisol – Saliva cortisol is useful in measuring adrenal fatigue
  • Kryptopyrroles – a condition that means B6 and Zinc are not metabolised leading to mental health conditions like anxiety
  • MTHFR gene – this may contribute to conditions such as anxiety
  • B12 and Folate levels
  • Zinc levels
  • Iron Studies
  • Individual genetic testing
  • Microbiome testing
  • Neurotransmitter panels
  • Stool analysis

STRESS AND ANXIETY TREATMENT

How Can Fiona Help Me If I suffer From Stress or Anxiety?

I will work with you to identify those areas of your life that may be contributing to the feelings of stress and anxiety. Pathology testing will help identify any underlying factors that may be making the condition worse or even contributing to the cause of your stress and anxiety.

Once we have established the driving factors of your condition we will help educate and empower you to address and resolve these areas so they no longer negatively affect your health and your life.

This may entail using a combination of Nutritional medicine, Herbal medicine, pathology testing, kinesiology and counselling to help you to feel back in control of your life. We will also work with your nervous system and address any biochemical areas that are out of balanced.

It is my passion to empower you to understand your condition and why it has occurred, I believes that once you have a real understanding of your condition you have a much better chance of making a full recovery and preventing the condition from returning again in the future.

So if you have been feeling stressed and anxious and haven’t known where to get help then take a deep breath, proven and effective help is just a phone call away.

Here is what one of my clients with Anxiety had to say::

“Summer of 2005, I was a “wreck”, crying spells, depression and suddenly I started having panic attacks (which I have never experienced in my 40yrs of life) previously had bouts of depression. Being a dependant, active, mother and spouse, my life came to a halt. I couldn’t even leave my home, at times. My “Angel Fiona” arrived in Canada; her timing couldn’t have been better.
After the first session, the crying spells subsided, after the second session the panic attacks became infrequent. With Fiona’s caring, positive attitude and healing ability, she helped me release past issues, I was holding onto. I am now beyond all that and have a new outlook on life. I have such high regard for Fiona and recommend this warm caring soul to anyone that is looking for a new positive, healthy self.”
Linda

Cold Lake, Canada

Suggested Reading:

Radical Wholeness
– Philip Sheperd

The Angel and the Assassin – Donna Jackson Nakazawa

Loving What Is
– Byron Katie

The Whals Protocol – Dr. Terry Whals

Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself
– Dr. Joe Dispenza

Grain Brain – David Perlmutter

The Power of Vulnerability
– Brene Brown

The Brain’s Way of Healing – Norman Doidge M.D