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Fusion Health’s Ultimate How to Stress Less Guide

Stress is a natural human response, but high levels or prolonged stress can affect all parts of your life – including your mental wellbeing and physical health. Luckily adjustments to your diet and lifestyle choices can assist your body in managing stress more effectively.

Key Takeaways:

Stress is an inherent human reaction, but excessive or prolonged stress can impact our health and overall well-being. What you eat can affect your tolerance to stress.
There are ample lifestyle tips and tricks you can try to help your body better manage stress.

What is stress?

Stress represents a condition of mental unease or tension that may arise from various life challenges, impacting our well-being. Stress is a natural human response that everyone experiences to some degree. A little bit of stress can benefit us and often motivates us to build resilience and perform better. However, too much stress or long periods of stress can affect our body and mind and may affect our physical and mental wellbeing.¹

Effects of stress

Stress can affect all parts of your life, including your mental wellbeing and physical health.

Signs that stress may be affecting your mental wellbeing can include:

Constant worrying
Difficulty relaxing
Becoming easily agitated
Inability to focus
Feeling overwhelmed
Forgetfulness

Signs that stress may be affecting your physical health may include:

Headaches
Tense muscles
Sleeplessness
Low immunity
Nervousness
Digestive upsets²

Key foods that support stress

Eating a well-balanced diet is the best way to support your general health and wellbeing; it’s also key in helping your body withstand the effects of stress.³

Here are some key things to include (and avoid) when you’re feeling stressed:

Eat a wide range of whole foods
Consume plenty of high-quality protein
Eat regular meals throughout the day
Include magnesium-rich foods in your diet like green leafy vegetables, nuts, seeds and whole grains
Include plenty of omega-3 fats from salmon, tuna, sardines, nuts, and seeds
Avoid caffeine
Restrict alcohol intake
Eliminate refined carbohydrates like cake, biscuits, pastries and white bread³

Fusion Health’s Ultimate How to Stress Less Guide

Key lifestyle practices for stress

Changing or removing the thing (or person) that is causing stress for you may not be possible, but there are lots of lifestyle practices you can adopt that can improve your ability to cope with stress.

Here are a few of our favourites:

Practising mindfulness - Techniques like meditation, yoga and tai chi can all improve your ability to manage stress.⁴
Exercise – Undertaking some form of exercise every day can significantly affect your mental well-being and help to reduce symptoms of stress.⁵
Good sleep – Not getting enough good quality sleep can increase your chances of feeling the effects of stress.⁶
Social connections – We humans are social creatures by nature, and having social connections with others can help your ability to cope and recover from stress.⁷

Herbs for stress support

Withania – Is traditionally used in Ayurvedic medicine to improve the body’s ability to adapt to stress, and to reduce the symptoms of stress.8
Saffron - A herb seen in clinical trials¹² to relieve stress and support healthy mood balance.⁹

Fusion Health’s suggested products for support in times of stress:
If you need a little extra support to help manage your stress you might like to try:

Fusion Stress & Anxiety – With a concentrated extract of withania, which provides relief for symptoms of stress and mild anxiety and enhances the body’s ability to adapt to stress.⁸
Fusion Mood Support - Contains saffron extract (affron®) to support healthy mood balance, plus reishi, which is traditionally used to relieve fatigue and calm the mind in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).⁹
Fusion B Complex Advanced - A high-strength B-complex to support energy levels and a healthy stress response in the body.
Fusion Magnesium Advanced - Combines four sources of magnesium to reduce excess nervous energy when dietary magnesium intake is inadequate.

Summary

Although stress is a natural response, excessive stress can be detrimental. Fortunately, there are numerous ways to assist your body in effectively managing stress, including making smart dietary choices, exploring supportive herbs, and adopting beneficial lifestyle habits.

References