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Time is precious indeed. Are you trading away your time for what makes you happy? How much time are you spending doing things that don’t fulfill you? Is this a worthwhile use of that time?

Frequently this season of celebration is spent with those that are dear to us, and as the New Year approaches, many of us think about making New Year's Resolutions – things we want to change about ourselves and our lives.

Making positive change in our life is very worthwhile, and I would like to suggest that this year, we prioritize changes that will increase our happiness.

Being happy is vitally important to our health, as emotional stress will cause a stress response in the body. And if that stress response is prolonged because we are unhappy, over time we will either become sick or we will hurt, even if our diet is perfect, we are exercising appropriately, and we are getting enough sleep and dark time.

When we are unhappy, our body secretes stress hormones, which increase blood pressure, heart rate etc. so we will be ready to run or fight whatever we are up against. So increasing happiness can greatly improve our health!

Being happy falls into place when we are living our life in line with our values. When something is out of kilter with our values, we find ourselves in conflict.

For example, if the environment is very important to you, but you work for a company that is a bad polluter, you will find yourself in conflict as you are sacrificing your values for your job. And if you stay in such a job, it is likely to eat away at you deep down, wearing you out, possibly making you angry, depressed, tired and sick.

You may rationalize that you need the job, but you won’t be happy until you choose to work for a company that also values the environment.

Finding happiness therefore requires that we figure out what values are important to us, so we can make a judgement as to whether or not we are actually living our life in alignment with those values.

Paul Chek in his e-book The Last 4 Doctors You Will Ever Need, suggests it may be easier to figure out your personal core values by breaking them down into parts: Physical, Mental, Emotional, and then trying to list them.

What do you need to satisfy your physical needs? How much exercise do you need? What kind of diet best keeps you healthy? How much sleep do you need to be at your best? How much time do you need to devote to those activities to ensure your needs are satisfied?

What do you require to be mentally stimulated? Do you enjoy doing the cryptic crossword that comes in the paper? What do you need to be able to focus well?

What are your emotional needs? Do you need lots of people around or do you prefer to be alone much of the time?

If there is an area in your life where you are unhappy, can you figure out why? What value is not being fulfilled? What can you do to resolve it? Once you know what your personal values are, you can use them to guide your decisions.

You can then do a similar exercise with respect to your career values and your relationships with others. How do you treat others and how do you expect to be treated?

How well do your values match up with those of your significant other? If your values or those of your partner are not being met, can you both figure out a way to meet them that will make you both happy? If not, is the relationship worth the stress and unhappiness it is creating?

These are very difficult and very personal questions, but often when we make changes that bring us in better alignment with our values, we feel like a weight has been lifted from our shoulders, we feel far more energetic, alive, and yes, happy.

Thank you all so very much for letting me into your lives on Sunday mornings – I do indeed feel blessed. And may you find true Happiness in the coming year.

If you want to search for other posts by title or by topic, go to www.wellnesstips.ca.

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“When the emotional brain is out of order, the heart suffers and wears out … The proper functioning of the heart turns out influence the brain as well.”

Dr. David Servan-Schreiber, MD, PhD goes on to say that “Some cardiologists and neurologists go so far as to refer to a “heart-brain system” that cannot be dissociated.” The brain and the heart are connected via the autonomic peripheral nervous system, which is not under conscious control and regulates organ function.

As I’ve discussed in many other tips, the sympathetic branch (fight or flight), raises heart rate, blood pressure etc. whereas the parasympathetic branch slows heart rate, lowers blood pressure etc. The goal for optimal health is to have the two branches balance each other, rather than have one branch (usually the sympathetic one) racing out of control.

It is now known that the heart  produces some of its own hormones, and actually has its own perceptions, which can influence the function of the whole body including the brain. It sends messages back to the brain via direct nerve connections also, creating an interconnected loop. So, learning how to control the heart can make a huge difference in our ability to come to peace with the emotional brain.

One of the ways to see the connection between the brain and the heart is by looking at the variability in heart rate in response to the constant demands of the sympathetic (accelerator) and parasympathetic system (brake).

It is not normal to have an extremely steady heart rate, where the space between each beat is identical for long periods of time – there should always be minute variations and adjustments, which is a reflection of the give and take in the nervous system.

When the emotional brain is not happy – when we are depressed, anxious, worried, overly stressed or angry, our heart rate variability lessens, and the beat becomes more chaotic, showing up on a biofeedback graph as jagged, disorderly beats.

When feeling joy, happiness, love, gratefulness, compassion or other positive feelings, our heart responds by "smoothing out" the rhythm, making the wave on a biofeedback graph appear harmonious and coherent.

On a biofeedback graph, the space between the peaks won't be even, reflecting good heart-rate variability, but the graph itself will be less "jagged" if that makes any kind of sense at all. Look at the graphs here to see the difference between a non-coherent and a coherent heart rhythm.

When the heart is beating in coherence, the brain works more quickly and more accurately, the autonomic nervous system stabilizes, our respiratory rhythms and our blood pressure variations synchronize, and our emotional state can dramatically change.

When we are suffering emotional distress, our heart will beat in a chaotic fashion. This can happen for a few minutes or for much longer periods of time over the course of a day, depending on how we are coping. No wonder so many of us are tired all the time, and some of us suffer from heart palpitations and anxiety attacks.

In the same day, our hearts may be beating in coherence for periods of time too. The more time spent in coherence, the healthier and happier we are. And thankfully, we can train heart coherence, and it is a very effective way to deal with negative emotions via the body, as I was explaining last week.

And when we get good at achieving heart coherence, we can use it when we are under emotional stress to keep our physiology working well, so we no longer live in a state of chronic stress, which has such negative consequences for the body.

Although there are many software biofeedback programs on the market now that measure heart coherence and can be very helpful to learn how to bring oneself into coherence at will, they are not necessary.

One can achieve coherence by taking a few minutes to set aside one's troubles, sit or lie down, and focus on the action of taking a few deep breaths. Be an observer, and watch the air pass your nostrils, fill your lungs, and feel the ribcage expand.

Then without forcing, watch the air come out, being mindful of the feeling as it passes through your throat and out your nose. Breath easily, long, deep and slow for a few breaths.

Then focus in on your heart, and feel as if you are breathing through your heart or the centre of the chest, washing the heart in fresh oxygen with each inhale, and removing the waste with each exhale.

Pay attention to any warming feelings or feelings of your chest emotionally expanding. Think of someone you love, or perhaps your favourite place in the world. Think of something you are extremely grateful for, or a time where you did something that made you feel wonderful. When you feel that inner glow, you have achieved heart coherence.

With practice, one can achieve coherence quickly, even in stressful situations. Coherence provides a good opportunity to access both the cognitive and the emotional brain, as the system is in balance. It can also provide a direct line of communication into the emotional brain.

Once in coherence, one can ask the heart a difficult question, and look for the reaction – greater warmth and comfort, or a feeling of withdrawal – and know how the emotional body is viewing the situation.

It is said that we are happiest when we follow our heart, so learning to hear what our heart is telling us can be very valuable indeed.

The ideas in this tip come from a book I really enjoyed – The Instinct to Heal – Curing Depression, Anxiety, and Stress without Drugs and without Talk Therapy, by David Servan-Schreiber, M.D., PhD. Do read the book for more details.

If you want to search for other posts by title or by topic, go to www.wellnesstips.ca.

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Servan-Schreiber, David MD, PhD. The Instinct to Heal: Curing Depression, Anxiety and Stress Without Drugs and Without Talk Therapy Rodale Inc., US, 2004.

Marek Malik et al. Heart Rate Variability
Standards of Measurement, Physiological Interpretation, and Clinical Use Circulation 1996;93:1043-1065.

Tiller WA et al. Cardiac Coherence: A New, Non-invasive Measure of Autonomic Nervous System Order Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine. 1996; 2(1): 52-65.

Ginsberg JP et al. Improving Cognition in Recently Returned Combat Veterans with Post traumatic Stress Disorder by Heart Rate Variability Coherence Biofeedback Shirley L. Buchanan Neuroscience Laboratory, Dorn VA Medical Center, Columbia, SC., 2008.

McCraty R et al. Impact of a workplace stress reduction program on blood pressure and emotional health in hypertensive employees. J Altern Complement Med. 2003 Jun;9(3):355-69.

Luskin F. et al. A Controlled Pilot Study of Stress Management Training of Elderly Patients With Congestive Heart Failure Preventive Cardiology 2002;5(4):168-172, 176.

McCraty R. et al. Heart Rhythm Coherence Feedback: A New Tool for Stress Reduction, Rehabilitation, and Performance Enhancement Biofeedback 2002;30(1):23-25.

Doc Childre et al. Psychophysiological Correlates of Spiritual Experience Biofeedback 2001;29(4):13-17.

McCraty R et al. Analysis of twenty-four hour heart rate
variability in patients with panic disorder Biological Psychology 56 (2001) 131–150

McCraty R et al. The impact of a new emotional self-management program on stress, emotions, heart rate variability, DHEA and cortisol Integr Physiol Behav Sci. 1998 Apr-Jun;33(2):151-70.

McCraty R et al. The Effects of Emotions on Short-Term Power Spectrum Analysis of Heart Rate Variability American Journal of Cardiology. 1995; 76(14): 1089-1093.

Rein G. The Physiological and Psychological Effects of Compassion and Anger Journal of Advancement in Medicine. 1995; 8(2): 87-105.

Copyright 2008 Vreni Gurd

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When our emotional (limbic) brain and our cognitive (neocortex) brain are in conflict, we suffer negative emotions like depression, anxiety, jealousy, or guilt.

Think of our brain as having two components, one component sitting inside the other, much like a yolk sits inside the white of an egg. The deep and primitive emotional/instinctive component of the brain is known as the limbic system, and it is found in all mammals. It is our unconscious, survival part of the brain which runs our autonomic nervous system, regulating breathing, heart-rate, sexual drive, hormones etc. It takes in all kinds of information, most completely below our level of awareness, and forces us to pay attention to stuff that it perceives may harm us. We don’t feel the emotions of our limbic system in our head; we feel them in the body – nervousness in our gut, love in our heart, fear in our throat or in the hairs of our skin, for example. It is said that all our emotions are stored in the body. The limbic system is the source of our passion.

The neocortex (literally the “new bark”) is much newer in terms of our evolutionary history, it surrounds the emotional part, forming the cognitive component of our brain, and is our source of rational, logical thought. The neocortex, particularly the prefrontal cortex just behind our forehead, is the source of reason, and is what separates us from our fellow creatures on this planet. The neocortex and the limbic components don't communicate with each other very well – they each do their own thing and come to their own conclusions.  Rational thought seems to stay in the head, whereas our emotions are communicated via the body primarily.

When the conclusions they come to regarding a particular topic are different, we suffer emotional distress. The cognitive part can be good at overriding messages coming from the emotional part. Your gut is saying one thing, but your rational mind is saying another, whether it is about staying in an unhappy relationship, taking that promotion that is going to have you working like a dog, or going to that meeting instead of your child’s school play. Many of us are quite good at squelching our emotions because it is not always acceptable in our society to express them. For example, especially men are not supposed to cry in public, and we are all supposed to get over and stop talking about the death of a loved one in about a week. Less frequently passion dominates over reason, in love triangles for example. Great literature has been written about conflicts between reason and passion, and the despair this causes. And if disharmony between the reason and passion are the rule rather than the exception, stress diseases like heart disease, cancer, extreme fatigue etc. can develop.

As language and cognition have limited access to the emotional part of the brain, getting over emotional pain by logically dissecting an issue to death may not work too well. This may be the reason why talk therapy takes so very long. One may logically understand why we are feeling what we are feeling which can be helpful, but that does not necessarily help us stop feeling the negative emotion. Perhaps a better way to deal with difficult emotions is through the body, since the body is the limbic brain’s communication system. Many people have found themselves suddenly crying at a painful memory that unexpectedly pops into their mind while having a massage for example. Next week I'll discuss a method of tuning into the body in order to control one's stress.

The ideas in this tip come from a book I really enjoyed – The Instinct to Heal – Curing Depression, Anxiety, and Stress without Drugs and without Talk Therapy, by David Servan-Schreiber, M.D., PhD.

If you want to search for other posts by title or by topic, go to www.wellnesstips.ca.

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Servan-Schreiber, David MD, PhD. The Instinct to Heal: Curing Depression, Anxiety and Stress Without Drugs and Without Talk Therapy Rodale Inc., US, 2004.

Copyright 2008 Vreni Gurd

To subscribe go to www.wellnesstips.ca

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I think to a large extent, happiness is a choice. One can choose to live in the moment and enjoy what we are currently doing, rather than wishing we are doing or enjoying something else.

Next time you are feeling unhappy or dissatisfied with your life, try examining your thoughts. I find that when I am unhappy I am either comparing myself to others who seem to have what I perceive to be a more "ideal" life, or I am comparing myself to some ideal that I have not yet achieved, resulting in my feeling less than adequate. I think much unhappiness stems from not accepting what is. When I feel that way, it helps a lot to remember everything I am grateful for. That immediately brings me back to my reality and reminds me that my life is pretty good! Furthermore, I have found that faking happiness actually works! Next time you are feeling down, smile and pretend you are happy. I bet you feel better too!

Some very interesting research on happiness done at Harvard and explained in this entertaining 21 minute video called "The Secret of How to be Happy", show that human beings are capable of synthesizing happiness. Which future would you prefer – life as a lottery winner or life as a paraplegic? Most people would probably guess that they would be happier as a lottery winner, but research shows that a year after either becoming a lottery winner or a paraplegic, happiness levels are the same. Any event that happened more than three months ago probably has little impact on one’s current happiness.

Another very interesting fact that is somewhat counter-intuitive is that the more choice or options we have, the less happy we are. The video shows clearly how the students that were given a choice were far less happy than those that were not. Who knew? But we agonize over our choices, and we often second-guess ourselves even after having made a decision. If we are not given a choice, we just accept whatever we must accept – no agonizing = more happiness. Do we really need so many different mutual funds, or even jeans to choose from? I must admit that there are times that I wish someone would simply make a decision for me, especially when it comes to stuff I know nothing about, like choosing a new computer. I become paralyzed because of all the options available, and this doesn’t make me feel good. With so many options, not only do we have to spend time figuring out what we want, but we also may have higher expectations than if we had no choice. So, maybe the moral is to simply make a quick decision and then not look back. According to the book “Blink”, often our gut instincts are correct anyway.

I haven't yet travelled to many of the poorer nations of the world, but one frequently hears stories about how happy people are despite their poverty. Might this be partly due to limited choices? Happiness also seems to be found in good friendships, relationships, and spending time together, and not so much in stuff. In the western world there is so much emphasis and pressure on us to "get ahead", so we work and stress ourselves to the bone so we can retire at some future date. Hopefully we will be healthy enough at that time to enjoy our retirement. And hopefully once we retire we will actually remember what recreational activities we enjoy, so we won't be too bored. And does money buy happiness? The research seems to indicate that the answer is no. So, perhaps it is worth slowing down, even if it means a little less money, and spending time doing things we enjoy, with those we care about.

I recently finished reading The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss. He suggests that a better life plan is to take many mini-retirements (4 months to a year) throughout one's working life, rather than save it all for the end. I'm liking that idea! He says that often it is not as expensive or difficult as one would think. He suggests that the opposite of happiness is not sadness, but rather boredom, and therefore a synonym for happiness is excitement. So what would you like to do that would excite you? Always wanted to live on the beach in Thailand? Always wanted to learn Italian among the Italians? What do you need to do to get the ball rolling to be able to do it within the next 6 months? Maybe it IS worth throwing everything you have achieved in your work life away, in order to pursue that dream … What would be the worst case scenario if it didn't work out? Probably it wouldn't be that hard to resume your old life if you really needed to. What do you think? If this idea appeals to you, read Timothy’s book for hints on how to go about changing your life in these ways.

I am happy to announce that Wellness Tips is three-years old this week! Thank you for allowing me into your life on Sunday mornings! I am grateful to my subscribers from all over the world for keeping me researching regularly, which not only provides fodder for the tips, but also expands my knowledge base. One of my life goals is to understand as completely as possible human health and wellbeing, and through writing Wellness Tips, I have learned SO much over the past three years. I really don’t think that would have happened without knowing that I have readers that expect something in their inbox once a week. So, thank you all for helping me move towards my goal! Comments and feed-back keep most writers going, so please do keep the comments coming!

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With the New Year just around the corner, this time of year is frequently a time of reflection, goal setting and New Year’s Resolutions. Writing down goals can be the driver that moves us forward in our life, if we then follow through and do what is necessary to achieve them. Do you make New Year’s Resolutions each year only to find that shortly they have fallen by the wayside? Is there a way to be more successful? Our goals and our success in various areas of our life are the results of our positive habits, just as our various failures in areas of our life are a result of our more negative habits.

Our goals set out our intentions for our life. It is said that if you want something badly enough you will achieve your goal, because you will find ways around obstacles that may stop others. What is most important to you? Raising your children right? Making sure you and your family are healthy and happy? Creating financial wealth? Being trustworthy? Lowering your ecological footprint? Becoming the best you can be at a particular vocation, profession, sport or hobby? Finding balance between work and play? Finding spiritual peace? Once you have a goal that is powerful enough to move your soul, the next step is to quantify the goal so that you will know if you have achieved it. Many of these goals may be very long term, so they may need to be further broken down into yearly, monthly and weekly achievable chunks. This needs to be written down and modified as necessary.

Our life is essentially the sum of our habits. Most goals, whether financial, health, relationship, spiritual, career, family or friends related, require the development of new habits in order to be achieved. According to Steven Covey, habits form the intersection between desire, knowledge, and skills. So, once we have chosen a goal that is powerfully motivating to us, we must learn enough about how to go about achieving it, and we must develop the skills necessary to be able to achieve it. Seek help to learn what you need to learn. Modeling others who have achieved your goal can save you a lot of time and effort. And most importantly, we must consistently DO what is necessary to achieve it.

They say it takes about a month of consistent effort to develop a new habit. So, for that month don't take no for an answer. Expect diligence and constant effort from yourself and follow through. Reflect back on your life intention that the goal is based on and keep that foremost in your mind to help you stick with developing your new habit. After that month, it may be a bit easier to stick with it, but young habits are much more easily broken than well-entrenched ones, so reviewing your life intentions daily can give you the motivation to keep going.

There are many great books on this topic that explain the process far better than I can. My favourites are The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen R. Covey and The Power of Focus by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and
Les Hewitt.

All my best for 2008 to you and your family, and may you find success at creating good habits in line with your life intentions!

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I've been meaning to do a list for some time, but always wondered if I had read enough to put together a complete list. And, I am definitely missing some topics, like books focused on food allergies and detoxification, both of which are the root causes of problems in many individuals, but so far, based on the books I've read, I think that the following reading list is a good place to start to learn how to maintain or improve one’s health. Choosing the books, and then selecting the order in which to rate them was REALLY HARD, as every book has much to offer, and choosing one book over another on a certain topic left many excellent books off the list that are also well worth reading. These books are all geared to the lay person, although many if not all would greatly assist physicians and others in the healing professions in helping their patients.

With no further ado, – drum roll – here is the list, starting from 10 and counting down to number 1!

Number 10:
Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser
A great book about how corporate profit and the systemization of food processing has resulted in a complete degradation in the quality of food being produced. Far more important to these companies than producing healthy food is finding ways to make you buy their product. It is frightening to learn the extent some companies have gone to to prevent regulations that would stop them from selling you contaminated food. Also talks about the social consequences of low-wage fast food and food processing jobs on communities. A book that will put you off fast food, which will definitely improve your health!

Number 9:
Nonviolent Communication – A Language of Life by Marshall B Rosenburg, PhD
Relationship stress is often rooted in a communication style that stimulates an angry or defensive response in the other person. Learning to communicate in a nonviolent way that still allows you to express your feelings and get your point across can do much to reduce stress. Stress is implicated in heart disease, diabetes, depression, digestive issues, osteoporosis, immune disorders, thyroid problems etc., so learning to control stress is vital to improved health.

Number 8:
Loving What Is by Byron Katie
In situations where one is unhappy about something completely out of one's control, accepting the reality of the situation is the ticket to emotional happiness. What makes us miserable is the stories we tell ourselves about our problem or situation. Just as it makes no sense to get upset about the rain, it makes no sense to tie ourselves in knots about the career choice of one’s child, the relationship problems of a relative or friend, or the inability of our spouse to pick up after themselves. Ultimately the control lies with the other people involved, so although one can lend an empathetic ear, there is no point wasting emotional energy. Far better to devote energy to things within one’s control.

Number 7:
Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Dr. Weston A. Price
This book was at the top of the list on my first draft. Dr. Weston Price traveled the world in the '30s studying primitive societies that had not yet come in contact with "white man's food", and discovered vibrantly healthy populations with good bone structure and minimal tooth decay. The diets were as varied as the societies he studied, but no society was vegetarian, and many societies actively sought out a particular food (usually a form of saturated fat) to give to their newly married couples, pregnant women and young children to ensure good development. If you are planning to have children, this would be a good book to read before conceiving, as the nutritional status of both parents prior to conception is very important to the lifelong health of the child.

Number 6:
Nutrition and Your Mind by Dr. George Watson
One of the early researchers in the concept of metabolic typing, Dr. George Watson is believed to be the one who discovered that different individuals oxidize their food at different rates, and that the type of food eaten can either slow down or speed up the rate of oxidation. Slow oxidizers need food that speeds up their oxidation rate, whereas fast oxidizers need food that slows down their oxidation rate. Both slow and fast oxidizers that are eating an inappropriate diet for them may develop similar symptoms of illness, but they require different diets in order to resolve their biochemical imbalances. Dr. Watson spent his career balancing the biochemistry of those with mental illness through food and specific nutrient therapy.

Number 5:
Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers – An updated guide to stress-related disease and coping by Robert M. Sapolsky
A comprehensive book on the topic of stress written for the lay person. Quite funny at times, but also quite involved, one learns a great deal about the physiology of stress. Lots of good suggestions here on how to reduce one’s stress levels as well. I put this book in the top 5, because I now believe that chronic stress, whether physical or psychological, results in a deterioration in hormone balance in the body, which eventually leads to disease.

Number 4:
Your Guide to Healthy Hormones by Daniel Kalish, DC
Particularly in middle-aged women, but also applicable to women and men of all ages, hormone imbalance is frequently the cause of a large variety of health issues including insomnia, overwhelming fatigue, lethargy, PMS, depression, hypo or hyperthyroid, osteoporosis, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, decreased libido, to name a few. This book gives a good overview of the hormone, digestive and detoxification systems and how they interact, how problems arise, and how functional testing can lead to appropriate diet and lifestyle recommendations and supplementation if needed, in order to rebalance the systems and get them functioning optimally again. The key is treating the individual’s imbalance rather than the general health problem.

Number 3:
Know Your Fats: The Complete Primer For Understanding the Nutrition of Fats, Oils, and Cholesterol by Mary Enig, PhD
This book is in my top three, because the topic of fats are SO misunderstood, resulting in much of the population choosing fats that cause free-radical damage and inflammation in the body, and avoiding healthful fats that are needed to transport nutrition into the cells, good fertility, and good overall health. So here is the truth about fats from a fat researcher that has never been paid by the food industry – what a different story she tells! I wish every doctor would read this book and pass on this vital information to their patients.

Number 2:
Lights Out: Sleep, Sugar and Survival by TS Wiley and Bent Formby
Circadian stress is epidemic in our society. Very few of us take enough restorative time, let alone dark time, and the consequences are destroying our health. Many of our hormones have circadian rhythms, some determined by the amount of light or darkness we are exposed to. Inadequate darkness and too much time in the light leads to hormone imbalance, carbohydrate cravings, weight gain, depression, and possibly cancer and heart disease. If you can get past the sensational style in which this book is written, the information is interesting, valuable, and definitely well researched, as over a third of the book is references.

Number 1:
How to Eat, Move and Be Healthy by Paul Chek
This, in my view, is the best book on general health and wellness that I have currently read. It covers everything from nutrition, to exercise, to sleep, to digestion, to chronic stress, and through questionnaires helps you personalize your nutrition as well as your exercise program, which is vital for success. It is easy to read, with lots of photographs and diagrams to help the reader understand the concepts. If you only want to buy one book, this is the one to get.

There you have it. It will be interesting to see how much I revise this list next year, after another year of reading under my belt.

For those of you that celebrate, have a wonderful, peaceful Christmas.

Please feel free to comment on this list or suggest your favourite health books! I have updated my website – do check it out at www.wellnesstips.ca.

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Did you know that the reason your gut may be roiling may be due in large part to stress? Whether it is Irritable Bowel Syndrome, ulcerative colitis, or simply a stomach ache before you are about to give that really important speech, stress may be playing a significant role.

If you’ve been following along on this mini stress-series over the last couple of weeks, you probably can figure out exactly how stress can upset your gut, right?

If you are hiking in the woods, you round a corner and come face-to-face with a grizzly bear, your body is not going to prioritize digestion at this moment. Instead, it’s going to go "Oh sh*#t" – quite literally!  If you were given enough of a fright, you probably will soil yourself to immediately get rid of anything in your digestive tract.

It’s harder to run on a full stomach, so your body thinks it’s doing you a favour! Suddenly all the blood leaves your gut and floods your muscles so you can better use them. Perfect response for a dire situation.

(Running is about the last thing one should do if you chance upon a grizzly bear, as you can’t out run them, and if you run, they are very likely to chase. I think you are supposed to slowly back away, and be very sure you are not getting between a mom and her cub!  Please research this topic on your own, if you are going into bear country.)

Back to stress. If your body is chronically stressed for whatever reason, (the stress bucket runneth over), be it emotional, work or relationship stress, financial stress, chronic pain or disease, chronically poor nutrition, inadequate sleep, inadequate or too much exercise, a fungus or parasite problem, chemical or heavy metal toxicity, or any combination of the above, your parasympathetic nervous system, the rest and repair system that is in charge of digestion is turned down, and your sympathetic system (fight or flight) system is turned up. 

This means that blood is diverted away from the gut, and if this happens chronically, the body has a very hard time digesting food.  This leads to poor absorption of nutrition, and a very unhappy stomach, intestine and colon.

Stress, as shown in the example above, also can affect intestinal motility, in some showing up as the runs, often in anticipation of a big event, and in others as constipation if there is poor coordination between the small and large intestine.

Ulcers have been linked to stress for a long time, and when it was proposed that ulcers were actually caused by the bacteria H. Pylori, the theory was received with skepticism, until it was proven in subsequent studies.

However there is no question that it is the interaction between stress and the bacteria that causes the ulcers, rather than the bacteria or the stress alone. A little bit of stress and a lot of bacteria can result in stomach ulcers, as can a really major stressor and a very little bit of bacteria.

The interaction that creates the ulcer is poorly understood, one theory being that stress causes a reduction hydrochloric acid secretion, and in turn a reduction in the bicarbonate mucus that coats the stomach wall protecting the stomach walls from the acid. H. Pylori also reduces the stomach mucus. 

At the end of the stressful event, the parasympathetic system ramps up again, digestion is prioritized, more hydrochloric acid is secreted, the inadequate mucus coating is overwhelmed, and the acid eats through the stomach wall giving you an ulcer. Ironically, a reduction in HCl production may create acid reflux type symptoms, so antacids which further reduce HCl don’t resolve the cause of the problem.

To test this, squeeze a lemon or pour a cap full of raw apple cidre vinegar into a small amount of water and drink before a meal, and see if this reduces heart burn symptoms. If so, your heartburn may be as a result of too little HCl as opposed to too much, and HCl tablets with meals may be helpful. If the symptoms become worse, then you may actually have too much HCl, although this is rarely the case.

So, poke some holes in the stress bucket, and bring the chronic stress levels down. My sense is that most stress these days is caused by unresolved emotional issues, so dealing with that aspect is critical.

Learn to reframe problems as opportunities, get professional help from psychologists, psychiatrists or councilors, learn EFT (emotional freedom technique) or NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) – whatever method can work for you to help you deal with emotional stuff. 

Baby yourself with great quality food, play a lot, listen to soothing music, breathe, meditate, do some art work, go for a walk along the beach, enjoy your friends and family, and then go to bed and sleep, sleep, sleep.  For any digestive issue, repopulating the gut with good bacteria through quality probiotics is essential.

Related tips:
Acute vs. Chronic Stress
The autonomic nervous system and fat loss
Dealing with health issues
Learn to let go

Chek, Paul; How to Eat, Move and Be Healthy! Chek Institute, San Diego, CA, 2004.
Sapolsky, Robert M. Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers: An updated guide to stress, stress-related diseases, and coping WH Freeman and Company, New York, 1998

Copyright 2005-2007 Vreni Gurd

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We’ve all heard how stress increases the risk of cardiovascular disease – how does this happen?

When under stress, our body thinks it needs to save your life, so it does what it can to make it easy for us to run or fight. Therefore we need oxygenated blood to get to our muscles quickly.

Our sympathetic nervous system fires up increasing our breathing rate and heart rate, and releases hormones that constrict the blood vessels so that there is more pressure in the system which helps deliver the blood quickly to the muscles that need it.

If the stress is chronic, because of the extra work and forces being put through the system, the heart and vessels wear out faster than they would if the stress were not chronic, just as high-pressure hoses and pumps wear out faster than ones that are not subjected to high pressures.

The areas in our blood vessels that are the most vulnerable to injury from a mechanical perspective are the junctures where the blood vessels bifurcate into smaller vessels due to the blood slamming into those junctions causing turbulence, and eventually causing tearing and pitting in the smooth lining of the vessels.

Another part of the stress response is the secretion of glucocorticoids like glucagon and cortisol, which release sugar into the blood stream to provide instant fuel to the muscles in order to save you.

However, if the stress is chronic, and high blood-sugar levels become the norm, there is more potential for glycation where the glucose molecules bind with protein molecules, the first stage in developing Advanced Glycation Endproducts (AGEs), which also damage the lining of the blood vessels, adding to the risk of developing cardiovascular disease.

(Chronic high intake of sugar and flour products also leads to AGEs, and therefore blood vessel damage, which is why these foods are linked to cardiovascular disease).

Now the body needs to try and repair the damage to the vessels, as well as shore up the vulnerable areas for the future. So cholesterol is dispatched to the area to repair the tisse, and it works its way underneath the smooth lining, thickening it.

In addition to this, because now the surface of the vessel walls are roughened due to tears or pits in the lining, platelets, our blood clotting cells, are more likely to clump there.

Over time, between the thickened lining and the clumps stuck in the area, the vessel walls harden and the opening becomes narrower, and we are diagnosed with atherosclerosis.

The impact of the thickened vessels depends on where they are located. If they are in our legs, we may get claudication, or a blockage in the arteries in our legs. If the thickening is in the arteries of the heart, we get heart disease, and if the thickening is in the vessels leading to the brain, we may become a candidate for a stroke.

Ways to reduce stress include meditation, breathing exercises, parasympathetic exercise like yoga, Feldenkrais, Alexander technique, tai chi or qi gong.

Other ideas include spending time in nature, connecting and laughing with good friends, living in the present moment, writing a list of at least 20 things we are grateful for and repeating this exercise each day.

Putting our problems in perspective, realizing that there is no point stressing over stuff we have no control over, finding the courage to change stressful situations that we do have control over, simplifying one’s life, and enjoying time doing absolutely nothing can be worthwhile skills to develop.

If you would like help addressing stress issues, feel free to contact me.

Related tips:
Acute vs. Chronic Stress
High cholesterol does not cause heart disease
The autonomic nervous system and fat loss
Mind and body; psyche and soma
Learn to let go

Sapolsky, Robert M. Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers, Third Edition WH Freeman and Company, New York, 1998

Katie, Byron Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life Three Rivers Press, New York NY, 2002.

Chek, Paul; How to Eat, Move and Be Healthy! Chek Institute, San Diego, CA, 2004.

Pert, Candace PhD, Molecules Of Emotion: The Science Behind Mind-Body Medicine Scribner, New York, NY, 1997.

Copyright 2005-2007 Vreni Gurd

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If you were to sit down and list the stuff that stresses you out, and then analyze your list, I am fairly certain that pretty much everything on your list would be chronic social or psychological stressors, like money problems, relationship problems, work-related problems, time-management problems etc. Perhaps some of you may have a chronic physical stressor on your list, like always being hot, or always being cold, or possibly being in chronic pain. Other possible chronic stressors may be poor nutrition, inadequate hydration, and/or sleep.  However, I would bet my bottom dollar that no one would have an acute physical stressor on your list, because if it were very acute, (like your house is burning down, and you have to get yourself and the kids out right now) you wouldn’t have time to write it down – you would be trying to save your skin.

Our body’s stress response was designed primarily to save our lives in times of acute physical stress. When we were hunter- gatherers, that might have involved trying to avoid being eaten by predators – the typical fight or flight response. These sorts of stresses tended to be relatively short-lived, and then we were either dead, or our parasympathetic system (the rest and repair side of the nervous system) took over, bringing all our systems back to their relaxed state. Hunger may have been a somewhat chronic physical stressor, but once food was obtained, our stress levels would have normalized also.

There are two major parts to our stress response – the sympathetic nervous system secretes epinephrine and norepinephrine, two neurotransmitters, which cause increased heart rate, increased blood pressure by constricting blood vessels, and which cause the movement of the blood out of the digestive tract and into the limbs so we can run or fight. Often memory and sensory awareness improves – all very useful to saving our lives. In addition to that, our adrenals secrete glucocorticoids, like cortisol and glucagon in order to elevate blood sugar, so we will have the fuel we need immediately to fight or run.

So, what happens if you are constantly in a state of gut-wrenching worry over, say, your teenager who may be hanging out with the wrong crowd? Physiologically speaking, your bodymind responds as if you are about to be killed – you have the same stress response described above. Even though in actuality your life is not being threatened – it is only your worried thoughts that have activated the stress response. The problem is that the worry may not be a short-lived thing.  Maybe you are a chronic worrier – you are always worried.  That means that your sympathetic system is overactive, your parasympathetic or rest and repair system is suppressed, your heart is working harder than it should be, your blood pressure remains too high, your digestion is effected because blood is prioritized to the muscles, your libido goes down (sex isn’t important if your brain thinks you are about to die), initially you have too much cortisol pumping through you trying desperately to help you cope with all the stress, until over time the adrenals get exhausted and simply can’t pump out anymore cortisol.  Then you begin to feel extremely tired, coping becomes more and more of an issue, you get sick very easily – it is as if your immune system has gone on strike, and depression may set in.  Then, over time, you may get cardiovascular disease, colitis, irritable bowel, ulcers, or even cancer.

So, even though our stress-response system can be lifesaving, if our stress is chronic, it becomes a health robber. Using Paul Chek’s analogy of the body being a giant stress bucket, and if the bucket is overflowing with stress, we are hurting or unwell, anything we can do to poke holes in the stress bucket will help, including eating the best quality food we can afford, drinking adequate water, sleeping enough hours in the dark, etc.  Because most of our stress these days tends to be psychological/emotional, learning how to think differently about our problems can be hugely stress-reducing. Often our minds run the same stressful stories over and over again. So, when that happens, bring your mind back to the question: is the situation within my control or not? If it is, then what can I do to alter the situation to my satisfaction? If not, then there is nothing I can do about it, so I may as well accept the situation as the reality that it is, and not make myself sick fretting about it. Much easier said than done, I fully admit. But if you keep forcing yourself to come back to the question, you can actually train yourself to react differently.

Related tips:
Adrenal Fatigue
The autonomic nervous system and fat loss
Mind and body; psyche and soma
Recognize your reality
Learn to let go

Sapolsky, Robert M. Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers: An updated guide to stress, stress-related diseases, and coping WH Freeman and Company, New York, 1998
Katie, Byron Loving What Is Three Rivers Press, New York NY, 2002.
Chek, Paul; How to Eat, Move and Be Healthy! Chek Institute, San Diego, CA, 2004.
Pert, Candace PhD, Molecules of Emotion Scribner, New York, NY, 1997.

Copyright 2005-2007 Vreni Gurd

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Pain may be a pain, but it does serve a valuable purpose. If we didn’t have pain, we may not realize that there is a problem that needs to be addressed. That said, it is important to understand that it is our brain that decides whether or not to give us pain.

In situations where it would be counterproductive to be in pain, like on a battlefield for example, pain often is not felt until soldiers have made it to safety.

The brain’s job is to analyze all the information that it receives from all our senses and determine whether or not it is in our best interest to be in pain.

So if you are in pain, your brain has somehow concluded that creating pain will serve you – a certain tissue in your body is under threat, and your brain wants you to do something about it. So, if you are in pain, the key is finding out why your brain has made that decision.

The amount of pain one has is unrelated to the severity of the injury. Paper cuts often hurt more than much more serious injuries do. And a paper cut on the tip of the finger would be far more painful to a professional guitar player than to a professional singer, as the guitar player’s job would be directly affected.

So the pain an individual feels depends on context, whether it be gender, culture, age, someone else nearby, fear of what might happen, beliefs about the cause of the pain, what happened last time etc.

It is also interesting to note that frequently amputees feel pain in the limb that isn’t there. Pain therefore, is not about the tissue in question, but rather about the brain’s decision regarding the tissue, and sometimes that decision doesn’t make sense.

Think of pain like a complicated alarm system that is set to protect you. You accidentally touch a stovetop, and the alarm goes off, you instantly feel pain, so you take your hand away before too much damage is done.

Initially physical pain is caused by tissue damage. But if there has been sufficient healing time, and you are still in pain, there may have been a change in the sensitivity of the alarm system (the central nervous system and brain), and it takes less stimulus to set the alarm off, so activities that didn’t hurt before, now do.

Something like those super sensitive car alarms that go off when you walk by on the other side of the street. You are too far away to actually steal the car, yet the alarm went off. 

Chronic pain usually isn’t about the tissue anymore. Instead, the brain is receiving a faulty message that there is more danger to the tissue than there actually is, and is therefore creating pain. 

The alarm goes off way before there is any chance of tissue damage.  So, dealing with chronic pain is frequently about resetting the alarm system to function normally again.

Coping with chronic pain is undeniably difficult. Taking full responsibility for your own pain and treatment is often helpful. Be certain you completely understand your problem and the treatments being suggested.

Be active rather than passive in your coping strategy, and acknowledge your fears without catastrophizing your situation. Be aware that once pain is chronic, pain does not equal tissue damage, and if you always stop the activity once pain starts, over time your life may shrink as your alarm system becomes more and more sensitive.

Movement is necessary to nourish all tissues and systems of the body, so find your baseline in the activity that you want to do, where you know you for sure that you will not flare up, even if all you can handle is 2 to 3 minutes.

Very gradually add time to your baseline over the course of the next days and weeks. Pain flare-ups may happen. Take them into stride and be persistent with your gradual increase in activity.  Over time your alarm system will begin to re-adjust.

This information is from the fantastic book Explain Pain by David Butler M.App.Sc (The Sensitive Nervous System) and Lorimer Moseley PhD, a clinical and research physiotherapist and pain researcher at the University of Queensland.

If you are in chronic pain, get this book, as it will help you understand the physiology of pain, which in itself can often do a lot to relieve it, and it will give you ways to manage and recover from your pain.

It is written for the lay person, and the illustrations by Sunyata are delightful.  If you are a healthcare practitioner dealing with people in chronic pain, reading this book will bring you up to date on the neuroscience behind pain and help you be more effective with your patients.

Related tips:
FEAR = False Evidence that Appears Real
How hormones, neurotransmitters and steroids work
Mind and Body, Psyche and Soma

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